NASCAR Picks: NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Phoenix Best Bets, Odds to Consider on DraftKings Sportsbook
The 2023 NASCAR season wraps up this weekend in Phoenix. The ninth year of NASCAR action at DraftKings will take a break until February. Enjoy and embrace the final week of the season. As always, trust the data but also trust your eyes. Here are the best bets for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Phoenix.
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Only the championship contenders win. Is it rigged? Is it deference? It doesn’t matter. The four drivers running for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship are the only NASCAR win bet options. There is an urge to bet an outsider with longer odds, but that’s a trap. Bet the top four.
Race Winner — NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Phoenix
Kyle Larson +150
The driver that qualifies for the championship first has an enormous edge. Larson has been focused on Phoenix for weeks. His engineers have been analyzing Phoenix for weeks. Homestead and Martinsville received some attention, but Phoenix has been at the top of their to-do list for two weeks. The other contenders did not have this luxury. Their resources were devoted to the race of the given week. This is not a marginal advantage. An early championship qualifications has proved to be significant in the past. Larson is not a driver that needs favors.
Success at Phoenix is nothing new for Larson. He won the 2021 Cup Series Championship at Phoenix. In this season’s spring race at Phoenix, he was the fastest in practice. He topped the speed charts in 5-lap, 10-lap, 15-lap, 20-lap and 25-lap speeds. He led 200 laps and ran the most fast laps in the race. A late-race caution cost him the win. It happens.
This is his second chance and a more significant chance to get a win at Phoenix. He was fast. The car was fast. Larson was a championship contender before the season began. The extra weeks of prep are significant, but this team was preparing for this moment before the first green flag of 2023 waved.. Hendrick is going to unload a rocket ship at Phoenix.
William Byron +250
Guess who beat Larson in the Phoenix spring race? The caution on lap 302 of 317 changed everything. Byron got the win. This moment will cloud judgement. There is a common perspective that Byron did not deserve the win and that Larson was much better. Larson led the laps in the spring race, but Byron was at his heels all race long. Larson turned 316 laps inside the top 5. Byron turned 314 laps. Larson’s average running position in that race was 1.4. Byron averaged a position of 2.5. These two drivers are closer than most think.
NASCAR matchup bets and prop bets as they become available on DraftKings Sportsbook.
Race Winner — NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Phoenix
Ryan Blaney +250
The next generation has arrived. It’s nothing but fresh faces. Actually, they’re not that fresh. Larson is 31-years-old and Blaney is 29. The point is that the veterans failed to advance to the NASCAR Cup Series Championship. The regular championship four participants will be turning meaningless laps on Sunday.
Yung Money Kyle Larson is the favorite to win the NASCAR Cup Series Championship. Young Blaney — both of these drivers aren’t very young anymore and a nickname change is overdue — isn’t a long shot to knock him off. Blaney was the runner-up in the spring race. Larson finished fourth. Blaney’s average running position was 7.5. He ran inside the top 10 for 312 of the 317 laps. Byron was closer, but Blaney was within striking distance. Only the last lap matters. That’s how Byron won in the spring. That’s how Larson won the 2021 championship. Blaney will be close. He has led 90 laps or more in three of the last 10 Phoenix races. Over that span, he has eight top-10 finishes and six top-5 finishes. Currently, he’s riding a four-race top-5 streak at Phoenix and has been the runner-up in the last two Phoenix races.
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