RADIO
On Friday, the Truck Series heads to Vegas.
This is the first Truck race of 2021 for Kyle Busch, who is priced at $15,000. That's $4,000 over the second-highest priced driver, Austin Hill. When Busch is in a Truck race, you have two different approaches to lineup building: find value guys to place around Busch or build a solid lineup without him. For this article, we'll taking the second approach, but if you need any advice on a Kyle Busch lineup, hit me up on Twitter: @juscarts
Here at RotoBaller, we want to help you make informed decisions about your DFS lineups, which is why I'll be breaking down the slates for the Truck Series. Let's look at some NASCAR Truck Series DFS lineup picks for the Bucked Up 200 on DraftKings. Be sure to also check out our NASCAR Premium Tools for Truck Series including our DFS Lineup Optimizer and powerful Research Station.
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Truck Series DFS Lineup Picks - DraftKings
Be sure to also check out all of our other weekly NASCAR DFS articles and analysis to help you set your optimal DFS lineups on DraftKings and FanDuel.
Austin Hill #16 ($11,000)
Starting 31st
If I'm not playing Kyle Busch, I'm going to want a couple of high-upside drivers to lead my lineup. Thankfully, some really good trucks start below 30th, giving us a lot of targets for place differential.
Let's start with Austin Hill. He starts two spots back of Busch, so there are more PD points available for Hill, and he comes in at a $4,000 discount. Hill -- who finished sixth in points last season and had 17 top 10s in 23 races -- has been very, very good at Vegas, winning two of the past three races here and squeezing a third-place run in the middle of that. Yes, the race he didn't win in that span saw Kyle Busch lead 108 laps on his way to a victory, but Busch doesn't have the same laps led upside this week since he starts so far back. Both trucks should move forward quickly and Busch is the better bet to win, but Hill's really, really good here.
Zane Smith #21 ($10,600)
Starting 32nd
The first driver in what's going to be a GMS Racing-heavy article, Smith had a sixth and a seventh-place finish at Vegas last year in this 21 truck. He never managed to get up to the lead, but he recorded three fastest laps and in the second race he was in the top 15 for 99.3 percent of all the laps.
In 16 starts on tracks between one and two miles, Smith has 12 top 10s and six top fives. They're the site of his best average finish among all track types at 9.0. Like Hill, Smith should make his way forward quickly, though he's more likely to stall out around the back-end of the top 10. Still, with a 32nd-place starting spot, the available PD points make Smith a strong play.
Conor Daly #44 ($7,700)
Starting 36th
I think this is a risky play because of the pricing, but Daly's another driver with plenty of PD upside here as he rolls off 36th in the Niece 44 truck.
Daly has one Truck start in his career, which came at this track last year. Starting 27th, he managed to put the 42 truck up into the top 20 by the end of the race, finishing 18th. An experienced open-wheel racer, it was good to see Daly with a solid run in that first race, even if the loop data for that race shows that it wasn't the most impressive showing. I expect Daly to look a little more competitive in his second go-around.
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Raphael Lessard #24 ($7,400)
Starting 13th
Lessard starts higher than any other driver in this article, which does introduce some risk. But we know GMS trucks tend to run well here, with three top 10s in the September race, including Sheldon Creed's second-place run that saw him lead 89 laps.
Lessard's no Creed, and he didn't run particularly well at Vegas in the KBM 4 truck last year. He's also struggled to finish well this year, with both of his finishes coming outside the top 20. But those finishes ignore that Lessard has run well during races, leading 17 laps already and sticking in the top 15 at least two-thirds of each race. Things have happened late to spoil his runs, but Lessard's second full-time Truck season is on track to see him improve tremendously on last year. Let's also not forget that Lessard was fourth in the final 1.5-mile race of 2020.
Chase Purdy #23 ($6,600)
Starting 21st
Yes, it's another GMS truck. I promise I didn't set out with the goal of only writing about them. But hey, it's a good truck starting outside of the top 20, so we can't ignore that just because I already wrote about two of Purdy's teammates.
Purdy's Truck career hasn't been great, as he has just one top 10 in 11 races. That came at Kansas last year. Purdy's run his best at intermediate tracks, and while this is a fairly boring choice, I think Purdy can improve on his starting spot enough to produce a solid fantasy day. Yes, he's another risky play, but I think Purdy's better than his results, even if he's never won a race in any level of ARCA or NASCAR.
Hailie Deegan #1 ($6,400)
Starting 30th
Let's finish this out with Hailie Deegan, who starts 30th. Her Truck Series career isn't off to a great start, as she has an average finish of 22.7 in three starts.
But the combination of her pricing this week and her low starting spot make Deegan a solid choice to round out your lineup. She was 16th last year at Kansas, a comparable track to Vegas, and if she can keep the truck clean, she has a top-20 run ahead of her. Let's not forget that David Gilliland Racing had a driver finish fifth last week, and that in 2020 the team's drivers combined for 10 top 10s. Deegan's going to start putting together solid runs soon. With so much DFS upside this week, it's a good time to bet on Friday being the day she gets moving in the right direction.
