Date: Friday February 12th, 7:30PM (EST) |
Location: Daytona International Speedway
By: Jay Horne of NASCARWagers.com, NASCAR Handicapping
Daytona Speedweeks has been fun to watch following a wild night of action in the Bluegreen Vacation Duels on Thursday in the Cup Series. Now, the first official race of the 2021 season will take place Friday night when the Camping World Truck Series takes the green flag for the NextEra Energy 250 at Daytona International Speedway. With each passing day, we move one step closer to the 63rd running of the Daytona 500. With that being said, do not overlook Friday night’s NextEra Energy 250 because the Truck Series’ rarely disappoints at Daytona. As we prepare for the first official green flag of the 2021 season, take a look as we provide a few things to watch in the 2021 NextEra Energy 250.
While our official race picks will not begin until Sunday’s Daytona 500, Friday night’s NextEra Energy promises to provide an electrifying start to the weekend. Compared to the 2020 season, there are numerous changes throughout the series that will shake up the competition. Hailie Deegan makes her rookie debut for Team DGR, John Hunter Nemechek returns full-time to the series with Kyle Busch Motorsports, and numerous other changes have transpired over the off-season to provide a new facelift to the Camping World Truck Series. If you want to read more about all of the driver and team changes, feel free to check out our prior preview highlight the 2021 Truck Series Driver and Team Changes
Despite some of the high profile driver changes, I believe the biggest storyline that will shake up the competition involves Thorsport Racing’s return to Toyota. Thorsport Racing, which includes drivers Grant Enfinger, Johnny Sauter, Ben Rhodes, and Matt Crafton, formerly performed under Toyota powered equipment until they signed a 3-year partnership with Ford from 2017-2020. Once the partnership dissolved at the end of 2020, the team made the decision to return to Toyota. Personally, I believe that will be a huge boost for the strongest team in the series. Thorsport Racing’s performance had fallen off sharply in 2020 and Toyota’s seem to have some of the strongest manufacturer products throughout all 3 of NASCAR’s top touring series. When you consider Grant Enfinger is the defending winner of the NextEra Energy 250 and Johnny Sauter has won 3 of the last 8 openers at Daytona, we could make a strong argument that these drivers should be the main targets going into Friday’s event.
Obviously, nothing is guaranteed at Daytona despite the amount of driving talent or performance advantages. These races have so many variables that play into the final outcome that it is simply impossible to predict. However, I do believe in trends when it comes to the superspeedway races because this type of racing requires a specific skill set. If we can identify those drivers that have a history of running towards the front of the field, our possibility of predicting a winner greatly improves. When I look through the field at potential candidates, Grant Enfinger obviously sticks out with finishes of 6th, 2nd, and 1st in his last 3 Daytona starts. I mentioned Sauter earlier as well. However, we should also point out talents like Sheldon Creed and Austin Hill who are vastly underrated superspeedway talents. Creed took a big step forward in 2020 by winning the Truck Series Championship and I’m expecting another big year from the young standout.
Still, I will be watching this race as a fan this weekend. I don’t think we will learn a lot about true performance until next week’s race at the Daytona Road Course and we will learn even more at Las Vegas which will help towards betting predictions as we move forward. If you would like to field some bets for Friday’s opener, Derek Kraus, Tyler Ankrum, and Parker Kligerman are a few of the intermediate to long shot drivers that I believe have excellent value compared to the competition. As always, these races are filled with high-risk scenarios. Therefore, do not go overboard with bets or fantasy line-ups because this is not the most ideal handicapping event. Don’t worry though, the handicapping edge and sharp bets will come soon on a weekly basis!
