The top two cars in terms of race pace this season have been Ryan Blaney (+2500) and Alex Bowman (+2000). Blaney, should have three top two finishes in four races run this season. A costly caution while leading at the end of the Vegas race and a tire that went down while running second in the closing laps at Fontana, kept top two finishes from the Team Penske driver. The finishes right now say – 2nd, 11th, 19th and 37th but the ability and race car says a top two contender.
Bowman, likely had the second best race car before the COVID-19 hiatus cost us 70 days between races. He, like Blaney, was hurt by that late race caution in Vegas. Bowman, then turned around and led 110 of 200 laps in Fontana en route to a victory. He has finishes of 24th, 13th, first and 11th through four races.
So, why the long odds at winning this weekend at the Darlington Raceway then? Neither have had much success in the past on the “Lady in Black” is the reason why. In five career Darlington starts, Blaney’s finished 30th, 13th, 31st, 15th and 13th respectively. Bowman, has finished 23rd and 18th in his two starts there in the No. 88 Chevrolet at Hendrick Motorsports.
By comparison, Matt Kenseth has the same odds as Bowman and better odds than Blaney but yet he hasn’t raced in NASCAR since 2018. He’s also never ran this new racing package before, nor worked with his new crew chief Chad Johnson or has ever driven a Chevrolet in NASCAR before either. How does he have equal odds to Bowman and better than Blaney then?
For their odds, they’re worth a low risk bet this weekend because they do have speed this year and no one has any practice to catch them next weekend either.
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