NASCAR DFS Playbook CRC Brakleen 150: Top DraftKings Picks

The Craftsman Truck Series is back following a couple weeks off and they’re back in action at the tricky triangle of Pocono Raceway! This is surprisingly the second-to-last regular season race of the season for the Truck Series. This week and next week at Richmond close out the season before the playoffs start three weeks from now. So for several teams, they need to win now. Corey Heim, Zane Smith, Christian Eckes, Grant Enfinger, Carson Hocevar, and Ben Rhodes have punched their ticket while Ty Majeski seems safe to make the playoffs on points. Let’s check out the best NASCAR DFS drivers and strategies for Saturday’s CRC Brakleen 150.

Pocono Raceway is a tough track to preview. For starters, the racing isn’t for everyone. And this track doesn’t have many direct comparisons. Pocono is a MASSIVE track. It’s 2.5 miles in length which is on par with Daytona and Talladega. But it only features three turns, all of which are at different banking of 14, eight, and six degrees. This track also features the two longest straightaways on the NASCAR schedule. The front stretch is 3,740 feet in length heading into 14 degrees of banking to the second straightaway that measures 3,055 feet. Because of the length and size of this track, passing can be difficult on longer green flag runs as these trucks are more spaced out.

For this week’s NASCAR DFS lineup construction, it’s going to be hard not to play Kyle Busch. Even if we try to analyze what he needs for 5X value, he’s the easy favorite to win Saturday afternoon’s race. Historically, he’s flat out dominated at Pocono Raceway and his resume is written up in depth below. But we also get Christopher Bell and Ross Chastain dipping their toes into the Truck Series so he’s not alone in terms of pricing at the top. This race only has 60 laps breaking into 15-15-30 lap segments. So we only have about 35-40 dominator points to look at when accounting for cautions. With plenty of position differential plays on the slate, we may not need more than one dominator. If you are targeting two dominators, you’ll need both to lead plenty of laps and finish top five. Lineup construction is pretty unique this weekend because this race only has 60 laps so let’s take a look at this week’s NASCAR DFS drivers to target for Saturday afternoon’s race.

CRC Brakleen 150 Practice Notes

NASCAR DFS Driver Pool

Kyle Busch ($13,000; Starting P12)

Busch was fastest in practice but didn’t have the better track conditions during qualifying and just missed out on the final round of qualifying after getting loose in the middle of turn one. That’s okay because he’s historically dominated at Pocono throughout his career. Where do we begin with Busch? Well he’s made four starts this year winning one race (Vegas), scoring a pair of runner-up finishes (Martinsville and COTA), and he was seventh in the fourth race (Kansas). But he led double-digit laps in all four contests. In five career Truck Series races at Pocono, he has two wins (2015 and 2018), two runner-up finishes (2011 and 2021), and in the outlying race he won the first two stages but wrecked in stage three. But he’s led double-digit laps here in four races and posted a driver rating of at least 118 in all five. He has a win here from the Xfinity Series in 2018 and since July 2017 in the Cup Series, he has four wins at the tricky triangle. There is a part of me that thinks he’d rather see one of his drivers win to get in the playoffs. If Chase Purdy is in position for the win, I think Kyle may help him out. But overall, Purdy is pretty far out of the picture in terms of points and Kyle Busch would love to get the organization’s 100^th win Saturday afternoon. He’s going to be wildly popular in tournaments and he’s virtually a lock for cash games as well.

Zane Smith ($10,400; Starting P6)

It may surprise some people that I’m skipping over Ross Chastain ($11,000; Starting P23) and Christopher Bell ($10,700; Starting P14). Personally, I’m not playing Chastain because while he offers position differential starting 23^rd, we haven’t seen as great a ceiling in that truck as we have with Kyle Busch in the 51-truck. I’d rather spend $2,000 more for Busch’s potential to lead laps and win. Bell is more of a wild card as he starts 14^th and that’s roughly what his speed metrics in practice indicate where he’ll run. I’ll mix Bell into some builds, but I may aim to be overweight on Smith. He’s finished third or better in half the races this year and I’m going to guess his ownership numbers will be down as most casual DFS players pay up for Busch, Chastain, or Bell. Zane may only have one top ten finish in three races here, but there’s leverage and he still has some win equity. I also like that his truck got better as the practice session ended and he went out and laid down a top ten qualifying effort. That tells me the team noticed its weaknesses and made the right adjustments. I don’t think you need to go here in cash games because there’s a pretty clear cash “core,” but I like the play in tournaments if looking for contrarian upside.

Corey Heim ($10,200; Starting P9)

Heim continues to be so damn consistent this year and his growth and development this year with TRICON has been outstanding to watch. He made his debut last year with Kyle Busch Motorsports where he started P17 and finished fourth. In 14 races this year, he’s easily been the most consistent driver in the field. He only has two finishes outside the top eight and those came at Atlanta and Bristol Dirt. Those are arguably two of the more unpredictable tracks on the Truck Series schedule. Since Martinsville about three months ago, he’s been on fire. He has two wins (Martinsvlle and Mid-Ohio), two runner-up finishes (Kansas and Charlotte), and he hasn’t finished worse than eighth in his last seven races overall while leading double-digit laps in every race. I wish I could say there was leverage here in tournaments, but I don’t believe that’ll be the case.

Carson Hocevar ($10,000; Starting P4)

Hocevar is a similar play to Zane Smith in terms of leverage. It’s just hard to imagine most players going to this range with their DFS builds. Is there much win equity? Probably not this week since Kyle Busch is running and I’m still surprised he’s this expensive with the elevated talent in this field. But prior to the Truck Series’ last race at Mid-Ohio, Hocevar rattled off five straight finishes in the top five, including his win at Nashville. There’s been plenty of speed in this truck and he’ll need more dominator points than Heim to pay off this price tag. But he still may be worth plugging into two or three lineups if playing 20-entry max contests on Saturday. The broadcast did note that the average starting position of the winner in the Truck Series at Pocono is 3.2 so it definitely helps if you can start on the front two rows.

Christian Eckes ($9,500; Starting P35)

Eckes didn’t post a qualifying lap because the team discovered a mechanical issue in the rear of the truck that may have led to his slower-than-normal practice speeds. We know Eckes is far better than the 35^th overall starting spot and should naturally move up and finish well. The price tag is a little suppressed because of the presence of Busch, Ross Chastain, and Christopher Bell. And from this starting spot he’s almost a lock to move up and finish well. In four career races here, he’s finished in the top 12 three times and 33^rd in the fourth competition, which was a race he wrecked in. At this price tag, he doesn’t need to collect dominator points to be optimal. He’s basically hitting value if he finished 17^th but knowing what we’ve seen from him previously at Pocono, and from his five top three finishes this season, we know the ceiling is much higher. He’s a lock for cash games this weekend.

Ty Majeski ($9,200; Starting P34)

Majeski is basically is carbon copy play of Christian Eckes. I’m actually surprised he’s a little cheaper than Eckes but at the end of the day, Eckes has two wins this year while Majeski hasn’t been as fortunate. Majeski has three career races here and has finished 7^th, 14^th, and 36^th but he wrecked in that last race. The two better results have come with ThorSport Racing. Majeski posted top five speed in practice but blew a tire during qualifying so he’ll start at the rear of the field. Most cash game lineups will pay up for the likes of Kyle Busch, Christian Eckes, and Ty Majeski so you have to get creative when finding savings with your last three drivers.

Ben Rhodes ($8,700; Starting P22)

It was a rough start to the 2023 season for Rhodes, but he’s turned it around with four straight top ten finishes including the win at Charlotte. He’s probably $1,000 cheaper than he normally should be but we can jump on the price tag because he offers some PD from this starting spot. He likely won’t attract the cash game ownership that he normally would because most lineups will start with Busch, Eckes, and Majeski but he’s still viable in cash games and allows you to allocate funds elsewhere. But throwing in Rhodes means pivoting off of one of the other three drivers.

Nicholas Sanchez ($8,500; Starting P1)

Sanchez only laid down the 13^th-best lap in practice but given the alliance that his team has with Kyle Busch Motorsports, it shouldn’t be surprising that he landed the pole this week. His results this year have been a little inconsistent and all over the place in general. But we’ve seen plenty of upside. Earlier this year he led 168 laps at Texas before wrecking late and finishing 16^th. He finished third at Nashville but led 37 laps in that race. He’s led laps when he’s started on the front row but I won’t count Daytona earlier in the year because there’s so much chaos at that kind of track. He comes in with four straight top ten finishes and seven top 11 finishes in his last eight races. Several tournament lineups will target Sanchez and Busch as the dominators while finding four other drivers offering position differential.

Matt Crafton ($7,700; Starting P25)

I’m also going to lump in Stewart Friesen ($8,000; Starting P16) and Parker Kligerman ($7,800; Starting P24). If I’m being brief, I prefer Crafton of all three drivers. He’s the cheapest of this trio and offers the most position differential. Are all three discounted? Yes, so they’re all playable. But Crafton posted a top ten practice lap, but he shot himself in the foot during qualifying. He’s done that quite a lot this year. Kligerman was slow in practice and I do have some concerns about this truck finishing the race. This 75-truck did win at Mid-Ohio last year but it’s still a very small team with limited funding. Friesen is still a fine play, but he wasn’t as good as Crafton in practice. Crafton has 13 career races here and has finished top ten on eight occasions. We haven’t seen him run that well this year, but he can still finish top 15 and that result can pay off the price tag.

Tyler Ankrum ($7,200; Starting P18)

Ankrum is a sneaky good Tournament play because if you just look at the landscape of DFS players trying to fit in the likes of those top tier $10K drivers, in addition to the likes of Eckes, Majeski, Friesen, Kligerman, Crafton, Sanchez, etc. it’s just not looking like there will be much exposure to Ankrum. I think he’s okay for cash games, but there is still some concern he doesn’t finish the race. That doesn’t take away from the upside with this play though. In four career races at Pocono, Ankrum has an average finish of 7.75 but in his debut with his current team last year he finished 16^th. He does have five top ten finishes this year and just needs a clean race and he should be able to provide some value at this discount.

Taylor Gray ($7,100; Starting P11)

He isn’t my favorite brother from the Gray family this week, but he should be lower owned than his brother. Taylor has been more consistent this year and like several drivers in the field, he needs a win to make the playoffs. I doubt it happens this week but he has top ten upside. He’s finished top 15 in his last four races, but this will be his debut at Pocono and probably needs to finish eighth or better to make Saturday’s optimal lineup on DraftKings.

Dean Thompson ($6,900; Starting P33)

Here’s a value play offering PD. He’s in comparable equipment to Corey Heim and honestly, he’s had speed so many times this year and the truck has looked better over the last couple months. The bad news is that his finishes can be dreadful. He finished outside the top 30 in five of his last seven races. However, in those other two races he was top ten, and those two races were at larger intermediate tracks. It helps that he’s running the ARCA race which was postponed to Saturday morning, but even with the position differential that he offers, it’s hard to roster him with confidence.

Tanner Gray ($6,500; Starting P13)

It’s almost do-or-die for Gray with two races to go. Technically, he’s not mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. He could still get in on points, but the odds aren’t in his favor. He really needs a win to lock in a spot and that’s a very tall order this weekend at Pocono. For DFS purposes, he’s incredibly cheap because of the presence of the previously mentioned Cup Series drivers. Gray is usually anywhere from $800 to $2,000 more expensive and we know he’ll be aggressive and even try to strategize for track position in this race. He’s been a little cold heading into this weekend, but we’ve seen the top ten upside this year. In three races at Pocono, he’s finished 10^th, 12^th, and 16^th but I feel this is a weekend where he either posts a career-best finish here, or he wrecks. I prefer him more for tournaments, but because of the price tag and circumstances surrounding his playoff chances I won’t entirely rule him out for cash games. He’s flirting with 6X value if he finishes in the top ten. I feel better about his chances since he posted pretty good speed in practice.

Kaden Honeycutt ($6,300; Starting P17)

This is more of a gut play if I’m being honest because this should be an equipment upgrade for Honeycutt if we’re being honest. Honeycutt is a driver that hasn’t been in good equipment but has always gotten the most out of his rides. He had some good runs with Roper Racing before getting the boot earlier this season. Luckily, he got a couple races with Young’s Motorsports and was 10^th at Darlington and 17^th at North Wilkesboro. This 44-truck for Niece Motorsports should be good. It’s the same equipment as Carson Hocevar and Ross Chastain. The potential is there for him to showcase what he can do and perhaps he can backup the decent speed from practice. If you want to consider more position differential in this range, I have found myself landing on Colby Howard ($6,100; Starting P26) in this range but I just think he’s a cheaper version of Dean Thompson. Upside? Sure, but he could easily wreck as well.

Tyler Hill ($5,500; Starting P36)

With so many drivers costing us a pretty penny this week, we need to find value to squeeze three of them into our NASCAR DFS lineups. Tyler Hill doesn’t give us as much confidence as his brother does. Timmy usually does just enough to keep the truck clean and he finishes well just by passing others as they wreck. Tyler can still do that this weekend and he’s easily the most popular paydown option in cash and tournament contests. Hill has only run two races this year but he did finish 22^nd and 24^th at Kansas and Charlotte respectively. Those aren’t direct comparisons to Pocono (no track is if we’re being honest), but they are larger intermediate tracks so it’s not like we’re pulling from a short track sample size. In three races at Pocono he’s finished 19^th, 24^th, and 30^th so if he can grab a top 25 finish here then he’ll pay off this $5,500 price tag. Update: Going to lighten my exposure to Tyler Hill after the slow practice speed and lack of a qualifying lap. I'd prefer to pivot to Dean Thompson if you can fit him in.

Lawless Alan ($5,100; Starting P27)

Probably the safest play in this range if you consider the truck. He’s also in Niece Motorsports equipment this weekend and we’ve touched on all their drivers in this article in some form or fashion. In his two races at Pocono he’s finished 20^th and 22^nd and he’ll easily pay off this price tag if he grabs a similar finish. He’s probably the cheapest driver I want to target in the field but I wouldn’t rule out Cory Roper or Josh Reaume if you needed even more salary relief. But Alan has finished top 20 in half his races this year so that’s why I feel slightly better about his potential for this race.

NASCAR DFS Core Drivers

At first glance, I wrote off cash games this week. However, I’ve come around and there are enough ways to make a unique build in those contests. The cash game core is easily going to be Kyle Busch, Christian Eckes, and Ty Majeski. Those three drivers are probably over 70-80% rostered in cash games and from there you have $18,300 for your remaining three drivers and most players are going to automatically click on Tyler Hill since he starts dead last and he’s cheap. So it’s entirely possible that cash games come down to 3v3 or 2v2 depending on how many people pay down to Hill. So for those last two or three spots you may need to take some risks to do enough to differentiate yourself in double up’s and 50/50 contests. Since we have a clear indicator of the three “locks” in cash games, I’m going to focus the Core Drivers on Tournaments plays and pivots because I think I’ve provided enough options for cash game builds as well. Update: I've actually settled on a Cash lineup that doesn't have Kyle Busch in it. I still think he's very playable in Cash games especially with his win equity, but you can still build a great “floor” lineup that should be unique without Busch. 

As a reminder these are the top plays and pivots. Kyle Busch is a driver to always have exposure to when he runs the Truck Series and I think he knows this is the best chance for Kyle Busch Motorsports to get its 100^th win this year since he can’t run any races in this series in the playoffs. Christian Eckes and Ty Majeski are still in play for tournaments, just like they are in cash games, but I wanted to focus on more pivots for tournaments.