NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Championship Race
Location: Avondale, Ariz.
Course: Phoenix Raceway
Format: 1.0-mile oval
Laps: 150
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Championship Race Preview
For the second season in a row, Corey Heim will enter the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series finale with the most wins of the season. He added an 11th to his 2025 total last week at Martinsville, but now must come out on top of a four-way battle at Phoenix Raceway to claim his first series championship. Kaden Honeycutt, Ty Majeski, and Tyler Ankrum will all be trying to stop him, though. Among those four, only Ankrum and Heim have race wins this season, which would make anything short of the title this week for Heim a stinging loss. The Tricon Garage driver was runner-up in the championship showdown a year ago to Majeski as the pair split stage victories and dominated the race, and Heim will not want to let the opportunity slip away again. This will be the 35th time the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series visits Phoenix, and a career-changing championship is on the line for the four series finalists as the 2025 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series closes out its 2025 season.
Key Stats at Phoenix Raceway
- Number of races: 34
- Winners from pole: 9
- Winners from top-5 starters: 25
- Winners from top-10 starters: 32
- Winners from 21st or lower starters: 0
- Fastest race: 108.014 mph
Previous 10 Phoenix Winners
2024 - Ty Majeski
2023 - Christian Eckes
2022 - Zane Smith
2021 - Chandler Smith
2020 - Sheldon Creed
2019 - Stewart Friesen
2018 - Brett Moffitt
2017 - Johnny Sauter
2016 - Daniel Suarez
2015 - Timothy Peters
An entire season of work comes down to this week's all-important race on Phoenix Raceway's flat 1.0-mile oval. The circuit is an oblong shape with maximum banking of 11-degrees. The track's long flat turns make mechanical grip one of the most important aspects of success. While there are many different grooves drivers can use to maximize grip and speed, track position is still a heavy factor, too. The furthest back any driver has started and won at this track was 16th back in 1995. In the 33 series races since then, no one has started lower than 11th and won. Given the importance of track position, pit strategy can have increased emphasis. Two-tire stops are not uncommon, and unexpected cautions can open up strategy options teams can use to help drivers get to the front. Qualifying well is still the easiest way to set yourself up for race success, though. Last year, Majeski and Heim started on the front row and combined to lead 148 of 150 laps, splitting stage wins, and finishing the race in first and second. The first step toward the championship starts with claiming the top spot in qualifying.
RotoWire NASCAR Truck Series Tools
DraftKings Value Picks for the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Championship Race (Based on Standard $50K Salary Cap)
DraftKings Tier 1 Values
Corey Heim - $14,000
Ty Majeski - $11,000
Layne Riggs - $10,500
Chandler Smith - $10,000
DraftKings Tier 2 Values
Kaden Honeycutt - $9,500
Tyler Ankrum - $9,000
Grant Enfinger - $8,500
Daniel Hemric - $8,200
DraftKings Tier 3 Values
Brent Crews - $7,800
Ben Rhodes - $7,700
Jake Garcia - $7,500
Rajah Caruth - $7,300
DraftKings Long-Shot Values
Tanner Gray - $7,100
Connor Mosack - $6,700
Jack Wood - $6,300
Matt Mills - $6,200
NASCAR DFS Picks for the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Championship Race
Corey Heim - $14,000
Brent Crews - $7,800
Ben Rhodes - $7,700
Jake Garcia - $7,500
Connor Mosack - $6,700
Jack Wood - $6,300
It would be hard to imagine the 2025 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series champion not being Corey Heim, and his price this week reflects that. Heim is now a two-time regular-season series champ but has yet to come out on top in the championship finale. That could change this week. He has started no lower than third at Phoenix and brings an average finish of 9.0 into this week's race, but with 11 wins already under his belt this season, including a dominant win at flat New Hampshire, Heim is the clear favorite for rosters this week. His 2025 season statistics overcome his steep price tag this time.
With Heim's major cost, we are forced to go deeper than normal into the driver pool, and Brent Crews is where we pick back up. The Tricon Garage driver will make his 11th start of the season this week, but he already has two top-fives and three top-10s on the season. The most recent was last week at Martinsville where he finished fourth. At New Hampshire, one of the fat ovals that is comparable to Phoenix, Crews qualified seventh and finished 17th. While some of his best finishes have come on road courses, he is showing he can get it done on ovals, too.
Ben Rhodes is a two-time series champion with five top-fives and eight top-10s so far this season. At Phoenix, he is often even better. His average finish from 10 series starts is 8.1, and he only finished worse than 12th twice in that span. He enters this season's finale with a streak of six consecutive Phoenix top-10 finishes, too. Rhodes appears to be excellent value for money this week even with a slightly less productive season than we are used to from him.
After a strong start to 2025, Jake Garcia's finishes have taken a step in the wrong direction. He did enough to earn a spot in the playoffs, but hasn't been finishing in the top 10 as frequently as he was in the spring. Phoenix could be a place he gets over that, though. From three series races at the circuit, Garcia has an average finish of 10.7 with a best result of second in 2023. He was 16th at New Hampshire and 15th at Indianapolis, two other flat ovals, which suggests a reasonable expectation this week should be a top-15 with the upside of a potential top-10.
Connor Mosack heads into the final race hoping to overcome a disappointing Martinsville. He has had inconsistent results throughout 2025, but the speed is there if he can get to the finish trouble free. He should have confidence of doing that at Phoenix. Last season, he started his first series race at the track in the ninth spot and went on to finish eighth.
Finally, Jack Wood has turned in some notable finishes this season. The top-20 driver in the points was 13th just a week ago at Martinsville and has raced around the top 20 consistently all season. His best finish of the year came at Rockingham when he finished seventh. Wood crashed out of the last two Phoenix races, but he did land a 20th-place finish at the track in his first series try back in 2021. Fantasy players should expect that kind of production from him this week, too.
NASCAR Truck Series Best Bets for the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Championship Race
Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook as of 3:30 PM ET Thursday
Race Winner - Corey Heim -115
Top-Five Finish - Tyler Ankrum +200
Matchup - Daniel Hemric -125 vs. Corey Lajoie -105
Negative odds for a Corey Heim win and championship this week were not unexpected. With 11 victories and a championship on the line, it would be hard to envision Heim not coming out on top. Anything can happen, though. However, there are effectively two ways to bet Heim this week. The first would be for him to win the championship, which means he could finish anywhere in the field as long as it is in front of the other three championship contenders. Fans get better odds by taking him as the race winner, though. Since he would have to win, the odds are slightly more lucrative. All things considered, Heim has been the class of the season all year and is unlikely to let things slip away in the final race, and a 12th win would be the cherry on top of what has been a record-breaking year.
Tyler Ankrum offers good odds for a top-five finish. He enters as one of the championship contenders and has three consecutive top-10 finishes in the last three races. The combination of a championship as motivation plus the momentum of a string of good finishes could put him in good position to capitalize. His best Phoenix finish was sixth in 2018, but the dynamic of this being the championship race with him as a contender make his ability to score a top-five finish more likely this week.
The final matchup to consider this season is Daniel Hemric versus Corey Lajoie. Through the last five races, Hemric has only finished better than Lajoie twice - at Bristol and the ROVAL. In the same period, Lajoie scored four top-10s to Hemric's one. Hemric has also not finished better than 13th at Phoenix in this series. While this will be Lajoie's first Phoenix start in a truck, the same has been true at every other track for him, too. In short, Lajoie is finishing better than Hemric on a consistent basis, which means fantasy players should take the favorable odds on this particular wager.
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