Wednesday, July 18, 2018

New Hampshire Betting Preview: 2018 Foxwood's Resorts Casino 301

Martin Truex Jr and Kyle Busch will be tough to beat at New Hampshire.
Sunday's Foxwood's Resorts Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway's flat 1-mile paper-clip layout will be the 20th race of the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series schedule.campaign. It's the first time since 1996 the New England track will have only one race on the season after owner Speedway Motorsports Inc. moved one of its regular two dates to Las Vegas.

I love having two races in Las Vegas and the Sept. 16 race in town to kick off the Playoffs is going to be incredible, but I love the type of racing New Hampshire produces, mostly just because it's different. Another reason is that I've done very well betting New Hampshire races over the years and the method to securing a winner is simply by analyzing what happened in previous races on the season at Phoenix and Richmond, which are both flat tracks at almost the same distance. The cars that do well on either of those tracks always do well at New Hampshire.

So let's refresh ourselves quickly on what happened March 11 at Phoenix and April 21 at Richmond, with more relevance placed on the later date just because it's fresher. Kevin Harvick won at Phoenix like he always does followed by Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin and last week's winner Martin Truex, Jr. Busch would win at Richmond with Elliott finishing second, Hamlin third followed by Joey Logano and Harvick. Truex would lead the most laps (132) but finished 14th.

Does anything stand out there in that equation? Yes, of course, the big three of Harvick, Busch, and Truex are very prevalent. They've combined to win 14 of the 19 races on the season. It's a nice three-way battle going with Truex winning three of the past six races on the schedule while Harvick has gone dry in the past seven races.

Truex has been dominant at New Hampshire in the last four races there between the last two seasons leading at least 112 laps in all four. But no Cup wins there in 24 starts.

“We had our chances the past couple of years, leading a lot of laps but couldn’t complete the job,” said Truex. “Last year (July race) we had the best car for a lot of that race but we didn’t at the end. Our focus this weekend is to figure out how to be better the last 75 or 100 laps in our No. 78 5-hour ENERGY/Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry.”

The track is special to New Jersey native Truex who has won there in two other series.

“It was the first big track I ever won on (K&N Pro East Series), and the first time I ever went to a race and watched Cup cars run," he said. "So there’s just a lot of history there, and it would really be a big one to win.”

The Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook has Kyle Busch as the 5/2 favorite based on his three New Hampshire wins, which includes winning the last race there in the fall, and also is the active leader with 974 laps led. He has eight top-10 finishes in the last 10 races there. His current form is just as good with six top-five finishes in the last seven races this season with the volatile Daytona race being the lone exception. The SuperBook has Truex and Harvick both at 7-to-2 odds.

READ MORE HERE......TOP-5 FINISH PREDICTION

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