5-Hour Energy 400 Race Picks
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Kansas
Date and Time: Saturday May 10th, 2014 7:46PM Eastern
Where: Kansas Speedway
TV: FOX
By:NASCAR Wagers, NASCAR Handicapping Service
Yesterday Kevin Harvick won his 2nd pole of the season for tonight’s 5-Hour Energy 400 at Kansas Speedway. ‘Happy’ actually broke the track record in the 2nd round of knockout qualifying with a freaky fast lap of 194.659 mph. Surely Harvick has everyone’s attention considering just a month ago he won the pole at Darlington and went on to dominate the Bojangles’ Southern 500 to become the first repeat winner this season in the Sprint Cup Series. Harvick’s win at Darlington really put an exclamation mark on his 2014 season especially if you consider his poor performance at Darlington through the past several years. Now ‘Happy’ will have the chance to go for an unprecedented 3rd win at Kansas Speedway where he has been very strong throughout his career.
Of course Harvick is going to have his work cut out for him especially after so many drivers showed solid speed in Friday’s practices. Tony Stewart topped the charts in Happy Hour with a lap of 192.809mph. Smoke is among 5 drivers who have two wins at Kansas which is the most in the young track’s history. Kansas native Clint Bowyer, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Larson, and Harvick rounded out the top 5 in yesterday’s final practice. We have spoke about Johnson’s incredible stats this week at Kansas Speedway where he has finished inside the top 10 in each of his last 10 starts. Johnson is also another one of those two time Kansas winners.
Kansas native Clint Bowyer was really strong in both practices. Bowyer has never won at his home track but many feel that could come to an end tonight. A few other guys that showed speed in both practices included Kyle Larson and Jeff Gordon. Gordon has been knocking on victory lane’s door all year while the rookie Larson has been somewhat inconsistent. One of the surprises of the weekend so far has been the lack of speed shown by Joe Gibbs Racing. All 3 JGR cars were way down the charts on speed and teams have reportedly been struggling with setups on the racecar. JGR had similar results in last week practices at Talladega but proved how worthless practice results can be when Denny Hamlin won the race. Obviously practice speeds hold a bit more weight at the 1.5 mile tracks and perhaps their lack of speed is a bit more concerning this time around.
If we learned anything from last night’s truck race, it is that Kansas Speedway has not changed. Track position was still the biggest focus point last night with teams taking two tires throughout most of the night. Expect to see similar strategies in tonight’s 5-Hour Energy 400. While cars are reaching lightning fast speeds, Kansas’s preferred racing groove is rather narrow meaning drivers are still having a tough time passing which was thought to have been cured with the reconfiguration a couple of years back. However passing has remained difficult and track position will be of the upmost importance tonight. Therefore we want to have guys on our roster that are going to stay out front and also not scared to shake things up with some possible pit road strategy. Take a look at our 5-Hour Energy 400 race picks:
NASCARWAGERS Picks to Win:
Matt Kenseth +1050: Our newsletter pick that has won 2 of the last 3 Kansas races. Team did not show much speed in practice
Jimmie Johnson +650 (1.5 units): Best average finish all-time at Kansas, solid in both practices, racing chassis that led 104 laps at Fontana.
Kevin Harvick +550 (2 units): Most recent winner at Kansas in October, 2013, 8.6 average finish in last 10 races, driving chassis that won earlier this year at Phoenix.
Clint Bowyer +2100 (1.5 units): Very impressive in both practices, making 300th career start, mom will waive the green flag, could the stars align?
Props and H2H Bets
Greg Biffle +115 over Kyle Larson
Tony Stewart -125 over Kurt Busch
Dale Earnhardt Jr -125 over Kyle Busch
Kasey Kahne -145 (2 units) over Denny Hamlin
