2025 Black’s Tire 200 Race Picks

Date/Time: Friday April 17th, 2025. 5:00PM (EST)
Where: Rockingham Speedway
TV: FS1

In hopes to rejuvenate life into some of NASCAR’s most historic and prestigious venues, the Craftsman Truck Series and Xfinity Series will return to “The Rock” at Rockingham Speedway this weekend for back to back days of racing at one of the most historic tracks in the sport. The action will begin on Friday when the Craftsman Truck Series waves the first green flag at Rockingham since 2013 for the running of the Black’s Tire 200. From a fan perspective, the return of racing at Rockingham is exciting and should produce great racing. However from a betting perspective, it’s difficult to pin down exactly how things will unfold due to the long inactivity at the track and lack of experience that drivers have on this surface.

For those that may have never witnessed racing at Rockingham, this track has rarely disappointed from a spectators’ perspective. Rockingham Speedway has historically been listed at 1.017 miles in length but is currently being listed at .094 miles due to the addition of added safety barriers and modifications. Either way, Rockingham Speedway races both like a short track (turns 1-2) and an intermediate speedway (turns 3-4) due to the track’s unique and different style corners at both ends of the track. Additionally, the speedway has also been known to create significant tire wear and despite being repaved in 2022; testing sessions back in February revealed that the tire wear will likely be a factor again this weekend.

Fortunately, that means that fans should see exciting and perhaps old-school style racing this weekend. However, bettors do not have a lot of information at their disposal to make many predictions going into the weekend. In fact, this weekend’s schedule of activities revealed that both the Truck Series and Xfinity Series will not participate in on-track activities until just hours before each event this weekend. Last week, the Truck Series executed a similar schedule at Bristol and many sportsbooks failed to release any H2H match-ups or prop betting lines after qualifying concluded. Therefore, we may have to pull the trigger on those styles of wagers early to avoid another situation where we do not have access to post-qualifying betting odds.

Handicapping Rockingham

In preparation for Friday’s Black’s Tire 200, I have considered a lot of different handicapping angles in order to form legitimate betting targets. Since we do not have any prior track history for the drivers competing on Friday and will likely not have the opportunity to observe lap times until just a few hours before race time, I believe bettors must examine performance trends at other venues that have the closest resemblances to Rockingham. For the Truck Series, I believe the closest tracks that will resemble the style of racing that we expect at Rockingham can be traced to tracks like North Wilkesboro, IRP, and perhaps even Richmond. Though those tracks differ in track length, the style of racing is very similar to Rockingham especially when you compare it to the likes of North Wilkesboro and IRP. As a result, I will use previous performance trends at those venues as a primary handicapping angle this weekend while mixing in other angles like testing results, current momentum, and others to help us build a full handicapping recipe.

Betting Targets

Including all of the handicapping angles described above, I believe the trio of Corey Heim, Ty Majeski, and Layne Riggs stands out clearly as the drivers to beat. Heim has been the best driver this season on a weekly basis and likely should have 4 victories instead of the two wins through six races this season. For that reason, I think Heim is over priced at near even betting odds. Despite the upside, Heim has not closed enough races this season to be receiving Kyle Larson/Kyle Busch style betting odds. Instead, I think both Majeski and Riggs can be considered strong betting targets because both drivers are receiving very generous odds. Majeski and Riggs are arguably the best short track talents in the field and in my opinion are complete steals at odds nearing 10-1.

Behind the top names mentioned above, I believe Grant Enfinger is one of the most underrated short track talents in the Truck Series. Enfinger finished in the top 3 in both of last season’s races at North Wilkesboro and IRP. On the contrary, Enfinger has experienced somewhat of a slow start in 2025. However, I do believe he is a strong H2H option considering the drivers that are receiving similar betting odds. Behind Enfinger, I have guys like Jake Garcia and Matt Crafton as deeper betting targets that are likely ideal in high yield formats like prop bets. Crafton is the only driver in the field with experience at Rockingham and actually performed really well in the only two races ever run in the Truck Series at Rockingham back in 2012 and 2013. Meanwhile, Garcia is a guy that tested really strong back in February and is listed at lottery style 80-1 odds. For that reason, I think Garcia is worthy of prop bet consideration where the reward outweighs the risk.