The NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs started with 16 drivers and that number has been trimmed down to eight following last week’s cut-off race at the Charlotte Roval road course. Now the Cups Series heads to Texas Motor Speedway for the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 and the first race of the third round. As expected, last week’s winner is the lone favorite heading into Sunday’s race.
Kyle Larson comes in all by himself at +250 with Denny Hamlin at +600 after last week’s road course race. Larson got the win, his 8th of the season and 3 rd on a road course this year. Hamlin finished last week in the 5th spot but he already had a win in the last round to make it into the Cup Series Round of Eight. Both drivers top the leaderboard for this round of the playoffs. More info on the playoff standings is below.
Texas Motor Speedway offers a slight breather for drivers this week as the Roval road course was last week with Talladega being the week before. Those are two tracks where anything can go wrong in less than a second. Yes, that’s true to an extent on any track – but ‘Dega and road courses are different animals in the world of NASCAR racing.
Texas Motor Speedway gives teams the ability to better set up their cars and for drivers to get in more of an “oval” rhythm style of racing. The last race at Texas Motor Speedway had 8 cautions for 47 laps with long stretches of green flag racing. In the end, there were only 5 cars out of the race and 15 on the lead lap when Larson grabbed the checkered flag.
That leads to a race where oddsmakers are eyeing consistent drivers, all in the win the Bank of America, are still in the Cup Series Playoffs. Here are the favorites to win the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 outright according to Intertops.
Kyle Larson +250
Denny Hamlin +600
Chase Elliott +650
Kyle Busch +700
Martin Truex Jr +800
Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch are the only two favorites listed above with a NASCAR Cup Series win at Texas Motor Speedway.
NASCAR Handicapping Statistics
2021 Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 Preview
Track: Texas Motor Speedway, Fort Worth, Texas
Type: 1.54-mile asphalt tri-oval, 4 turns.
Race Distance: 334 laps / 501 miles
Defending track winner: Kyle Busch
TV/Radio: NBCS / PRN
2021 Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 Predictions
Kyle Larson +250
There’s more than one reason that Kyle Larson is the lone favorite this week at Texas. He’s won 8 races this season on a variety of tracks. And, in his Cup Series career, he’s become known as a driver that likes 1.5-mile speedways. He’s never won at Texas in a Cup car but he has won 8 times on 1.5 and larger speedways. This will be the first time Larson takes on Texas Motor Speedway in Hendrick equipment.
Kyle Busch +700
Kyle Busch has three wins at Texas Motor Speedway in a Cup Car and he’s worked himself back up the Playoff standings after a rough start in Round 1 where he faced possible elimination. In addition to the 3 checkered flags in his last ten visits to the track, he’s also finished 10th or better 7 times during that span.
Joey Logano +1400
Joey Logano has not won at Texas in his last 10 starts at the track with his lone checkered flag at the venue coming in 2014. However, since then he’s finished 10th or better ten times over those 13 races. His last 3 Texas Motor Speedway races include a 10th, 3rd, and 4th place run respectively.
Others to Consider: The feud between Chase Elliott (+650) and Kevin Harvick (+1400) makes me a bit iffy on these two drivers even though they both have had great Texas runs in the past. According to NASCAR fantasy stats, Harvick is the best driver to race at Texas over the last ten races at the track. But his lack of wins and DNF last week are concerning.
Cup Series Playoff Standings
No. 1 Kyle Larson
No. 2 Denny Hamlin
No. 3 Martin Truex Jr.
No. 4 Ryan Blaney
Below Cutline after Charlotte Roval
No. 5 Kyle Busch
No. 6 Chase Elliott
No. 7 Joey Logano
No. 8 Brad Keselowski
Eliminated after Charlotte Roval
Kevin Harvick, Christopher Bell, William Byron, and Alex Bowman
2021 Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 Betting Lines
Kyle Larson +250
Denny Hamlin +600
Chase Elliott +650
Kyle Busch +700
Martin Truex Jr +800
Joey Logano +1400
Kevin Harvick +1400
William Byron +1600
Brad Keselowski +1600
Alex Bowman +2000
Christopher Bell +2800
Austin Dillon +2800
Kurt Busch +3000
Aric Almirola +3000
Tyler Reddick +3000
Matt Dibenedetto +6600
Ross Chastain +8000
Chase Briscoe +10000
Daniel Suarez +15000
Darrell Wallace Jr. +20000
Ricky Stenhouse Jr +20000
Erik Jones +25000
Cole Custer +25000
Michael McDowell +25000
Ryan Newman +30000
Anthony Alfredo +40000
Ryan Preece +75000
Corey Lajoie +75000
Quinn Houff +100000
Cody Ware +100000
