Part two of the NASCAR double-header at Pocono is scheduled for this afternoon, as the Cup Series teams will try to tame The Tricky Triangle once again on Sunday. As expected, we had guys like Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, and Martin Truex, Jr. battling it out for the win on Saturday, but also long shot Aric Almirola, who you could have still gotten at 49-to-1 odds in the final Stage of the race. One thing is for sure: track position means everything here at Pocono, and none of the real contenders have it here to start out on Sunday,
The bets listed below are ones that I have already placed via the DraftKings Sportsbook, with the odds posted.
My Top Bets for the Pocono 350 on Sunday
Chris Buescher (-115) over Cole Custer – Let’s try this again. On Saturday, my most confident bet of the day was Buescher over Bell, and former even out-performed my expectations by coming home with a legitimate top 10 finish. Of course, Bell finished top 5, in part thanks to a well-timed caution, but still a solid run by Buescher–and that’s because he’s good here. Cole Custer isn’t good here, and hasn’t been good anywhere this season. He starts up in 5th, so he has Buescher beat at the start, but it’s hard to imagine the #41 Ford beating the #17 Ford today without a little bit of help and/or luck. But hey, my H2H bets seem to be the kiss of death lately, so…
Ryan Blaney Top 5 Finish (+200) – The #12 Ford was more than capable of coming home top 5 on Saturday this team just used some wild pit strategy. You know when Larry Mac is pointing out how stupid it is during the broadcast that you screwed up. Anyway, what this did, though, is give Blaney a solid top 10 starting spot for Sunday’s race, and if you consider him among the true contenders for the checkered flag, like I do, you have to like that. Getting 2-to-1 odds for a top 5 finish for a driver that has had one of the fastest cars all season and is a previous winner at this track sounds like great value to me.
Martin Truex, Jr. over Kevin Harvick (+112) – I like the value here more than anything. We saw on Saturday that the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas still have an advantage here at Pocono, but Kevin Harvick got the track position late and ran away with the win. However, with back-to-back races at the same track this year, we’ve seen this #4 team struggle a bit in the second running. This won’t be a large bet for me but I still think it’s worth being on my card.
ADDED LATE SUNDAY MORNING: Michael McDowell to Win Group F (+260) – The four drivers in this group are Bubba Wallace, Ryan Preece, John Hunter Nemechek, and Michael McDowell. The only one I would’ve been kind of concerned with is Ryan Preece, but he’s going to the rear at the start so he won’t have the coveted track position in this race. Bubba Wallace has found success at Indianapolis but he’s never finished better than 21st here at Pocono, and John Hunter Nemechek was lackluster on Saturday–as expected. As far as McDowell goes, this team is legitimately running in the mid-teens every week, and the #34 Ford will roll off the grid from 13th on Sunday. I honestly don’t know how McDowell wasn’t the favorite in this group, and how he has the longest odds is beyond me.
