Cook Out Southern 500 Picks, Odds, & Predictions 9/6/2020

by Guy Bruhn - 9/4/2020

Race: Cook Out Southern 500

Date: Sunday, September 6, 2020 at 6:00 PM EST

Location: Darlington Raceway

TV: NBCSN

The 2020 NASCAR Playoffs will start this Sunday at Darlington Raceway. While this is a full field race, only the top 16 ranked drivers in the standings will be going for the NASCAR Cup Series championship. With a win last weekend, William Byron was able to grab a spot in the field of 16. He'll be looking for a better finish than last season where he ended up in 11th place. That said, race fans have been waiting for this time of year and it is finally here.

Coke Zero Sugar 400 Results

Coming into the Coke Zero Sugar 400, there were three open playoff spots up for grabs and multiple drivers that were in the running for those spots. Needless to say, the pressure was on and it would be a fight for those final spots. What made the 2020 regular season finale a fun one to watch is that this is one of the most unpredictable tracks in all motor sports. The race did not disappoint as it started off very clean and ended up being a wild one down the stretch. This was an intense race where much of the field was taken out by the bigger named drivers. One of these drivers knocked out of this one was Jimmie Johnson. However, his teammate, William Byron (who was also on the bubble) was able to win an exciting one in drag race style over Chase Elliot. Byron was able to secure his place in the playoffs with this win while Johnson finished 6 points behind the 16th spot.

2020 Cup Series Standings Update

With this win, William Byron has a total of 2007 points this season. That puts him 50 points behind Kevin Harvick who finished the regular season with 2057 points. For the season, Byron has one win, two top five finishes and nine top ten finishes. In his 6,389 laps this season, he's led 97 of them and he has an average starting position of 15.1. While he's not the favorite to win the championship, he did race well and will hope to continue this into the final stretch of races.

The question coming into the the playoffs is if anyone can beat Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin. That's going to be a tough go for any driver in the field. Between the two of them, they have 13 wins, 32 top five finishes and 38 top ten finishes. By the numbers alone, you'd be hard pressed to bet against either one of these two guys. These two drivers have been ahead of the entire field by a good measure, so thinking one of them not winning the championship is hard to fathom. If we were going to bet on anyone else making a run for the championship, it would be Martin Truex Jr. He has performed incredibly well on short tracks and the in these playoffs we're going to see the tracks in Martinsville, Richmond, Bristol and Phoenix. All of which give Truex Jr. a great shot at winning. Chances are that he's going to win one of those races

Cook Out Southern 500

Kevin Harvick 9-4
Denny Hamlin 12-5
Martin Truex Jr. 13-2
Chase Elliott 10-1
Brad Keselowski 12-1
Kyle Busch 12-1
Joey Logano 20-1
Ryan Blaney 25-1
Kurt Busch 25-1
Aric Almirola 28-1
Alex Bowman 30-1
Erik Jones 40-1
Jimmie Johnson 40-1
William Byron 50-1
Clint Bowyer 50-1
Matt DiBenedetto 60-1
Tyler Reddick 60-1
Christopher Bell 75-1
Austin Dillon 125-1
Cole Custer 125-1

Who will win this event at Darlington? It's hard to pick between the top two racers of the season in Harvick and Hamlin. Harvick is the easy pick, but Hamlin is having his best season ever. He's on a roll right now and to doubt that he can get this win would be foolish. However, we're going to go with the hot hand and pick Kevin Harvick in this one.

Guy's Pick: Take Kevin Harvick (9-4)

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Cook Out Southern 500 Picks, Odds, & Predictions 9/6/2020

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