NASCAR Gateway Odds & Enjoy Illinois 300 Picks

Death, taxes, and Kyle Larson topping the weekly NASCAR odds board. Larson leads yet again for the Enjoy Illinois 300 odds — check out how the rest of the field stacks up and get our best betting picks.

The NASCAR season has hit its second half, and the action is heating up. 

Last weekend saw not only Ryan Blaney's first win in almost two years, but a high-profile crash that ended Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott's days.

The playoff chase is heating up as the field chases points leader Ross Chastain and NASCAR Cup Series odds favorite Kyle Larson. With each race growing more important, let's check out the Enjoy Illinois 300 odds for the June 4 race at Gateway Motorsports Park, and get the in side track with the best NASCAR betting picks!

Odds to win 2023 Enjoy Illinois 300

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Enjoy Illinois 300 field

The odds board for this event contains about as many flatlines as you'll see for a NASCAR race, with an astounding nine drivers priced between +1,000 and +1,200, and a further nine priced between +3,000 and +4,000, creating some very interesting odds dynamics within those tiers. 

We simply see a much more linear distribution in a typical race, and oddsmakers don't seem hugely confident beyond the HMS drivers that typically find themselves atop the odds these days.

That would be Kyle Larson and William Byron, who between them have won six races this year (if you count the All-Star Race), with Byron posting Top-7 finishes in each of the past five points-paying events, his past three in the Top 3. 

Neither driver had much of a great result here last year, with Larson finishing 12th and Byron 19th — the only time NASCAR has visited Gateway for the Cup Series.

Enjoy Illinois 300 picks and predictions

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Enjoy Illinois 300 favorites

Kyle Larson (+450)

Was the top Hendrick finisher here last year (12th), but in Darlington, he was so strong and going towards a win before Ross Chastain took him out on a late-race restart while leading. 

William Byron (+650)

Joey Logano won last year’s spring Darlington race and won here a month later. With the two tracks being similar in terms of shape, can Byron, who won in Darlington last month, do the same? The HMS driver has won three times already this season and has five straight Top-7 finishes. 

Martin Truex Jr. (+1,000)

He led 42 laps in a sixth-place finish last year. He's really good at Darlington, and Loudon too. Truex dominated the first two stages in Darlington last month and has five Top-8 finishes in the last seven races on the season, too. 

Enjoy Illinois 300 sleepers

Kyle Busch (+1,100)

He led a race-high 66 laps a year ago in a runner-up effort. Busch was also seventh in Darlington last month, which is why I think he can pick up a win on Sunday. He was sixth on Monday in Charlotte, too. 

Bubba Wallace (+2,800)

Boy, is he heating up. Counting the All-Star race, Wallace has four Top-5 finishes in the last four races run. 

Chris Buescher (+4,000)

Zane Smith filled into this ride and did a great job here a year ago. Buescher has four Top-10 finishes in the last four races run on the season, as well. 

Aric Almirola (+4,000)

Gateway is also similar to Loudon and that's the place Almirola last won in 2021. He was also in the Top-5 here (fifth) last season. 

Justin Haley (+30,000)

He was strong in Darlington the last two years (third, eighth) and turned that into a Top-15 finish (14th) here last year. 

Enjoy Illinois 300 fades

Ryan Blaney (+1,200)

He was fourth in the inaugural race a year ago and has five Top-10 finishes in the last six points-paying races, including three in the Top-3. He was ninth in Darlington and won on Monday in the ‘600. My only fear is, it took him 59 races to win again. I doubt he wins twice in six days. 

Joey Logano (+1,200)

Won the inaugural race — but probably not the second. The reason why I don’t trust him this year is the fact that he finished 18th in Darlington (where he won last year) and Fords have proven to struggle on tracks like this in 2023. 

Enjoy Illinois 300 prop pick

Tyler Reddick (-105) vs. Ryan Blaney (-125)

Reddick has race-winning potential while Blaney’s driving a Ford that has struggled on flat tracks this season. Blaney went nearly two years without a win, it’s tough to think he can win twice in a six-day span. Reddick meanwhile, is also coming off of a Top-5 finish on Monday. 

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World Wide Technology Raceway track analysis

Nothing has changed to this track, nor this racing package between last year and this. What you saw a year ago is likely to race the same this time around. However, Ford did well here in 2022, but they’ve struggled over the first half of the regular season. Chevrolet and Toyota look to be the favorites in that regard for a track that will race similar to both Darlington and Loudon. 

We haven’t raced at Loudon this season, but we did already see Darlington. Both tracks produced similar results onto Gateway, so I would look that direction in handicapping this race, since this will only be the second year the NASCAR Cup Series has visited the St. Louis-area track. 

One thing to note though is the fact that you don’t see many fluke names win on this track. In the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, Josef Newgarden, a two-time series champion, has won on this track four times (2017, 2020, 2021, 2022). He joins names like Paul Tracy (1997), Alex Zanardi (1998), Michael Andretti (1999), Juan Montoya (2000), Al Unser Jr. (2001), Gil de Ferran (2002), Helio Castroneves (2003), no race from 2004-2016, Will Power (2018), Takuma Sato (2019) and Scott Dixon (2020) as winners. 

In the Cup Series, there’s one winner...Joey Logano. He won the championship last season in the year he won the inaugural race. 

• Not much history here to base many trends off of. Last year's race was the inaugural event. Joey Logano started seventh but led only 22 total laps in victory, including all in the final 38 circuits. He was seventh in the opening stage but scored no points in Stage 2. 
• Just one of the Top 5 starters finished in the Top 10.