2025 Nu Way 200 Race Picks

Date/Time: Saturday September 6th, 2025. 7:30PM (EST)
Where: World Wide Technology Raceway
TV: CW

NASCAR’s Xfinity Series will conclude their regular season on Saturday afternoon with the running of the Nu Way 200 at World Wide Technology Raceway. As things currently stand, the Xfinity Series has produced 8 different winners among full-time drivers which leaves 4 playoff spots available on points. Currently, Carson Kvapil, Sheldon Creed, and Taylor Gray have locked themselves into the playoffs on points. Harrison Burton currently holds a 31 point advantage over his cousin Jeb Burton in the race for the final playoff position. As a result, there will be a lot of attention around the final transfer spot going into tomorrow’s race at Gateway!

Aside from the playoff picture, our focus will be centered around evaluating the Nu Way 200 from a handicapping and betting perspective. Going into tomorrow’s finale, Connor Zilisch has been on fire winning 6 of the last 7 races in what can only be described as one of the most dominating stretches in series history. Zilisch has already built a 19 point playoff lead over 2nd place driver Justin Allgaier. Possibly the most impressive aspect of Zilisch’s hot streak is the fact that he has won races at tracks he has never competed at previously which will be the case again on Saturday. If Zilisch can somehow capture another victory, he will become just the 3rd driver in Xfinity Series history to win 4 straight races.

Interestingly, Saturday’s Nu Way 200 will be the first race for the majority of Xfinity Series drivers at World Wide Technology Raceway, formerly known as Gateway Motorsports Park. The Xfinity Series routinely competed at Gateway from 1997-2010. While the Truck Series continued to compete at Gateway on an annual basis and even with the addition of the Cup Series competing at Gateway starting in 2022, Saturday’s Nu Way 200 will be the first Xfinity Series event since the 2010 hiatus. As a result, Justin Allgaier, Aric Almirola, and Harrison Burton are among the extremely few drivers that have any relative experience at Gateway which should make things entertaining when the green flag waves on Saturday!

Handicapping WWTR

To make things even more complicated from a handicapping perspective, the Xfinity Series has not competed at any tracks this season which bear close resemblance to Gateway. Gateway is a 1.25 mile oval with long straightaways and two completely different opposing ends of the raceway. Turns 1-2 features a relatively narrow apex which requires drivers to use a lot of brake on entry. Meanwhile, turns 3-4 features a wider sweeping style corner. The similarity for both ends of the raceway is centered around the very flat banking.

The flat banking has some similarities to New Hampshire and even Martinsville where drivers will need a setup that turns well through the center of the corner. Unfortunately, we do not have many tracks on the current Xfinity Series schedule that closely compares to Gateway. With that being said, the key detail here is the flat surface. The drivers that typically perform well at Gateway are those that have proven skill sets on other flat tracks and that will be something we must consider due to the lack of historical and comparative angles this week.

Practice Observations

The good news is that we did get the opportunity to observe practice speeds on Friday. While track positions will be different on Saturday, I do believe practice speeds are relative because of the skill set needed to run fast through Gateway’s flat corners. In practice, Sam Mayer posted the fastest lap of the session with a speed of 134.813mph. Mayer’s fast lap was laid down during the early moments of practice and he was able to hold the top time throughout the entire session as lap times slowed. In terms of consistency indicative of race speed, I thought Connor Zilisch was very strong during the early portion of practice. Zilisch posted the best 10 lap consecutive average. However, Aric Almirola appeared to thrive during the later parts of practice as rubber was laid down. Almirola appeared to be the best outright car on the long-run which is important because Gateway traditionally produces a lot of long green flag runs. Sam Mayer, Taylor Gray, and Jesse Love were among others that appeared solid in terms of overall speed. Corey Day and Nick Sanchez were among the lesser known names that appeared pretty solid on the stopwatch as well.

Betting Targets

Going into the weekend, I expected that Aric Almirola may be among the top drivers going into Sunday because he has been really strong historically on the flatter ovals. Following Friday’s practice, I would have to consider Almirola the top driver going into race day with Connor Zilisch not far behind. Simply based on the way that Gateway typically produces longer green flag runs, I think that plays into the strengths for Almirola and therefore I want most exposure to the #19 car. Behind the top two cars, I think there is a big drop off in potential challengers. Somehow Justin Allgaier is getting the same odds as both Zilisch and Almirola. While Allgaier has winning upside, he is way overvalued from an odds perspective.

In fact, I don’t have much confidence in any dark horse in futures formats. There are a lot of drivers that could find their way to the front but they would be low-confidence picks. I am most confident in Sam Mayer’s chances to get into contention at the front of the field. However, there is a relatively large pool of drivers that have similar floors and ceilings in the intermediate betting range. For H2H targets, Mayer, Carson Kvapil, and Nick Sanchez are the drivers that appear poised to outrun all drivers in their relative range of betting odds. Sanchez and Corey Day are both fliers in fantasy and prop bet formats. I believe both drivers have legitimate Top 10 upside and perhaps Top 5 upside if things get crazy.

2025 Draftkings Nu Way 200 Optimal Lineup

2025 Nu Way 200 Race Picks

*More plays may be added closer to race time. Check back until “FINAL” status is displayed*

Aric Almirola +300 (2 units)
Sheldon Creed +1200 (.5 unit)
Taylor Gray +1200 (.5 unit)
Sam Mayer +1400 (.5 unit)

H2H Match-Ups and Prop Bets

Taylor Gray -110 over Brandon Jones (3 units)
Carson Kvapil -110 over Ryan Sieg (3 units)
Connor Zilisch -110 over Justin Allgaier (2 units)