UNOH 200 (Ohio Logistics) DFS Expert Picks: NASCAR Truck Series Playbook

The second race of the Craftsman Truck Series playoffs goes green Thursday night! It’s the second time NASCAR visits Bristol Motor Speedway this year so we shift the schedule around and the trucks deliver some short track action a day earlier than normal!

It’s been over three weeks since we’ve seen the trucks in action. They got their playoffs underway at Milwaukee last month where non-playoff driver, Layne Riggs, scored his first career Truck Series win. After getting off to a bit of a sluggish start, it was a little refreshing to see the kid get to victory lane.

But with Bristol in our sites, we’re due for some short track chaos and we get 200 laps for this race, which is far more than we’re used to for the Truck Series. Let’s take a look at some of the NASCAR DFS picks and lineup building strategies for Thursday night’s UNOH 200!

UNOH 200 DFS Picks & NASCAR Lineups

Bristol Motor Speedway DFS action always requires nailing the precise and accurate lineup perfectly. It’s your standard field of 35+ drivers. But it’s also a short track with a flair for the dramatics. It’s a bull ring for the most part. The pace is much quicker than Martinsville and it’s incredibly easy to get lapped early on if you start at the rear and your equipment isn’t good. 

In looking at the last couple Truck Series races at Bristol (on concrete), only 17 cars finished on the lead lap in this past spring’s race. That’s out of 36 cars. Everyone outside the top 20 finished multiple laps down. In 2023, everyone inside the top 20 finished on the lead lap while only eight drivers finished multiple laps down. That race was a bit of an outlier because there were only four cautions, and two of those were for stage breaks. But overall, it’s not completely outrageous to see maybe 30-40% of the field finish off the lead lap.

200 laps also deliver 140 dominator points at the maximum. When we account for caution laps, we probably see around 125 total, if I had to guess. But that’s still far more than we’re used to for the Truck Series. The first two stages will have 55 laps each so drivers can make it to the end of each stage on fuel. They will likely need an additional stop during the third stage which runs for 90 laps.

Now it goes without saying, you cannot afford a mistake at this track. You’ll see the field tick off about two-to-three laps per minute so it could actually be a pretty quick race if there aren’t many cautions. But Bristol doesn’t have much run-off. Anybody spinning, stalling, or getting into the wall is due to bring out a caution. Pit road penalties can be disastrous as well if you lose track position. It can be difficult to move up here.

Last week, the name of the game when looking at our NASCAR DFS picks for Watkins Glen, it was easy. We wanted position differential and win equity. We didn’t really consider dominator points. But at short tracks, they’re all the rage. We likely want two or three dominators in our build while rounding out the rest of our builds with drivers that don’t wreck. We can’t even be opposed to value plays that we know won’t maintain the lead lap. If they’re affordable and start far enough back, we’ll accept a finish in the 20’s.

It’s a one-day show for the UNOH 200 DFS picks Thursday night! The Truck Series will qualify Thursday afternoon. Practice will start at 3:00pm ET and the qualifying is at 3:35pm ET and the race will go green a little after 8:00pm ET Friday night. How bold of the Truck Series to go toe-to-toe with the NFL’s elite matchup of the New England Patriots and New York Jets. 

As always, I’ll provide updates in RED with the final driver pool at the bottom of the article once we know the starting order.

Top-Price UNOH 200 DFS Picks

Christian Eckes - DraftKings: $10,500

Eckes has been an absolute machine lately. He’s led at least one lap in every race this year and he’s finished top 10 in all of them, with the exception being Atlanta back in February when he had a braking issue. In the six races since the beginning of June, he’s finished third or better so right off the bat it feels like we’re getting a really good floor play.

He led 144 laps in a winning effort at Bristol earlier this year but mind you that was a race with 250 laps because Kyle Busch led 105 as well. In this race a year ago, Corey Heim got the win, but Eckes led 150 of the 200 laps.

We have clear win equity and dominator potential with Eckes. He likely qualifies well and is a focal point of several lineups. But if he’s going to finish well and put up 100+ laps led, it doesn’t matter how popular he is, you’ll want exposure.

Ty Majeski - DraftKings: $10,200

Majeski is a bit risky for this week’s NASCAR DFS picks. That feels odd to say given the momentum he has. He won the last two races of the regular season at IRP and Richmond where he led a combined 126 laps between both races. Even at Milwaukee last month he led 45 laps and finished second.

In his last three races at Bristol (concrete), he has an average starting position of P5. But he had an engine issue in the spring and he finished 34^th. And in last fall’s race he started P4 and finished 19^th. However, in 2022 he did get the win while leading 45 laps. So we’re looking at a wide range of results but at least there’s a win on the resume.

Majeski similarly started heating up around this time last year, but he was slightly derailed after the cheating scandal from a year ago. This time around is different with two wins and a runner-up finish in his last three races. The team has been bringing a very fast truck to the track each week so we’re going back to the well.

Grant Enfinger - DraftKings: $9,600

Corey Heim does have the win at Bristol on his resume from a year ago. But the only reason he isn’t in the write-up is because I typically don’t like presenting the three most obvious candidates to lead laps and we already have Eckes and Majeski in the Playbook.

For the third UNOH 200 DFS picks top play, I’ll go with Enfinger. I didn’t expect much from Enfinger this year, but he got hot down the stretch. He finished second at Charlotte, third at North Wilkesboro, second at Pocono, third at IRP, and fourth at Richmond. He also led 169 laps combined between IRP and Richmond which was the first time we really saw this truck in “dominator” form all year.

In Enfinger’s last four races at Bristol he has an average finish of 4.5 but no wins. Even earlier in the year he started P13 and finished ninth. But again, the team has progressively gotten better as the season progressed and they’ve turned this truck into a contender.

Mid-Price UNOH 200 DFS Picks

Connor Zilisch - DraftKings: $9,400

This article is being written before pricing has even dropped for Thursday night’s race. So I’m not entirely sure how DraftKings approaches Zilisch’s pricing. (Update: As you can see, they juiced the price tag and he's probably in the wrong section now. Will provide more mid-tier plays when qualifying is over)

Zilisch had himself quite the weekend at Watkins Glen last week. He won Friday night’s ARCA race and then won Saturday’s Xfinity Series race. He showed everyone why he’s considered one of the top prospects in NASCAR.

He’s only run two races in the Truck Series this year. He started on the pole and finished fourth at COTA, and then got caught in an accident at Richmond a little over a month ago. This truck is capable of getting some wins as Kyle Busch drove it to victory lane at Atlanta and Texas.

Matt Crafton - DraftKings: $7,700

Crafton isn’t the driver he once was. That becomes more apparent every year. The win equity diminishes more and more. But he’s still good for a top 10 finish and that’s fine in this price range. In his last four races at Bristol, he has an average finishing position of 8.0 which is still pretty damn good when you see that a 16^th place finish in last fall’s Bristol race is dragging that average down a bit.

In the spring he started P20 and finished fourth. In 2022, he started P16 and finished fifth. He doesn’t have any wins here in his career. However, he’s raced here 22 times and finished eighth or better in half of those and only four times has he finished outside the top 12.

No one is particularly “safe” at Bristol because of the nature of this particular short track. But Crafton’s veteran experience does loom large and makes him an appealing play at this price.

Ben Rhodes - DraftKings: $9,200

We’ll look to Crafton’s teammate as the next addition to our UNOH 200 DFS picks. Rhodes is a two-time Truck Series champion so I can never completely write him off. He’s currently two points behind Enfinger for the last spot in the round of eight but this also isn’t a cutoff race.

Rhodes has raced here 10 times and has six finishes in the top 10. The downside is that he usually qualifies well so he doesn’t offer much in terms of position differential and has led just one lap here.

With that said, I do think he’ll be a leverage play if he puts up a decent qualifying effort. He started P18 and finished seventh in this race a year ago so ideally we’d like a similar effort for Thursday night’s race. And overall, we get a two-time series champion in the mid-range. I’m not mad about it.

Value UNOH 200 DFS Picks

Kaden Honeycutt - DraftKings: $6,900

If Honeycutt’s in the field, you know he’s going to be in the driver pool. Honeycutt drives for Niece Motorsports on a part-time schedule, but he’s a great ceiling play most weeks.

He’s raced at Bristol three times and with three different teams. In 2022, with On Point Motorsports he started P27 and finished 13^th. In 2023, he started P17 for Young’s Motorsports and finished 25^th. But earlier this year with Niece he started P8 and finished 12^th. That is somewhat of the danger with playing Honeycutt. He does qualify very well at times, but I still like the play if he can grab a good finish. 

I will say that everyone across the industry seems to know this kid has upside and that does elevate his ownership more than it should. A few races this year, he’s qualified in the top 10 and that hasn’t scared DFS players off from playing him. So if he does qualify well we can look to pivot because of the likelihood he loses a few spots.

Jake Garcia - DraftKings: $6,800

Garcia probably wishes NASCAR kept a dirt race at Bristol on the schedule. In last year’s dirt race he finished 6^th after starting P26. But either way, it’s not like the results on concrete have been so terrible that we can’t consider him.

In three concrete races at Bristol, he has an average starting position of 20.7 and an average finishing position of 15.7 so that’s comforting. I will note that the starting position is a bit skewed because of one race where he started P30. But still, that was last year’s race and he managed to finish 11^th. Even this past spring, he started P17 and finished 14^th.

Garcia isn’t the greatest driver by any means, but he’s in decent equipment. I wish the sample size at this track was a bit larger, but we’ll take some risks and get a little exposure, and we can go a bit heavier if he qualifies outside the top 20.

Timmy Hill - DraftKings: $5,900

I know that I write up Timmy Hill and Bret Holmes almost ad nausea because as a pair, they’re a good floor/ceiling combination. For the UNOH 200 DFS picks, I will just touch on Hill between the two this week because I genuinely believe this is one of his favorite tracks.

Is he a candidate to win? Hardly. But strangely enough, for a value play in our NASCAR DFS picks, he does fairly well. In six career Truck Series races he’s never finished worse than 26^th at Bristol. If he starts deep in the field, that’s the kind of finish we can take even if he does lose the lead lap. From 2019-2021 he had three finishes in the top 20 at this track.

Even in a handful of races in the Xfinity Series he did well driving in horrendous equipment. In the two Bristol races in 2019, he finished 7^th and 17^th and then in 2020 he grabbed a pair of top 15 finishes. It’s a little wild, but there’s definitely a lot of optimism around Hill as a DFS play for Thursday night’s race.

Bristol Motor Speedway DFS Picks & NASCAR Driver Pool