2018 NASCAR Cup Series All Star Race Preview

The NASCAR season pauses for an exhibition at Charlotte Motor Speedway, as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race is set for 8:00pm Eastern time on Saturday, with the broadcast set for FS1. Restrictor plates on the cars will also have aero ducts, a splitter that dates back to 2014, and a spoiler that is six inches high, curving up to foot-long ears on either side. Auto racing has used this format in the XFINITY Series with success, as their race in Indianapolis last summer had passing throughout the entire race, as well as 16 lead changes. The winner, William Byron, edged out the runner-up by a razor-thin margin of 0.108 seconds. This race has had low ratings in the past, often the worst ratings of the NASCAR season — and given that last week’s race generated the lowest ratings for any race not delayed by rain since 2000, this race could use a boost. The format of this race has four stages (30 laps, 20 laps, 20 laps and 10 laps). Check out our NASCAR betting perspective on which drivers you should choose for your wager card.

2018 NASCAR Cup Series All Star Race Preview

Lights, paint, #AllStarRace. 🎨: https://t.co/wXDyzjv2Rs pic.twitter.com/4Idplg9gUN

— #AllStarRace (@NASCAR) May 18, 2018

Updated NASCAR Odds

• Kyle Busch                                                    5/1
• Kevin Harvick                                                6/1
• Martin Truex Jr.                                             8/1
• Kyle Larson                                                   8/1
• Ryan Blaney                                                  10/1
• Brad Keselowski                                           12/1
• Joey Logano                                                  12/1
• Kurt Busch                                                    12/1
• Clint Bowyer                                                 15/1
• Denny Hamlin                                                15/1
• Chase Elliott                                                  18/1
• Ricky Stenhouse Jr.                                     20/1
• Jimmie Johnson                                           25/1
• Ryan Newman                                               30/1
• Jamie McMurray                                           30/1
• Kasey Kahne                                                 80/1
• Field                                                                10/1

Kevin Harvick picked up his fifth win of the season at Kansas Motor Speedway last week. His pace has him heading for 15 victories, which would break the modern record of 13, set by Richard Petty in 1975 and equaled in 1998 by Jeff Gordon. He also in on pace to crack the top five 27 times, and he has led races for a combined 820 laps so far. The next two drivers on the list of laps led, Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney, have led 916 laps combined. So you definitely have to include Harvick on your card for this week. Matt Kenseth is another story. He had stepped into retirement after the 2017 season, but he returned at Kansas on the Roush Fenway Racing team. However, they don’t have the cars that he needs to win. He stuck around 25th place for most of the race at Kansas, but then he had a crash that caused him to finish in 36th place. I don’t see him vaulting into the top five, or even the top ten, at this race, though. Kyle Busch has won three of the season’s first 12 races — and he won this race back in 2017. However, at the 1 ½-mile track at Charlotte, he has an average finish of 15th, and he has only won this event one time. Since 1998, Jimmie Johnson is the only driver to take home more than one first-place trophy from this event. However, he sits as a worthy co-favorite with Harvick atop the odds list. Ryan Blaney is a talented young driver who has had a number of factors keep him from winning despite showing a great deal of speed. The shorter stages of this race mean that there is less time for a problem to show up, and so he has an excellent chance of ending up at the front. He has been speedy at intermediate tracks, and this is the sort of course that could be his forte. Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin are talented drivers with plenty of trophies in their cases at home — who have largely sat on the outside this year. They are part of a deep field of talented drivers, and the experimental equipment package described above could vault a new person to the checkered flag — and these are two value bets I’d consider.