NASCAR DFS Playbook: United Rentals 176

My initial thoughts for Saturday afternoon’s race are thus, we have plenty of PD targets and truthfully, you could go any number of ways in building lineups for this race. We don’t normally see the truck series run Watkins Glen, but for whatever reason this is the FINAL regular season race for the truck series race and they’re doing it at a brand new track without practice or qualifying. We have just 72 laps Saturday afternoon which means about 45-50 dominator points on the table. PD and finishing position are once again the key and there are some obvious PD plays on the table. We’ve already had tech and nobody failed three times so currently nobody is going to the rear except for Allmendinger. There is NO competition caution, which I don’t quite understand why. Stages will be run in 20-25-27 lap segments. So without further adieu, here are the drivers I’ve starts some of my preliminary builds around for Saturday’s race at Watkins Glen for the Truck series.

Driver Pool

Sam Mayer ($10,600; Starting P40) – I don’t know how much exposure I’ll have to Mayer, but he’s very tempting. He can’t get you negative PD and he just needs to finish 15th for 5X value. He’s in the 32-truck for Bret Holmes Racing and we previously saw him grab a pair of top tens in this truck at Richmond and COTA. I am somewhat concerned about the lack of experience here, but that can apply to a lot of the drivers in this field. But he offers the most PD of anyone on the track so he’ll crack some of my lineups. He ran the ARCA race Friday night and had his struggles, but hey so did Chase Briscoe.

Paul Menard ($10,400; Starting P39) – Paul Menard makes his return to the Truck Series in the Thorsports 66-truck. Menard drove this to an 11th-place finish at COTA and Ty Majeski drove it to three straight top 15 finishes so we know the equipment is good. Similar to Mayer, Menard offers plenty of PD and he has experience here at the Cup level. So you’re sacrificing one spot of PD and saving $200 to simply pay for better equipment and a more experienced driver. Menard may not win but there’s a safety net here with top ten upside. He’s Cash and GPP eligible.

A.J. Allmendinger ($10,100; Starting P25) So I’m going to skip over Parker Kligerman. I’ll have him in a couple builds. He has a nice floor, but not the greatest ceiling. If you want a better ceiling you’ll look at Allmendinger who is filling in for Chase Purdy in GMS Racing equipment. Dinger will be scored from P25 but will start from the rear. That’s not a big deal. He’s a road course specialist and he’s in good equipment. Between the competition caution and the stage breaks he can work his way through the field. Basically a top ten hits value and he’s arguably one of the five best drivers in the field.

Sheldon Creed ($9,800; Starting P19) I’m skipping over Grala simply because the defending Truck series champion is $200 cheaper. I don’t hate Grala and he’s run well in the 02-truck this year, but Creed needs a strong run. In his last five races he has just one top ten. That’s not the momentum he wants heading into the playoffs. I think there’s a lot of motivation for Creed this week and on a track where a lot of these drivers don’t have experience, I expect Creed to have a strong race.

Grant Enfinger ($9,600; Starting P30) The only downside with Enfinger this week is that he’s not in his Thorsport ride. He’ll be in the 9-car for CR7 Motorsports and while it’s a downgrade in equipment he did grab a top five at COTA in this equipment. He basically needs a top 12 for 5X value, which he can certainly hit, but that could also be his floor given the field we’ll see for Saturday afternoon’s race. I like to compare road courses to Martinsville for the tighter turns we see at the paperclip and sure enough Enfinger won at Martinsville last Fall. Buy into the driver, not the equipment. 

Now this is where we experience a significant drop off in my driver pool. There’s a strong reason to play any of the top seven-priced drivers on DraftKings because they offer PD, which is what we value on road courses. This mid-range is tough because it’s littered with drivers that are starting too high and we just don’t have enough dominator points available to make it worthwhile to play them. So for roster construction, I wouldn’t include more than one driver starting in the top ten and if you do play someone in the top ten, put your faith in a driver you think can lead some laps and collect some of the few dominator points that are available.

Todd Gilliland ($9,300; Starting P2) I will take some shots on Gilliland on Saturday because ownership will be very light and he’s led laps in six of his last seven races. He’s also riding some momentum with six straight finishes in the top seven. AND he won COTA back in May in very impressive fashion. It’s not sexy to play someone starting so high, but if you want to take down a GPP you need to identify a potential dominator so they can collect some of those points and from there you just need them to finish well. With Gilliland starting on the front row he has an easy path to collecting some dominator points early on, but he is not a Cash game play by any means.

Austin Hill ($8,300; Starting P1) Starting right next to Gilliland for $1,000 cheaper will be Austin Hill who grabbed his first win of the season at Knoxville nearly a month ago, which was oddly enough the last time the Truck series raced. Hill has had a solid year in terms of finishes, but we just haven’t seen him dominate. But if you believe he can collect dominator points, the price tag is friendly and if he finishes in the top five he could be optimal if he can hold off Gilliland and Co. early on. Plus, he managed to get some practice in for the ARCA race on Friday night where he took him second place.

Christian Eckes ($7,400; Starting P15) Eckes will be in the 98-truck for Thorsport Racing. He’s raced six times this year and finished top 12 in five of those races. He will need a top ten finish to return value. He finished tenth at DRC but outside the top 30 at COTA, which was a tough race to read in its own right. I like the price tag for this equipment. He only needs 37 points to hit value and that’s well within reach Saturday afternoon.

Josh Berry ($7,300; Starting P21) Berry is more of a short track racer than he is a road ringer, but in this 25-truck he’s grabbed a couple top 12 finishes and he got a top ten at Mid-Ohio earlier this year in the Xfinity series. 

Timmy Hill ($7,100; Starting P36) If Timmy Hill somehow comes away with a top 20 finish then he’s a tremendous value. However, Timmy Hill is not a $7K driver. At this series he’s probably more of a $6K driver, but he’s priced up because he offers PD. He did get a top ten earlier this year at DRC and another top ten at Darlington so he has GPP upside. There is upside here and honestly I think he has a top 24 floor.

Johnny Sauter ($7,000; Starting P14) We live in a world where Johnny Sauter is cheaper than Timmy Hill, Tyler Ankrum, TAYLOR GRAY, and he’s $1,900 cheaper than Corey Heim. Sauter is a former Truck series champion and I am well aware of his struggles the last two years, but we’re approaching an historically cheap price tag for Sauter. The lack of practice has hurt him. Gaining three spots and finishing 11th will help him hit 5X value. And if he can somehow do more and not screw up or have a meltdown over the radio then we’re sitting even prettier. He had an average finish of 6.39 just three years ago. It’s no secret the lack of practice and qualifying has hurt him, but I maintain this is still a worthy price tag to consider Sauter in GPP’s.

Tanner Gray ($6,900; Starting P22) The nice play of the week. Gray is offering a little PD which we always like and he can find his way into the top 15. It just becomes a question of if he can avoid the carnage and finish well. 

Will Rodgers ($6,500; Starting P29) Rodgers will make his Truck series debut on Saturday and he has some road course experience including a top 12 at Mid-Ohio two years ago. He’s stepping into the 41-truck which is normally piloted by Dawson Cram. To Cram’s credit he did grab a top 20 at DRC back in February and Rodgers offers PD. He also gained a little notoriety finishing second to Kevin Harvick in a K&N race at Sonoma back in 2017. So this is a cheap value play that’ll likely be chalky, but one I may land on quite a bit.

Jack Wood ($6,000; Starting P27) I’m a bit of a masochist but I just cannot quit this kid. Jack Wood ran the ARCA race on Friday and grabbed a top ten in a fairly competitive field. The equipment is still great, it’s a GMS ride after all. We just haven’t seen him completely put it all together especially since he’s coming off back-to-back 39th place finishes. But he’s cheap and offering PD. I wouldn’t go over 25% ownership on Wood though.

Austin Wayne Self ($5,700; Starting P20) Rinse. Wash. Repeat. Per usual, AWS is a GPP play once again. He ran the ARCA race on Friday night and finished ninth, which is a respectable run to say the least. He has a pair of top 15 finishes at DRC under his belt, he finished 16th at COTA, and he has three top 15’s in four races at Bowmanville. So he’s actually a sneaky good road racer to his credit.

Core Plays

I want to add some notes because I truly feel the “locks” for Saturday’s race are among the top tier drivers that offer PD. From there it’s filling in your lineup with other drivers that just don’t crush your lineup. Most of my preliminary builds have been trying to cram two-to-three of the seven most expensive drivers and then differentiating there. Also, I know Corey Heim didn’t make the Playbook. He won Friday’s ARCA race and he’ll be starting P16 in Kyle Busch’s 51-truck. Personally, I’m only throwing him into 10% of my own lineups simply because I’m paying up for the PD of the other drivers. If that decision burns me, so be it. But I don’t think he has a Ty Gibbs-esque debut in him.