Ricky Stenhouse Jr won the first race in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, breezing to victory in the Daytona 500 on Sunday. He was fighting Joey Logano, the defending Cup Series champion, for the lead on the 212th lap, when Aric Almirola sentTravis Pastrana into Kyle Larson, who headed to the outside wall. The wreck also found Austin Cindric, last year’s Daytona 500 champ, as well as Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace, Denny Hamlin, AJ Allmendinger, Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski. Christopher Bell gave Stenhouse a nudge to push Stenouse ahead of Logano, and he got the win in the longest Daytona 500 ever. This Sunday the Cup Series is on the other coast, at Fontana, California’s Auto Club Speedway for the Pala Casino 400. Check out the updated NASCAR betting odds and our wager card suggestions.
NASCAR News: Cup Series Pala Casino 400 Preview
| Driver | Odds |
|---|---|
| Kyle Larson | +650 |
| Chase Elliott | +700 |
| Denny Hamlin | +800 |
| Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Kyle Busch | +1000 |
| Tyler Reddick, Ross Chastain, Martin Truex Jr, Joey Logano | +1200 |
| William Byron | +1800 |
| Kevin Harvick, Alex Bowman | +2000 |
| Erik Jones, Bubba Wallace | +3000 |
| Daniel Suarez, Chase Briscoe, Austin Dillon | +4000 |
| Ryan Preece, Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Brad Keselowski, Aric Almirola | +5000 |
| Ty Gibbs, Noah Gragson, Austin Cindric | +7500 |
| Justin Haley, Chris Buescher, AJ Allmendinger | +10000 |
| Michael McDowell, Harrison Burton | +25000 |
| Ty Dillon, Todd Gilliland, Corey LaJoie | +50000 |
| JJ Yeley, BJ McLeod, Cody Ware | +100000 |
Kyle Larson has wins in two of the last five races at Auto Club. In the last three Fontana races that were low downforce, he has a pair of wins and a second-place finish.
Tyler Reddick enjoyed the huge dirt track at Auto Club, including its fast groove along the right wall. He picked up 40 hog points (given for laps led and fast laps) in the 2022 race at Auto Club until he blew a tire, costing him the lead.
Ross Chastain tied Larson last year for the highest laps led percentage on intermediate tracks (11%).
Denny Hamlin turned in the second-most laps run inside the top five at intermediate tracks in 2022 (40%). Staying within striking distance is a huge metric for wins in this sport.
William Byron was just a tick ahead of Hamlin (41%) in the same metric. Drivers who hang around at the end are in position to take advantage of chaos, like Stenhouse was last week.
Chase Elliott ran into the wall and spun out at this race last year, but he bounced back and almost won anyway. It was a collison from his teammate, Larson (who went on to win the race) that ended his day.
Ryan Blaney was in the lead in the last laps here in 2020 but corded a tire and was forced to pit, giving up his advantage. That came with the high-downforce package, so the history might not be that relevant. In the three previous races here, two were low-downforce, and he came in fifth, eighth, and ninth, so you can definitely say that he is familiar with this track.
Joey Logano may have won the Cup Series last year, but he is still looking for his first Cup Series win at Auto Club. He did win here three times in the Xfinity Series, though, and he has five fop-5 finishes in the last six Auto Club races in the Cup Series.
Bubba Wallace did quite well at Kansas last year, snagging a win in the fall. That’s relevant because Kansas also has progressive banking and a speedy groove by the wall.
Martin Truex Jr owned the intermediate tracks during the low-downforce, high-horsepower era. Last year, things got back closer to the way he likes them, but his racing form did not improve as much as he would have liked. Expect him to bounce back here.
Kyle Busch came in first, second and third at Auto Club in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively.
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