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YellaWood 500 Picks, Odds, & Predictions 10/4/2020

by Josh Schonwald - 10/1/2020

kurt busch nascar

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Race: YellaWood 500

Date: Sunday, October 4, 2020 at 2:00 PM EST

Location: Talladega Superspeedway

TV: NBC

For the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season, only six races are to come. In the Round of 12, the YellaWood 500 on Sunday afternoon is the second of three races. The pressure is on the drivers in this race. While this isn't a race where drivers will be eliminated, the second cutoff is in two weeks and that means drivers need to get all the points they can get in the meantime.

Once again, there will be no qualifying sessions or practice because of COVID-19. There are a few stats that are used in factoring the starting lineup for these races which include fastest lap time, driver's finishing position, owner's race position and owner standing points. With this in mind, Denny Hamlin was awarded the pole position at Talladega and will be joined by Kurt Busch, who took the checkered flag at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last weekend.

South Point 400 Results

Las Vegas Motor Speedway hasn't been a place that Kurt Busch liked to race at. While he is a native of the Sin City, Busch hadn't won any of his 21 races at this location. However, Busch was the recipient of some fortunate late track position and front of the field restarts. Combined with Busch having a solid day on the track, he was able to check that one off his bucket list.

This was an important race, as all of them are at this point, but this earned Busch an automatic spot in the next round of the playoffs. This took Busch from last place out of the remaining 12 playoff drivers, to the first driver to earn his spot in the next round. This was first race in his last six that he finished in the top 10. To say this was huge for the 2004 series champion is putting it mildly.

Rounding out the top five in the South Point 400 was Matt DiBenedetto in 2nd, Denny Hamlin in 3rd, Martin Truex Jr. in 4th and Alex Bowman in 5th.

2020 Cup Series Standings Update

The first driver to secure a spot in the Round of 8 and put a lot of pressure on the lower half of the playoff drivers as one spot has been taken. He was the last driver in the standings and was able to get his spot with the win. Austin Dillon is now the owner of the last spot in the playoffs and he's 32 points behind the driver in the final cutoff spot in Alex bowman. Sitting behind Bowman is Kyle Busch who is 9 points back, Clint Bowyer who is 20 points back and Aric Almirola at 27 points back. So because one driver went from the bottom to the top in one race, the pressure is even more intense for the drivers behind Alex Bowman.

Kevin Harvick is still the points leader followed by Denny Hamlin, then Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr rounding out the top five behind Kurt Busch in the playoff hunt.

Yellawood 500 Odds

Ryan Blaney - +1,000
Chase Elliott - +1,000
Joey Logano - +1,000
Denny Hamlin - +1,100
Brad Keselowski - +1,100
Aric Almirola - +1,400
Kevin Harvick - +1,400
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. - +1,400
Kyle Busch - +1,500
Kurt Busch - +1,600
Martin Truex Jr. - +2,000
Alex Bowman - +2,200
Clint Bowyer - +2,200
Jimmie Johnson - +2,500
William Byron - +3,000
Erik Jones - +3,000

The race at Talladega is one where anything can happen. Expect a lot of action and potentially some wrecks. Ryan Blaney won the race in Talladega earlier this year so he'll be one to watch out for in this race.

Most recently, Team Penske has had some good luck on this tracking winning five of the last six. Because of this, we could see Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski or Ryan Blaney taking the checkered flag. In this one, I'm going to with Joey Logano. Things seem to be lining up for him and we like his odds.

Josh's Pick: Take Joey Logano (+1000)

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