2016 American Ethanol E15 225 Race Predictions

2016 American Ethanol E15 225 Race Predictions

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Betting Preview

Friday September 16th, 8:49PM (EST) at Chicagoland Speedway

by Jay Horne of NASCARWagers.com, NASCAR Handicapping Service

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will kick off a full weekend of racing, that features all 3 of NASCAR’s top touring series, later tonight when the green flag is waved for the American Ethanol E15 225 at Chicagoland Speedway. Unlike the Sprint Cup Series that has their Chase for the Sprint Cup which starts on Sunday, tonight’s race for the Truck Series will be the last opportunity for drivers to earn their way into the first Camping World Truck Series Chase. Therefore we breakdown the Chase outlook and also provide our 2016 American Ethanol E15 225 race predictions for racing at Chicagoland!

Currently 6 drivers (William Byron, Matt Crafton, Christopher Bell, Johnny Sauter, John Hunter Nemecheck, and Ben Kennedy) are locked into the Chase with the help of at least 1 victory this season. Daniel Hemric and Timothy Peters appear to have the final two positions locked down in the form of points but that scenario could be shattered if we were to have a first time winner this evening. Cole Custer is the driver with the best opportunity to make that happen. Custer is a proven winner in the Truck Series and he had a win wrestled away from him on the final lap just two weeks ago at the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. The downside to that possibility is the fact Custer has never been overly strong on the 1.5 mile tracks and this will be his first start tonight at Chicagoland.

With Kyle Busch in the lineup tonight, the possibility of a first time winner has become very minimal to say the least. Busch has 5 starts in the Truck Series at Chicagoland and in 4 of those races he has driven to victory lane. Busch did not get to participate in practices earlier this morning due to his obligations with the Sprint Cup media coverage for the Chase drivers. Instead, Erik Jones filled in for practice responsibilities to help dial in the #18 truck. Jones was outside the top 10 in both practices but the team never ran any mock qualifying laps and stuck solely to working on their race setup. Rest assured they will be fine when Rowdy gets behind the wheel later tonight.

Obviously Busch is the big favorite to win tonight’s race but Chicagoland is a tricky track. The track itself changes and different grooves can develop throughout the race. Therefore while Busch is obviously the guy to beat, I do not think it is guaranteed either. Both William Byron and Matt Crafton should be in the picture if we go by our history on the 1.5 mile tracks this season. Byron has 5 wins on the season and 3 of those victories have come in the form of 1.5 mile layouts. In fact, Byron won at both Kansas and Kentucky which share the most similarities to Chicagoland. Crafton also has a 1.5 mile win at Charlotte to his resume this year along with several quality finishes earlier in the year on similar surfaces.

From a practices standpoint, speeds were a bit all over the place with fast laps coming at both the beginning and end of each session. A few drivers even made mock qualifying runs to further muddle the speeds. However, I did notice that in consecutive laps that Matt Crafton and Daniel Hemric stood out with some noticeable speed. Hemric has also been very solid on the 1.5 mile tracks this season so his name should not surprise anyone. Daniel Suarez also looked pretty good on speed but he just has not produced in the Truck Series this season for me to be confident in backing the #51. Suarez has just two top 10 finishes in 8 starts this year and both of those finishes were at tracks of 1 mile or less. Therefore, I believe we are going to continue to see some of the usual characters at the front of tonight’s field.