The NASCAR Cup Series will resume after a two-week hiatus for the Summer Olympics.
The Cup Series returns with the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway.
It will be the first time the Cup Series will visit the same track twice in the 2024 season since Richmond hosted a race on Easter Sunday.
Denny Hamlin took advantage of a late caution to take the win.
BetMGM has Hamlin as a co-favorite (+475) for Sunday’s race, along with Christopher Bell.
Kyle Larson (+525) and Martin Truex Jr. (+550) are close behind.
My best bet is to:
Brad Keselowski to finish in the top five (+250, bet365)
Keselowski came very close to winning the Brickyard 400 and appeared to have enough fuel saved up to pull off the win.
But a caution late in the race forced him to pit from the lead.
Amazingly, he has just two top-10 finishes in his past seven races, but that should change at Richmond, where he has six top-five finishes and 15 top-10 finishes in 29 career starts.
In last summer’s race, he led 102 laps and may have had the car to beat other drivers.
Keselowski has been a consistent top-10 contender on short flat tracks in 2024.
Richmond has long been one of his best tracks, so hopefully he can snap out of this brief slump with a strong top-five run.
Josh Berry’s Top 10 Finish (+120, bet365)
There aren’t many surprises among the top short flat track drivers in 2024. The only notable surprise is Berry.
Berry excelled on the track, posting the seventh-fastest speed in five races.
Despite a tough performance in Phoenix, he’s only been that good.
Since then, his overall speed has never ranked lower than ninth.
Berry narrowly missed out on a top ten finish at the Richmond Spring Race with an eighth-place average running position, and finished seventh and third on the final two short, flat tracks.
Keep an eye on the No. 4 car on Sunday, as Kevin Harvick took that car to victory lane in the 2022 summer race at Richmond.
Joey Logano to win Group B (+240, DraftKings)
Logano would go on to have his worst season with Penske Racing, but he did have some highlights.
His first great result this season was a runner-up finish at Richmond.
Richmond has been a great track for Logano for a long time.
In the last eight races, he has only finished lower than seventh once, and I expect him to compete for another top-five finish while battling Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott and William Byron.
Blaney and Elliott have better results on short, flat tracks in 2024, but neither can match Logano’s consistency at Richmond.
Byron has been a contender for the win at this track, but lacks the speed on the short flat track. Overall, Logano should lead this group of four drivers.
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Winner: Toyota (+110, DraftKings)
This was one of my favorite bets at the Richmond Spring Race and I won the money with Hamlin winning.
Toyota will enter Sunday’s race as the favorite to win.
Hamlin has won five times at Richmond but has finished fourth or worse just once in his past seven starts at the track.
Truex had won the spring race before a late caution came out.
He led 228 laps, marking the 10th time in the last 15 races at Richmond that he has led 80 or more laps.
Don’t discount Bell, a driver who has won on short, flat tracks in 2024.
A winner is likely to emerge from this group, with Tyler Reddick, Ty Gibbs and Bubba Wallace all likely to be considered contenders.
