It was a matter of survival last Sunday at Daytona with the majority of the field never even crossing the finish line. Kurt Busch’s first lead came on the last lap, but that was enough to claim his first career victory in the Daytona 500. Both Ryan Blaney and AJ Allmendinger got the new season off to a strong start by rounding out the top three.
The following is a look at a few of the top favorites to win this Sunday’s race at Atlanta along with my top value pick based on betting odds provided by MyBookie
Race Favorites
Jimmie Johnson will be looking to quickly move on from last Sunday’s wreck-filled 34th-place finish at Daytona and Atlanta could be the perfect stop as a +500 favorite to make it all the way to Victory Lane this time around. Last season, the No. 48 Chevrolet got white hot at the right time of the year with three victories in the last seven races to earn Johnson a seventh career Cup Series title, but I am more interested in last year’s fast start that included a win at this very track in the second point-race event of the year. Johnson has actually won his last two races at Atlanta as part of an average finishing position here of 10.7.
Next on this week’s list is Kevin Harvick at +600 odds to win. He is another driver that got caught up in one of the many wrecks at Daytona to finish 22nd in that race. The 2014 Cup Series Champion faded to eighth in the final point standings in 2016, so you know that the No. 4 Chevrolet racing team feels it has something to prove right of the gate this season. This has been one of the most consistent race teams the past three years in terms of finishing in the top five, so the other value in these odds is the simple fact that Harvick usually remains in the hunt right to the checkered flag. He has not won at Atlanta since 2001, but he has placed sixth or better in three of his last five point races here.
Rounding out the trio of the last three Cup Series title winners is Kyle Busch at +600 odds to win this week. He also joined this trio with an early exit in last week’s race due to a wreck, but not before he won one of the three separate segments under NASCAR’s new racing format rules. The No. 18 Toyota has also been one of the most competitive teams in the series lately with a third-place finish in the 2016 standings following a title run in 2015. Busch raced his way to third place in last year’s QuikTrip 500 and he won this race in 2013 to add even more value to his betting odds.
