2026 SpeedyCash.com 250 Betting Race Picks

Date/Time: Friday May 1st, 2026. 8:00PM (EST)
Where: Texas Motor Speedway
TV: FS1

After a two week hiatus, the Craftsman Truck Series will return to action this Friday night to kick off a full weekend of racing at Texas Motor Speedway with the running of the SpeedyCash.com 250. So far this season, full-time Truck Series drivers have won just 2 of 6 races on the season. The remaining 4 wins have fallen to Cup Series and part-time drivers. On Friday, several O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and Cup Series talents will join the fun at Texas Motor Speedway to try to keep the Truck Series regulars out of victory lane. For Friday’s SpeedyCash.com 250, William Sawalich, Brandon Jones, Parker Kligerman, Ross Chastain, Kyle Busch, and Carson Hocevar will be among the drivers looking to keep the Truck Series’ full-time drivers out of victory lane!

Obviously, Carson Hocevar rolls into Texas following his first career Cup Series win at Talladega Superspeedway. Hocevar’s win and celebration has set the media on fire this week. As a result, Hocevar’s momentum has saturated his betting odds. In fact, Hocevar is currently listed as the outright betting favorite going into Friday night’s SpeedyCash.com 250. Interestingly, Hocevar is making his 6th start of the season in the Truck Series. Hocevar has taken advantage of the 2026 rules change that allows Cup Series drivers to enter 8 races in the lower touring series (up from 5). However, Hocevar has finished 9th or worse in 4 of his 5 starts this season which raises serious doubt on his current betting odds.

The other heavy betting favorite going into Friday’s SpeedyCash.com 250 includes Hocevar’s Spire Motorsports teammate in Kyle Busch. Busch is the best driver to ever compete in the Truck Series with a whopping 68 career wins. While Busch’s Cup Series career has been shrouded by bad equipment, Busch has already proved himself this season in the Truck Series winning in his very first start of the season at Atlanta. As a result, Busch is getting the 2nd chalkiest odds behind Hocevar going into race day. Needless to say, the odds are in favor of the Cup Series talents. In reality, I’m not sure if any drivers are worth their current betting value and that impacts how we will approach Friday’s Truck Series’ return to Texas!

Texas – Truck Notes

Kyle Busch has the most wins (6) all-time at Texas.
Carson Hocevar (2023) is the only other former winner in Friday’s field.
Kyle Busch has won his last 4 starts at Texas (most recent 2024).
Daniel Hemric has finished 2nd and 3rd over his last two starts at Texas.
Carson Hocevar has finished 4th or better in 2 of his last 3 starts at Texas.
Christian Eckes has finished 4th or better in 3 of 5 career starts at Texas.
Ross Chastain’s best finish is 7th through 10 career starts at Texas.
Ty Majeski has finished in the Top 10 in the last 4 races at Texas.
Tanner Gray has finished in the Top 10 in 4 of the last 6 races at Texas.
Ben Rhodes has finished 20th or worse in 4 of the last 6 races at Texas.
Tyler Ankrum has finished 26th or worse in 3 of the last 4 races at Texas.
Layne Riggs has finished 28th or worse through two career starts at Texas.
Toyota drivers have won 3 of the last 5 races at Texas.
The eventual race winner has started from the Top in the last 6 races at Texas.
There have been 11 cautions or more in 2 of the last 3 races at Texas.

Betting Targets

I am approaching Friday’s SpeedyCash.com 250 with an abundance of caution because this is the first race of the season for the Truck Series on a 1.5 mile non-drafting speedway. In the Truck Series, the 1.5 mile speedways are mostly dominated by the teams with the best pure speed from a combination of chassis and horsepower. Last year, the TRICON Garage trucks were consistently the fastest team in the Truck Series on these intermediate 1.5 mile layouts. While I would not expect that to change, I also do not have any observational confirmation that suggests that trend will continue. As a result, I will be watching practice very closely Friday afternoon in an attempt to identify the trucks/teams that appear to have the best speed. Normally, I think practice speeds are often overrated at traditional ovals but they are very important in the Truck Series at the 1.5 mile speedways.

Based on current betting odds, I am very hesitant to pull the trigger on any of the favorites because there are 5 different drivers receiving extremely low price tags. Obviously, I believe Busch and Hocevar are likely the biggest threats to contend for the victory based on talent and speed. I also believe Kaden Honeycutt is a very sneaky dark horse in the #11 truck. The problem with Honeycutt is he is listed at a mere +500 price tag despite never winning in the Truck Series. Needless to say, I would like to see practice speeds before I pull the trigger on any favorites who have minimal betting value. I will say that I believe Giovanni Ruggiero and Tanner Gray appear to be very underrated from a value perspective. The TRICON Garage trucks all qualified in the top 5 at Darlington and were very fast throughout the weekend. As a result, I believe Ruggiero and Gray are capable H2H and prop bet targets that have much higher upside than current betting odds suggests.

Practice Update

As expected, the TRICON Garage trucks of Kaden Honeycutt, Giovanni Ruggiero, Brandon Jones, and Tannery Gray were all really solid in practice and were at the top of the charts in most categories. I mentioned that TRICON dominated the 1.5 Mile speedways last season and they seem to be trending in that direction again. Ross Chastain, Chandler Smith, and Layne Riggs were among the other names that were also very sporty on the stopwatch. The heavy favorites in Kyle Busch and Carson Hocevar seemed to be a tough-off in the speed department but definitely within striking range. I don’t think there were many other “surprises” from Friday’s practices. The RAM trucks continued to struggle in the speed department but that was also somewhat expected going into the weekend.