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| Kyle Busch won his 200th NASCAR race at Fontana in 2019. |
Venue: Auto Club Speedway
Television-Time: FOX, 3:30 p.m. ET
Keep an eye on JJ and the #48
It’s been 97 races since Jimmie Johnson last won a race, but I’ll be betting the streak ends soon in what will be his final season racing full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series. If last week’s performance at Las Vegas was any indication -- it is, then Hendrick Motorsports should be poised to win more than once as they did in 2019 in the 18 races using this week’s race package with 550 horsepower, aero ducts, and an 8-inch spoiler.
The Chevrolet Camaro made some offseason changes to its aerodynamics and got a new front end that proved to make them faster than most in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400. They didn’t win the race and Johnson’s fifth-place was the only top-10 finisher among the four Hendrick drivers, but it was clear to everywhere that Hendrick had an edge and I believe it goes much further than just the body.
They’ve got the package figured out, something that Hendrick always did before other teams with changes which is why they’ve won so many season championships. This particular race package just happened to take them longer to dominate.
Auto Club 400 Betting Odds
Top 10 Contenders
Kevin Harvick 4/1
Kyle Busch 5/1
Joey Logano 6/1
Chase Elliott 8/1
Kyle Larson 8/1
Brad Keselowski 8/1
Martin Truex Jr. 8/1
Ryan Blaney 16/1
Alex Bowman 20/1
William Byron 20/1
More...
Las Vegas Betting Recap - Pennzoil 400 Notes
I may be getting a little ahead of myself with Hendrick enthusiasm because it’s only one race using this race package and Las Vegas is a high-banked 1.5-mile layout while Sunday’s Auto Cub 400 at Fontana has a wide 2-mile layout. But there was kind of an awakening at Las Vegas that not only Hendrick was better, but everyone was better.
Nine different organizations placed cars within the top-10 and surprisingly one of the teams wasn’t Joe Gibbs Racing. Parity is a good thing in NASCAR and also great for betting the races because more candidates have a legitimate chance to win which will stretch the odds out on the usual favorites.
I don’t think the Vegas race was an anomaly even though some late cautions with a few teams pitting late shuffled the deck and produced such a diverse top-10.
Still, Matt DiBenedetto’s Mustang finished second, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s Camaro finished third, Austin Dillon’s Camaro was fourth, and Bubba Wallace’s Camaro was sixth. Six Camaros in the top-10, four Mustang’s, and no Toyotas.
JGR Toyotas were the best with this race package last season, which includes Kyle Busch winning the Fontana race last season for his 200th NASCAR career win between the Cup, Xfinity, and Trucks. They just had a bad day collectively and they’ll be fine moving forward.
But let’s get to Hendrick and what stood out in Vegas. Chase Elliott was not on my radar at 14-to-1 odds to win, but after winning the first two stages and blazing fast closing speeds at the end of fuel runs, I was ready to surrender. He wasn’t going to be stopped despite being very ordinary in practices and I knew the only way I would cash is if Elliott had some bad luck and it happened just as the final stage started as he had a flat tire and lost a lap.
READ MORE HERE......TOP-5 FINISH PREDICTION ON VEGASINSIDER.COM
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