The NASCAR Cup Series is back in action at Darlington Raceway Wednesday night (hopefully) for the Toyota 500(k). There’s a lot of rain forecasted on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, but hopefully they’ll be able to squeeze in this race. The Cup cars just got done racing here at The Lady in Black on Sunday but Wednesday’s scheduled event is shorter by 65 laps (approx 85 miles). Add that with the high chance of rain and we could be seeing a rain-shortened race, so keep that in mind when making your bets. I don’t hate taking a chance on some possible surprise winners.
The bets listed below are ones that I have already placed via the DraftKings Sportsbook, with the odds posted.
My Top Bets for Darlington Wednesday Night
Tyler Reddick Top 10 Finish (+135) – This my be my favorite bet I’ve ever made…as in my entire betting career. Tyler Reddick is the real deal, folks, and he has the talent to finish top 5 in tonight’s race. So getting a top 10 finish at +135 is a no-brainer for me. In Sunday’s race, Reddick ranked 6th in green flag speed and 3rd-fastest in the “Late In A Run” category. And without that late pit road penalty, there’s no doubt in my mind that he would have finished better than 7th. This is my largest bet of the weekend, and I also added in Reddick to win Group D at +300 (to finish the highest between him, Blaney, Kenseth, and Boywer).
Grid Position of Race Winner Under 16.5 (+100) – Most people have Kevin Harvick as the definite favorite to win tonight, and the Fantasy Racing Online algorithm agrees as well. He starts 20th. And while other contenders in this race, such as Alex Bowman and Kyle Busch, also start worse than 17th, I really love getting even money with this bet with the talent starting 16th and above. Brad Keselowski starts 8th, and he was a definite contender on Sunday. Add in Erik Jones (starts 13th), who won the last time we raced Darlington at night, as well as Martin Truex, Jr. (starts 15th) and Denny Hamlin (starts 16th) and I’d say there’s a more than decent shot one of those guys contends. Hamlin and Keselowski ranked 3rd and 4th in green flag speed on Sunday while Hamlin was the fastest car Late in a Run.
Other bets added to my card:
- Denny Hamlin +880 to win … again, the #11 Toyota was a top 3 car in speed on Sunday, and Denny has won here at Darlington twice before. DraftKings offered an odds boost to +880 for him to win so I bit.
- Erik Jones +2000 to win … just a small flier here. Erik Jones was the last Darlington night race winner and the #20 Toyota had solid top 10 speed on Sunday. Jones will start from 13th on Wednesday night, which is the 2nd-highest position among the real contenders (in my opinion).
