Unfortunately, for the second straight week none of us had faith in William Byron. He’s cost us $200 by winning each of the last two weeks. Now, it’s to Atlanta to see if we can get back on the winning side.

RACE FUTURES: AMBETTER HEALTH 400

10-1…W Byron and K Larson

12-1…C Bell, R Blaney, Kyle B, R Chastain, D Hamlin and J Logano

18-1…B Keselowski and T Reddick

20-1…A Bowman, M Truex Jr. and B Wallace

25-1…A Almirola, C Buescher, K Harvick and Suarez

30-1…A Cindric, E Jones and R Stenhouse Jr.

35-1…C Briscoe

40-1…A Dillon

50-1…AJ Allmendinger,J Berry, T Gilliland, N Gragson, J Haley, C Lajoie, M McDowell and Preece

60-1…T Gibbs

100-1…H Burton

250-1…T Dillon

NOTE: Each analyst has a weekly wagering limit of $100.

NOTE: The weekly wagering limits will increase $100 for each playoff round ending with a $500 wagering limit for the Championship Four race.

AMBETTER HEALTH 400 PICKS: RACE 5

Greg DePalma

R Blaney…12-1…$25 ($300)

R Chastain…12-1…$25 ($300)

A Bowman…20-1…$13 ($260)

B Wallace…20-1…$8 ($160)

C Buescher…25-1…$4 ($100)

K Harvick…25-1…$10 ($250)

D Suarez…25-1…$6 ($150)

E Jones…30-1…$5 ($150)

J Haley…50-1…$4 ($200)

CJ Radune

W Byron…10-1…$10 ($100)

K Larson…10-1…$12 ($120)

C Bell…12-1…$10 ($120)

R Blaney…12-1…$10 ($120)

K Busch…12-1…$10 ($120)

R Chastain…12-1…$10 ($120)

D Hamlin…12-1…$10 ($120)

B Keselowski…18-1…$7 ($126)

A Bowman…20-1…$6 ($120)

M Truex Jr…20-1…$6 ($120)

A Dillon…40-1…$3 ($120)

J Haley…50-1…$3 ($150)

C Lajoie…50-1…$3 ($150)

Eric Smith

W Byron…10-1…$17 ($170)

R Blaney…12-1…$17 ($204)

R Chastain…12-1…$17 ($204)

B Keselowski…18-1…$8 ($144)

A Bowman…20-1…$10 ($200)

C Buescher…25-1…$5 ($125)

D Suarez…25-1…$8 ($200)

E Jones…30-1…$4 ($120)

J Berry…50-1…$3 ($150)

J Haley…50-1…$4 ($200)

C Lajoie…50-1…$4 ($200)

M McDowell…50-1…$3 ($150)

WEEKLY RACE PICKS STANDINGS

CJ Radune

RECORD: 2 for 4

TOTAL: -113

Greg DePalma

RECORD: 1 for 4

TOTAL: -235

Eric Smith

RECORD: 1 for 4

TOTAL: -279

ARCHIVES

UNITED RENTALS 500 PICKS: RACE 4

UNITED RENTALS 500 RACE WINNER: William Byron

Greg DePalma

R Blaney…8-1…$25 ($200)

K Larson…8-1…$25 ($200)

R Chastain…10-1…$20 ($200)

K Harvick…12-1…$15 ($180)

A Bowman…18-1…$7 ($126)

D Suarez…35-1…$5 ($175)

A Cindric…50-1…$3 ($150)

RECORD: 0 for 1

TOTAL: -100

CJ Radune

R Blaney…8-1…$15 ($120)

K Larson…8-1…$15 ($120)

J Logano…8-1…$15 ($120)

K Busch…9-1…$13 ($117)

R Chastain…10-1…$12 ($120)

D Hamlin…10-1…$12 ($120)

M Truex Jr…11-1…$10 ($110)

C Bell…14-1…$8 ($112)

RECORD: 0 for 1

TOTAL: -100

Eric Smith

R Blaney…8-1…$19 ($152)

J Logano…8-1…$19 ($152)

K Busch…9-1…$14 ($126)

R Chastain…10-1…$15 ($150)

D Hamlin…10-1…$15 ($150)

C Briscoe…18-1…$9 ($162)

D Suarez…35-1…$4 ($132)

B Keselowski…40-1…$3 ($120)

C Buescher…80-1…$2 ($160)

RECORD: 0 for 1

TOTAL: -100

Race HISTORY/TRENDS

Sunday will mark the 118th race at the Atlanta Motor Speedway for the NASCAR Cup Series there. This is one of the most historic tracks on the schedule with a lot of rich history. Atlanta though, was also a popular track on the schedule due to the aged surface. See, when the track was reconfigured for 1997 and beyond, they also repaved it then. That was also the last time that the asphalt has been replaced. That stat made it the third oldest surface in NASCAR trailing only Dover (1995) and Fontana (1996). Now though, a repave and partial reconfiguration will once again make this race a brand new ball game. In fact, the spring race and summer race looked more like Daytona and Talladega than Atlanta of old.

Some key trends are as follows.

• Don’t look for much out of the Toyota camp. They’ve won just twice in the Peachtree state and have failed to reach victory lane there since 2014. They’re 2-for-the-last-17 in Talladega and 1 for the last 8 at Daytona.
• The final green flag run to the checkered had been at least 43 laps in 3 of the last 4 races entering last season including 101 and 90 laps respectively in 2021 and 108 laps in 2020. Last past spring, it was only 13 laps to the finish with last summer being overtime finishes.
• This race was shortened from 500 miles to 400 miles which could look more like the summer race than the spring.
• Hendrick Motorsports swept both races last year.

Live Betting

• Since stages began, the race winner scored stage points in every stage minus 1 race (2019). In 2021, the eventual race winner finished in the top three in each stage. In fact, since 2017, the winner finished in the top 5 in 6 of the 7 Stage 1’s including 5 in the top 3 to go along with the top 8 in 6 of the 7 Stage 2’s.
• Chase Elliott swept both stages in his July race win last season. William Byron won the first stage of the spring race and was ninth in Stage 2.

Favorites

Ross Chastain

Kurt Busch won in this car in 2021 while Chastain was runner-up in both Atlanta races in 2022.

William Byron

Won the spring race after leading 111 laps. Why not roll in his direction again?

Ryan Blaney

He was fourth in 2020, won this race in 2021 and fifth in the July race of 2021. He was 17th and 5th respectively in the pair of Atlanta races last year. Also, Blaney is as good as anyone now on superspeedway’s, so if this race runs like Daytona/Talladega again, you’ll be happy to snatch him up.

Sleepers

Bubba Wallace

Was in the top two across the white flag last spring and 14th in the summer race.

Alex Bowman

While he was only 10th and 32nd respectively here last year, Bowman also nabbed a top 5 in the season opening Daytona 500 and with Hendrick winning both races in Atlanta last season, why not for these odds?

Daniel Suarez

He was 4th and 6th respectively a year ago in Atlanta while also finishing in the top 10 this past February at Daytona.

Austin Cindric

While he was 32nd in this very race last spring, he backed that up with a third place result last summer too. Cindric was also 1st and 3rd respectively in a pair of Daytona starts in 2022 and 9th in the Fall Talladega race as well.

Chris Buescher

Had a top 10 last spring (7th) and driving a car capable of pulling an upset. He was in the top 10 this past February for the Daytona 500.

Brad Keselowski

12th and 18th a year ago but a vastly improved car this time around and on a drafting style track that Keselowski has 7 career wins on these types of races.

Erik Jones

Was 14th last spring but an impressive 4th last summer.

Justin Haley

11th and 7th were his pair of finishes last year. 5 of Haley’s 8 career NASCAR wins have come on superspeedway’s. So watch out here.

Corey LaJoie

Was in the top five for much of the final stage of this race last year. He’s off to a better start this time around. Can LaJoie pull off the upset?

Fades

Kyle Larson

Now that this race shifted to a speedway type of racing package, that negates Kyle Larson’s advantage. Larson has never won a superspeedway race and has just 1 top 5 in 36 starts on them at that. He was 30th and 13th last year.

Joey Logano

His last 6 Atlanta starts have seen him finish 23rd, 10th, 15th, 19th, 9th and 26th respectively.

Denny Hamlin

Toyota has struggled in Atlanta and Hamlin was only 29th and 25th respectively in his pair of Atlanta starts a year ago.

Martin Truex Jr.

He’s 0-for-26 in Atlanta and while he does have 11 top 10’s since 2012 (13 starts) to go along with four top fives in his last seven, this race will run like a superspeedway and those are arguably Truex’s worst tracks.

Christopher Bell

Why not here? Well let me tell you. Bell, was third and first respectively on this very race track in his two Xfinity Series starts on it. He won the Truck Series race in 2017 too to go along with being eighth here last July. That’s all great. However, he has no top fives in Atlanta in Cup action with being 23rd and 19th here last season.

Tyler Reddick

No top 25’s in this race last year and a crash at Daytona this year gives me pause to take him on Sunday.

Kyle Busch

While he was 33rd back in March of last year and 20th in the summer race. However, he’s with RCR now. Reddick though was only 28th and 29th respectively here in this very car in 2022.

Kevin Harvick

Was only 21st and 12th here a year ago. This used to be his playground, but since this new configuration, Harvick could struggle once again.

Chase Briscoe

Only 15th and 16th here last year.

Aric Almirola

Only 3 top 10’s in 14 tries including 9 of which being 15th or worse.

Austin Dillon

Finished 35th in both races a season ago…

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

While the Daytona win is nice, being 31st in both races last year isn’t.