Weekly picks from Spade Racing’s writer/webmaster/janitor Mike Mackler’s uncle.
I’ve been learning more and more about Nascar since I started this picks column earlier this year, but for the life of me I can’t figure out why Nascar runs road courses.
I mean, I get it—they spice up the schedule and add some excitement in the middle of a long season, but what’s the rationale behind it? It would be like if the NFL played by Canadian rules for week 9 of the regular season, or if the NBA played half court-style one week a year. AND you can bring in road-course specialists if you want to? That would be like bringing in a baseball player who excels in cold weather for the playoffs, or bringing in an efficiency specialist to your workplace who keeps trying to eliminate your position even though you’re the ONLY ONE who knows how to run the bailer without shorting out the circuits.
Anyways, here’s my picks for the upcoming race weekend at Michigan and Gateway (total wins in parenthesis):
Truck Series M&M’s 200 (3 wins)—Chase Briscoe—Chase bounces back to get his first Truck Series win.
Xfinity Series American Ethanol e15 250 (5 wins)—Justin Allgaier—at least any start-and-parkers can claim they thought it was a 15 lap race.
Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350: FAVORITE (2 wins)—Kevin Harvick—maybe Fox will let him put DW into cold storage. NEXT FAVORITE (1 win)—Clint Bowyer—he’s shown he knows his way around a road course. DARK HORSE—Jamie McMurray—out of nowhere!