Overview

The weekend of NASCAR racing starts with the first race of the Camping World Truck Series playoffs. The trucks will hit World Wide Technology Raceway, also known as Gateway International Raceway and Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Illinois. The Truck series is the only series that runs at Gateway making this one of those unique weekends where the trucks are at a different track from the Xfinity and Cup Series. WWT Raceway is a 1.25-mile asphalt oval with an “egg-shape” similar to that of Darlington Raceway. Furthermore, turns one and two come in with 11-degree banking with similar characteristics of New Hampshire Motor Speedway while turns three and four have nine degrees of banking similar to Phoenix International Raceway. The track layout is pictured below. The trucks will go 160 laps, 200 miles giving us a solid amount of dominator points available considering that this is a truck race. In each of the last four races here, the polesitter has led at least 34 laps with four trucks leading double-digit laps in each of the last three.

Most comparable tracks: New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Phoenix International Raceway, Darlington Raceway

*Note: all pricing is DraftKings focused

Dominators

These are the drivers that we can typically expect to, you guessed it, dominate the race. When we think dominator we are looking for guys that will be in a position to lead a hefty amount of laps as well as be able to turn over fastest laps.

John Hunter Nemechek ($11,600)

Starting second on the grid, the Truck Series Regular Season champion is in a tremendous position to be a dominator early in this race. He’s had very good success at WWT Raceway with top-six finishes (including a win) in three of his last four races. The one outlier here is the 25th place finish in 2018 (the last time JHN raced at WWT Raceway) when his truck failed him with an oil leak. In his win in 2017 JHN led 46 of the 160 laps. JHN has led at least 64 laps on five occasions this season and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him do it on Friday night.

Sheldon Creed ($11,200)

Creed, the defending series champion has had a rollercoaster of a season. He has a win at Darlington as well as six top 10 finishes overall. On the opposite side of the spectrum, he has four finishes of 32nd or worse with some bad luck mixed in there. Last year Creed won at WWT Raceway but led just 15 laps. Keep in mind, though, he started that race 17th so it took him some time to move up through the field. Starting fourth on Friday, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him up in the front row sooner than later. He just has to stay out of trouble.

Austin Hill ($10,400)

The pole-sitter, as I mentioned above has had a ton of success here at WWT Raceway and Hill is in that position on Friday night. Hill finished third here last season and in the two previous races had 11th place finishes. Despite not leading a ton of laps here in previous races, Hill has an advantage on the pole as I said.

Also consider:

Todd Gilliland ($9,400)

Place Differential Targets

Grant Enfinger ($9,600)

Enfinger, the road course veteran should be a trendy play this week starting back at 30th in the number 9 truck. Enfinger has found success this season in the 9 (he’s also spent time in the 98) with seventh, fourth, 14th, and 17th place finishes. His last two races in the 9, however, have not gone well with a 36th and a 38th place finish (after just eight laps). In both instances, his truck failed him, once due to engine issues and once due to transmission failure. Either way, Enfinger will be the primary place differential target this week with an average finish of 12th coming in.

Johnny Sauter ($8,400)

Speaking of veterans the 43-year-old Sauter finds himself starting back in 20th on Friday night and has an average finish of 18th on the season. That average is somewhat deceiving as he’s wrecked out of two races and had a poor showing (35th) at Pocono. Outside of those blemishes, Sauter has two top fives and four top 10’s on the season. The most notable factor to consider with Sauter is the history he has at WWT Raceway. Outside of last years 33rd place finish after just 22 laps due to truck issues Sauter has finished second, third, or fourth in seven straight races here. I’ll take my chances on him making his way through the field starting back at 20th.

Chase Purdy ($7,300)

The 21-year-old Purdy will start 28th in a very solid number 23 truck. Purdy has finished in the top 17 in three of his last four races with the outlier being his last race in which he wrecked out after 153 of 179 laps. Purdy’s average finish of 24th this season is somewhat lackluster in my eyes but the talent is there as well as the place differential and a salary that is very reasonable.

Dawson Cram ($5,400)

Starting way back in 38th Cram comes in with a top 25 finish under his belt at WWT Raceway last season. As far as 2021 goes Cram has an average finish of 25th in nine races. With the value, he brings we’re just looking for Cram to finish somewhere in the low 30’s, high 20’s, that way we can get some of the higher-priced drivers in.

Also consider:

Tj Majeski ($9,000, Starting 25th)

• More upside than the others in his price range but a good deal of boom or bust comes with Majeski week in and week out.

Tyler Hill ($5,600, Starting 27th)

Derek Kraus ($7,000), Starting 17th)

Speedy Notes

Driver I have most exposure to: John Hunter Nemechek

Driver I’m fading that worries me: NONE

Driver I have zero interest in: Matt Crafton

GOOD LUCK!!