Kyle Busch favored in NASCAR return to action

kyle-busch-favored-in-nascar-return-to-actionMajor professional sports is starting to trickle back in the United States. The UFC is staging two different cards this week, while NASCAR marks its return Sunday with a Cup Series event at historic Darlington Raceway in South Carolina. The race will be 400 miles and begins at 3:30 p.m. ET. It will be the first of three Cup Series races at Darlington this season, including another one already Wednesday.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

There will be no fans in attendance on Sunday and there will be no practice sessions – the lineup will be determined in part by a random draw for starting positions. The betting favorite is Kyle Busch in the No. 18 car at +600. There had been four official points races this season before the coronavirus pandemic forced a shutdown. Busch ranks 12th in points and has two Top-5 finishes but hasn’t won yet in 2020. Busch has raced 15 times in NASCAR’s top series at Darlington and has 10 Top-10 finishes and a win in 2008. His 716 laps led there are first among all active drivers.

Denny Hamlin (No. 11 car) is +650 and Kevin Harvick (No. 4) is +700. Hamlin won the season-opening Daytona 500 in February for the second year in a row – just the fourth driver to win back-to-back Daytona 500s – but hasn’t run well otherwise with an average running position of 16.9 overall that ranks 16th in the circuit. Hamlin has been strong in his career at Darlington with two wins in 14 races and an average finish of 7.8.

Harvick, meanwhile, leads the points standings even though he hasn’t had a Top 5 yet – that’s because Harvick hasn’t finished outside the Top 10, either. His lone win in 23 races at Darlington was in 2014; he started on the pole then and no one has won at Darlington from the pole since. Harvick has been Top 10 in his past seven races there.

Joey Logano has two wins this year and is +1100 this week. He has three Top-5 finishes at Darlington in 11 trips but has yet to win. The last time NASCAR was at Darlington was in September 2019 and Erik Jones won. He’s +1200 this week. Jones’ average finish at the track of 4.7 (minimum three starts) is best among active drivers. Jimmie Johnson leads active drivers with three wins at Darlington and is +2000.