By Gary Walstrom
The Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway is set for Sunday, June 19 at 3:30 PM. Tune in on NBCSN, MRN
radio, or SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90 to catch Saturday’s action.
Happy Father’s Day! It’s been quite some time since NASCAR Cup Series has raced at Nashville (it last happened in1984, to be exact), and it’s great for the sport to be back in a market that is hungry for racing.
Nashville Superspeedway is a 1.33-mile D-shaped concrete oval featuring 14 degrees of banking, and it's also the longest concrete oval in NASCAR. Nashville is unique like Darlington because this track is not comparable to any other track on the schedule. Cup drivers will thus be on the same level playing field.
Best Bets Recap - Sonoma
Kyle Busch (+125 BetMGM) vs. Martin Truex Jr: Martin Truex Jr, who has done very well historically at
road courses but struggled this year, finally showed up on this Sunday. He was able to drive through the field and put some pressure on Chase Elliott, who finished second overall. Kyle Busch was no slouch though; he came in fifth but did not have the car to match Truex Jr’s speed and handling. Tough loss, but big takeaway is that Hendrick Motorsports gets another win with Kyle Larson taking the checkered flag.
Twitter H2H Matchup- Kevin Harvick (+115 BetOnline) vs. William Byron: This one did not look good early on, as Byron had the much stronger car but through stage breaks and pit strategies Harvick was able to leap ahead of Byron. The nail in the coffin was a late race wreck that included Byron and Harvick, as Harvick’s pit crew serviced the car enough for Harvick to nurse it around the track to finish in twenty-second place overall. Byron had to retire his car because radiator damage finishing thirty-fifth. Nice win.
Drivers to Look Out For
Kyle Larson (+260 FanDuel): Can’t be too surprised here. He has dominated stock car racing’s highest
level the past couple of weeks as winner of the last three races including the all-star race. He has four
total wins this year, the most of any driver. Larson has been the fastest car out in the field over the last
five races (not counting Circuit of the Americas or All-Star Race) with an average speed rank of 1.6. It
doesn’t look like the #5 team is slowing down this week as they were the fastest car in practice.
Martin Truex Jr (+900 FanDuel): Two ways to look at this race: go all in on practice or don’t take practice
too seriously since drivers were out there for experience. If you go with the second option, then Martin
Truex Jr is a contender today. Why? Drivers will be using a 750 HP package today, and MTJ has been
very dominant in 750 HP cars. He has wins at Darlington, Martinsville and Phoenix, all 750 HP package
races. While practice did not go too well, ranked 23rd in 5 lap averages he did improve on his 10 lap
averages ranking 15th . Look for this Joe Gibbs Racing car to push Larson late in the race.
Best Value Bets
Joey Logano (-115 BetMGM) vs. Brad Keselowski: Neither driver was very impressive in practice,
Joey Logano was 17th fastest and Brad Keselowksi was 26th , but I like that Logano was getting faster as practice went on. He ranked 20th in 5 lap averages, but jumped up to 14th on 10 lap averages. Keselowski did not stay out long enough to get a 10 lap average. Finishes at 750 HP tracks have been in Logano’s favor as well. He has finished ahead of Keselowski in every normal oval track this year (Dover, Darlington, Richmond, Martinsville and Phoenix). Logano has 3 top 5’s in that span while Keselowski has none. To
make our case better, Logano has finished outside the top 10 just one time as well, 13th at Darlington. Keselowski has one finish inside the top 10, a 4th place finish at Phoenix (Logano finished 2nd).