From the short track at Bristol, to the road course at Circuit of the Americas, the diversity of the top drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series will be put to the test this weekend in Austin, Texas.
Denny Hamlin dominated last Sunday, leading for 163 of the 500 laps at Bristol Motor Speedway and taking home the checkered flag. And for the first time in the season, Chase Elliott finished the race in the top 10. The reason that is significant is because we are now in Elliott’s bread and butter – road course racing.
Favorites to Win 2024 EchoPark
Tyler Reddick (+450)
Chase Elliott (+750)
Shane Van Gisbergen (+900)
William Byron (+1000)
Christopher Bell (+1000)
Ty Gibbs (+1100)
Ross Chastain (+1200)
Kyle Larson (+1200)
Martin Truex Jr. (+1300)
Kyle Busch (+1500)
A.J. Allmendinger (+1500)
Elliott has eight career wins on road courses, and in two races here at COTA, he has one win and one fourth-place finish. But he is only the second betting favorite in the race. That’s because the defending champion here is Tyler Reddick.
Reddick won here in 2023. He finished fifth in 2022, and in the inaugural race at COTA in 2021, he finished ninth. In his 20 career races on road courses, Reddick has three wins, six top-fives, and 13 times he has finished in the top 10. This season, Reddick was the runner-up in Las Vegas three weeks ago, and he followed that up with a top 10 in Phoenix.
Shane Van Gisbergen is a three-time Supercars champion who has been racing in the Xfinity Series. He is slated to compete in seven Cup Series races this season because of his prowess on road courses. He was a winner last year at the Chicago Street Course – his Cup Series debut – and he was a top 10 finisher on the Indy Road Course.
Beyond those top three road course warriors, the rest of the favorites board begins to look like it does most weeks, with William Byron and Christopher Bell tied at +1000. Byron was the winner at Daytona to begin the season, and he was a top-10 finisher in Las Vegas. The last time out at COTA, he finished fifth.
Of the three previous road course races in Austin, Reddick was a winner, Elliott was a winner, and the other race was won by Ross Chastain. He is the only driver to finish in the top five in all three races at COTA, coming in fourth, first, and fourth. On the season, Chastain has three top 10 finishes and a season-best fourth-place finish three weeks ago in Las Vegas.
Longer Shots Worth a Look
Alex Bowman is on the board at +2500 to win the race, +650 to finish top-three, and +300 to finish top five. In three races at COTA, Bowman finished eighth, second, and third, and has far too much success to be so far off the favorites.
Chris Buescher has the same odds as Bowman, and he is also too good on road courses to be an afterthought. He’s finished in the top 10 in eight of his last 10 road course races, and he finished eighth last year at COTA.
Joey Logano is all the way down at +5500/+1200/+650. But he is not nearly the liability on road courses as those odds would suggest. He has a third place finish at COTA, and last year, he was third in Sonoma. In 2022, he finished third at Watkins Glen.
With over 25 years of experience as a distinguished sports writer for renowned platforms such as Fox Sports and ESPN, Kyle Garlett is a sports betting specialist who has been at the forefront of documenting the global surge in sports betting and online gaming. Based in Denver, Colorado, Kyle hosts an NFL betting YouTube show and podcast. Kyle also has two sports books published by HarperCollins.
Kyle graduated the Azusa Pacific University in 1996 with a B.A. Degree in Communication and Journalism.
