The NASCAR Cup Collection playoffs will start this Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway when the inexperienced flag drops on the Quaker State 400. It is a return journey to the monitor in 2024, and again in February, it was Daniel Suarez rising victorious in an exhilarating three-wide photo finish.
With Atlanta resembling a miniature Daytona or Talladega with pack racing ever since its repave in 2022, it is a lot tougher to foretell who is likely to be an element. That stated, listed here are three to look at — a favourite, a contender and a darkish horse — for the playoff opener.
Favourite: Kyle Busch (+1000, per DraftKings as of Friday afternoon)
He is not within the playoffs, however Busch is likely to be essentially the most harmful driver this weekend. He is using back-to-back runner-up outcomes the previous two weeks and ran third within the spring at Atlanta as a part of that wild end. With the narrative now being all about whether or not or not he’ll win a race in 2024, Busch may silence the noise in resounding trend by spoiling the playoff social gathering.
The oddsmakers appear to have caught onto Busch’s momentum as nicely, rating him with the second-best odds at +1000 behind solely Ryan Blaney. On condition that he has nothing to lose, although, one can count on him to do no matter it takes to succeed in Victory Lane. For those who’re going with a prime canine, that is the weekend to trip with “Rowdy.”
Contender: William Byron (+1100)
It has been a theme for the previous few years that Byron and his No. 24 workforce will begin scorching, undergo a little bit of a lull over the summer season after which get up once more within the playoffs. And, who received the second Atlanta race in 2023? That will be Byron, who additionally received on a superspeedway this 12 months within the Daytona 500. Outcomes on a majority of these tracks will not be all the time very predictive of future ones, but it surely simply looks like the kind of race the place Willy B shall be close to the entrance.
Byron’s +1100 odds are tied for the third-highest within the discipline with teammate Kyle Larson. It is comprehensible to search for higher worth all through the sector, however he could also be your finest wager among the many contenders other than Busch.
Darkish horse: Todd Gilliland (+3000)
It is simple to overlook that Gilliland had arguably the dominant automotive at Atlanta within the spring, main a race-high 58 laps earlier than a late accident dropped him to a Twenty sixth-place end. Entrance Row Motorsports has been lightning quick on the superspeedways this 12 months between Gilliland and teammate Michael McDowell, and neither of them are within the playoffs, which means they’re going to be going for all of it on Sunday.
With McDowell’s +2800 odds barely higher than Gilliland’s at +3000, that makes the third-generation driver a extra interesting cut price out of the 2 teammates. It might be fairly the story for the playoffs to open up with not solely a winner from outdoors the title-contending discipline, however a driver incomes his first Cup Collection win altogether, and it simply may occur.
Keep away from: Denny Hamlin (+1200)
Hamlin appears to get penciled in close to the highest of the chances sheet each week other than highway programs, and it is often justifiable. Nevertheless, regardless of his previous status as a powerful superspeedway driver, he is had far much less success on a majority of these tracks with the Subsequent Gen automotive. This season particularly, he hasn’t completed higher than nineteenth in 4 superspeedway races, and in 5 profession races on the repaved Atlanta, he is solely recorded one top-10.
Positive, it is price mentioning once more that many of those finishes are because of dangerous luck given the excessive frequency of accidents in superspeedway racing. Nevertheless, Hamlin hasn’t had dominant pace on the brand new Atlanta floor both, with solely 32 mixed laps led in these 5 prior begins. His +1200 odds simply do not appear price it.
