The Craftsman Truck Series playoffs continue as they’re about to run through Talladega. Corey Heim got the win at Kansas Speedway last week, thus locking himself into the Round of Eight for the playoffs. Not that he necessarily needed it. He was in good position based on points alone. But we kick off the Round of Eight with Talladega Superspeedway. This isn’t my favorite style of racing. It’s largely predicated on luck, and this race specifically tends to see an off-the-wall driver get the win.

Brett Moffitt, Tate Fogleman, and Matt DiBenedetto all have wins at Talladega in the last few years. Even Spencer Boyd has a win at this track. So it’s entirely possible a non-playoff driver wins this race. So let’s take a look at the lineup building strategies and Love’s RV Stop 225 DFS Picks for our NASCAR DFS lineups on DraftKings.

 

 

 

Love’s RV Stop 225 DFS Picks & NASCAR Lineups

So it’s the playoffs and we’re going to Talladega Superspeedway. We’re seen a lot of drafting over the last handful of weeks. NASCAR visited Daytona toward the end of the regular season for the Xfinity and Cup Series. Then they ran Atlanta not long after that. And for this weekend, all three series are competing at Talladega.

We can do all the racing and lineup analysis for this race and it can all amount to nothing. It’s by far the worst kind of race for NASCAR on DraftKings and FanDuel. Play at your own risk. I’m doing one lineup for each race this weekend to get the iron man credit.

Now this is a race with only 85 laps. That means at the absolute most we have just 59.5 dominator points available and we know this style of racing leads to chaos and wrecks. So we don’t typically target the dominator points. They mean nothing if our drivers collect them and wreck.

Lineup construction boils down to playing cash games by largely “stacking the back” with drivers starting deeper in the field with a nice safety net to move up and finish well. In tournaments you do need to take more risks, but you can’t go too heavy with drivers starting up front. Ideally, we’re mixing drivers in from all over the lineup spectrum. So you sprinkle in maybe one or two drivers starting in the top 15. From there you add in two or three drivers starting P16-P25. And after that you can target some easy PD plays.

But we’re all throwing darts and trying to make our best guess at the end of the day. And we don’t have a practice session for this race. Qualifying is at 1:00pm ET Friday afternoon and this race goes green at 4:30pm ET.

I don’t think I’ll have updates in RED for this Playbook. I will be driving all day Friday and don’t think I’ll be able to get to my computer for updates. So be sure you’re checking for updates in Discord where I’ll provide some notes ahead of Friday afternoon’s green flag.

 

 

 

Love’s RV Stop 225 at Talladega Superspeedway DFS Picks

Corey Heim – DraftKings: $10,000

I’m somewhat lukewarm on this play. Heim won at Kansas last week and a win on Friday would lock him into the Craftsman Truck Series Championship race at Phoenix. But I also don’t think the most expensive driver in the field is winning this race.

However, he’s performed well in the draft in the Truck Series. He won at Atlanta back in 2022 and was third this past spring, the week after he was the runner-up at Daytona to kick off the year. At Talladega specifically, he’s done okay. The truck is usually in contention as he’s finished top 10 in the first two stages the last two years. He wrecked in 2022 but grabbed a top five a year ago.

Nicholas Sanchez – DraftKings: $9,500

Sanchez is one of the best drafters in the Truck Series. Last year he finished second at Atlanta and was seventh at Talladega with 25 laps led.

Fast forward to this year, and he won Daytona to kick the year off with 26 laps led, and he followed that up with a top five at Atlanta. Surprisingly, that’s the last time we saw the Truck Series give it a go for a drafting race.

Sanchez is currently eight points to the good so there’s a good cushion for him. But he’s also a great drafter so it’s an opportunity for him to put himself in even better position.

Ty Majeski – DraftKings: $9,200

Majeski is $9,200 which is actually reasonable. It’s not overly expensive. However, he’s the sixth-most expensive driver on the slate so that does plug him into the top tier.

In the three races at Atlanta’s new configuration, Majeski has finished 3rd (2022), 11th (2023), and 2nd (2024) with driver ratings over 100 for all three races. Daytona has been an okay track for him as he finished 7th in 2022 and 6th in 2023 with a mixture of laps led.

The downside with this play is that he tends to over qualify his ride and that doesn’t make him as safe of a play as other drivers.

 

 

 

Mid-Price Love’s RV Stop 225 DFS Picks

Rajah Caruth – DraftKings: $9,000

Caruth has a very small sample size in drafting races but the results have been decent. In this race a year ago he started P14 and finished 12th. He also got off to a very hot start in 2024 after he started P20 and finished 3rd at Daytona and then started P12 and finished 8th at Atlanta.

So again, the sample size is incredibly small. But the equipment is good enough to run up front and he’s delivered some great results over his last handful of races.

Ben Rhodes – DraftKings: $8,700

Rhodes did not advance to the Round of Eight so we’re locked in for a brand new Truck Series champion in 2024. But his track history and performances on the comparable tracks stand out.

Rhodes had a bad showing at Atlanta earlier this year, but he was 2nd in 2022 and 5th in 2023. He also has a win on his resume at Daytona from 2021 and he finished 2nd there in 2022. Unfortunately, he wrecked in this year’s Daytona race.

Even at Talladega he’s finished 2nd in the last two Truck Series races here. So even if he’s out of the playoffs, we still have win equity because it’s been a pretty tough year for the two-time series champion.

Matt Crafton – DraftKings: $8,000

Obviously when you’ve been around as long as Crafton has been, you just have a ton of experience in these races. Has he had his share of wrecks? Sure. But he’s raced at Talladega 18 times and has his fair share of top 10 finishes.

Last year at Atlanta he grabbed a top 10 but led 29 laps and earlier this year he finished 13th. Even the last two years at Daytona he has a pair of top 10 finishes. And again, he’s raced at Daytona over 20 times, and he’s only wrecked twice at Daytona since 2006. 

So this is largely a play with top 10 equity, but overall we have a driver with more experience than the rest of the field when it comes to running in a draft.

 

 

 

Value Price Love’s RV Stop 225 DFS Picks

Daniel Dye – DraftKings: $7,400

Dye comes alive for these drafting races. He got bounced from the playoffs ahead of this race, but both he and our next driver have some of the “non-playoff driver” win equity that tends to come out of nowhere and surprise us all.

Dye started P29 in this race a year ago for GMS Racing and he finished sixth. He surprisingly won the pole this year at Atlanta and still finished ninth. The negative PD isn’t great, but a top 10 is a top 10 either way. But he has wrecked in two career races at Daytona.

Obviously, the sample size is small but you have to take some risks in these races and as long as he doesn’t qualify inside the top 10, I think this is a play we can run with.

Bret Holmes – DraftKings: $6,300

We took a break from highlighting Holmes last week for Kansas, but he was still a decent tournament play after he started P20 and finished 16th. 

Holmes is actually a surprisingly good drafter and thrives at these tracks. Earlier this year at Daytona he led 13 laps after starting P19 and he finished fourth. He’s also finished 13th and 11th in his last two races at Atlanta. Talladega is another strong track for him. He finished 16th a year ago but was third in 2022. In all three of his races at Talladega he’s managed to lead laps so there’s some sneaky upside here for an affordable play.

Cory Roper – DraftKings: $6,000

Well here’s the one time every year where we write up Cory Roper. Roper hasn’t raced at Atlanta’s new configuration, which explains why his average finish there is just 22nd. 

However, Daytona and Talladega are surprisingly two of his best tracks. His worst two finishes at Daytona are 20th and 22nd and he wrecked in both those races while still gaining at least five spots of PD in both races. In the two races he didn’t wreck, he finished 14th and 3rd.

In his two races at Talladega he’s started outside the top 30 in both and finished 22nd and 6th respectively. So there’s honestly a pretty good floor and an outstanding ceiling and we just don’t want him to qualify in the top 25.

 

 

 

Love’s RV Stop 225 Craftsman Truck Series Driver Pool

Be on the lookout in Discord for the final updates for this Playbook and driver pool. I will be driving for six-to-seven hours tomorrow and won’t have eyes on qualifying for this race and it has an early start time of 4:30pm ET.