There is no clear-cut favorite to win this weekend’s 2017 Axalta presents the Pocono 400. Three drivers are currently tied at +575, while a handful of others are not to far behind. With the odds so even among the contenders, who do some of the top NASCAR experts see coming away with victory this weekend?
Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet‘s Jeff Gutowski is going with one of the race’s three +575 co-favorites, Brad Keselowski, to come away with the win at Pocono. Gutowski acknowledges that Keselowski has suffered some bad luck with crashes in his last two races, but he still believes No. 2 will get career win No. 2 at the track this weekend thanks to the speed and power he’ll have to make passes on the Long Pond straightaway.
Meanwhile, Gutowski also included Kurt Busch in his top five. Busch has a fine history at Pocono, with three career wins, 13 top-five finishes and 18 top-10 finishes in 31 starts. Gutowski believes Busch will remain in contention even though his odds for victory are set pretty high at +3,500. A mere $20 bet on Busch with those odds would win a cool $700, though, so he may be one to watch.
Fox Sports
EXPERT
WINNER
Chad Robb
Martin Truex Jr.
Fox Sports‘ resident fantasy NASCAR expert Chad Robb has gone with one of the other +575 favorites, Martin Truex Jr., to take the checkered flag at Pocono. Robb believes Truex is the best driver in the sport at the moment, and it’s hard to disagree with him. Truex currently leads the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series points standings, with three top-three finishes in a row. With his current form, he’s as good a bet as any to make it to Victory Lane this weekend.
Yahoo! Fantasy NASCAR experts
PLACE
Robert Walsh
Marlon Clark
Jed Henson
Kyle Wiseman
FRCS Group
1st
Larson
Keselowski
Truex Jr
Larson
Keselowski
2nd
Keselowski
Ku Busch
Ky Busch
Truex Jr
Larson
3rd
Harvick
Larson
Harvick
Larson
Johnson
The resident Yahoo! Fantasy NASCAR experts at Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet are torn between the three race favorites – Truex, Keselowski, and Kyle Larson. In the end, though, Larson was the only one of the three to garner two votes from the experts. Keselowski also had two votes, although one was by the aggregated picks of FRCS users.
There aren’t too many other surprises in the panel’s top five, although a couple had the Busch brothers – Kyle and Kurt – finishing second. Kyle has yet to win a race this season, but is priced at +650 to break that drought at Pocono. Meanwhile, Kurt hasn’t won since winning the season-opening Daytona 500.
