2015 Drive for the Cure 300 Race Picks
NASCAR Xfinity Series Betting Preview
Friday October 9th, 8:18PM (EST) at Charlotte Motor Speedway
by Jay Horne of NASCARWagers.com, NASCAR Handicapping Service
The NASCAR Xfinity Series will go racing later tonight in the Drive for the Cure 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. With just 5 races to go, these remaining races will be extremely important for Chris Buescher, Chase Elliot, Regan Smith, and Ty Dillon who are all fighting for the Xfinity Series Championship. While we will definitely continue to watch the points battle, our focus for tonight is to deliver another winning lineup. So get ready for some exciting Xfinity Series action from the home of NASCAR as we deliver our 2015 Drive for the Cure 300 race picks!
Tonight’s race will actually be the 2nd stop the Xfinity Series has made this season at Charlotte. Back in May, Austin Dillon dominated the Hisense 300 to led 163 of 200 laps in route to his 2nd of 3 victories so far this season in the Xfinity Series. Dillon will once again be back tonight along with fellow Sprint Cup Series competitors Kasey Kahne, Brad Keselowski, and Kyle Busch. Add in the likes of Erik Jones in the #20 car and you have a lot of big names in tonight’s race. However we have seen the big names get taken down recently just as Regan Smith did last week with his victory at Dover.
Smith has been on somewhat of a hot streak with a 3rd at Kentucky and then the win at Dover. If you look back to the May race, Smith finished 4th in that event as well which givies his stock some value again tonight. Smith was 4th fastest in final practice on Thursday so the #7 car has shown speed as well. I think Smith could have another solid run this evening and would list him as a guy to put on your rosters in H2H matchups with mid-tier drivers. Unfortunately from a winning standpoint, you would be hard pressed to go against the Sprint Cup Series drivers for tonight’s race. Cup guys have won the last 12 straight Xfinity Series races at Charlotte and their lineup tonight will be a tough one to beat again.
Actually it would not be surprising to see any of the Sprint Cup Series guys in victory lane once tonight’s race concludes. Dillon has proven he can get to victory lane at Charlotte, Brad Keselowski won this race a year ago and has 3 Charlotte Xfinity Series wins on his resume, Kasey Kahne has a 2007 Xfinity Series win to his resume and Charlotte happens to be one of his best tracks, and Rowdy leads the all-time mark with a undeniable 8 Xfinity Series victories at Charlotte. Instead of possibly looking to see who could win outside of the Sprint Cup guys, I think it may be best to rank those guys for tonight’s race because I just do not see anyone else, with the exception of Erik Jones, potentially winning tonight’s race.
If we are going to rank the favorites, Kyle Busch gets the top spot which should be the least surprising. Rowdy has the most wins at Charlotte all-time in the series and has also been really fast since unloading yesterday. Busch finished with the fastest time in practice #1, was 2nd in final practice, and posted the fastest 10 lap average in final practice as well. So needless to say, Busch is the overall favorite tonight and bookmakers agree with his current odds. Outside of Rowdy, I would surprisingly put Brad Keselowski next in line. Dillon, Jones, and Kahne are all tightly there together but Keselowski has 3 victories at Charlotte in the past and he is the defending winner of this race. The #22 has been really strong on the 1.5 mile tracks so I would put him slightly ahead of Dillon, Kahne, and the Jones. Dillon looked really good in race trim and Kahne posted the fastest lap in final practice. I would not jump too hard at the fastest lap by Kahne as I still think he is the 3rd or 4th most likely driver to win tonight but it has to be promising to see the speed coming from the JR Motorsports cars most recently.
If you are looking for drivers for potential H2H matchups, again I think the #7 of Regan Smith would be a great choice. Then possibly consider teammates Chris Buescher and Darrell Wallace Jr for lower tier matchups. I think Buescher could run strong tonight and Wallace ran surprisingly well at Charlotte back in May. Both cars looked pretty decent on speed in practice finishing in the top 10 in terms of single lap speed. However, the 60 of Buescher looked really good in race trim as well.
2015 Drive for the Cure 300 Race Picks
Brad Keslowski +650 (1.5 units)
Two Team Parlay
Kyle Busch +150 wins Drive for the Cure 300
Ty Dillon +110 over Daniel Suarez
Risking 2 units to win: +850
H2H Matchup
Chris Buescher -175 over Daniel Suarez (2 units)
