NASCAR moves on to the Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend, moving on to its fourth city since restarting the season amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. This weekend features a Saturday double-header of the Gander Truck Series and the Xfinity Series, and then a Cup Series race on Sunday.
Saturday kicks off with the Vet Tix Camping World 200 at 1 p.m. ET on FS1. This is the second race for the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series since restarting last week.
The race is not using qualifying runs to determine the starting grid as NASCAR is looking to protect driver and crew health and safety during the Covid-19 pandemic. For the Truck Series today and in the coming weeks, race order will be determined by a modified random draw. The top ten teams in owner points were randomly assigned spots in the top ten, then the same for teams 11-21, and 22-32. Any teams in spots 33-40 will be assigned starting positions based on their order of eligibility.
DFS is back for Truck Series racing, and the big names from the Cup Series top the list of salaries. Kyle Busch will cost you $14,000, with a February win at the Strat 200 and a second place showing last week at the NC Education Lottery 200 under his belt. He’s followed by Chase Elliott ($13,000) who made his 2020 Truck Series debut last week and won the race. Ross Chastain is next at $11,300, followed by John H. Nemechek at $10,600.
Elliott’s win last week has him ranked atop the scoring leaderboard on a per race basis, with 93.8 points to Busch’s 90.1. It’s a swift drop from there. Nemechek is third at 70.5 and Zane Smith ($7,500) is fourth at 50.4. Last week, Todd Gilliland ($9,500) was averaging 48 points per race, but a disastrous showing in Charlotte netted him -19 points.
With a $50,000 cap and six spots, you can spend an average of $8,333 per driver, so you’re going to need to find some value whether you start Busch or Elliott, or not. We talked about Sheldon Creed ($7,900) as a value last week, and he’s right back in there coming off a fifth place finish. If you want to go real cheap and bet on a bounceback, grab Codie Rohrbaugh for $4,500. He has back-to-back 18th place finishes, but placed third at the NextEra Energy 250 back on Valentine’s Day.
Austin Hill ($7,200) could end up one of the more popular options this week. He has three top ten finishes in all three of his Truck Series, and at that price, you have to decide if you want to go with a likely popular pick or be a contrarian.