Craftsman Truck Series Championship DFS Expert Picks & Lineups: NASCAR Truck Series Playbook

It is the final race of the 2024 Craftsman Truck Series season and we crown a champion Friday night, under the lights at Phoenix Raceway! Christian Eckes, by far, had the best truck at Martinsville last week, but we had some controversy over the result as Eckes got a little too aggressive with Taylor Gray and Ben Rhodes to get the win. Gray seems hell bent on making sure Eckes doesn’t win the championship, and I’m sure that’s music to Corey Heim’s ears.

But it does feel like we have the best four drivers racing for the championship. Christian Eckes, Corey Heim, Ty Majeski, and Grant Enfinger are the four drivers eligible for the championship and we’ll should have all four on our radar ahead of qualifying for this race.

Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race DFS Picks & NASCAR Lineups

Phoenix Raceway is another short, flat track. It’s not quite as short at Martinsville, but it measures a mile in length and is considered a flat track. Very few tracks are like Phoenix. It draws decent comparisons to Richmond and possibly Milwaukee, but we’ve also seen plenty of flat tracks races on the 2024 schedule. Perhaps what makes Phoenix most unique is the dogleg that will allow this field to really spread out in an attempt to gain track position.

This race is obviously very unique and different. The playoff field has been whittled down to just four drivers and they’re really just racing each other for the title. Neither of them need to win the race to earn the trophy. They just need to beat the other three championship drivers. As we saw last year, Christian Eckes won this race. But Ben Rhodes won the championship finishing fifth, and he didn’t lead a single lap.

Each of the last three Truck Series Championship races at Phoenix have all gone to overtime. So we have 150 laps scheduled for the race. But 2021 and 2022 required four extra laps. Last year’s race had a dozen cautions for 77 total laps and that pushed the total laps to 179. I doubt we’ll see that number again this year, but anything could happen among this field.

We are mostly looking at a two-dominator approach. As expected, DraftKings makes it rather difficult to play more than three championship eligible drivers. They’re the only drivers priced at or above $10,000. Even if you played Heim ($10,600), Majeski ($10,300), and Enfinger ($10,000) you’d be left with $19,100 so you’d really be taking a stars & scrubs approach. So depending on how qualifying plays out, we’re probably looking at two of these drivers at the most, but definitely at least two drivers even if we consider options not eligible for the championship.

Practice for this race will be at 7:00pm ET Thursday evening and the race goes green around 8:00pm ET Friday night, while qualifying is at 4:05pm ET Friday afternoon. I will have updates in RED with once we know the running order for this race so we can lock in our winning lineups.

Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race Practice Notes

Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway DFS Picks

Christian Eckes – DraftKings: $10,900

We’re going to keep it simple and go with the three most expensive drivers in this field. Simply put, they’ve been the best in the field on the comparable tracks. With that said, they’ve combined to win five of the six short track races this year. So while it may appear as if I’m taking the obvious route or a layup, there’s plenty of reasoning for doing so.

Eckes has raced at Phoenix five times in his career. He won last year with 13.5 dominator points. In total, he’s finished top 10 in four of five races here. 

We also know that he’s been the class of the field specifically on short, flat tracks. He won both Martinsville races leading a combined 320 laps. But he also led 62 laps at North Wilkesboro, 73 at IRP, 64 at Richmond, and 71 at Milwaukee.

So there’s dominator potential and overall, plenty of win equity. He has four wins on the year and if we look at all 22 races from the 2024 season, he’s finished third or better in half of them. There’s some risk here as Taylor Gray wants vengeance, but Eckes could still pay off this price tag with ease. Update: Starts P4. Will be hard for him to lead in Stage 1 assuming Heim or Majeski hold the lead throughout but he can lead laps in Stages 2 and 3.

Corey Heim – DraftKings: $10,600

Heim hasn’t been as dominant on the comparable tracks as Eckes this year, but we know there’s arguably just as much upside, maybe even more. Heim has raced at Phoenix twice. In 2022, he started P3 and finished seventh with a 111.3 driver rating and 5.3 dominator points. Last year he started on the pole but had his championship hopes crushed by Carson Hocevar. Funny enough, Hocevar is still doing that dumb crap in the Cup Series and hasn’t quite learned his lesson yet. But all in all, Heim still had 21.2 dominator points.

Heim did win at North Wilkesboro with 66 laps led and he won at Gateway with 65 laps lap. Neither track is a great comparison to Phoenix. However, they are shorter, flat tracks. All in all, he has nine races this year where he’s led at least 55 laps. It’ll be awfully hard to avoid him or Eckes for the final race of the year, and Heim has the benefit of having a teammate that is a bit pissed at Eckes. Update: Starts P2. Great opportunity to win and dominate the race.

Ty Majeski – DraftKings: $10,300

Majeski led 48 laps in last year’s race after starting P2 and he finished with a 116.6 driver rating. Unfortunately, he finished 14^th and didn’t come close to winning the championship. 

But Majeski’s best performances have come at the short, flat tracks so he is in contention for this race. His two wins this year came at IRP and Richmond and he’s been a solid dominator candidate. In nine races he’s led at least 35 laps so he’s not as much of a primary dominator like Eckes or Heim are. But he can be a secondary option. He didn’t lead a single lap in the Round of Eight, but he got into the championship based on points. Update: Starts on the pole and a strong candidate to lead Stage 1.

Mid-Price Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race DFS Picks

Layne Riggs – DraftKings: $9,500

If we’re going to play Riggs at any track type, it’s this one. Riggs had a rough start to his first full-time season, but it all came together once the playoffs started. He grabbed a pair of top five finishes at IRP and Richmond. Then once the playoffs actually began, he won at Milwaukee and Bristol and was second at Kansas. Earlier in the year he finished third at North Wilkesboro.

He is a bit pricier. After all, he’s the sixth-most expensive driver in the field but may be overlooked for drivers eligible for the championship. And remember, the Truck Series is a bit weird. Four of the last five Truck Series Championship races have not actually been won by the actual championship driver. So Riggs could certainly win this race and carry on that tradition. Update: Starts P11 so he's still in play.

Ben Rhodes - DraftKings: $9,200

Rhodes has won two championships at this track, including last year. So while he doesn't have much win equity there's a good enough opportunity for him to score well especially from P20. Taylor Gray ($9,000) is viable tonight starting P14 but remember he might be out there to make sure Eckes doesn't win.

Tyler Ankrum – DraftKings: $8,800

Strangely enough, Ankrum has more experience at Phoenix than most of the championship eligible drivers. He has a pair of top 10 finishes here and four top 15 finishes in six career races here.

Overall, I don’t want to dwell too much on the previous results because he’s been in far better equipment for the 2024 season. Ankrum has finished eighth or better in half the races this season and if we can bake in some position differential, that’ll go a long way to him paying off his price tag.

Last week he was scored from P23 but had to drop to the rear for some unapproved adjustments, but he still charged through the field and finished eighth. It was a do-or-die race for Ankrum but he still had a great run. And the short, flat tracks have been great for him this season. He finished eighth or better at both Martinsville races and North Wilkesboro, IRP, Richmond, and Milwaukee. Update: He starts P12 which is still fine. If you wanted to pivot to Rajah Caruth ($8,500) you can go that route as he offers more PD.

Connor Mosack – DraftKings: $7,700

Mosack is back in the 7-truck for Spire Motorsports. We know the equipment is good, but we just don’t know how he’ll fare during qualifying. Mosack also hasn’t run many short, flat tracks this year. In the eight races he ran this year, the closest comparison might be Gateway and he finished 22^nd there.

He did finish third at Homestead a couple weeks ago. And the 7-truck has had good runs on comparable tracks. Just last week Connor Zilisch started P27 and finished 12^th at Martinsville in this ride. Sammy Smith finished top eight at both Martinsville and IRP. Mosack isn’t as good of a driver as those two, but given what we know about this equipment, the price seems a little soft. Update: Starts P9 which is high. I will still have exposure but will pivot to Crafton, Moffitt, and Sawalich as well.

Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race DFS Value Picks

Kaden Honeycutt – DraftKings: $7,500

I haven’t written up Honeycutt enough. The price tag has fluctuated a lot of late. He was $6,700 at Talladega and then $8,700 for Homestead, then $7,700 last week for Martinsville. Truthfully, he’s been a value play and fringe top tier play the last few weeks.

But at $7,500 I like him as a value play given his success on comparable tracks. Yes, he did wreck last week which is an unforeseen result. But he finished ninth at the first Martinsville race then finished 14^th at Richmond and 12^th at Milwaukee.

He’s flashed the most upside of any Niece Motorsports driver, but the problem has been he’s qualified so well. But in his 2022 debut at Phoenix with On Point Motorsports he finished ninth after starting P15. And last year with Young’s Motorsports he started P27 and finished eighth. I like his chances at a third straight top 10 and hopefully we can get some position differential. Update: Once again qualified in the top 10 so we limit exposure to just GPP's. Tanner Gray ($7,400) and William Sawalich ($7,600) offer more PD in this range.

Chase Purdy – DraftKings: $7,200

Purdy is in great equipment for this price tag. Last week at Martinsville he returned over 45 fantasy points on DraftKings when he finished third and that was also after he finished third in the first race this year at Martinsville.

The speed has been there on the shorter, flat tracks this year even if the results haven’t always translated. But he did finish sixth at Gateway and 13^th at IRP. And keep in mind, the equipment is comparable to Connor Mosack and Rajah Caruth’s rides. Spire Motorsports got off to a much better start than finish to the 2024 season, but Purdy showed last week he can justify this price tag and he finished third in this race a year ago. Update: Qualified P10 so I would use Gray and Sawalich as pivots.

Daniel Dye – DraftKings: $6,900

Dye made his Phoenix debut in this race a year ago. To say it went poorly is an understatement. He wrecked in the third stage and finished 32^nd. But we’ve mentioned in previous Truck Series Playbooks that this has been an exceptional year for Dye.

In 10 of 22 races this year he’s finished 12^th or better. Those results include tracks like North Wilkesboro, Gateway, Richmond, and Milwaukee. And he’s in a truck comparable to Christian Eckes which certainly doesn’t hurt. Last week at Martinsville, it was just the second time all season he failed to finish a race and it was due to an issue with his brakes. The first DNP was way back at Daytona.

So I do think he’s relatively reliable at this price tag so long as he doesn’t qualify too high. But I’d be happy with a return of 33 fantasy points on DraftKings and he’s provided that plenty of times this season.

We’ll likely also consider Timmy Hill ($5,700) because he always provides a safe floor at his price, but for the last Playbook of the year, I’m focusing on drivers with higher ceilings. Update: Dye is still in play as he starts P16 but there are cheaper PD plays to consider. Timmy Hill is as cheap as I want to go in this race because he starts P29 and offers plenty of PD. Every other driver priced below him are plays I would prefer to not go to unless my hands was forced.

Jake Garcia ($6,400)

Not a great qualifying effort from Garcia (Starting P27) but he did finished as the runner-up in this race a year ago and finished 16th in 2022. His floor might be a top 20 but we know the equipment is good enough to get there from this deep spot in the field.

Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race Craftsman Truck Series Driver Pool