Week 12: Darlington
Welcome back race fans and NASCAR bettors. This week we head to the track "Too Tough to Tame". Darlington Speedway always makes for great racing, as well a ton of paint trading, whether its with other cars or the wall. As a matter of fact, "The Darlington Stripe" has become a very popular name for when cars scrape the walls during the race. These guys will run very high speeds inches from the wall all day on Sunday. To be a winner at this place, a driver must be very consistent, and trust his hot rod to stick as they flirt with the outside safer barrier for 400 miles.
Last week was yet another heart breaker. If you have been following along, we have had a lot of races just like this lately. In last week's blog, I all but gave the trophy to Kyle Larson. He dominated 95% of last Sunday's race just to have a bad pitstop and restart at the end that ruined his, and many of our days. NASCAR played a huge part in some fishy race directing with a yellow towards the end of the race, but we will leave that shit where it lies.
Once again we will leave last week in the past and get on to Darlington. This race adds a really cool dynamic to the NASCAR schedule because it has been deemed "Throwback Weekend". Most of the drivers in all of the divisions will be running "paint" schemes to honor their past heroes, cars the may have run at another point of their career, and/or cars that they or their sponsors liked throughout NASCAR's history. In honor of that, My photos in this blog this week will be the respective drivers' throwback scheme that they will be running this weekend. Enjoy!
Who I'm Betting
Even after last week's crushing defeat, I can not look past "Yung Money" Kyle Larson +400 this week. He has been by far the driver I have bet this season and for good reason. Larson has looked great in almost every race, and some of the races he has absolutely dominated. This week is a Kyle Larson kind of race track as well. Running the top side with just the right amount of throttle and car control is where the #5 driver lives.
In the record books, Larson also has a pretty impressive resume at the "Lady in Black". In just six starts, Larson has racked up 5 top tens, and 3 top fives. He has an average finish of 7th place and I think that he could easily get his first win at Darlington this weekend.
I am damn near to the point where I will just be betting on Denny Hamlin +600 to win every race until he gets the job done. The 11 team has put together a very impressive season but they just haven't been able to pull off a W as of yet. This week should be the week they do it. Denny has many tracks on the schedule in which his statistics are great, but none are more special than the track in Darlington, SC.
Denny has taken the green flag at Darlington 17 times in his Cup Series career. In those seventeen starts he has an average finish of 7.5 which is extremely impressive. Denny also leads all active drivers with 3 wins at this track and also adds nine top 5's and 13 top tens to his resume. Denny is the favorite for tomorrow's race, for good reason.
Kyle Busch +800 was the beneficiary of Larson's misfortune last week. This week however, I can see him making it back to back wins as the 18 car seems to get stronger every week. Although Busch only has one win at Darlington, he has an average finish of 11th and has finished in the top 10 in 75% of his 18 starts at the track. Kyle Busch has a very good chance of making the fans "boo" again this week if he can keep his car in one piece to be there at the end.
Sprinkle of the Week
I am going to go with Austin Dillon +5000 for my "Sprinkle of the Week". Although I think that his throwback scheme is fugly as hell (There's only one throwback that should ever be on this car, the Goodwrench "Intimidator" black), Austin actually has had some pretty good runs at this racetrack. Dillon comes into this weekend with an average finish of 12th at Darlington with 2 top fives and 3 top tens. His teammate Tyler Reddick +4000 also has had some really good runs at this track. If anyone wins as a surprise this weekend, I can easily see it being one of the Richard Childress Racing cars.
Who I'm Betting
Kyle Larson +400
Denny Hamlin +600
Kyle Busch +800
Sprinkle of the Week
Austin Dillon +5000
Pray for Pay Parlay
Noah Gragson +500 (Xfinity)
Denny Hamlin +600 (Cup)
Daily Fantasy Lineup (FanDuel)
D. Hamlin $14,000
K. Larson $13,000
R. Blaney $9,500
E. Jones $7,300
R. Newman $6,000
Thank you again for reading the blog again this week. If you aren't fading me by now, I think that this week can be a very good week for those that are still on the Saloon Door Sports wagon. Either way you bet, I appreciate you all more than you will ever know. Don't forget to hug, kiss, and spend time with all of the Mothers in your life this weekend. All Mom's are big time superheroes and deserve to have the whole weekend devoted to them. With that being said, Good Luck, and God Bless!