2017 Irish Hills 250 Race Predictions
NASCAR Xfinity Series Betting Preview
Saturday June 17th, 1:48PM (EST) at Michigan International Speedway
by Jay Horne of NASCARWagers.com, NASCAR Handicapping Service
NASCAR returns to one of the fastest tracks on the circuit this weekend as both the Xfinity and Monster Energy Cup Series invade Michigan International Speedway. On Saturday, we will have a rare double header with the Xfinity Series kicking off the action at Michigan with the running of the Irish Hills 250. Later Saturday evening, the Camping World Truck Series will take center stage with racing at Gateway Motorsports Park to cap off a full day of racing. As we prepare for a full slate of racing, we take this time to provide our 2017 Irish Hills 250 race predictions and break down tomorrow’s Xfinity Series race at Michigan.
One of the first things that always comes to mind when NASCAR visits Michigan is “speed.” Michigan has become one of the fastest tracks in NASCAR in recent years with speeds well over 200mph and those speeds will be even greater when the Cup Series unleashes 40 cars on Sunday. Earlier today, Brad Keselowski posted the fastest lap in the final practice of the Irish Hills 250 with an average lap of 193.149mph which is very close to the lap record in the Xfinity Series at Michigan. Keselowski is coming off a big win last week at Pocono where he snapped a 46 race drought for the #22 team. Today Keselowski and the #22 team backed up last week’s performance by showing excellent speed throughout both practices and it is becoming evident that this team is returning to their 2015 form when they racked up a total of 7 wins on the season.
Obviously, Keselowski is going to have some competition with the likes of Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch behind the wheel of the #18 and #20 machines for Joe Gibbs Racing. We know Hamlin and Busch are always threats to win in these races especially “Rowdy” who has the most wins all-time in the series with 87 victories. However, I have still been very impressed with the reemergence from this #22 team and I thought Keselowski had the most speed from sessions earlier today. Busch was very close to the #22 in terms of speed and he even spent a part of the practice helping teammate Matt Tift who followed the #18 around the track for several laps to watch Busch’s line. Tift must have learned something because he ended the session with the fastest 10 lap average among all drivers.
While both Busch and Tift looked solid, the same cannot be said for teammate Denny Hamlin. Hamlin and the #20 team struggled with the balance on the car which was causing issues with their long run speed. If they can get the #20 dialed in, the car still has a lot of raw speed so I would not count out Hamlin’s chances. Another group of guys that looked pretty strong was the guys from JR Motorsports. William Byron, Elliott Sadler, and Justin Allgaier were all fast in practices earlier today. I thought both Sadler and Byron were noticeably strong amongst the competition. Sadler has not practiced very well in recent weeks despite rallying for several top 10 finishes. Therefore, it will be interesting to see if the #1 car is even better on Saturday after a pair of solid practices.
I think both Sadler and Byron are strong candidates in H2H situations if you can find them in matchups against other competitors. Another guy that I would not overlook in matchup situations or even for a really big dark horse play is Cole Custer. The rookie has posted finishes of 7th, 4th, and 7th in the last 3 races behind the wheel of the #00 car. Earlier today, Custer was another driver that appeared to be happy with the racecar and was pretty solid in terms of lap times. Therefore, I would expect the momentum to continue from the #00 team. If I had to add another name to the list of drivers to watch, consider Brandon Jones in the #33 car. Jones was very happy with their speed and he posted the 3rd best lap in final practice. To this point in the year, Jones has struggled heavily. In 12 races, he has 0 top 10 finishes and a season best finish of 15th. However, I do believe Jones will have a chance to have his best run of the year if he can stay out of trouble on Saturday and may be worth consideration in low tier matchups.
2017 Irish Hill 250 Race Predictions
Elliott Sadler +1000 (1.25 units)
Two Team Parlays
Kyle Busch +170 wins Irish Hills 250
Team 2 – Open
Risking 1 unit to win: TBD
Brad Keselowski +155 wins Irish Hills 250
Team 2 – Open
Risking 1 unit to win: TBD
H2H Matchups
Elliott Sadler -115 over Paul Menard (2 units)
Cole Custer -160 over Tyler Reddick (2 units)
