Bet On Nascar Race
Mar. 7—NASCAR is making more intermediate track stops after last weekend's race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where William Byron became the third different winner in the Cup Series to start the 2021 season.
- Odds have posted for Sunday's race at Homestead-Miami Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio); see where your favorite driver stands, courtesy of BetMGM. Justin Haley Odds to win.
- Betting on NASCAR is fairly straightforward. There is a wide range of NASCAR racing bets offered by sportsbooks: race winner, prop bets, futures, head-to-head, driver and group matchups, and top place finishes. Race Winner: Which NASCAR Driver Will Win? Most NASCAR fans simply bet on the driver they expect to win a race.
The next race for NASCAR's top series, the Pennzoil 400, is this Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The race starts at 3:30 p.m. Eastern on FOX. Kevin Harvick is on the pole with Byron in the front row.
Denny Hamlin leads the series in points (139) followed by Harvick (119), Joey Logano (108), Michael McDowell (106) and Chase Elliott (105). Only McDowell has won a race this year out of those drivers.
There are a variety of ways to wager on NASCAR. Let's start with the simplest one: week-to-week race winner bets. This is one of the most popular ways to bet on the sport. All a bettor has to do is. One of the most popular props in NASCAR is what’s called a futures bet. That’s a wager on an outcome that happens much later on in the season. With NASCAR the most popular futures bet is picking who will win the Monster Energy Cup championship at the end of the season.
Four drivers entered in this weekend's race have multiple wins at the 1.5-mile Vegas tri-oval. Those four drivers are Brad Keselowski, who leads the list with three victories (2014, 2016, 2018), Logano, who is the defending Pennzoil 400 winner (2019, 2020), Martin Truex Jr. (2017, 2019) and Harvick (2015, 2018).
Truex is favored to win with +600 odds, according to BetMGM. He finished in third place last weekend and said after Byron's victory that he feels confident that traditional winners will still be top contenders this year despite the first-time winners that characterized the start of the season, with McDowell and Christopher Bell winning the first two races of the year.
'We've been really fast,' Truex said. 'We had some tough breaks in Daytona and then we were in the hunt (at Homestead). We're feeling good about things and hopefully we can just continue to find some stuff to get better and keep running up front.'
Truex might have to fend off Kurt Busch this weekend at the front of the field. Busch, who is starting seventh this weekend, won the last Cup Series race at Las Vegas in the fall. It was his first win at his hometown track and a playoff victory that he described as a 'really spiritual moment.'
'Then not having fans and having people at the race track (last year), and then it was like boom, they zoomed in on me and we all celebrated through the TV lens,' Busch said this week.
Fans will be back at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the upcoming race at reduced capacity. The track had its fan attendance plan approved last month by the Nevada Department of Business and Industry. That plan called for hosting fans at 20% capacity, or roughly 15,000 people, according to KTNV.
Phoenix Raceway also plans to host limited fans for the following weekend.
NASCAR this weekend: How to watch the race at Las Vegas
* Race: Pennzoil 400 Presented by Jiffy Lube
* When: Sunday, Mar. 7 at 3:30 p.m.
* How to watch/listen: FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
* Distance: 267 laps, 400.5 miles on the 1.5-mile tri-oval
* Stages: Laps 80, 160, 267
* Last year's winner: Joey Logano
NASCAR Cup at Las Vegas starting order
Order Driver Car No.
1 Kevin Harvick 4
2 William Byron 24
3 Kyle Larson 5
4 Martin Truex Jr. 19
5 Michael McDowell 34
6 Denny Hamlin 11
7 Kurt Busch 1
8 Chase Elliott 9
9 Alex Bowman 48
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10 Brad Keselowski 2
11 Tyler Reddick 8
12 Austin Dillon 3
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13 Ryan Newman 6
14 Kyle Busch 18
15 Joey Logano 22
16 Christopher Bell 20
17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 47
18 Chris Buescher 17
19 Ryan Preece 37
20 Cole Custer 41
21 Ross Chastain 42
22 Daniel Suárez 99
23 Bubba Wallace 23
24 Chase Briscoe # 14
25 Justin Haley (i) 77
26 Ryan Blaney 12
27 Anthony Alfredo # 38
28 Aric Almirola 10
29 Erik Jones 43
30 Matt DiBenedetto 21
31 Garrett Smithley (i) 53
32 Cody Ware (i) 51
33 Corey LaJoie 7
34 BJ McLeod (i) 78
35 Josh Bilicki 52
36 Quin Houff 0
37 Joey Gase 15
38 Timmy Hill 66
(i) ineligible for driver points, # series rookie
The NASCAR Cup Series remains at Daytona International Speedway, but this Sunday’s race will be on the Daytona Road Course for the O’Reilly Auto Parts 253 at 3 p.m. ET. Below we analyze the O’Reilly Auto Parts 253 NASCAR odds and lines, with NASCAR picks and tips with odds from BetMGM sportsbook.
O’Reilly Auto Parts 253: What you need to know
Odds courtesy of BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated at 2 a.m. ET.
Unlike last weekend’s Daytona 500, weather isn’t expected to be a factor as the forecast calls for temperatures in the 60’s with partly cloudy conditions and very little chance of precipitation.
Chase Elliott (Hendrick Motorsports) won the Busch Pole Award for Sunday’s race with Daytona 500 champ Michael McDowell (Front Row Motorsports) starting next to him on Row 1. Elliott edged Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin by 0.202 seconds for last year’s win on the road course – it was the inaugural race on the new Daytona configuration. Elliott led 34 of the 65 laps last year with JGR’s Martin Truex Jr. finishing third.Remember A.J. Allmendinger? He is starting 34th for Kaulig Racing, doing a one-off in the No. 16 car for Sunday’s road-course race.Since 2018, Truex Jr. has two wins in eight road-course starts with seven top-10 finishes. His Average-Finish Position (AFP) of 4.63 leads all active drivers during the span. Elliott is next with five wins, 231 laps led and a 6.5 AFP with one DNF skewing his average.23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace has been a disaster in road-course racing. In eight road starts since February 2018, Wallace hasn’t finished better than 21st and owns a dismal 26.8 AFP.
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Who is going to win the O’Reilly Auto Parts 253?
ELLIOTT (+200) is the chalk, and rightly so. If not for a 37th-place finish last season at Sonoma, his road-course numbers would be even more ridiculous. As it stands, he has five victories in the past eight road-course starts, and he is on the pole. What’s not to like?
Elliott has ended up with six top-5 finishes, and seven top-10 runs in the past eight road-course starts with 231 laps led. He also has a 5.4 Average-Start Position, and he will lower that Sunday when he goes off from the inside of Row 1.
TRUEX JR. (+400) is one of the most consistent road-course drivers. It wasn’t always that way for the New Jersey native, but since February 2018, he has finished 14th or better with 142 laps led with a Driver Rating Average of 122.1.
HAMLIN (+1000) has a little bit longer of odds than Truex and Elliott. That likely can be attributed to the fact he hasn’t won in his past eight road-course starts. He was a runner-up on this configuration last season, and he has 26 laps led during the eight-race span with a 9.9 AFP.
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O’Reilly Auto Parts 253 long-shot bet
CHRIS BUESCHER (+12500) of Roush Fenway Racing is a long shot, but if you’re looking to invest a small amount for a potential big pay day, look to Buescher. In his past eight road-course starts, Buescher has been 20th or better, registering one top 5 and one top 10, while turning in a respectable 15.1 AFP. He finished fifth in this race a year ago and is worth a roll of the dice Sunday.
MATT DIBENEDETTO (+5000) of Wood Brothers Racing doesn’t have nearly the same type of odds as Buescher, but he is a long shot nonetheless, and a good value. Like Buescher, DiBenedetto has a 15.1 AFP across his past eight road-course starts, ending up in the top 10 twice with one top 5. He was 15th at the inaugural Daytona road-course race last season.
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