Weekly picks from Spade Racing’s writer/webmaster/janitor Mike Mackler’s uncle.
Good news, everybody—well, at least good news for me—I’m seeing someone! We’ve been dating here and there for the past two months but I wanted to keep it on the down-low until we were “officially exclusive”. We met online but it turns out she works in an office only a block away from where I work, which works out great for us.
Speaking of which, me and the new lucky lady are going to be taking our first real vacation together—totally by accident! I always take off a week in October to get one last chance to “recharge the batteries” before the holiday rush, and had booked five days at a resort. Turns out she had done the same thing at the same place for almost the same days! So we might be flying in about a day apart, but we’ll be soaking up some sun together south of the old border.
Anyways, here’s my picks for the upcoming race weekend at Charlotte (total wins in parenthesis):
Truck Series Fred’s 250 (5 wins)—Matt Crafton—the wily vet beats out the next generation.
Cup Series Alabama 500: FAVORITE (5 wins)—Jamie McMurray—the winless streak ends with #1 in first. NEXT FAVORITE (2 wins)—Ricky Stenhouse Jr.—his third plate win propels him past Jimmy Spencer. DARK HORSE*—Clint Bowyer—the 14 crew states their case to be the rebound team of 2018 a little early.
*—NOTE—during the Cup Playoffs, a Dark Horse must be a driver who is out of championship contention.