Hello everyone and welcome to the Truck Series Setup. This week we will be looking ahead to the Truck race at Gateway Motorsports Park. I’m Ryan Larkin aka the NASCAR Warlock and you can follow me on twitter @Larkin8. If you are just finding the DFSArmy and are not a VIP member sign up and use code Xfinity to save 20%!! Our DFSArmy VIP members get access to the Domination Station and Research Station. Also, VIP members get access to our VIP Slack and direct contact to the NASCAR coaches. Come join the best team in NASCAR DFS!
Race Info
The track name is technically World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. For the purpose of simplicity however we will refer to it as Gateway. Gateway is an ultra low banked 1.25 mile track located just outside of St Louis. We generally see roughly 25% of the race run under caution with an average of 7 cautions per race. This will put a premium on drivers who excel on restarts. Due to the low banked, tight corners trucks that handle the best and can rotate the center of the corner will be able to run upfront. Practice speed will do a much better job of showing us who the best trucks are this week compared to normal. I would recommend focusing on short run speed more this week than normal when making lineups. Although, it is over a mile in length, Gateway races much like a short track meaning driver ability is far more important.
We have a new VIP article called The Inside Line: Truck Series featuring Driver/Team notes, news, as well as stats and my own personal viewpoints for every driver involved in the Truck Series race. This article will be available to DFS Army VIP members for every Truck race.
Quick Note: Domination Station will be available AFTER qualifying times are set Saturday afternoon.
Quick Facts
Date: June 22th
First Practice: Saturday 11:35 am ET.
Second Practice: Saturday 1:35 pm ET.
Qualifying: Saturday 6:35 pm ET.
Race: Saturday 10:00 pm ET.
Laps: 160 Stages: 35/70/160
Drivers: 32
Defending Champion: Justin Haley
AVG. # of Cautions: 7 excluding stage cautions
AVG DNF’s: 9.5 per race
Lineup Building
Dominator / Top Tier
For most lineups I would recommend 1 to 2 dominators. Since the Truck Series returned to Gateway in 2014 we have seen a 2 dominator lineup only once. In 4 of the 5 races the early to mid race dominators have had issues and fallen outside the top 10 or in some cases failed to finish. The only race that saw 2 traditional dominators was 2017 in which there was only 1 natural caution. That 2017 was an outlier and not the norm. In the other four race we have seen between four and six drivers start outside the top 10 and even top 15 finish inside the top 10. Last year alone saw four drivers with a +9 place differential finish inside the top 8. There isn’t a clear cut favorite heading into the weekend. All the top tier drivers will be in play so pay close attention to practice speeds to see who looks the best.
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Mid to Low Tier
This area is stacked this week with great plays. Chandler Smith, Christian Eckes, Kyle Benjamin and Anthony Alfredo all offer top 10 finishing ability at prices below $8,000. Myatt Snider jumps into Johnny Sauters truck and will offer top 5 upside and only cost $8,600. Sheldon Creed is up to $9,200 which is $1,600 more than he was 4 races ago but he is still a great play this week. This could be the week for Creed to get his first win and I would be surprised if he did so. In this area you will want to look for best position differential upside. Like I mentioned above we often see 4-6 guys starting further back who make their way into the top 10 with great place differential.
Punts
Historically we have seen a lot of the underfunded teams start and park here. However, most the punts this year are attempting to run the entire race thus scoring well. If we see another wreck fest which is possible drivers like Cobb, Benning and Reaume can continue their incredible run of value.
Remember to check out the new VIP article called The Inside Line: Truck Series for this weekends race. If you are not already a VIP member sign up and use code Xfinity to save 20%!!
I will also answer any questions you may have in the VIP Slack!
This will conclude this edition of The Truck Series Setup. If you would like to reach out and talk NASCAR Follow me on twitter @Larkin8 and join me as well as our other DFS Army NASCAR contributors (Brady Miller, Taco, and NillyJay) in the NASCAR coaching channels.