Darlington 400 Picks, Odds, & Predictions 5/17/2020

by Tony Sink - 5/11/2020

Race:NASCAR Cup Series Race

Date: Sunday, May 17, 2020

Location: Darlington Raceway

TV: FOX

NASCAR returns on Sunday in a Cup Series Race at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina. This is the 1st of 7 events NASCAR has scheduled post-pandemic, with all of them expected to occur within a 7-day span. No fans will be in attendance, but it will be NASCAR's first event in more than 2 months, so fans are excited nonetheless. Darlington Raceway is a tough first track to start on, as it's egg shaped design makes it more unique than other tracks. It's nickname is "too tough to tame", so drivers need to be aware of the difficulties of the track going in.

So far in in the 2020 Cup Series Standings, Kevin Harvick leads the pack with 164 points, followed closely by Joey Logano with 163 points. Chase Elliot is 20 points back with 144 points, while Alex Bowman has accumulated 138 points up to now. Logano has the most wins with 2, but Harvick has finished in the Top 10 on 4 occasions while Logano had a DNF to keep him from leading the standings.

FanShield 500 Results

Back on March 8th, Joey Logano won the FanShield 500 after starting in the 13th position. He led 60 laps and gained 52 points toward the Cup Series Standings. Kevin Harvick came in 2nd after leading 67 laps. The Jimmy John's car actually gained more Cup Series points (54) than Logano. Kyle Busch had a good day, coming in 3rd place after starting in the 10th spot. Busch didn't lead any laps in the race, but he was able to garner 46 Cup Series points. Kyle Larson and Clint Bowyer rounded out the top 5. Bowyer made the biggest jump of the top 5 drivers, jumping 13 spots after starting in the 18th position. The race lasted 3 hours and 20 minutes, as there ended up being caution flags 12 times for 76 laps. There were 20 lead changes in the race and the average speed was 94 mph. Chase Elliot, who finished 7th, led the most laps of the race with 93. Brad Keselowski was also someone looking really competitive after leading 82 laps, but he finished a disappointing 11th in the Alliance Parts car.

In terms of who was hot before the layoff, Chase Elliot leads the Series in laps led with 186 this season. The next best driver is Harvick, who has led 159 laps. Harvick leads in terms of starting position as well, starting in 5th place as an average so far. The next best racer in that category is Alex Bowman, who has an average starting position of 6.2. Harvick also leads drivers in average finish, finishing 6th on average so far this racing season. He's definitely having a good year, so that's why he's a 9/2 favorite for this race with Kyle Busch.

Odds for the Darlington Cup Series Race are as follows:

Kevin Harvick 9/2
Kyle Busch 9/2
Joey Logano 7/1
Brad Keselowski 8/1
Chase Elliott 17/2
Denny Hamlin 17/2
Martin Truex Jr. 19/2
Erik Jones 13/1
Kurt Busch 16/1
Alex Bowman 20/1
Ryan Blaney 20/1
Matt Kenseth 22/1
Jimmie Johnson 28/1
Aric Almirola 32/1
Clint Bowyer 32/1
Chris Buescher 42/1
Matt Di Benedetto 50/1

Who will win the event at Darlington?

Tony's Pick: Take Kevin Harvick (4/1)

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Darlington 400 Picks, Odds, & Predictions 5/17/2020

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