2015 Fred’s 250 Race Picks
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Betting Preview
Saturday October 24th, 1:22PM (EST) at Talladega Superspeedway
by Jay Horne of NASCARWagers.com, NASCAR Handicapping Service
This afternoon the Camping World Truck Series will drop the green flag in the Fred’s 250 at Talladega Superspeedway for some action packed high speed racing. Today’s field will include 32 trucks that will battle it out in the draft all afternoon each vying for a chance at victory. These rare superspeedway races provide the opportunity for a vast array of potential winners and it will definitely be a crapshoot this afternoon with the absence of Sprint Cup and Xfinity Series talent in the field. However, those circumstances should present for an exciting an unpredictable afternoon of racing. Take a look as we provide some brief thoughts and provide our 2015 Fred’s 250 race picks for today’s race at Talladega!
I like to call these superspeedway races free-for-alls simply due to the fact everything and anything can happen. To make matters even more unpredictable, the last time the Trucks were on a superspeedway was back in February as they only run two of these races per year. For the fact these are rare races and practice speeds mean absolutely nothing, there is not much material data to talk about in preparation for today’s race. Instead, it becomes more of a race of probability. Obviously the trucks of Matt Crafton, Erik Jones, and Tyler Reddick should be potential winners. Those are easily the 3 best teams in the Truck Series especially against regular competition. Reddick won back in February at Daytona so he is a proven winner in these races. Erik Jones ran well back in February and also in this race one year ago. For Crafton, well he has proven he can win anywhere.
However, we know it is still a wide open field even outside of those favorites. Timothy Peters scored a victory in this race last year and look pretty good in practice on single truck speed which should give the team some extra confidence that they can stay at the front of the field this afternoon. Still, there are plenty of interesting names sprinkled throughout the field that are bound to play a factor in this race. Guys like Johnny Sauter, Brandon Jones, and Ben Kennedy all have the ability to run well this afternoon. If you look even deeper into the conundrum of names, you have a guy like Bobby Gerhart who is making his first Truck Series appearance in 20 years. All 9 of Gerhart’s wins in the ARCA series come at both Daytona and Talladega so he is considered a superspeedway specialist so to speak.
The good news for bettors is while there a ton of names that have the potential to steal the spotlight this afternoon, the Daytona race was dominated by just a few trucks at the front of the field back in February meaning this race may not be as wide open as it may seem. In fact back in February, only 7 trucks lead a lap in that race and only 4 trucks led multiple laps. I think that will be fairly relative again this afternoon as there are only about 8-10 teams that likely have the equipment to put a truck in victory lane under normal circumstances. From that standpoint, we look at the drivers with the most probably chances to score a win, compare it with the odds, and try to keep a consideration towards our ROI for this type of race. Hopefully after 250 miles, we will be cashing a winning ticket!
2015 Fred’s 250 Race Picks
Opting out of winning picks for today’s race due to risk outweighing value in posted odds.
H2H Matchups
Erik Jones -115 over Tyler Reddick (3 units)
