After a fun (and profitable — if you tailed Kyle Busch at 11-1!) weekend in Auto Club. the NASCAR Cup Series will stay out west, this time with an event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Christopher Bell stands out as an early value on the NASCAR prop betting markets.
I handicap the opening outright odds for the NASCAR Cup Series early in the week, and you can read about my bets here. Only members of OddsShopper Insider Access will get access to my full betting card, but I will include most of it in articles and on our YouTube Channel.
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Best NASCAR Prop & Matchup Bets for the Pennzoil 400 | Mar. 5
Will Bubba Wallace Have A Decent Run?
The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season hasn’t started off well for Bubba Wallace. He finished 20th at Daytona after an accident and 30th at Auto Club after an engine issue. However, this weekend’s race at Las Vegas is the perfect chance for him and 23XI Racing to get back on track.
Wallace ran well at this track last year. He led a solid 29 laps before crashing out in an incident with Kyle Larson in October. The wreck came after he won at Kansas, a similar high-speed intermediate oval, after starting sixth. He also nearly won Michigan, another comparator track, after starting from the pole.
23XI Racing has shown a lot of speed at tracks like Las Vegas, and Wallace should put together another competitive run on Sunday. However, the books don’t expect much from him. He owns 2-1 odds (33.3%) at FanDuel Sportsbook just to score a top-10 finish!
The Cup Series ran seven points-paying events at high-speed intermediates last year, and Wallace scored a top-10 finish in three, or 42.8%. Wallace’s implied odds for this NASCAR prop are far too long, especially since most of his strong runs on high-speed intermediates came late in the year and should extend into this season.
Best NASCAR Top-10 Bet: Bubba Wallace Top 10 (+200 for 0.5 Unit) at FanDuel
Is Christopher Bell the Lead Driver for Joe Gibbs Racing?
With Kyle Busch now piloting the No. 8 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing, who is the top dog at Joe Gibbs Racing? Although there’s a strong case for Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell was the team’s representative in last year’s Championship 4. He also won the most races for the team (3).
Bell is an underdog to his teammate, Martin Truex Jr., on the head-to-head markets this week. That feels like a mistake. Bell’s average finish last season (13.8) outpaced Truex’s (14.9) by a decent margin. Further, Bell recorded 12 top-5s to Truex’s four and 20 top-10s to Truex’s 15.
Bettors should hurry to lock this NASCAR matchup bet in at FanDuel Sportsbook. Bell routinely out-qualified Truex last year with an average starting position of 10.1 to Truex’s 15.3. Bell earned a top-10 starting position for both of last year’s races in Vegas and even won the pole for last year’s spring race. Expect these odds to shift once qualifying concludes.
Best NASCAR Matchup Bet: Christopher Bell (-105 for 0.52 Unit) vs. Martin Truex Jr. at FanDuel
