2025 UNOH 200 Race Picks

Date/Time: Thursday September 11th, 2025. 8:00PM (EST)
Where: Bristol Motor Speedway
TV: FS1

Over the next 3 nights, NASCAR’s major touring series will resume playoff racing in Thunder Valley with 3 straight nights of racing under the lights at Bristol Motor Speedway. The racing action will begin on Thursday when the Craftsman Truck Series waves the green flag for the running of the UNOH 200. Just two weeks ago, Corey Heim earned his 8th victory of the season in the Truck Series playoff opener at Darlington. As a result, Heim is the only driver that has already secured a ticket to the Round of 8 and will have the opportunity to compete for a 4th consecutive victory if he is able to get the job done against at Bristol!

Outside of Heim, there are 9 additional championship hopefuls that are needing a quality performance on Thursday to strengthen their playoff positions. Among those hopefuls includes Chandler Smith who won earlier this year at Bristol. In that race, Smith posted a relatively dominating effort to lead 127 of 250 en route to a victory over the likes of Kyle Larson, Corey Heim, Tyler Ankrum, Ben Rhodes, and others. As one of the biggest threats to Heim’s dominating 2025 campaign, Smith and teammate Layne Riggs have been the best drivers in the Truck Series throughout the 2nd half of the season. Needless to say, both Riggs and Smith should be legitimate contenders for a victory on Thursday!

Aside from the playoff battle that will keep things entertaining late Thursday, the Truck Series does regularly compete at Bristol Motor Speedway. In fact, the Truck Series has competed at Bristol twice a year for the last few seasons. As a result, bettors have some historical data which is encouraging considering the fact Bristol is unlike any other short-track on the schedule. Unlike other short tracks, Bristol has steep banking at 24 degrees (minimum) which forces the need for drivers to have excellent car (truck) control on corner exit in order to carry maximum speeds down the straightaways of this very fast half-mile oval. For those reasons, we often see a lot of the same drivers emerge at the front of the field at Bristol and hopefully we can use that to our handicapping advantage on Thursday!

Truck Notes – Bristol

• Chandler Smith is the only active Truck Series driver with multiple (2) wins at Bristol.
• Ty Majeski (2022), Corey Heim (2023), and Layne Riggs (2024) are also former winners at Bristol.
• Rajah Caruth has finished 9th or better in 4 of the last 5 races at Bristol.
• Corey Heim has finished in the Top 10 in all 5 career starts at Bristol. *Heim has an impressive career average driver rating of 111.4 at Bristol.
• Chandler Smith has finished in the Top 10 in all 5 career starts at Bristol. *Smith has finished in the Top 5 in 4 of 5 career starts at Bristol.
• Layne Riggs has also finished in the Top 10 in all 3 career starts at Bristol.
• Grant Enfinger has finished in the Top 10 in 8 of his last 10 starts at Bristol.
• Matt Crafton has finished in the Top 10 in 8 of his last 10 starts at Bristol.
• Since winning in 2022, Ty Majeski’s best finish at Bristol is 8th in 4 additional starts.
• Aside from Corey Heim and Layne Riggs, Tyler Ankrum is the only other driver to post a +100 average driver rating at Bristol over the last 3 races (requiring 3 starts).
• There have been 6 cautions or less in 4 of the last 5 races at Bristol.
• The eventual race winner has started in the Top 10 in 24 of 29 races at Bristol.

Betting Targets

The Truck Series will not practice until mid-Friday afternoon but I’m not sure that practice will alter much of my opinions unless there are huge anomalies in practice that deviate significantly from historical narratives. With that being said, I’m not exactly confident that Heim gets his 4th straight win on Thursday despite the fact he has been exceptionally dominant in recent weeks. In reality, Chandler Smith and Layne Riggs have produced better performance metrics at Bristol and among most of the shorter layouts that compare closest to racing at Bristol. Based on current odds, Chandler Smith would be the driver that gets the betting nod based simply on the fact he has the best value, in terms of betting odds, and based on the fact he has produced the best handicapping metrics at Bristol.

With that being said, I’m not exactly ecstatic about betting odds on any of the top 3 drivers from a value perspective. As a result, I may elect to use Riggs and/or Smith in parlay formats to try to build additional value. Behind the heavy favorites, I believe there are legitimate dark horses like Grant Enfinger and Rajah Caruth who are demanding betting consideration. Both drivers are listed at 20-1 odds are better and have routinely performed very well at Bristol. I like Caruth as a sharp H2H target because he does not get enough credit for his prior Bristol performances. On a similar note, Tyler Ankrum is another driver with strong H2H appeal that is an underrated Bristol talent. Deeper into the field, Ben Rhodes and Matt Crafton are a pair of veterans that have much higher ceilings than current betting odds suggest. Crafton has finished in the Top 10 in 8 of the last 10 races at Bristol and is getting 100-1 odds for his farewell tour. While I don’t believe that Crafton has a winning ceiling, I do believe his ceiling is high enough to warrant consideration in prop bet formats.

2025 Draftkings UNOH 200 Optimal Lineup

2025 UNOH 200 Race Picks

*FINAL* Chandler Smith +450 (1 unit)
Grant Enfinger +1800 (.5 unit)
Rajah Caruth +2000 (.5 unit)
Tyler Ankrum +2000 (.5 unit)

H2H Match-Ups and Prop Bets

Rajah Caruth -110 over Corey LaJoie (3 units)
Grant Enfinger -105 over Kaden Honeycutt (2 units)
Matt Crafton +1000 finishes Top 5 (.25 unit)

Two Team Parlay

Layne Riggs +200 wins UNOH 200
Carson Kvapil +250 finishes Top 5 in Food City 300
Risking 1 unit to win: +950 Ben Rhodes +400 wins Group B (Day, LaJoie, Caruth)(.5 unit) *Caesars*