Freeway Insurance 500: Pick6 Play of the Day

It's race day in Phoenix, Arizona and we have made it to the 7th race of The Chase. The Freeway Insurance 500 at Phoenix Raceway starts at 2pm central on USA. This is a 1 mile dogleg oval with 0-11 degree banking. Prerace, Kyle Larson is The Chase leader, with Denny Hamlin 49 points behind. Denny said in media this week that he can see the panic button but is not yet pressing it. I'm sure Big J journalist, Actions Detrimental Producer, and Denny Bro leader Travis Rockhold will let us know when the button has been pressed.

Questions I have going into today's race:

Will Kyle Larson drive through the field today and get any stage points?

Which Chase driver will take advantage in the standings of Kyle starting P22?

Can Briscoe go for a 3 peat and win today? And if so, will we see him do the Gritty in victory lane?

My Play of the day:

Josh Berry - Finishing Position Worse than 8.5: This season Josh has an average finishing position of 22.25, since 2023 at Phoenix he has an average finishing position of 17.2, and earlier this year at Phoenix Josh finished 32. Keep in mind that 32 place finish was due to an accident. Today Josh starts P9, he is not in chase, and I don't think he has that fast of a car.

Joey Logano - Finishing Position Better than 5.5: If you have followed me or read any of my blogs you know that Joey has ruined every Pick6 play I have made, causing me to hate him. When I saw this paint scheme, I was shocked. Why was I shocked? Because how the hell does a bald man, who has ruined many of my bets get such a sick scheme? I may never know, but I do know another bald man who happens to love this bald man, Large. Now after being unhappy with Large for loving Joey, and Large telling me to "Jump in the 22 pool... The water is fine.", I am dipping my toe in like the elephant from Tarzan making sure the water is sanitary. Let's get into some facts, Joey won here in 2024, has 10 top 5 finishes here, and is starting P2. Prerace Joey is 92 points behind The Chase leader, so he needs points today to help him win his even year championship.

Bubba Walace - Finishing Position Worse than 11.5: I want to start out with this, I don't know if I love or hate this bet. On one hand, Bubba has never won here and only have 4 top 10 finishes in his career at Phoenix. On the other hand, Bubba is driving a Toyota, which is known to be fast, and earlier this year he started P28 and drove through the field to finish 6, oh and he is 185 points behind The Chase leader. I'm going to pull a page out of Big Cat's book and say I hate this so much that I actually love it.

Chris Buescher - Finishing Position Better than 14.5: Mr. Buescher has not won a race at Phoenix, but he does have an average finish this season of 15.43 and he has 5 top 10 finishes at this raceway. If there is one thing I have learned about Chris this year while watching NASCAR, it's that he is consistent. In his last 6 races at Phoenix he has covered this line, and that makes me want to call this specific play a mortal. (My first ever mortal play, btw.)

Ryan Blaney - More than 85.5 Laps Lead: This season, Ryan has covered this line in 4 of 5 races when starting P1. Prerace Ryan is 85 points behind The Chase leader and is motivated as ever to win today while getting as many points as possible. In order for him to do that he needs to win stages which means he needs to lead laps. Simple. Side note, this paint scheme sucks.

William Byron - Finishing Position Better than 9.5: I listen to majority of the major NASCAR podcasts and I feel like no one talks about William. (Rubbin' is Racing is my favorite by a large margin.) He has races at Phoenix Raceway 17 times and has 10 top 10 finishes. This season he has covered this line 15 times, specifically he has covered in 4 of the last 4 races. He is in The Chase, but is over 200 points behind the leader so I don't think he can come back and win the Championship this year but he will have a good race today. Also, he has a sick paint scheme.