Toyota Owners 400 Picks, Odds & Predictions 4/18/2021

by Tony Sink - 4/14/2021

Race: Toyota Owners 400

Date: Saturday, April 18, 2021 at 3:00 PM EST

Location: Richmond Raceway

TV: FOX

Immediately after his win at Martinsville speedway last weekend, Martin Truex Jr. comes into this weekend as the favorite once again. He's already got two wins under his belt this season and a third is potentially in the cards. While Toyota Owners 400 was canceled last season because of COVID-19, Truex took the checkered flag in 2019 at this race. Before him it was Kyle Busch, Joey Logano and Carl Edwards each winning. Kyle Busch has won this race a total of five times which puts him in second place all time behind Richard Petty.

That said, there should be some solid competition this weekend at Richmond Raceway and we're looking forward to it.

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NASCAR is back for the first time since Easter. It as supposed to be done on Saturday, but rain forced the event to be finished on Sunday.

Because of rain, the start of the race was pushed back about an hour. It was able to begin on Saturday night like NASCAR intended and was a relatively clean race until James Davison was dumped by his teammate, Cody Ware. During this caution, the rains started and everything was pushed to Sunday. At 4:00 PM EST on Sunday, the race resumed and after around 20 laps, the caution flag was brought out based on Kurt Busch spinning out. After going green again, Ryan Blaney battled with Aric Almirola and ended up getting the stage win.

Stage 2 started with both Blaney and Denny Hamlin coming off pit road and they would go back and forth on the lead early on in the stage. It was a fun battle with Hamlin being better off the restarts, but Blaney being better on the long runs and he took the lead. Cody Ware then brought out the caution flag which caused Blaney to lose his three second lead. Not long after, Matt DiBenedetto and Ryan Newman would come in contact with each other to bring out the next caution flag. Hamlin came hard at Blaney towards the end of the stage, but he wasn't able to stop Blaney from taking his second of two stages.

Denny Hamlin decided to risk not going to pit road during the stage break and started off the final stage with the lead. Not long after, Justin Haley spun out and brought out the caution. From there, the cautions wouldn't end and even led to a 15 car "parking lot" on the backstretch. This put the race under a red flag and many drivers ended up heading home for the day. After Ryan Blaney was penalized for dragging the air gun out of the pit box. This would take him out of the running and leave Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin to fight for the victory. Truex took the lead with about 30 laps to go and ended up taking the checkered flag.

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The win for Martin Truex Jr. pushed him into the second spot only behind Denny Hamlin. Hamlin has a 76 point lead over Truex Jr. at this point in the season. Joey Logano sits in third with 302 points while Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney round out the top five with 280 points and 272 points respectively.

Toyota Owners 400 Odds

Martin Truex Jr. - +400
Denny Hamlin - +600
Brad Keselowski - +700
Joey Logano - +800
Kyle Larson - +800
Chase Elliott - +850
Kyle Busch - +900
Kevin Harvick - +1100
Cole Custer - +1250
Ryan Blaney - +1600
William Byron - +2000
Christopher Bell - +2800
Alex Bowman - +3300
Kurt Busch - +3500
Austin Dillon - +4000

We're going to stay with the hot hand in the race and pick Truex Jr. Denny Hamlin will be up at the top, but Truex Jr. has been great at this track. Watch out for Kyle Busch. He's been historically very good on this track.

Tony's Pick: Martin Truex Jr. - (+250)

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Pick:	CHICAGO BEARS +3
Start:	November 24, 2024 @ 1:00 PM
Expert:	Doc's Sports

Analysis:

Free Play from Doc’s Sports. Take #256 Chicago Bears +3 over Minnesota Vikings (1p.m., Sunday, November 24 FOX) We used the Bears as a free play winner last Sunday and easily covered the spread and should have been an underdog outright winner. Now we will ride them for a second straight week against another NFC North rival, the Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings are 8-2 on the season, yet are only around a field goal favorite. I still do not trust Sam Donald to win consistently over the course of a 17 game regular season. Minnesota is not as good as their 8-2 record would indicate and playing outdoors in Chicago on Sunday will cause issues for them on both sides of the ball. Chicago has been hit or miss this season, but they will be up to play another divisional rival and we expect them to take this down to the wire as well. Do not miss out on Doc’s Sports Weekend Card featuring top plays in college and NFL football. Read More Read Less

Toyota Owners 400 Picks, Odds & Predictions 4/18/2021

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