The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series continues with the 2022 Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 at Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, Virginia, the shortest track in NASCAR. The race is slated for Saturday, April 9, and it will mark the eighth race of the 2022 season, where some of the best NASCAR drivers will compete for the coveted points and the title of the race winner.
As many sports betting guides will tell you, the Martinsville Speedway is not built for speed, but that doesn’t take away from the excitement it brings. As the shortest track on the NASCAR 2022 schedule, Martinsville Speedway always produced closely contested races and entertaining battles in close quarters.
Now that we have established that this weekend race is one no NASCAR fan should miss, let’s focus on the most important part of any betting guides – our NASCAR picks and predictions for Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400!
Race Information
- Time, day: Saturday, April 9, 7:30 pm EDT
- Location of the race: Ridgeway, Virginia
- Track: Martinsville Speedway
Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 Betting Picks
The Blue Emu 400 odds are already out, and it’s hard to feel surprised seeing which names ended up on top, As the main favorites. The online NASCAR betting sites have a pretty good idea of how this race will go, but that doesn’t mean there are no excellent betting opportunities.
Pick 1: Martin Truex Jr.
The NASCAR betting odds have Martin Truex Jr. priced as the main favorite to win the Blue Emu 400, which sounds fair. He had a phenomenal performance at Richmond and is one of the best drivers at Martinsville Speedway.
Admittedly, Truex Jr. has yet to win a race this season, but he did more than enough to earn our respect. Truex Jr. kicked off the 2022 season with back-to-back 13th-place finishes at Daytona and California but has since secured four top-10s over the next five races.
The only exception was the Phoenix race, where Truex Jr. landed in 35th; however, he was exceptional elsewhere. Most notably, he finished eighth in Las Vegas and Atlanta, seventh at COTA, and has ended last weekend’s race in fourth place!
Talking about his past performances at Martinsville Speedway, Truex Jr. won the 2021 spring race and finished fourth in the fall. In 2020 he also won the spring race but could only manage 22nd in November. And if we look further back to 2019. Truex Jr finished eighth in spring and won the fall race.
To put it into perspective, Truex Jr.has three wins, one fourth, and one 22nd-place finish across his last five starts. In other words, he has won three of the last five races on this track!
Pick 2: William Byron
The 24-year-old will chase his second victory of the season this weekend to add to his success at Atlanta. And even though Byron has proven before that he can be a threat, he travels to Virginia as one of the outsiders.
That makes sense, knowing that he has only three top-5s this season (one being victory in Atlanta), including a fifth-place finish in Las Vegas and a third-place finish in Richmond. Elsewhere he has managed two top-20 (18th in Phoenix and 12th at COTA), but her had a shaky start to the season with a 38th-place finish at Daytona and 34th at Fontana.
Still, Byron has a solid record on Martinsville Speedway, where he finished fourth and fifth last season and eighth in the 2020 spring race.
So even though Byron is by no means one of the main candidates to win next weekend, he has already shown some great qualities and has done well on this track before. We would not sleep on him ahead of the Blue Emu 400.
Pick 3: Brad Keselowski
If you’re looking for an outsider bet for Blue Emu 400, Brad Keselowski might be the guy to watch. We must touch on the fact that he has yet to win a race this season, nor has he come close once, but there’s more to Keselowski.
Looking back, his best finish of 2022 came at Daytona, where Keselowski ended in ninth but has since slowed down. In the next three races, he could only manage 27th (Fontana), 24th (Las Vegas), and 23rd (Phoenix), but he has shown some improvement with three top-15s at Atlanta (12th), COTA (14th), and Richmond (13th).
But the most important thing is that Keselowski has done well at Martinsville Speedway before. Besides his 33rd-place finish in the 2021 spring race, Keselowski has been phenomenal on this track.
Since 2015, Keselowski has secured 11 top-5s, meaning he has ended the race outside of the top five only three times (10th, 33rd, 32nd). That stretch also includes two victories from 2019 and 2017 and five top-3s.
Admittedly, Keselowski’s form this season hasn’t been the best. But with those figures, it’s very tough to ignore him ahead of this weekend’s race.
Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 Betting Trends
- Martin Truex Jr. is a back-to-back winner of this race (2021, 2020), while Keselowski is the only other driver to win this race twice over the last ten years.
- Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing won here eight times; however, Hendrick has not won once since 2013.
- Chevrolet is the most successful manufacturer of Blue Emu 400 with 26 wins, but not one since 2014
- Since 2010, Toyota has won five Blue Emu 400 races, followed by Chevrolet (4) and Ford (3),
- Martin Truex Jr. has the best driver average rating at Martinsville Speedway (121), followed by Chase Elliott (116.4) and Ryan Blaney (109.6)
Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 Betting Prediction
With so many great drivers attending the Blue Emu 400 race, it’s tough to make a choice on who to bet on. But despite the highly competitive field, it’s very difficult to look past Martin Truex Jr.
He is by far the most successful river on this track in recent years and should be in the mix to win it for the third consecutive time. Compared to other drivers this season, Truex Jr. has not been the most impressive, seeing how he has yet to win a race, but that hasn’t stopped him from delivering in Virginia in previous seasons.
Another driver we would keep an eye on is Brad Keselowski, who just might impress and upset the field. He is priced as high as +2500 to come out on top, which is very generous and presents us with an excellent longshot pick.
Prediction: Martin Truex Jr. to win
Prediction: Brad Keselowski to win
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