2026 Nu Way 225 Betting Race Picks
Date/Time: Saturday September 12th, 2026. 7:30PM (EST)
Where: World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway
TV: CW
Later tonight, the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series will kick off the racing weekend with the running of the Nu Way 225 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway for the 2nd race in the Chase. Last week, Justin Allgaier’s points lead was slashed to a mere 7 points following Sheldon Creed’s victory at Darlington Raceway. Creed has moved into 2nd position in what appears to be emerging into a 3-man race for the championship between Allgaier, Creed, and Kvapil. However, there is plenty of racing remaining for things to happen and tonight’s Nu Way 225 will undoubtedly play an important role in the race for the championship.
From a betting perspective, I find World Wide Technology Raceway sort of difficult to handicap ahead of today’s on-track activities. Gateway is a 1.25 mile egg-shaped oval that has some similarities, in shape, to last week’s race at Darlington. However unlike Darlington, WWTR is a very flat racing surface which requires a car that can turn through the corners well. In many ways, drivers are navigating the turns at WWTR similar to the likes of New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Phoenix Raceway. With those things said, the O’Reilly Series has only competed at WWTR once since the 2010 season.
In last year’s only recent race at WWTR, Connor Zilisch added a victory into his historic 2025 campaign. Zilisch dominated the race to lead 121 of 160 laps en route to victory. Perhaps the most interesting thing about that race was the overall lack of passing, outside of the restarts. Once cars were spread out, passing was more difficult for trailing cars than compared to most tracks. While that is something we have grown accustomed to in the Cup Series, the O’Reilly Series has not been nearly as sensitive to track position. WWTR appears to be an exception to the rule which means that any mistakes on pit road, mistakes on the track, could derail a driver’s chances to have a quality afternoon. Additionally, perhaps we put a bit more focus into practice/qualifying sessions which will unfold later this afternoon.
Handicapping WWTR
As I alluded to above, I believe that venues like New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Phoenix Raceway have the most similarities to the WWTR based on the way drivers must navigate the corners. Nashville Speedway also has some similarities due to size and shape. However, I try to exclude Nashville from consideration due to its concrete surface which has a completely different “feel” compared to asphalt. The problem with these observations is that the O’Reilly Series did not even compete at New Hampshire this season. The O’Reilly Series has also not competed at Phoenix since early March which means all of the data that we would like to review is completely dated.
As a result, I am going to avoid compiling data sets that paint the illustration of strong correlation to other venues. I believe we can observe trends to identify drivers that perform well or perform poorly at those venues. However, we must keep in mind that recency bias plays a factor. For example, both Sheldon Creed and Carson Kvapil are performing at their highest level ever witnessed in the O’Reilly Series. Both drivers have underwhelming results at those similar venues I mentioned above. However, I don’t think that means either driver will necessarily perform poorly once the green flag waves for tonight’s Nu Way 225. As a result, I am going to be very cautious with early targets and expectations while also waiting for practice/qualifying results to yield further confirmation towards betting leans/targets.
Betting Targets
Based on current odds, I do agree with Justin Allgaier being the outright favorite though I am not sure that he should be listed at 2.5 to 1 odds. Allgaier struggled in this race last year. While I understand Allgaier is the guy to beat on a week to week basis and he also performs well on the layouts mentioned above, I am not necessarily persuaded to pull the early trigger based on current odds. One of the drivers that I am closely watching going into today’s on-track activities includes Jesse Love. Love had an excellent run at Gateway last year and is in the current odds’ range that would warrant betting consideration. The only thing that makes me hesitant to pull the trigger on Love is the fact he has not run well in recent weeks and neither has any of the Richard Childress Racing cars.
The drivers that I believe deserve some early attention and consideration include the likes of Corey Day and William Sawalich. I feel like this is a buy-low opportunity with Day after several mediocre results and he has slipped to 5th in the championship picture. Earlier this year, Day was thought to be the biggest challenge to Allgaier in the championship race and I believe today’s Nu Way 225 presents the opportunity for Day to reclaim that narrative. Meanwhile, Sawalich had an excellent run at Gateway last season and was consistently posting top 2-3 laps times throughout the entire race. Sawalich finished 2nd to Zilisch in that race and is currently getting north of 20-1 odds. I also believe Sawalich is a sneaky strong H2H target as well going into today’s activities. On the other side of the performance spectrum, I will be closely watching Taylor Gray, Sheldon Creed, and Sammy Smith. Those drivers really struggled last year at Gateway and if they show similar trends in practice, I will likely be looking to fade them in H2H match-ups based on their current odds.
2026 Nu Way 225 Betting Race Picks
*FINAL*
Carson Kvapil +500 (1 unit)
Corey Day +1200 (.5 unit)
Taylor Gray +1800 (.5 unit)
William Sawalich +2000 (.5 unit)
H2H Match-Ups and Props
Carson Kvapil -120 over Jesse Love (3 units)
William Sawalich -115 over Sammy Smith (2 units)
Corey Day -125 over Taylor Gray (2 units)
Two Team Parlay
William Sawalich +225 finishes Top 5
Denny Hamlin +450 wins Enjoy Illinois 300
Risking .5 unit to win:
+740
