2016 Careers for Veterans 200 Race Predictions

2016 Careers For Veterans 200 Race Predictions
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Betting Preview
Saturday August 27th, 1:19PM (EST) at Michigan International Speedway
by Jay Horne of NASCARWagers.com, NASCAR Handicapping Service

The Camping World Truck Series will get the opportunity to go racing at the fastest track in NASCAR tomorrow afternoon when the engines fire for the Careers for Veterans 200 at Michigan International Speedway. A field of 31 trucks is slated to participate in tomorrow’s event and judging by practices it is still anyone’s guess as to who will win this race. In Friday’s practices, the top 16 trucks were only separated by a mere 3 tenths of a second despite speeds that were breaching 200mph around Michigan’s two-mile surface. Therefore when the green flag drops tomorrow, there will be several drivers that have trucks capable of winning. As we anticipate a great afternoon of racing, take a look as we breakdown our expectations with our 2016 Careers for Veterans 200 race predictions!

Lately the Camping World Truck Series has been dominated by the Kyle Busch Motorsports Trucks of William Byron and Christopher Bell. Byron has already broken the record for most wins by a rookie with 5 victories through the first 13 races. Bell only has 1 victory but numerous top 5 finishes on his stat sheet this season as well. For the most part, the KBM trucks are the guys to beat in the Truck Series each week and they usually flex their muscles each week on the speed charts. However, neither the KBM trucks nor any other team stood out in either of Friday’s practices. As stated previously, the top 15 or so trucks were extremely close in terms of speed. Therefore, today’s race could very well come down to fuel mileage and track position towards the end of this race as I do not anticipate anyone dominating tomorrow’s race.

To complicate things a bit more, the Truck Series only makes one stop each year at Michigan and this is the only track of its kind on the entire schedule. Therefore, we do not have many comparable surfaces to help us in our handicapping for this race. With all the unknowns looming for tomorrow’s race, let’s take a second to note what we do know. We should expect guys like Matt Crafton and Johnny Sauter to run well. Both drivers have a pretty strong resumes at Michigan. Sauter held off Crafton for the win in this race two years ago with the help of gas mileage to earn the victory. I personally thought both Sauter and Crafton looked strong in practices despite many drivers running more than a handful of laps consecutively.

Another thing we “know” is that despite the variance in practice speeds and rather poor speed chart results, we still cannot count out the KBM trucks. Christopher Bell was the highest KBM truck in final practice all the way back in the 13th position. However, I still expect those trucks to run well especially when you consider the fact of how strong they were at Pocono which is another track that has a lot of horsepower importance. Therefore, I would not be urging anyone to bet against the KBM trucks in terms of winning or even in matchup scenarios.

The rest of tomorrow’s outlook is a calculated guess to some extent. Cameron Hayley, Tyler Reddick, and John Hunter Nemechek all had strong moments in practice where they laid down fast laps that stood out among the competition at least at that point in the sessions. However, the gap between the top 15 is very small so I do not want to put any bold predictions on just 1 or 2 drivers. I think we are going to see a lot of good racing as guys fight for track position. However, I am going to step out on a limb for one driver that I really think is a great dark horse and that is Brett Moffitt. Moffitt is not a name that catches your attention in the Truck Series because this will be just his 4th start of the season. However, he has been very competitive in his few starts with finishes of 3rd at Pocono and 2nd last week at Bristol. I thought the #11 was sneaky fast in both practices and I think he is going to be a force when the green flag waves. In a race that expects to have a lot of disparity, a longshot like Moffitt could be exactly what your roster needs. Good luck!

2016 Careers for Veterans 200 Race Predictions

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* Race picks to be posted closer to race time

Johnny Sauter +750 (1.25 units)
Timothy Peters +900 (1. 25 units)
Christopher Bell +1100 (.75 unit)

Two Team Parlay

Matt Crafton +220 wins Careers for Veterans 200
Open Slot 2
Risking 1 unit to win: TBD

H2H Matchups

Cole Custer -145 over Ryan Truex (2 units)