The first NASCAR race I attended was at Bristol in the spring of 2001, meaning two things:
- I'm old.
- I've been enjoying live NASCAR racing for more than 20 years.
And even though I love NASCAR road-course racing, I have yet to experience one of these tracks in-person … until Saturday.
My wife and I are packing up the kids and heading to Charlotte Motor Speedway for Saturday's Drive for the Cure 250 (3:30 p.m. ET, NBC).
How many laps of green-flag racing will we see before calling it a day in parenting frustration? Who knows?
Will the start of the race be delayed due to a 3-year-old making laps around the Roval on foot? Probably.
From a NASCAR betting perspective, I'm having a hard time finding anything I like enough in the futures market to warrant a wager.
On the other hand, there is one driver matchup that I've keyed in on for Saturday's Drive for the Cure 250 at the Charlotte Roval.
NASCAR XFINITY Series at Charlotte Roval Pick
When it comes to road-course racing in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, Austin Cindric and A.J. Allmendinger immediately come to mind, with Ty Gibbs likely right on their heels, as the top performers in the series.
But quietly lurking in that next tier of XFINITY Series road-course racers is Justin Haley, whose talent flies under the radar at these tracks, and that's exactly where I'm extracting value for Saturday's race.
At the SuperBook (NJ, Colorado, Nevada), Haley is a +110 underdog against Daniel Hemric, a number that I believe is essentially flip-flopped.
Among XFINITY Series regulars, it's no surprise to see Cindric, Gibbs and Allmendinger ranked first, second and third, respectively, in driver rating across the six road-course races this season.
And guess who is fourth in driver rating over that sample? Haley.
In addition, Haley has the second-best average finish on road courses this year with top-10 finishes in all six races.
To his credit, Hemric hasn't been bad on road courses this season either, but he trails Haley in almost every significant metric.
In my mind, Haley should be a short favorite against Hemric for Saturday's Driver for the Cure 250, so there's very nice value in the +110 price.
I like Haley down to +100 in this matchup.
The bet: Justin Haley (+110) over Daniel Hemric
