Wrapping up the extended two-week stay at Charlotte Motor Speedway is the running of this year’s Coco-Cola 600 as the highlight of the Memorial Day weekend. Coverage for Sunday night’s main event on FOX begins at 6 p.m.
Coca-Cola 600 Top Value Bets
Coming off last Saturday night’s victory by Kyle Larson in the exhibition All-Star Race, NASCAR’s Cup Series begins its push towards the playoffs with the 13th point race of the season. Last time out at Kansas in a night race, Brad Keselowski became the second driver along with Kyle Busch to win three point races this year.
Using 5Dimes online sportsbook’s NASCAR futures odds to win Sunday night’s race at Charlotte, the following three drivers offer the best value in the numbers.
Coca-Cola 600 Top Favorite – Kevin Harvick +450
It has cost me some money in the past few races, but I continue to ride Harvick as my top favorite to win. Kyle Busch is the defending champ in this event and a +300 favorite to win, but his current form has slipped a bit. I believe this opens the door for the No. 4 Ford to secure its first Cup Series victory of the year. Harvick won eight times last season, and he has come close this year with five trips around the track inside the top five. This team is third in the current standings with 440 total points even without a win.
Harvick won the 2018 All-Star Race at Charlotte, and he went on to wreck in the Coca-Cola 600. I am banking of the fact that he did manage to place inside the Top 3 in six of 10 previous runs at this track, including a pair of wins during that same time frame.
Coca-Cola 600 Top Contender – Kyle Larson +1400
Coming off the $1 million-dollar win last Saturday; I am looking for Larson to stay hot in a much longer run around this track. He has managed to guide his No. 42 Chevrolet to a third-place finish at Dover and an eighth-place run at Kansas in his previous two point races to add some more value to his odds to win on Sunday night. Larson could have notched a win early in the season at Atlanta after leading that race for 142 laps.
Through 10 previous trips around this track in a Cup Series event, Larson has posted a very pedestrian 17.5 average finishing position. His best career finish here is fifth in the second race of the 2016 season, so there is a heavy reliance on current form in this top-contender pick.
Coca-Cola 600 Top Longshot – Alex Bowman +3000
Bowman is coming off an eighth-place finish in last Saturday’s All-Star Race. The main reason he caught my eye at long odds to win here this Sunday night is a trio of second-place finishes in each of his last three Cup Series events. He led 63 laps at Kansas two weeks ago behind the wheel of the No. 88 Chevrolet. I am looking for a bit of that old Dale Jr. magic to push him past the finish line first this time around. Racing in his fifth season at the Cup Series level, this mini-run has Bowman’s race team in 12th place in the current standings with 329 total points.
Charlotte has been a complete disaster for Bowman during his short Cup Series career, but he did post an encouraging ninth-place finish in this race last year. When the betting odds to win a race get this long, you can rest assured that I am banking on current form to cash a winner.
