1 #11 Denny Hamlin (5/1) - He started his career winning both Pocono races in 2006 as a rookie. It was his only wins of the season but it didn’t come as a surprise because of his skills on the flat tracks. I can remember it like yesterday. The Heat won the NBA Championship and Italy won the World Cup and in NASCAR Hamlin won both races at Pocono. He’s won a total of six times at Pocono tied with Jeff Gordon for most in track history, He had the seventh win last season, got the trophy, took it home, and then a post-race inspection was big enough to penalize both him and runner-up Kyle Busch. The same car is being used and Pocono is his house.
“I’m looking forward to this weekend,” Hamlin said. “We definitely have some unfinished business at Pocono after last year. Hopefully, we’re able to unload strong on Saturday and carry that through the weekend. It would mean a lot to be able to get some redemption and to get that seventh win at Pocono to break the tie with Jeff (Gordon).”
2 #45 Tyler Reddick (12/1) - He’s never led a lap at Pocono but he has finished 11th or better in his last three starts there. Last season was his best with a runner-up. He’s got the Toyota this season and I think he’ll have a good run this week because he’s got road course skills. He enters and exits the turns fast. It’s called the road course that drives like a superspeedway. It’s the tricky triangle with three differing turns, getting flatter with each turn. I think it’s ideal for him to start his own tradition at Pocono.
3 #20 Christopher Bell (11/1) - I’m going to have a small bet on him despite a rough couple of weeks out of him. It’s not because of his 2017 Truck Series win at Pocono or finishing fourth in two of his five Cup starts, but it’s more about having JGR equipment. They had the two best cars at Pocono last season, but they didn’t get credit for the wins.
“After a rough couple of weeks we need to get back on track,” Bell said. “I’m looking forward to getting some extra laps in the truck before the cup event, I’ve always been a believer in racing as much as you can.”
4 #5 Kyle Larson (7/1) - No wins in 15 starts, but he does have five top-fives and an 11th-place average finish. He’s been good enough to win here at least four times. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him step up here.
"The No. 5 HendrickCars.com team almost got a win there (at Pocono Raceway) in 2021 and we got a top-five finish there last year,” Larson said. “Hopefully, we can get a win there this year.”
5 #19 Martin Truex Jr. (6/1) - He has a 14th-place average finish among his 33 starts at Pocono which includes two wins, the last coming in 2018. He’s had one top-five in his last eight starts there. But he’s won on all of his home tracks this season – Dover and New Hampshire – and this would finish off his trilogy.
“Really looking forward to going to Pocono this weekend in our Interstate Batteries car. It’s one of our home tracks, as they say. I’ve won there a couple of times and kind of struggled there last year. But really excited to get back with the fast racecars James (Small, crew chief) and all the 19 guys have been bringing to the track lately. The team is doing a great job, and we’re fired up and hope we can get another win at Pocono, but this time with Interstate Batteries on board with us.”
6 #9 Chase Elliott (12/1) - He’s 60 points out of making the playoffs but he’s running out of time. He needs to win. He’s been fourth three times at Pocono, but his biggest moment came last season when he won the race by default. He won the race and didn’t lead a single lap. Put that question in a trivia question for cash. He didn't even get the trophy until later in the week. He was sitting in third when the No. 1 and No. 2 finishers both got penalized. Some sportsbooks didn’t follow house rules and paid out Hamlin as the winner and then also had to pay out Elliott. I like desperate drivers, but I can’t get over that Elliott hasn’t led a lap in his last six starts at Pocono.
7 #24 William Byron (9/1) - This has been a great track for him with a 9.4 average finish in nine Cup starts, the best among active drivers. His worst finish was 18th as a rookie. His best was in 2021 when he was third. He led laps in the double-header event in both races. He likes the track. It looks like it was built for him.
“We’ve always had fast cars there (Pocono) not only as a team but as an organization as well,” Byron said. “Rudy (Fugle) and I have a win there in trucks and we came close in 2021 to getting two wins in the doubleheader weekend. Heading to a track that we’ve been traditionally really good at helps to bring that momentum back for everyone after a tough weekend. I’m just excited to get on track and put New Hampshire behind us."
8 #8 Kyle Busch (6/1) - He has a 15th-place average finish in 35 starts and this will be his first driving for RCR, but the good news is that Reddick who drove the car last season was runner-up. Busch has four wins and 11 top-fives and he missed another top-five last season when the post-race inspection placed him last. He led a race-high 63 laps before getting penalized.
9 #99 Daniel Suarez (30/1) - In the NextGen car last season, the one that is relatively the same this season, he finished third and was running in the top-6 most of the race. He was a contender. He’ll be a contender this week as well and the generous price at Caesars makes it worth throwing a few bucks on him to win. His best finish was runner-up in 2018.
10 #1 Ross Chastain (10/1) - His best Pocono finish was 24th in 2019, but he has a win in the Truck Series there. Last season he had his best Cup run, but his driving style caught him in a pickle. Poke the bear (Hamlin) too much, the bear wakes up and bites. He was on his best Pocono run leading the second stage and leading 16 laps when he got in a side-by-side situation on a restart with Hamlin and Chastain didn’t let up and crashed the wall because Hamlin didn’t give him any room. It was a successful payback. He’ll be good here this week, but his price is too short to give him a shot.
