2026 Tennessee National Guard 250 Betting Race Picks

Date/Time: Friday April 10th, 2026. 7:30PM (EST)
Where: Bristol Motor Speedway
TV: FS1

This weekend NASCAR returns to Thunder Valley for 3 consecutive days of racing at Bristol Motor Speedway. The action will begin Friday night with a star-studded lineup in the Craftsman Truck Series for the running of the Tennessee National Guard 250. The entry list for this weekend’s opener at The World’s Fastest Half-Mile includes several Cup Series stars in Daniel Suarez, Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Ross Chastain, Carson Hocevar, Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell, and perhaps headlined by rowdy Kyle Busch who owns 23 wins at Bristol across NASCAR’s top 3 touring series including 5 overall victories at Bristol in the Craftsman Truck Series. Needless to say, Friday’s Tennessee National Guard 250 should be one hell of a spectacle!

Aside from the Cup Series superstars, Corey Heim will also return to the #1 team this week following back to back wins at Darlington and Rockingham. As many are aware, Heim is the defending Truck Series champion fresh off a 2025 campaign that resulted in an incredible run of 12 victories. Nearly everyone expected Heim to make a jump to the O’Reilly or Cup Series this season but those hopes failed to come to fruition. As a result, Heim is running a part-time schedule and has made the most of it by winning in 2 of his first 3 starts for the season. Despite the abundance of Cup Series talent on the entry list for the Tennessee National Guard 250, many could argue that Heim deserves the spot as the outright favorite going into Friday’s opening event!

While we could concede to the fact that Heim and many of the Cup Series’ top talents like Busch, Hocevar, and Bell should compete for a win on Friday, I don’t think anyone can simply look past all of the Truck Series regulars. I have mentioned on multiple occurrences this season that this year’s Truck Series field is absolutely stacked with former full-time Cup Series drivers, former full-time O’Reilly Auto Parts Series drivers, and many other talents that have a very bright future in the sport. Therefore, making betting predictions for tomorrow’s opening green flag of the weekend will not be an easy task and we must consider numerous different factors before deciding which drivers may give us the best chance to turn a profit!

Bristol – Truck Notes

Kyle Busch owns the most Truck Series wins (5) at Bristol of all-time.
Layne Riggs (2), Chandler Smith (2), Ty Majeski, Corey Heim, and Christian Eckes are all former winners at Bristol.
Layne Riggs have won 2 of the last 3 races at Bristol.
Corey Heim has finished 3rd or better in 4 of his last 5 starts at Bristol.
Ross Chastain has finished 3rd in 2 of his last 4 starts at Bristol.
Christian Eckes has finished 4th or better in each of his last 3 starts at Bristol.
Ben Rhodes has finished in the Top 5 in each of his last 2 starts at Bristol.
Chandler Smith has finished in the Top 5 in 4 of 6 career starts at Bristol.
Daniel Hemric has finished in the Top 5 in 3 of his last 4 starts at Bristol.
Tyler Ankrum has finished in the Top 5 in 2 of his last 4 starts at Bristol.
Christopher Bell has finished 7th in 2 of 3 career starts at Bristol.*Bell has not raced at Bristol in the Truck Series since 2018
Grant Enfinger has finished in the Top 10 in 8 of 11 career starts at Bristol.
Jake Garcia has finished 11th or worse in 5 of 6 career starts at Bristol.
Kaden Honeycutt has finished 12th or worse in 5 of 6 career starts at Bristol.
There have been 6 cautions or less in 5 of the last 6 races at Bristol.
Ford drivers have won each of the last 3 races at Bristol.

Overvalued vs. Undervalued

Last week, I made a bold prediction that Corey Heim appeared to be overvalued at Rockingham due to the fact the #1 team had not shown as much speed through the opening few weeks of the season. Well last week, the #1 team nailed everything and proved me wrong. Heim dominated at Rockingham like we have not seen in the Truck Series in some time. With that being said, I did nail most of my other predictions surrounding the drivers that were overvalued or undervalued. For that reason, I thought it would be good to bring those early thoughts back around this week for this stacked card at Bristol. Therefore, I am going to list a few drivers on both sides of the overvalued vs. undervalued spectrum going into tomorrow’s on-track activities. These drivers may be worth targeting or fading given the right circumstances.

For starters, Kaden Honeycutt and Carson Hocevar are among the favorites that I believe are overvalued this week. Both Honeycutt and Hocevar are listed at less than 8-1 odds. For Honeycutt, that is sort of bizarre considering the talent in Friday’s field. While I understand he is currently with one of the better teams in the garage, he has never shown a lot of speed at Bristol in prior starts to warrant his current price tag. Likewise, Hocevar has rarely shown a lot of speed at Bristol and is coming off a relatively poor performance last week with the #77 team at Rockingham. On the other end of the spectrum, Tyler Ankrum and Ben Rhodes are among the drivers that are grossly undervalued going into Friday. Both drivers have been relatively strong at Bristol and are definitely capable of producing quality runs again on Friday. For that reason, both drivers are potential targets in H2H and prop bet formats.

Betting Targets

It will be really hard to predict who will be the fastest driver for Friday’s Tennessee National Guard 250 because there are so many highly talented drivers that are more than capable of winning/dominating this race if they have the right equipment/setup. Kyle Busch has always been absolutely phenomenal in the lower series at Bristol. Meanwhile, Corey Heim, Layne Riggs, and even Christopher Bell are elite short track talents. Therefore trying to pick a winner out of this group is very difficult prior to Friday’s practice sessions. Once practice unfolds, perhaps we will have a better idea of who should be targeted among the betting favorites.

In terms of the betting favorites, I would state that Layne Riggs is one of my favorite early targets in H2H formats. Riggs has been outstanding at Bristol and I believe he has a high likelihood to outrun drivers like Kaden Honeycutt and Carson Hocevar who are receiving similar betting odds. Behind the betting favorites, Chandler Smith stands out as a driver that deserves being targeted especially in H2H formats. Smith has been absolutely stout at Bristol throughout his career and obviously has winning upside. With that said, I really like Smith in H2H formats based on the drivers that are currently within the same range of betting odds. Aside from those two betting targets, I will mention the likes of Ben Rhodes and Tyler Ankrum once again. Both drivers are getting pretty huge numbers beside their names and while I think they are somewhat inconsistent; they are both capable of producing quality finishes which makes them suitable targets in prop bet formats!

2026 Draftkings Tennessee National Guard 250 Optimal Lineup

2026 Tennessee National Guard 250 Race Picks

*FINAL* Layne Riggs +600 (.5 unit)
Christian Eckes +1000 (.5 unit)
Chase Briscoe +1400 (.5 unit)
Chandler Smith +1600 (.5 unit)

H2H Match-Ups and Prop Bets

Layne Riggs -120 over Kaden Honeycutt (3 units)
Chandler Smith -105 over Christian Eckes (2 units)

Two Team Parlays

Kyle Busch +450 wins Tennessee Army National Guard 250
Kyle Larson -120 wins Surburban Propane 300
Risking .5 unit to win: +450 Corey Heim +300 wins Tennessee Army National Guard 250
Kyle Larson -120 wins Surburban Propane 300
Risking .5 unit to win: +315

Jay Horne