Doc's Picks for Kentucky

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series travels to Sparta, Kentucky this Saturday night for the Quaker State 400. Kentucky Speedway is the newest race track on the circuit. Saturday’s race will be just the fourth Cup race held at the track. Kentucky is a very bumpy race track so tire conservation is going to be key on Saturday night.  Track position has also shown to be very important at this track. A good qualifying time will be a definite advantage. The following drivers participated in a tire test here at Kentucky last month: Brad Keselowski, Jamie McMurray, and Brian Vickers which could hold a huge advantage on Saturday night.

Last year at Kentucky, Dale Earnhardt Jr. started on the pole. There were 10 caution flags in the race for wrecks taking out many of the top drivers. Jimmie Johnson dominated the race and led 182 of the 267 laps, but Matt Kenseth won the race off of pit road on the final stop and took the checkered flag.

With all the uncertainty at a new track like Kentucky, it’ll be vital to look for drivers that have been consistent both at Kentucky in the past and at other 1.5-mile tracks this season. Here are my picks this week.

Tony’s Pick: Take Matt Kenseth (+900)

We are getting a great value at +900 here. Kenseth has the second-best average finishing position in the six races at the intermediate race tracks this season and a series-best average finishing position at Kentucky. The stats suggest that Kenseth should have a good chance to repeat.

Don’t Overlook: Joey Logano (+750)

Logano has won three Nationwide Series races at Kentucky and he has been great this season on 1.5 mile ovals. He has finished half of those races in the top five and four in the top 10. Logano finished fourth in this race last season and should be right there at the end of the race again this year.

Stay Away: Ryan Newman (+5000)

Newman has averaged a 17th place finish in the previous three races at Kentucky. He has only finished one race this season at intermediate race tracks in the top 10. He has a streak of four races on intermediate race tracks finishing outside the top 10. Don’t gamble on Newman this week as we have him finishing at around 15th-20th position when the checkered flag waves.

Doc's has been on an amazing run with its NASCAR selections, going 37-17 with their last 54 picks for $8,300 in profit. Get all of the action this week for just $49. We went a perfect 4-0, +16 units ($100 bettors made +$1,600) last week in Sonoma!

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