Weekly picks from Spade Racing’s writer/webmaster/janitor Mike Mackler’s uncle.
Whew! Finally, I get a day off from work! We have virtually everything ready for the Christmas rush—all we’ll have to do is take down the Halloween stuff on November 1st—and all our merchandise is ready to roll. That meant for the first time in a month, I actually got a Sunday off!
Watching the race live for the first time in a while was a bit of an odd experience. I feel like I’ve learned a lot over the past few months (and my picks reflect that!), but there’s still plenty of questions. Like, who’s idea was it to have a bunch of sand barrels on the track? If you have to have them there, why not fill them with water—at least you can get rid of THAT in a few seconds. Instead we had to watch some schlubs trying to get grains of sand off of asphalt and concrete—nothing like some of that for fan excitement.
Anyways, here’s my picks for the upcoming race weekend at Charlotte (total wins in parenthesis):
Xfinity Series Drive Drive for the Cure 300 (6 wins)—Elliott Sadler—well, if Dale Jr. can’t win his last race at his home track, maybe one of his drivers can do him a solid.
Cup Series Apache Warrior 400: FAVORITE (5 wins)—Kyle Busch—the candyman continues his sweet run. NEXT FAVORITE (2 wins)—Jimmie Johnson—dominating like he used to own the place. DARK HORSE*—Erik Jones—slides by Chase Elliott to win his first Cup race.
*—NOTE—during the Cup Playoffs, a Dark Horse must be a driver who is out of championship contention.