In less than two hours, the NASCAR Nationwide Series will go racing at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the Drive for the Cure 300. Chase Elliot won his 2nd pole of the year earlier today with a lap of 181.354mph. Elliot also won the pole back at Atlanta in late August and went on to lead 36 laps before bringing home a 5th place finish. The rookie sensation currently has a firm grasp on the Nationwide Series points lead and he has been very fast throughout the weekend. Teams participated in two practice sessions on Thursday which saw a lot of the expected favorites at the top of the leaderboard in Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, and Matt Kenseth. Odds were not reposted after Thursday’s practices which is the reason our picks for tonight’s race are going up a bit late this evening. We apologize for the inconvenience but it was simply out of our control. To save time, we have curtailed our typical full preview and jumping right ahead to our Drive for the Cure 300 race picks! Let’s have a winning night as the Nationwide Series goes 300 miles for some classic Friday night racing under the lights at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Drive for the Cure 300 Race Picks
Ryan Blaney +2900 (1 unit): Blaney had a bad qualifying effort (starting 19th) but he has been solid all weekend finishing 3rd in practice 1 and having the 4th best 10 lap average in final practice. Blaney has been running upfront consistently over the last couple months and at 29-1 odds, he is simply too valuable to pass up.
Kyle Busch +250 (4 units): Rowdy’s 8 wins at Charlotte are more than any other track in Nationwide Series competition, Busch was 2nd in practice 1 and 5th in final practice.
Chase Elliot +750 (1.5 units): JR Motorsports has been dominate on the 1.5 mile tracks this season, Elliot has been very strong as well, 6th in final practice, starting on pole
H2H Matchups
Ryan Blaney -190M over Regan Smith (2 units)