After a lengthy hiatus, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will return to action at Kansas Speedway for the Heart of America 200. Kyle Busch and Ross Chastain are in the field for the event, which dramatically changes the oddsboard. The race will get underway on Saturday, May 6 at 7 p.m. ET — and our expert is here to make his Heart of America 200 predictions to help you find the best NASCAR Truck Series bets for the action in Kansas City.
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Best NASCAR Truck Series Bets & Prediction | Kansas
Will Nick Sanchez Impress Against His Boss?
Rookie Nick Sanchez has gotten off to an incredible start this year — but you wouldn’t know it from his results. Sanchez qualified second and led eight laps at Las Vegas, a high-speed intermediate track like Kansas, before getting caught up in an accident. He then won the pole at Texas, another high-speed intermediate, before leading the most laps — only to get crashed out while leading on the final circuit.
Sanchez drives the No. 2 Truck for Rev Racing, an affiliate of Kyle Busch Motorsports. KBM has dominated at high-speed intermediates this season by leading 260 of 306 — or 85% — of the total laps run. Busch won from the pole in the No. 51 Truck in Vegas and owns odds of -110 to win this weekend’s event in Kansas. That number is far too short for an outright, so we’ll get a bit contrarian and pivot to his teammate.
Sanchez owns outright odds of 10-1 at FanDuel Sportsbook, but other books have a much shorter price available. For example, DraftKings has Sanchez at only 15-2, while Bovada, a sharp offshore book, has him at 8-1. We can also get Sanchez to score a top-5 result at +110 via Tipico Sportsbook.
Best NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Bet: Nick Sanchez 10-1 for 0.05 Unit at FanDuel
Best NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Bet: Nick Sanchez Top-5 +110 for 0.35 Unit at Tipico
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Can Christian Eckes Keep Beating Expectations?
When Christian Eckes announced he would take over the No. 19 Chevrolet for McAnally-Hilgermann Racing, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Derek Kraus failed to score a single top-5 finish in this truck last year. However, Eckes already has one win, two top-5s and three top-10s in just seven Truck Series events this year.
Some of Eckes’ best runs have come at high-speed intermediate tracks. He scored a sixth-place finish at Las Vegas after starting 12th and recorded the fourth-best driver rating in the process. He finished only 15th at Texas, but he was involved in the incident that ended Sanchez’s day. He had led two laps, scored a top-3 finish in both stages and recorded the event’s second-best driver rating.
The books have mostly woken up to Eckes. However, a surprising amount of value remains on his top-5 prop. Eckes sits at +170 on Tipico to score a top-5 result, behind Busch, Sanchez, Chastain, Zane Smith, Ty Majeski, Ben Rhodes and Corey Heim. But given the speed that both Eckes and Chevrolets have shown on high-speed intermediates this year, it’s hard to pass up this price for Eckes.
Best NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Bet: Christian Eckes Top-5 +170 for 0.25 Unit at Tipico
