2017 NC Education Lottery 200 Race Picks
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Betting Preview
Friday May 19th, 8:30PM (EST) at Charlotte Motor Speedway
by Jay Horne of NASCARWagers.com, NASCAR Handicapping Service
The Camping World Truck Series will kick off an All-Star weekend later tonight with the running of the NC Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. While the bulk of the anticipation awaits tomorrow night’s Monster Energy All-Star Race, I believe we could see an equally exciting race later this evening in the Camping World Truck Series. Therefore take a ride with us as we prepare for racing at the home of NASCAR and provide our 2017 NC Education Lottery 200 race picks!
Last week Kyle Busch earned his 47th career win in the Truck Series with a victory at Kansas Speedway. It was Busch’s 17th victory in his last 31 starts in the Truck Series which is simply phenomenal. Once again Rowdy will be the overwhelming favorite to win tonight’s NC Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte where he owns a track record 6 victories in the Truck Series. While most signs point to another victory for Busch, let’s not forget that Busch was seemingly handed the win last week at Kansas when Ben Rhodes suffered mechanical failure leading the race with just 10 laps to go.
I am not trying to take anything away from Busch’s win last week but simply pointing out the fact that he did not have the best truck. I believe that possibility exist again tonight mainly because of the testing that was held at Charlotte a few weeks back. At that test, teams surrounding Ben Rhodes and Ryan Truex found a lot of speed which they were able to show in last week’s race at Kansas. Truex finished 6th last week in his best finish of the year and Rhodes was in position for the win before the heartbreaking engine failure with 10 to go. As a result of their gains in testing and speeds yesterday in practice, I expect both Truex and Rhodes to race well again this evening.
With that being said, Matt Crafton and Christopher Bell remain the two biggest threats to dethrone Busch from the top spot tonight. Crafton is the defending winner of the NC Education Lottery 200 which was actually his 2nd Truck Series victory at Charlotte. Meanwhile, Bell has been the most consistent frontrunner in the Truck Series throughout the season. In practice, both trucks showed solid speed finishing in the top 7 in both sessions. If I had to pick between the two drivers, I would give the edge to Bell because all of the Kyle Busch Motorsports trucks (Gragson, Busch, and Bell) were really strong in terms of speed.
One other driver that I would like to throw into the conversation is rookie Chase Briscoe. Briscoe has not received a lot of publicity and is flying under the radar in my personal opinion. I believe the reason is because he posted a few mundane finishes of 25th at Atlanta and 11th at Martinsville. However, Briscoe posted his 2nd top 5 finish with his 5th place showing at Kansas last week. I would also quickly point out that he was running pretty well at Atlanta before a pit road mistake caused a flat tire which they were never able to recover from. However, Briscoe was another one of those teams that participated in the test at Charlotte and appeared to gain some speed. I was really high on this rookie entering the season and I still think he is capable of winning before this year is out. Therefore, I would add Briscoe to the name of guys that I expect to run well tonight if they can stay out of trouble.
Several of the drivers mentioned above received fairly generous odds at the beginning of the week especially in matchup situations. If you do not have a sportsbook that offers early odds, then I highly suggest signing up with 5 Dimes. The majority of our plays below lost more than half of their value. One of the most important aspects towards betting NASCAR racing is getting the best number (odds) to ensure the best value and ROI on your lineups. Therefore, be sure to follow our forums for early plays and have a sportsbook that allows you to jump on early betting lines before major line changes closer to race time!
2017 NC Education Lottery 200 Race Picks
*More plays to come closer to race time
Christopher Bell +650 (1.5 units)
Ben Rhodes +1600 (1 unit)
Ryan Truex +2750 (.5 unit)
H2H Matchups and Props
Ryan Truex -120 over Noah Gragson (4 units)
Ben Rhodes -110 over John Hunter Nemechek (3 units)
Chase Briscoe -115 over Austin Cindric (2 units)
