Weekly picks from Spade Racing’s writer/webmaster/janitor Mike Mackler’s uncle.
Welllllll, that was quite a battle last Sunday, huh? Two guys who you never expected to go at it went toe-to-toe, and the carnage was amazing! Of course I’m talking about the brawl that happened at work!
The old saying goes “nobody wants to hear about your work stories, unless you’re fired, you meet a celebrity, or there’s punches thrown”. Well, one of those three things happened on Sunday morning right before we opened the store. The night manager was just finishing up setting up the store for opening and I guess he was in quite the bad mood, which is strange since he usually loves talking fantasy sports with me. Anyways, one of the managers-in-training said something about the floor display being done the wrong way, and the voices and tempers flared up pretty quickly. Next thing you know the store manager stopped his talk about holiday overtime and was trying to break the two of them up before another punch was landed. Oh, and that battle in the race was pretty exciting too!
Anyways, here’s my picks for the upcoming race weekend at Texas (total wins in parenthesis):
Truck Series JAG Metals 350 (5 wins)—Matt Crafton—new contract, same steady results.
Xfinity Series O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge (7 wins)—William Byron—stepping up on the big tracks leading up to his shot in Cup
Cup Series AAA Texas 500: FAVORITE (5 wins)—Martin Truex Jr.—I probably should’ve been picking him more this year anyways. NEXT FAVORITE (2 wins)—Kyle Busch—likely a win with far less drama this time. DARK HORSE*—Kyle Larson—“hey guys—if not for a bum engine, I’d be battling Truex for the title”.
*—NOTE—during the Cup Playoffs, a Dark Horse must be a driver who is out of championship contention.