Drydene 400 Picks, Odds & Predictions 5/16/2021

by Guy Bruhn - 5/12/2021

Race: Drydene 400

Date: Sunday, May 16, 2021 at 2:00 PM EST

Location: Darlington Raceway

TV: FS1

Martin Truex Jr. will get the prime spot in the Drydene 400 after taking it to the field in Darlington. Based on the qualifying metric that NASCAR uses, he was named the polesitter in this race. Second will be Denny Hamlin, followed by William Byron, Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano and Chris Buescher.

The race this weekend will be the only trip the Cup Series takes to Dover after going there twice a year since 1971. They were always run as double headers and last year's races were won by Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick.

Goodyear 400 Recap

The past was honored at Darlington Raceway with throwback paint schemes and it was a fun one. The 'Lady in Black' provided a challange for all racers last weekend, yet one of those drivers had no issues and led for 248 laps on his way to the checkered flag. Martin Truex Jr. notched his third win of the year in dominating fashion.

Brad Keselowski led the field into green at darlington, but Kevin Harvick was able to get to the front very early in the race. Aric Almirola (another Stewart-Haas Racing driver) would smash his front end into the wall, and this would lead to the ending of his day just 7 laps into the race. In the restart, Kyle Busch was able to take advantage and grabbed the lead. Taking a risk in Stage 1 was Ross Chastain who almost made it the entire stage with just one stop to pit road. However, he ended up getting lapped with just 2 laps left.

Truex Jr. ended up staying out front during the stage break and led the field into Stage 2. There were a few accidents in this stage with Cole Custer being knocked out and Kurt Busch hitting a wall to end his day. However, the end of this stage finished just as the last one and that was with Truex Jr. winning.

The final stage was a lot like the other two, with Truex Jr. not getting a lot of competition until about 30 laps to go. Kyle Larson snuck up and surprised Truex Jr., who thought Larson was a lapped car and even had to ask his crew. Larson made one good attempt at getting the lead, but failed. Truex Jr. took the checkered flag in dominating fashion.

2021 Cup Series Standings Update

Ten drivers have punched their tickets to the NASCAR Playoffs thus far. Martin Truex Jr. notched his third win of the season, adding to his playoff points lead. Denny Hamlin is on the outside looking in, but leads in points by a big margin. So unless, six new drivers win a race, Hamlin is looking at a spot.

Behind Hamlin are Kevin Harvick with 385 points, Chase Elliott with 382 and Austin Dillon with 316 points. Chances are, we'll see one of these three win a race with almost two thirds of the season left.

Drydene 400 Odds

Martin Truex Jr. - +350
Kyle Larson - +400
Denny Hamlin - +600
Kyle Busch - +800
Chase Elliott - +800
Kevin Harvick - +850
Brad Keselowski - +1,300
William Byron - +1,600
Joey Logano - +1,600
Alex Bowman - +2,000
Ryan Blaney - +2,200
Christopher Bell - +2,500
Kurt Busch - +5,000
Austin Dillon - +5,000
Matt DiBenedetto - +6,000
Tyler Reddick - +6,000
Aric Almirola - +8,000
Chris Buescher - +10,000
Cole Custer - +12,500
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. - +12,500
Daniel Suarez - +12,500

With his recent success and Dover dominance, Martin Truex Jr. would be an easy pick to win. However, we're taking Kyle Larson in this race.

Guy's Pick: Kyle Larson - (+400)

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Drydene 400 Picks, Odds & Predictions 5/16/2021

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