Did you pick Austin Dillon to win the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 on Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway? If so, you collected on 100-to-1 odds and had a huge payday. Dillon has crept a little bit up the odds list for this week, but Kevin Harvick remains the prohibitive favorite for Thursday’s Super Start Batteries 400. This week NASCAR moves to Kansas Speedway, and you can catch the broadcast on Thursday night at 7:30 pm Eastern time on NBC Sports. We have the odds for Thursday’s drivers as well as suggestions for your picks so you can place your bets against their NASCAR odds.
NASCAR Cup Series: Super Start Batteries 400 Preview (July 23)
Driver Odds
- Kevin Harvick +400
- Chase Elliott, Martin Truex Jr +550
- Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch +650
- Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney +800
- Joey Logano +1000
- Aric Almirola +1200
- Alex Bowman, Kurt Busch +2500
- Erik Jones, Jimmie Johnson +2800
- Tyler Reddick, William Byron +3300
- Clint Bowyer, Matt DiBenedetto +5000
- Austin Dillon, Matt Kenseth +6500
- Christopher Bell, Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Chris Buescher, John Hunter Nemechek +7500
- FIELD (all unlisted drivers) +1000
Kevin Harvick is the favorite this week because he has the best average finish over the last six races in the circuit. He has a pair of wins, one finish each in second, third and fourth places, and a pair of fifth place finishes. So even if he does not win, he’s breathing down the neck of the driver who takes first. His career average finish at Kansas Speedway is 9.79, second best among the drivers in this week’s race. He also has three career victories at Kansas Speedway in 28 career races.
Martin Truex Jr is still looking for his second win in 2020. He did not have a good race at Texas Motor Speedway this past weekend, coming in 29th, but his track record at Kansas Speedway has been outstanding since 2017, as he has the best average finish over that time frame (5.67). In his last six races here, he has won twice and finished in the top five in two other races. In the Hollywood Casino 400 here last year, he came in sixth.
Chase Elliott is still rolling on the momentum that propelled him to a win at last week’s NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race. He only came in 12th at the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500, but he had finished in the top four in each of the four races before that. Elliott tends to finish either right with the leaders or dropping back. He’s been pushing the leaders hard a lot more often than he’s been settling back in the pack, so he’s a smart pick here.
Could Austin Dillon make it back to back? While his win surprised a lot of observers at the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500, his improvement has been showing for a while. After all, he finished third in the NASCAR All-Star Race. Kansas Speedway has not been kind to Dillon, though, as he has not finished in the top 20 in his last four races here.
Ryan Newman has made the top 20 in three straight races — including a 19th place result at the NASCAR All-Star Race. He actually has a win at Kansas Speedway in his career — all the way back in 2003. If you’re looking for that sleeper to come out of nowhere this week, which is happening more and more in this crazy NASCAR season, he’s one to consider.
Kurt Busch has a solid record at Kansas Speedway, with four finishes in the top eight in his last five races here, and seven in his last ten. In his last ten starts, he has cracked the top five seven times. He offers a little more value than some of the other choices. At the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500, he came in eighth, and the top ten has been a common finishing place for him lately. Could he jump up and grab a win here? He’s certainly an interesting value pick.
