The NASCAR season shifts into high gear on Sunday when it storms into Talladega Superspeedway, the biggest, fastest, and most white-knuckle track on the circuit. The crashes can be huge, the outcomes can be unpredictable, and for sports bettors, both risk and reward are excited to levels not seen at any other auto race in America. As NASCAR heads to Talladega Superspeedway, fans are flocking to betting apps for high-stakes action on the unpredictable races

That’s because at Talladega—a 2.66-mile, high-banked speed palace where the cars race three- or four-wide, with just a few feet separating them—the draft is king. Cars are propelled not just by their own engines, but also by the columns of air moving around them, and as a result, vehicles are bunched together and driver skill can be minimized. It’s all about avoiding the crash known as the Big One, getting in the right position at the end, and trying to ride that column of air to the finish.

Some drivers are better at that than others. Ryan Blaney, one of the three co-favorites for Sunday’s event, has finished second, second, and first over his last three Talladega starts. Another co-favorite, Brad Keselowski, has won there six times, more than any other active driver. And then there are the less-heralded drivers who excel in the draft, like Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Michael McDowell, or even little-known Corey LaJoie, who circled this race on their calendars all year. 

In NASCAR betting circles, drivers like Stenhouse Jr., McDowell, and LaJoie, known for their draft skills, are intriguing picks that savvy gamblers keep an eye on.

GEICO 500 Odds

Odds via Bet365 and current as of publication. Check out our Bet365 Review

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GEICO 500 Betting Tips

Keselowski may own six Talladega victories, but he enters this week on a 108-race winless skid dating back to his last NASCAR triumph—nearly three years ago, in this very event. He won that race with his former Penske team, which he left the following season to become part-owner of Jack Roush’s outfit. While he’s come close to winning with his current team—including last week, when he ran second at Texas—he’s still waiting on the breakthrough.

Blaney, the current standard-bearer for the Penske operation, has been excellent at Talladega for more than four seasons now. He’s won three times in the track’s past nine races, finishing second twice more over that span, and leading laps in 10 of his past 11 Talladega starts. Byron, the third co-favorite, was the runner-up to Blaney last fall at Talladega, and he also leads the circuit with three victories so far this season. Three-time Talladega winner Joey Logano is tied for fourth on the NASCAR odds board, but he hasn’t won on the big track since 2018, and eight of his last nine starts there have been in double-digits. Knotted with Logano in odds is two-time Talladega winner Denny Hamlin, who’s been top-five in five of his last eight at the superspeedway, including third last fall. 

The fact that even the favorites are paying +1000 to win speaks volumes about the capricious nature of Talladega, where almost anyone in the field can reach Victory Lane. Even some top-10 finishes, which typically offer negative moneyline value at most tracks, can potentially pay off nicely at Talladega: former winner Stenhouse is even-money, Michael McDowell (twice finished third) is +150, Todd Gilliland (seventh and 10th in two of his past three starts) is +180. There’s value to be found at Talladega—as long as the Big One doesn’t intervene first.

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GEICO 500 3 Best Bets 

Ryan Blaney To Win

Odds: +1000 at Bet365

Granted, betting on the favorite is never much fun. But when the favorite carries odds this good, why not? Blaney is simply fantastic at Talladega, finishing worse than 11th just twice in his last nine starts there—and if you’re around the top 10 coming to the white flag, you have a chance to win the thing. He’s completed every lap of his last six Talladega starts, which is crazy at such an unpredictable venue. And his good runs this season have been really good, like second at Atlanta and third at Las Vegas. 

Corey LaJoie Top 10

Odds: +180 at Bet365

Yep, you read that right. Why not LaJoie, with that kind of value for a top-10? The Spire Motorsports driver (whose team is affiliated with the more powerful Trackhouse) is great on superspeedways, as he showed by finishing fourth in the Daytona 500. He’s twice been top-five at Atlanta, whose reconfiguration made it kind of a superspeedway lite. He was fourth last fall at Talladega, where he’s completed a staggering 92.5% of laps in his career. At a track where anything can happen, you can certainly do a lot worse.

GEICO 500 Time, Date, and TV

When: Sunday, 3 p.m. EDT

Where: Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway

TV: Fox

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