Kyle Larson punched his ticket to the Chase with his first career Sprint Cup win in last week’s race at Michigan. Rookie Chase Elliott turned in a strong showing with a second-place run and Brad Keselowski finished third. Jimmie Johnson was my top-valued pick in that race at +1200 betting odds and he ended up sixth.
The following is a look at a few of the top favorites to win this Sunday night’s race along with my top value pick based on betting odds provided by 5Dimes.
Kevin Harvick and the No. 4 Chevrolet roll into Darlington as a +600 favorite to win his third point race event of the season. Just two weeks ago at Bristol this team added its second win of the year and with a fifth-place finish last week at Michigan it remains at the top of the current Sprint Cup standings with a total of 799 points on the strength of 11 Top 5 runs this year. When it comes to Harvick’s recent performance at this week’s track, he definitely adds some value to his odds with three-straight Top 5 runs including a victory in this race in 2014.
The second favorite on this week’s NASCAR betting board is Joey Logano at +750 odds to win. He has just one point race victory on the year, but with the No. 22 Ford sitting in fifth place in the standings he is a lock to make this season’s Chase. He has made his way into the Top 10 in 10 of his last 12 races, but this team has just one Top 5 run in the last five events so the pressure to build some momentum for the 10-race playoff is starting to build. Last year’s fourth-place finish at Darlington was the first time that Logano cracked the Top 5 at this track in seven pervious Sprint Cup events.
Carl Edwards joins Kyle Busch as +800 third-favorites to win on Sunday night. Edwards adds some solid value to these odds as the No. 3 driver in the current standings with 724 points. He has already won at Bristol and Richmond in back-to-back victories earlier in the season and more recently he placed sixth at Bristol two weeks ago and seventh in last week’s race at Michigan. Edwards usually does a great job at keeping the No. 19 Toyota in contention with 15 Top 10 finishes this year and he comes into this week’s race as the defending champion. With last year’s win at Darlington, he has finished seventh or better in four of this last five Sprint Cup races at this track.
