Bucked Up 200 (Camping World Truck Series) Predictions & Picks

• Denny Hamlin is favored as the NASCAR Cup Series returns to the status quo.
• Kyle Larson tops the list of “rim riders” who can win at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
• Who says starting position isn’t important at the 1.5-mile South Florida track?

Odds from DraftKings. Get up to a $1,000 sign-up bonus at DraftKings today or check out more offers and promo codes for the best online sportsbooks.

After a week off from competition, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series returns to action in the Bucked Up 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. This is the first Truck race of the season contested at a 1.5-mile intermediate track.

The Friday night event is scheduled for 134 laps (201 miles) with stage breaks scheduled after 30 and 60 laps. Kyle Busch won last year’s February Truck Series race. Austin Hill took the checkered flag when the series raced there last September.

How to Watch Bucked Up 200

Despite Winning First Two Races, Ben Rhodes Isn’t Getting Enough Respect

After winning the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway, ThorSport Racing driver Ben Rhodes surprised himself the following week with a victory at the Daytona Road Course.

In Friday night’s Bucked Up 200, Rhodes will go for his third straight victory to start the season, and he’ll do so at a track that gave him his first triumph in the series in 2017. In that September race, Rhodes edged current NASCAR Cup Series driver Christopher Bell by .066 seconds. Including the win, Rhodes boasts three top fives and five top 10s in eight races at the track.

Despite his start to the season and his record at Vegas, Rhodes isn’t getting respect from oddsmakers. DraftKings Sportsbook lists him at +2000, a ridiculously high number. A bantamweight boxer in his spare time, Rhodes definitely punches above his weight at LVMS, and he’s a steal at the current odds.

Kyle Busch Returns to Action as the Favorite at His Home Track

One reason Rhodes is at longer odds than he normally would be is the presence in the field of Las Vegas native Kyle Busch, who elevates the potential payout for every other driver. Why? Because Busch has an incomparable record when he moonlights in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

Though recent NASCAR rules limit Busch’s participation in the Truck Series to five events per year, and though Busch has never competed in the series full-time, he’s the career leader in series victories with 59. In the last three years, Busch has won 10 of the 15 Truck Series races he has entered.

The owner/driver can point to an equally impressive record at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He has won his last three starts at the 1.5-mile track, and his three victories there are most all-time. So it’s no wonder that Busch (-125) is the overwhelming favorite to win Friday’s event. The only negative is that, because he’s not a full-time competitor in the series, Busch will start 29th. But if past performance is any indication, he’ll quickly work his way to the front of the field.

Las Vegas Is an Excellent Place for Austin Hill to Right His Ship

No one was happier to get out of Florida than Austin Hill. In the Truck Series’ season opener at Daytona International Speedway, he started 18th and finished 22nd, two laps down. A week later, on the Daytona Road Course, Hill started 20th and came home 33rd in a field of 40, three laps in arrears.

The forgettable start to the season leaves Hill (+800), a perennial contender, 25th in the series standings. But things should be looking up for the driver of the No. 16 Hattori Racing Enterprises Toyota. Two of Hill’s six Truck Series victories have come at Las Vegas, and he’s ready to make a major turnaround at the intermediate track. Hill says:

We’ve had extremely fast Tundras every time we’ve gone to Las Vegas and have had a ton of success. This is the same truck that we won within 2019 and ran third with last spring. Hopefully, we can have a similar result on Friday night. We didn’t get the results we wanted in the first two races at Daytona, but every one of us is looking forward to turning that around this week.