2016 JACOB Companies 200 Race Predictions
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Betting Preview
Friday May 13th, 5:48PM (EST) at Dover International Speedway
by Jay Horne of NASCARWagers.com, NASCAR Handicapping Service
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will kick off a 3 day weekend at Dover International Speedway this afternoon with the running of the JACOB Companies 200. Both the Xfinity and Sprint Cup Series will follow suit in the next two days marking the first weekend of the season that all 3 touring series have been in action since Daytona. Last week 18 year old William Byron captured a surprising win at Kansas in an extremely exciting race at Kansas. Today the action continues with 200 laps at the Monster Mile. Take a look as we provide our 2016 JACOB Companies 200 race predictions!
So far this season, we have had 4 different winners in the Truck Series through the first 4 races. One thing that became obvious last week at Kansas is that there is a lot of young talent that is capable of contending for victories which should keep this series very exciting this year. William Byron may have captured the win last week at Kansas but there were several young drivers that ran up front and contended for the victory. Guys like Spencer Gallagher, Christopher Bell, and Daniel Hemric were really impressive last week and there are several more young drivers that have been equally impressive in outings this season.
In the last few years, guys like Matt Crafton, Erik Jones, and your occasional Sprint Cup Series guys have dominated the Truck Series. However, it appears we have a lot more competitiveness in the series this season which means surprise wins like last week at Kansas may not be too uncommon in the weeks ahead. On Thursday, it was all young guys on top of the leaderboard in practice. Cole Custer posted the fastest lap in final practice and he was followed by the likes of Christopher Bell, Ben Kennedy, Matt Tift, and Daniel Hemric. The two veterans in the field that most expected to be the two biggest favorites in Matt Crafton and Daniel Suarez did not even crack the top 15.
Therefore, I doubt we will see anyone dominate today’s race. Instead, it is going to be more about putting yourself in the right position at the right time similar to last week’s race that was decided by a final restart. However, I do expect a few guys to run well and have a better chance for the win than others. Daniel Suarez is a guy that I still believe will be a factor despite a mediocre final practice on Thursday. Suarez finished 2nd to Tyler Reddick in this race last year and I expect him to race well again today especially over the longer runs.
I know a lot of guys will be on Matt Crafton today because he is the premiere talent in the field. However, Crafton has failed to win in 15 career starts at Dover and has just 4 top 5 finishes during that stretch. If you combine the fact the #88 team did not look good in practice along with the low odds, I just do not see much value in backing the #88 truck. Instead, I am looking at guys like Christopher Bell, William Byron, and John Hunter Nemechek as legitimate contenders. I was especially impressed with Bell and Byron in race trim on Thursday. Both trucks looked really good in race trim and Bell seemed to have the slight advantage over the field. Obviously a lot of things can change once the green flag drops but one thing that is certain is that this should be a fun race to watch!
2016 JACOB Companies 200 Race Predictions
Daniel Suarez +450 (1.75 units)
Christopher Bell +1000 (1.25 units)
Daniel Hemric +3200 (.5 unit)
H2H Matchups
Christopher Bell -155 over Ryan Truex (2 units)
