2025 Boys & Girls Club of the Blue Ridge 200 Race Picks

2025 The Boys & Girls Club of the Blue Ridge 200 Race Picks

Date/Time: Friday March 28th, 2025. 7:30PM (EST)
Where: Martinsville Speedway
TV: FS1

The Craftsman Truck Series will have the luxury of kicking off the racing weekend once again this Friday with the running of the Boys & Girls Club of the Blue Ridge 200 which will take place at Martinsville Speedway. Last week, Kyle Larson scored a dramatic win in the #07 truck for Spire Motorsports. Larson was able to pass both Layne Riggs and Corey Heim in the final laps in a late race charge to victory. On Friday, Larson’s teammate and Cup Series points leader William Byron will step into the #07 truck as one of the heavy betting favorites at Martinsville Speedway as Spire Motorsports seeks back to back victories for just the 2nd time in the organization’s history.

As many are aware, Martinsville Speedway is one of the smallest tracks in NASCAR and is one of the slowest in terms of outright speed. The half-mile paperclip features a very flat racing surface where drivers will be fighting for the bottom of the track and attempting to out brake competitors getting into the corners. Despite the slow speeds, Martinsville can still be very difficult in terms of execution from behind the wheel where drivers must be very technical towards hitting their marks. In the Xfinity and Cup Series, long-run speed is more important because Martinsville has a history of producing long green flag runs. However, The Boys & Girls Club of the Blue Ridge 200 is a relatively short race at just 200 laps and also contains stage breaks occurring at laps 50 & 100. Therefore, there is a strong likelihood that Friday’s race will be more centered around the fight for track position and taking advantage of restarts in determining the eventual race winner.

From a historical perspective, long-time Truck Series veteran Matt Crafton leads all active drivers with two former wins at Martinsville Speedway. However, Crafton’s last victory at Martinsville came all the way back in 2015. Grant Enfinger (2020), William Byron (2022), and Corey Heim (2023) are the most recent winners among drivers that will be competing on Friday. Obviously, Byron and Heim are the big names in that list. The current Cup Series points leader is 1 for 1 in Truck Series history at Martinsville following a dominating win in 2022. Meanwhile, current Truck Series points leader Corey Heim has been the driver to beat every week this season and would have beaten Kyle Larson and others straight up last week at Homestead if not for electrical issues in the closing laps. Needless to say, Byron and Heim deserve a ton of betting respect as the outright favorites that should contend for a victory!

Betting Strategy

Normally, I am fairly aggressive with betting at Martinsville Speedway because I believe it is a handicapping friendly venue. However, current betting odds are absolutely nightmarish for The Boys & Girls Club of the Blue Ridge 200. In fact, current betting odds are relatively horrendous for all of NASCAR’s races this weekend and we must hope they will improve throughout the weekend. For that reason, we are forced into a very conservative betting approach from an outright risk standpoint especially in futures (win) formats. If we can find value in H2H match-ups, hopefully we can be more aggressive however odds-makers have been fairly conservative thus far with match-ups being offered as well.

Strategically, I am going to wait until practice and qualifying sessions before I lock-in the majority of my wagers for Friday’s main event. I am hoping practice may solidify our betting expectations and I highly doubt that betting odds will get much worse, at least for the majority of competitors. With that being said, there are a couple of small size wagers that will be locked-in prior to Friday’s on-track activities just based on various handicapping indicators. However, I would encourage bettors to be patient as we may see better odds closer to race time as well!

Betting Targets

While we know Heim and Byron are justified outright betting favorites, I’m not so sure Heim deserves as much respect as normal. Simply put, Heim has not been as dominant on the shorter tracks despite having a prior victory at Martinsville. In my opinion, Byron, Ty Majeski, and even Layne Riggs have skill sets more appropriate for short-track racing. In fact, Majeski may be the best short-track talent in the entire Truck Series and possibly the 2nd best short-track talent behind Byron going into Friday’s race. For Layne Riggs, I am not ready to bet on him at the short odds however I must admit that he has been very impressive thus far this season and going back to the end of the 2024 season. Like Majeski, Riggs is another driver that seems to be better at the smaller venues which makes him a live threat as well.

As stated before, I think the best option for seeking profits will likely be found in H2H match-ups this week in the Truck Series. Personally, I like Ty Majeski in match-ups over Heim and Riggs who are receiving similar betting odds. Majeski has been really strong at this style of racing and has an average running position of 4th or better in the last two races at Martinsville. Behind the top names, Ben Rhodes and Kaden Honeycutt are some names that stand out for potential consideration in H2H match-ups. Rhodes has consistently run well at Martinsville and finished in the runner-up position last fall. Honeycutt is a driver that has had a slow start to the season but still has a ton of talent. Based on current betting odds, Honeycutt offers value in prop bet and H2H formats.

Note: *Other drivers to consider for H2H/fantasy purposes include Grant Enfinger (9 straight top 10 finishes) and Luke Baldwin (fantasy/low price) who will make his first start with Thorsport Racing.

Draftkings The Boys & Girls Club of the Blue Ridge 200 Optimal Fantasy Lineup

2025 The Boys & Girls Club of the Blue Ridge 200 Betting Picks

*FINAL* Ty Majeski +450 (1 unit)

H2H Match-Ups and Props

Ty Majeski -110 over Layne Riggs (3 units)
Tyler Ankrum +100 over Daniel Hemric (3 units)
Ben Rhodes -115 over Rajah Caruth (2 units)
Chandler Smith -135 over Grant Enfinger (2 units)
Tanner Gray +550 finishes Top 5 (.5 unit)