2015 American Ethanol 200 Race Picks
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Betting Preview
Friday June 19th, 8:47PM (EST) at Iowa Speedway
by NASCARWagers.com, NASCAR Handicapping Service
In just a few hours the Camping World Truck Series will take center stage at Iowa Speedway with the running of the American Ethanol 200. For those that may not be familiar with Iowa Speedway, it is a 7/8 mile track that shares a lot of characteristics to Richmond International Raceway. Tonight 32 trucks will battle it out for 200 laps to crown a winner. Erik Jones posted the best lap in practice and backed that up with a strong qualifying effort by winning the pole for tonight’s race. However, Jones has been in this situation a few times already this year and has failed to find victory lane as a heavy favorite. Will Jones finally get his first victory tonight? Only time will tell but take a look at our thoughts and 2015 American Ethanol 200 race picks!
If you are looking for driving styles and drivers to watch for in tonight’s race, you do not have to look too far back to compare notes. In fact, last week’s race at Gateway will be a good track to compare notes to with Iowa Speedway as both tracks share similar traits. Last week Erik Jones and Matt Crafton dominated the race before both trucks got into trouble late in the race which paved the way for 17 year old Cole Custer to score the 2nd win of his young career. For Jones, it has been a consistent story this season as the #4 team has been the truck to beat but simply found ways not to win races. Last week Jones was trying to run down Matt Crafton when he got into a lap truck which ruined his night. It showed that despite his enormous talent, Jones still has some things to learn when it comes to closing the deal.
Crafton appeared to have the race at Gateway won on multiple occasions last week before he was wrecked by John Hunter Nemechek on a late restart. Crafton is having the best year of his career and has shown to be a threat to win races at every venue so far this season. The #88 truck was solid in practice earlier today finishing 6th on speed and Crafton has finished no worse than 9th in 8 career starts at Iowa. Crafton captured a win at Iowa in 2011 and finished 3rd in this race last year. With the way the #88 has been running this season, he should be a top contender again tonight. Outside of Jones and Crafton, the best possible option to steal a victory would likely be Cole Custer yet again. However, I personally do not believe Custer has a truck worthy of winning tonight as the #00 team struggled pretty bad in practice despite finishing 9th on the speed charts.
A few other big dark horses that should run well again tonight are the trucks of both John Hunter Nemechek and Spencer Gallagher. Gallagher posted his best finish of his career last week with a runner-up showing at Gateway and was fast off the truck again this week. John Hunter Nemechek also scored his best finish of the season last week with a 4th place finish at Gateway. Nemechek had really good speed in practice and has a lot of confidence going into tonight’s race. Nemechek will also roll off from the 2nd place position tonight after posting the best qualifying effort of his career. Keep both of those young guys on your radars tonight for potential H2H match-ups and maybe even a long shot on Nemechek for the win.
Surely things will likely change tonight when the green flag drops. After all both qualifying and practice was held in the hot daylight hours at Iowa this afternoon. When the green flag falls tonight, the sun will be down and there should be a lot more grip in the race track. Trucks will need to have some flexibility in their setups in order to keep up with the race track. If you consider those facts, Matt Crafton becomes an even more appealing pick tonight considering the way the #88 team has beat teams on pit road while consistently making that truck better. At this point they do not have the speed that the #4 truck has shown, but it will be interesting to see how things change later tonight with all 32 trucks.
2015 American Ethanol 200 Race Picks
Erik Jones +125 (4 units): has the field covered on speed, won this race a year ago, the drought ends tonight
H2H Match-up
John Hunter Nemechek -145 over Cameron Hayley (2 units)
