2015 Virginia 529 College Savings 250 Race Picks
NASCAR Xfinity Series Betting Preview
Saturday September 11th, 7:46PM (EST) at Road America
by Jay Horne of NASCARWagers.com, NASCAR Handicapping Service
In a few short hours, the Xfinity Series will go racing at Richmond International Raceway in the Virginia 529 College Savings 250. Earlier today teams and drivers were able to get in a full round of practice before rain cancelled final practice. After some track drying, Kyle Busch edged Joey Logano by .01 seconds to win tonight’s pole. With no further rain expected tonight, we look to go racing for 250 laps at Richmond. Take a look as we provide our 2015 Virginia 529 College Savings 250 race picks!
Tonight’s field will feature talent from the Sprint Cup Series including the likes of Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, and Austin Dillon. It will be up to those 3 guys to carry on a trend of Sprint Cup Series winners in Xfinity Series races at Richmond. In fact, it has been over 10 years and 20 races since an Xfinity Series regular captured the flag at Richmond International Raceway. Chase Elliot come mightily close in both of last year’s races with 2nd place finishes but nobody has been able to end the Sprint Cup Series guys’ reign of terror. Tonight both Logano and Busch are big favorites to keep that streak alive.
Kyle Busch has recorded 5 Richmond victories in 19 career starts and it is just one of those tracks where Busch typically seems to always be in contention for the win. Surprisingly, Logano has never recorded a Richmond victory in 5 career starts and owns just 1 top 5 finish which was a runner-up finish earlier this year. Ironically, Logano was beaten by .01 seconds in that race from getting the pole and riding to a 2nd place finish. While 2nd place finishes are certainly not a bad night, Logano will definitely look to better that result with a win tonight.
In terms of the guys to look out for tonight outside of Logano and Busch, I would really pay close attention to the #20 car of Erik Jones and the #9 of Chase Elliot. Elliot has not really contended for wins this season but he was very strong here as a rookie last year. The #9 looked to have decent race speed in the first practice and JR Motorsports has been improving in recent weeks after a fairly sluggish summer. Jones had a 4th place finish back in the spring race and will be in the #20 car that took Denny Hamlin to victory lane in that race as well. In the first practice, Jones was one of the fastest cars that did not make a mock qualifying run.
If you are looking for potential dark horses and H2H drivers to keep on your radar, Brian Scott and Josh Berry would be excellent choices. Berry will be making just his 3rd start of his Xfinity Series career but has shown great speed in the #88 Speedco Chevrolet. Berry may not be listed in potential match-ups but if you can find him; he should be in line for a quality night. Additionally, consider Brian Scott in match-up type situations. The #2 car has been no stranger to the speed charts this season so it sometimes difficult to know how they will correlate to race conditions. However, Richmond is one of those tracks where Scott has traditionally race very well including 4 straight finishes of 7th or better. If you remember the 2013 race, Scott dominated to lead 239 of the 250 laps but was beat by Brad Keselowski on a late race restart. I doubt we will see any dominating type performance out of the #2 car tonight like we did back in 2013 but he has proved in recent races that he can keep the #2 towards the front of the field.
2015 Virginia 529 College Savings 250 Race Picks
Erik Jones +850 (1 unit): finished 4th in only Xfinity Series start back in the spring, driving #20 car that went to victory lane in that race, starting 7th
Two Team Parlay
Joey Logano +200 wins Virginia 529 College Savings 250
Open for Federated Auto Parts 400
Risking 1 unit to win: TBD
H2H Matchups
Regan Smith -140 over Daniel Suarez (1 unit)
