NASCAR One & Done Picks for Indianapolis

Happy 4^th of July! Hopefully you can find spend some time with family and friends this weekend and of course, watch some racing. This is going to be a special weekend in the racing world. NASCAR and IndyCar will pull a double-Header at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The racing usually sucks at the Brickyard but maybe this will make it better. The Big Machine Hand Sanitizer 400 can be seen Sunday at 4 p.m. ET on NBC.

Last Race: The One & Done pick was not too bad at Pocono Sunday. The “Pick a Driver Twice” bounced back after some bad luck on Saturday from Erik Jones with a win by Denny Hamlin. I went with Cole Custer on Sunday and he hung around the top 15 for most of the race but fell back to 17^th. Not great, but not horrible. We need a top-10 from our driver at the Brickyard.

Here are my picks for the Big Machine Hand Sanitizer 400 …

*Pick Driver Once*			*Pick Driver Twice*
Race	Driver	Result	Race	Driver	Result
Daytona	David Ragan	4^th	Daytona	Ricky Stenhouse	20^th
Las Vegas	Ross Chastain	27^th	Las Vegas	Joey Logano	1^st
Auto Club	Ryan Blaney	19^th	Auto Club	Ryan Blaney	19^th
Phoenix	Kevin Harvick	2^nd	Phoenix	Kevin Harvick	2^nd
Darlington	Brad Keselowski	13^th	Darlington	Brad Keselowski	13^th
Darlington	Erik Jones	5^th	Darlington	Erik Jones	5^th
Charlotte	Martin Truex Jr.	6^th	Charlotte	Martin Truex Jr.	6^th
Charlotte	Alex Bowman	31^st	Charlotte	Alex Bowman	31^st
Bristol	M. DiBenedetto	31^st	Bristol	Kurt Busch	7^th
Atlanta	Clint Bowyer	20^th	Atlanta	Chase Elliott	8^th
Martinsville	Aric Almirola	33^rd	Martinsville	Brad Keselowski	3^rd
Homestead	Tyler Reddick	4^th	Homestead	Jimmie Johnson	16^th
Talladega	Corey LaJoie	16^th	Talladega	Aric Almirola	3^rd
Pocono 1	William Byron	14^th	Pocono 1	Erik Jones	38^th
Pocono 2	Cole Custer	17^th	Pocono 2	Denny Hamlin	1^st
Indianapolis	Ryan Newman	?	Indianapolis	Aric Almirola	?
Kentucky			Kentucky
Texas			Texas
Kansas			Kansas
Loudon			Loudon

My One & Done Pick for Indianapolis: Ryan Newman

For some reason Hoosiers always run well in their home state. Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart always ran well at the Brickyard and so does Ryan Newman. Indianapolis ranks as his 2^nd-best track behind New Hampshire. Newman has finished 8^th, 10^th, 3^rd, 31^st (Engine), 11^th, 11^th, 1^st, 7^th and 12^th in his last 9 races at the track. That is 10^th-place average finishing position in his last 9 trips to the Brickyard (7^th-place average finish if you take away his engine failure in 2016). I will roll the dice with the Hoosier Sunday.

Aric Almirola is on what we like to call a heater…. He is red hot right now and Indianapolis is one of his best tracks. Almirola finished 5^th at Homestead, 3^rd at Talladega, 3^rd Saturday at Pocono and 5^th Sunday at Pocono. That is a 4^th-place average finishing position in the last 4 races (The only driver with a better average over the last 4 races is Denny Hamlin with a 2^nd-place average finishing position). I will play “the hot hand” in games where you can use a drive more than once.

Good luck this week!

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