There are two tracks on the schedule for NASCAR this weekend. The ARCA Menards Series and Craftsman Truck Series heads to Lime Rock Park, while the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and Cup Series heads to EchoPark Speedway. These two tracks offer a completely different style of racing, Lime Rock Park will offer road course style racing, while EchoPark Speedway offers the super speedway style of racing. With these different styles of racing this weekend, there’s few drivers that standout to me as the favorites.
ARCA Menards Series – Lime Rock Park ARCA 100
For me there is a heavy favorites for the 68 lap race at Lime Rock in Thomas Annunziata. Annunziata built himself as a road course race well before joining the ARCA Menards Series. Thomas Annunziata drove a Mazda MX-5 for Nitro Motorsports in the Trans AM Series in 2023 and was the only rookie to get a pole award and a win. Annunziata is also the driver who won at Lime Rock Park last season in the ARCA Menards Series. Carson Brown and Isabella Robusto are ones who could also be in contention as they are used to getting top-10 finishes at road courses recently. Keep an eye on Tristan McKee as well.
Prediction: Thomas Annunziata
O’Reilly Auto Parts Series – Liuna 150 At Lime Rock Park
The Truck Series should have some amazing road course racing this weekend. Thomas Annunziata will be driving the No. 1 truck for TRICON Garage an he’s already our favorite in the ARCA Menards Series. Layne Riggs has won back to back street courses in the truck series. Kaden Honeycutt has won a road course this season at Watkins Glen, and probably should have won at the San Diego Naval base. Louis Foster from the indycar series is making his truck series debut. A lot of drivers with road course experience will be in the field for this race. I think Kaden Honeycutt will be eager to avenge his mistakes at San Diego and fend off Layne Riggs.
Prediction: Kaden Honeycutt
O’Reilly Auto Parts Series – Focused Health 250
Austin Hill is usually the favorite to win at the super speedway tracks, as 11 of his 16 O’Reilly Series wins have come at drafting style tracks. He has scored three wins at EchoPark Speedway and was close to scoring his fourth in February. These types of tracks are hard to predict who else could be in contention, but going back to February it was Parker Retzlaff who finished in P2 and has stringed together the most Top 15 finishes in the series this season so far.
If Hill is up front towards the end, he will probably win. If he gets wrecked or has an issue, keep an eye on Jake Finch in the No. 9 car as well.
Prediction: Austin Hill
Cup Series – Quaker State 400 Available At Walmart
The Cup Series has been known to having some wild finishes at EchoPark Speedway, so it’s always a toss up on who’s going to win. Someone that always finds themselves up front in the end at Super Speedway’s is Carson Hocevar. He was up there in February but got lost in the middle and fell back before finishing P4. Chase Elliott always seems to do well here and considering it’s his home track, he will always have some momentum. Ryan Blaney has a great average finish at EchoPark Speedway with an average of 11.5. William Byron is also a past winner here and has been inching closer to a win this season. You can’t leave out Austin Hill when talking about this race, even though it is not the O’Reilly Series, he could very well find his way up front.
Prediction: Carson Hocevar
