By Gary Walstrom
The Geico 500 at Talladega Superspeedway is set for this Sunday, April 25th, at 2:00 PM ESY. Tune in on Fox Sports 1, MRN radio, or SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90 to catch all of Sunday’s afternoon action.
NASCAR heads to the big track this weekend, Talladega - Talladega Superspeedway, also known as “Dega,” is a 2.66 mile tri-oval. Racing at Talladega is very different from what viewers have experienced the past month, and generally speaking, drivers will be two-three wide stacked and 'packed racing.' Simply put, the field will run together, with a lot of different leaders and a good amount of passing throughout Sunday's race. At The Geico 500 you will witness drivers running up front and falling to the back in half of a lap, only to return back up to the front five laps later. It's an exciting and unpredictable race, to say the very least.
Best Bets Recap - The Toyota Owners 400
Martin Truex Jr Top 3 Finish (Yes +110 DraftKings) - Martin Truex Jr finished second in Stage 1 and 2, led for 108 laps and ran the second most fast laps - BUT - on lap 295, while leading, he was caught going too fast entering pits. Truex Jr was forced to complete a ‘drive through the pits’ penalty and never got back up to his original running position. He finished fifth overall on the day and narrowly missed the top three.
Kyle Larson Top 5 (Yes +100 DraftKings) - Kyle Larson didn’t have the speed last weekend that he's had seemingly all year. Larson was never in contention and never really had a chance from the get go. He only ran 10 fast laps - which is not typical for Larson - and his team completely missed the setup. Don’t forget about him moving forward though. We have a couple of tracks upcoming where he historically runs well.
Drivers to Look Out For
Denny Hamlin (+650 DraftKings) - Denny Hamlin's last five finishes at Talladega are first, fourth, third, 36th (wreck) and fourth. One outright win and three of four finishes inside the top five ain't too shabby. Hamlin has also won three Daytona 500’s and is a good superspeedway racer to boot. He needs to burst the winless bubble this season, and Talladega is a good track for him to make a statement.
Alex Bowman (+2000 DraftKings) - Talladega is run twice a year, and in the last three Talladega races in the spring for Alex Bowman he has posted finishes of seventh, second and eighth overall here. Not bad.
Kurt Busch (+2200 DraftKings) - In Kurt Busch's last three spring races at Talladega Superspeedway he has finished ninth, sixth and second. It’s not going to be flashy, and he’s not going to take chances early on, but I fully expect to see the black #1 Monster Energy car fighting for a win come late Sunday afternoon.
Best Value Bets
Ricky Stenhouse Jr Top 10 Finish (+120 DraftKings) - Rickey Stenhouse Jr's #47 JTG Daugherty Racing car is always fast here. Since 2017, Stenhouse's spring race finishes are first, fifth, 25th (wreck) and second overall. As long as he can stay out of the big wreck he will be fighting for a win in this one.
Kyle Busch Winner (+1800 DraftKings) - The younger brother, Kyle Busch, has the second best average running position at superspeedways under the current rules package (only Joey Logano has a better average running position) and while the finishes haven’t been there, he has put himself in all the right spots. During last year’s fall race Busch was running fifth in the first stage before he was caught up in a wreck and finished 27th overall. If he keeps his car clean, then he'll have a great chance to win here.
Alex Bowman (-112 FanDuel) vs. William Byron - In the last three spring races at Talladega, Alex Bowman has the advantage in average finish over William Byron, who has caught some bad luck with an average finish of 20.2. Bowman also knows when to push and when to slow down and wait. He was leading the race last year here in the fall at the end of stage 1 before getting turned by Alec Almirola.