NASCAR returns to Nashville Superspeedway for the first time in a decade. It’s a 1.333-mile concrete D-shaped oval. After watching practice and qualifying, you can see it’s a bumpy ride on the concrete.
Here are some good resources if you feel like doing your own research (and a look under the hood of how I am making decisions):
- Awesomo Race Sheets – A bunch of good info all in one place.
- Jayski.com – Just a great website for every race. Highly recommend.
- Motorsports Analytics – Great analysis and proprietary stats from David Smith.
Here are the DraftKings salaries for this week:
| Name | Salary |
| Kyle Busch | 14500 |
| Austin Cindric | 11000 |
| Noah Gragson | 10700 |
| Justin Allgaier | 10400 |
| AJ Allmendinger | 10000 |
| Tyler Reddick | 9700 |
| Harrison Burton | 9500 |
| Daniel Hemric | 9300 |
| Josh Berry | 9000 |
| Brandon Jones | 8800 |
| Justin Haley | 8500 |
| Jeb Burton | 8300 |
| Michael Annett | 8100 |
| Austin Hill | 7900 |
| Brett Moffitt | 7800 |
| Riley Herbst | 7600 |
| Myatt Snider | 7400 |
| Ryan Sieg | 7300 |
| Landon Cassill | 7100 |
| Jeremy Clements | 6900 |
| Brandon Brown | 6800 |
| JJ Yeley | 6700 |
| Jeffrey Earnhardt | 6500 |
| Joe Graf Jr | 6400 |
| Tommy Joe Martins | 6300 |
| Stefan Parsons | 6100 |
| Dillon Bassett | 6000 |
| Bayley Currey | 5900 |
| Will Rodgers | 5800 |
| Natalie Decker | 5700 |
| Chad Finchum | 5600 |
| Jade Buford | 5500 |
| Alex Labbe | 5400 |
| David Starr | 5300 |
| Josh Williams | 5200 |
| Colby Howard | 5100 |
| Jesse Little | 5000 |
| Kyle Weatherman | 4900 |
| Gray Gaulding | 4800 |
| Timmy Hill | 4700 |
| Matt Mills | 4600 |
| Ryan Vargas | 4500 |
DraftKings picks:
- Kyle Busch #54 – He will have to lead most of the race for this pick to pay off, but who better than Kyle Busch to back when you need that to happen?
- Expected finish = 1st.
- Harrison Burton #20 – Was fast in practice. Qualified 3rd. I think he will finish Top 5. Any laps led is a bonus.
- Expected finish = 2-5.
- Riley Herbst #98 – $7,600 salary on DK is affordable and the practice speed should have him move forward from starting position.
- Expected finish 8-15.
This is the challenge. If you pick Kyle and Harrison Burton, you are at $6,500 average remaining salary per pick. If you can tell me what driver under $6,500 are going to score well in DraftKings, you can probably win some money. Here is what I mean:
One place I will for sure look is practice speed. This can be found on Jayski.com mentioned above. The best way to compare, in my opinion, is looking at best 10 lap average speeds. Here is the link to practice speeds.
Suffice to say Kyle Busch was fastest, and Harrison Burton was 2nd. Those two were the only drivers faster than 153 mph average speed over a 10 consecutive lap run. At the end of practice on Friday, Harrison Burton was running faster laps than Kyle. That may not mean much, but it sure seems like the #20 Supra is fast this weekend.
Some predictions for today’s race:
Winner: Kyle Busch (-160) – I know… really going out on a limb here. Rowdy is the best driver in the field and has won 99 races in the Xfinity series. With practice and qualifying, I fully expect him to have the #54 M&M’s Toyota Supra tuned up and ready to lead a bunch (if not, all) of the laps.
Top 3 Finish: Harrison Burton (+300) – I’d prefer to take him Top 5, but it’s not an option. Looks like the 2nd fastest car to Kyle based on practice. Doesn’t hurt that they are on the same team either.
Should be a fun return to Nashville Superspeedway for NASCAR this weekend. Will we see another guitar smashing? Guess we will all have to tune in to find out…
Haltime with Hambone 