NASCAR is BACK.
The 2022 NASCAR season is officially back in action, and just a few races in, the season has already been pretty chaotic with the new Next-Gen cars.
Long story short… these cars aren’t doing the drivers any favors right now, and even the smallest mistakes can prove costly.
After a wild Daytona 500 that saw rookie Austin Cindric throw a monster block on his teammate Ryan Blaney and hold off a hard-charging Bubba Wallace to take home the checkered flag in only his second start in the Great American Race, we saw fireworks between teammates Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, after Kyle appeared to throw a late block and put Chase into the wall.
And today, the NASCAR Cup Series returns to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube.
Christopher Bell won the pole and will be joined by last week’s champ Kyle Larson in the front row, meanwhile, Kyle Busch, who wrecked in practice will start at the back of the field.
So without further ado… let’s get to the odds, picks and predictions:
Pennzoil 400 Odds:
Kyle Larson +400
Joey Logano +800
Chase Elliott +800
Ryan Blaney +1000
Denny Hamlin +1200
William Byron +1200
Tyler Reddick +1200
Kyle Busch +1400
Christopher Bell +1600
Martin Truex, Jr. +1800
Alex Bowman +2000
Kevin Harvick +2000
Chase Briscoe +2000
Brad Keselowski +2500
Kurt Busch +2500
Austin Dillon +2500
Austin Cindric +2500
Erik Jones +3000
Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. +3000
Daniel Suarez +4000
Cloe Custer +7000
Chris Buescher +7000
Aric Almirola +7000
Ross Chastain +8000
Harrison Burton +10000
Daniel Hemric +10000
Bubba Wallace +10000
Ty Dillon +10000
Justin Haley +20000
Greg Biffle +20000
Corey Lajoie +20000
Michael McDowell +25000
Todd Gilliland +100000
Josh Bilicki +100000
Garrett Smithley +100000
Cody Ware +100000
B.J. McLeod
Predictions:
At this point, it’s damn near impossible to bet against Kyle Larson.
But… I’m gonna do it.
This week, I’m still high on the Penske boys as Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric both have looked stellar this season. Cindric leads the Cup Series standings in points, with Logano right behind him and Blaney in 4th.
I like them to do some damage in Las Vegas as well, but for my winner I’m going with William Byron. Byron has looked great this year, but some bad luck has taken him out of races early.
Team Hendrick has some strong candidates with Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson in the mix, and I could even see Tyler Reddick and Denny Hamlin doing some damage.
As far as longshots go, I like Austin Dillon and Daniel Suarez.
Picks:
Here’s what we’re going with for the Daytona 500:
Winner: William Byron
Top 3: Denny Hamlin
Top 5: Ryan Blaney
Top 10: Austin Dillon, Daniel Suarez
LET’S GO.
