Kentucky Speedway is the track where the next event in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series is set, as Saturday evening will bring the Buckle Up In Your Truck 225. The race will start at 6:00 pm Eastern time, and you can catch the broadcast on FS1. The race runs 150 laps, with 35 laps for each of the first two stages and 80 laps for the last stage. Kentucky Speedway is the typical 1 ½-mile oval, with two 17-degree turns and two 14-degree turns. The defending champion is Tyler Anrkum, who won last year racing for DGR-Crosley. The first winner here was Kyle Busch, back in 2011. He was put in the last starting position because he missed a drivers’ meeting ahead of the race, but he roared all the way back and finished in a NASCAR Overtime finish. Busch is the only driver with two wins in this race. We have NASCAR betting odds as well as some suggestions for your wager card.
NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series: 2020 Buckle Up In Your Truck 225 (July 11)
Driver Odds
- Austin Hill +340
- Brett Moffitt, Christian Eckes +600
- Johnny Sauter +900
- Ben Rhodes, Chandler Smith, Zane Smith +1400
- FIELD (all unlisted drivers) +1400
- Grant Enfinger, Tyler Ankrum, Todd Gilliland +1800
- Matt Crafton, Sheldon Creed +2300
- Stewart Friesen +3100
- Ryan Truex +3400
- Tanner Gray +5500
- Derek Kraus, Parker Kligerman, Raphael Lessard +7000
Austin Hill leads the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series standings with 253 points, 51 points ahead of runner-up Ben Rhodes. In six starts, Hill has made the top ten each time, with three top-five finishes. He has led 102 laps, more than twice as many as anyone else in the series. So he’s definitely due for a win, and he’s the favorite for a reason. But can he shut the door?
Rhodes has four top-tens and two top-fives despite leading only 19 laps on the season, and he has a DNF dragging his total down a bit. You can get some good value for him here, but is it worth the risk of having him fail to get to the end?
Grant Enfinger has two wins in six starts — but he also has a DNF, and those two wins are the only races in which he has cracked the top ten. He is third in overall points, and the reason he offers a lot of value is that whole feast-or-famine approach. I don’t mind putting some money down for him this week given the fact that when he’s on, he wins.
Christian Eckes is in sixth place in the standings, but just 13 points out of third place. He has one top-five and two top-ten finishes in his six starts, with a DNF. I don’t think he offers enough value given his relative lack of consistency on the season.
Sheldon Creed is fourth in the standings, just three back of Enfinger. He has two more top-ten finishes than Enfinger, and he has completed every race. He has a pair of stage wins and has led 41 laps, and he offers a great deal of value as well.
Tyler Ankrum is the defending champion of this race. He sits in eighth place in the point standings but is just 15 points out of fourth. He only has one top-five and two top-ten finishes this season, with a DNF. However, it could just take one throwback performance as he hits the same track where he won last year to vault up the standings.
And what about that field? A lot of the NASCAR Cup Series drivers will drop down and race in the Gander RV & Outdoor Truck Series and the Xfinity Series, and they take away a lot of the first-place results. With the top drivers out of the race, and given the fact that there the Gander Series seems to be fairly wide open, putting some money down on the field this week could give you some value. You’ll want to check the final entry lists before you do this, of course, because if one of the Cup Series drivers decides to jump in, then the whole odds list will change.
