After a long offseason, the 2023 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season gets underway at Daytona International Speedway with the NextEra Energy 250. The race is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 17 at 7:30 p.m. ET. Our expert will break down the betting odds to identify the top NASCAR bets and make his predictions for this weekend’s action. Ben Rhodes’ outright odds make him stand out as a value bet.
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Best NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Bets & Expert Prediction for the NextEra Energy 250 | Feb. 17
Can Ben Rhodes Finally Get Another Superspeedway Win?
The race for the 2023 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship is wide open. Several big offseason changes make predicting this year’s action difficult. Kyle Busch Motorsports, once the backbone of Toyota’s Truck Series efforts, switched to Chevrolet. ThorSport also left Toyota but pivoted to Ford instead. TRICON Garage, previously known as DGR-Crosley, will convert from Ford to Toyota to fill the gap left by KBM.
These developments lead us to Ben Rhodes. Rhodes, the driver of the No. 99 Ford for ThorSport, nearly won each of the superspeedway races last season. He finished runner-up at Daytona, Atlanta and Talladega. His Toyota teammates dominated the superspeedway events last year. Although the manufacturer only won one of the three events, Toyota drivers led 281 of 336 possible laps (83.6%). ThorSport and KBM accounted for nearly all of the damage.
But with two big teams leaving Toyota, the manufacturer won’t have as much of a leg up this year, especially not in the draft. It feels unwise to wager too much on the Craftsman Truck series until we get a better sense of how the manufacturer changes will affect each team. However, Ben Rhodes is no stranger to manufacturer changes — he has run well at these tracks in both Fords and Toyotas fielded by ThorSport. Getting him at 10-1 in what should be a chaotic season-opening race feels sharp, especially since Caesars Sportsbook has him down at 17-2, but we’ll limit our outright exposure to him and no one else.
Best NASCAR Bet: Ben Rhodes (+1000 for 0.1 Unit) at DraftKings
Can Parker Kligerman Keep His Truck Clean?
Few drivers in the field have as much superspeedway experience as Parker Kligerman. Although he drives an underfunded No. 75 Chevrolet for Henderson Motorsports, he steered that truck to a fifth-place finish at Daytona last year. He also scored a top-10 at Talladega. Kligerman has two wins, six top-5s and nine top-10s between Daytona and Talladega across 19 starts in the Truck and Xfinity Series.
Kligerman is a smart but safe racer who other drivers can trust in the draft. While he may not have the raw speed necessary to dominate from start to finish, he has proven that he can bring underfunded equipment home up front. He’ll also benefit from some Xfinity Series track time, as he’ll drive Big Machine Racing’s No. 48 Chevrolet full-time this year.
Kligerman’s outright odds of 20-1 feel a bit short. However, since Kligerman is driving for such a small team, he’ll likely drive more cautiously than some of his competition. He’s likelier to settle for a top-5 finish than to make a risky move for a win. He did push Zane Smith to the win here last year, after all, settling for a fifth-place result in the process.
Best NASCAR Bet: Parker Kligerman Top 5 (+275 for 0.3 Unit) at BetMGM
Will Hailie Deegan Finally Live Up to the Hype?
Although Hailie Deegan has received considerable media coverage as one of NASCAR’s few female drivers, her results are yet to match that attention. That may change this Friday night. Deegan showed poise late in last year’s Truck Series race at Talladega and brought her No. 1 Ford home in sixth place. But with DGR-Crosley moving to Toyota, Deegan will take the wheel of the No. 13 Ford for ThorSport.
Deegan’s teammates dominated at superspeedways last year. Ben Rhodes finished second across three events. Ty Majeski earned the pole for last year’s Daytona race and finished seventh. He scored another top-5 at Atlanta. Christian Eckes, who Deegan will replace, scored two top-5 results and led laps in all three events. Questions remain about Deegan’s talent, but she’ll get a chance to drive equipment that flashed race-winning speed at superspeedway tracks.
A top-5 showing to start the year would help Deegan silence her doubters. With experienced superspeedway racers like Rhodes and Majeski on her team — and Zane Smith staying in the Ford stable — she’ll have plenty of talented people to learn from and work with in the draft. ThorSport was too dominant at superspeedways last year for Deegan’s odds of scoring a top-5 finish to sit at 9-1 — especially when two of her teammates, Rhodes and Majeski, both own outright odds of 10-1 at BetMGM.
Best NASCAR Bet: Hailie Deegan Top 5 (+900 for 0.1 Unit) at BetMGM
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