The second race of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series is set for Sunday, February 27, at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. The Wise Power 400 will start at 3:30 pm Eastern time, and you can catch the broadcast on FOX, with the radio call on MRN. Last week, Austin Cindric picked up his first victory as a Cup Series driver at the Daytona 500. In Turn 4 on Lap 195 (of a scheduled 200), a three-car wreck dashed the hopes of Ricky Stenhouse Jr, in the lead after a restart on the same lap, but then Brad Keselowski gave him a push that turned him. The race went to overtime, and Cindric won on the extra lap. Kyle Larson and Kevin Harvick were among five drivers who had been eliminated on Lap 190. It was a bracing two-lap scramble that involved Cindric blocking teammate Ryan Blaney to take the win. What will happen this week? We have the NASCAR Odds as well as some thoughts for your wager cards.
NASCAR News: Cup Series Wise Power 400 Preview
| Driver | Odds |
| Kyle Larson | +400 |
| Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott | +800 |
| Denny Hamlin | +850 |
| Martin Truex Jr | +1000 |
| Ryan Blaney, William Byron | +1200 |
| Alex Bowman, Joey Logano | +1400 |
| Kevin Harvick | +1500 |
| Tyler Reddick | +1600 |
| Kurt Busch, Brad Keselowski | +2000 |
| Ross Chastain | +2500 |
Kyle Larson is the favorite for a reason, as he won here in 2017, and his career average result on two-mile tracks such as this one and Michigan is 12.75, third highest among all active drivers. Joey Logano and Chase Elliott are the only two with better averages. Hendrick Motorsports has thrived at Auto Club Speedway, and Larson comes in having won two straight pole positions (2021 at the Championship 4 and then last week at Daytona), expect him to be there at the finish.
Kyle Busch lives in Las Vegas, just three and a half hours away from Auto Club Speedway. He has four victories on this track, with the last coming in 2019. He was sixth last week at Daytona, leading 28 laps. This is a track type that we don’t see much on the Cup series, and so those drivers who have thrived in this sort of environment in the past should do well again.
Chase Elliott has 16 starts at Auto Club Speedway, with four top-five finishes and 13 top-ten finishes. He has come in second three times, and so you can certainly argue that he is due a win here. Even if you don’t like him to finish first, you can get decent value on him as a top-three finisher, depending on the book you choose. He does have the best career average finish ehre among active drivers – and he has yet to win here.
Denny Hamlin went into Daytona as the favorite last week, but he wrecked in the 63rd lap and did not finish. Toyota has won two of the last three races at Auto Club Speedway, in cars driven by Martin Truex Jr and Kyle Busch. Hamlin only won two races outright in 2021, but he kept showing up right at the end.
Martin Truex Jr has won at Auto Club Speedway in 2018, a race where he led more than 100 laps. In low-downforce, high-horsepower situations, Truex has been the Cup Series’ top driver for the last five years.
Kevin Harvick remains an enigma – is he back and ready to race? NASCAR has not run low-downforce, high-horsepower cars on intermediate tracks since 2018 – and Harvick won eight different races that year.
Alex Bowman was terrific the whole weekend at Auto Cub Speedway two years ago. Now we’re back, but the racing package is different. With this package, he won three times in 2021.
Joey Logano wrecked two cars last week at Daytona. Given how hard it is to get parts these days, how good will Logano’s car be this week in Fontana?
NASCAR Betting Odds
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