NASCAR heads to Iowa Speedway for the first time in Cup Series his♚tory for the Iowa🍸 Corn 350.
It’s th👍e first race for the NBC/USA TV s𒁏late in 2024. You can tune on Sunday at 7 p.m.
It’s the first race at Iowa Speedway for the Cup Series, b🐈ut many drivers have experience on the track in the Xfinity and Truck Serie⭕s.
ﷺPerhaps that’ll give them an upper hand on Sunday.
FanDuel has Christopher Bell (+400), Kyle Larson (+550) and Denny Hamlin (+700) as th🎶e favorites.
Bel♚l is a two-time winner in the Xfinity Series at Iowa.
We don’t have past Iowa da🎉ta for the Cup Series, so we’ll u💃se similar track types and 2024 speed to determine the top picks for Sunday’s race.
Denny Hamlin top-five finish (+125, bet365)
There aren’t many drivers in the field with no experience at Iow﷽a, but Hamlin is one of them.
Despite that, he’s one of the pre-race favorites, and I’m backing him to record a ♕strong finish.
Iowa is a short, flat track th🐻at aligns with Phoenix, Ri𝄹chmond and Gateway.
Hamlin had the fourth-, sixth- and fourth-best speed rankings, respectively, across those three r𒁏aces. He won at Richmond and finished second at Gateway.
Overall, Hamlin has excelled on short tracks, winning in the exhibition race at the L.꧒A. Coliseum before winning at Bristol.
Don’t let the lack of experience scare you oಞff. Hamlin will be in contention for the win on🐼 Sunday.
Ryan Blaney finishing under 6.5 (+100, Caesars)
I’m expecting a big performance from the Toyota camp, but if there’s one driver wꦡho can spoil the party, it’s Blaney.
The defe൩nding Cup Series champion, who has Xfinity and Truck Series wins at Iowa, should’ve won at Gateway but ran ou🌜t of gas on the final lap.
Both Phoenix and Gateway have long been🎶 one of Blaney’s best tracks on the circuit.
We don’t need him to win at Iowa or even sco🌳re a top-five finish.
He just nee🧔ds to finish sixth or better to win this prop.
Martin Truex Jr. over William Byron (-115, BetMGM)
Truex left last week’s race at Sonoma with 𝓀🔯the most disappointment.
He lost the lead in the final🔯 10 laps and ran out of gas while running second on the final lap.
Luck hasn’t been on his si🦩de lately, butඣ that could change in Iowa.
Truex had a flat ti𝕴re at Gateway, leading to a 34th-place finish.
B𓂃🐠efore that, he had top-two speed rankings at Phoenix (fastest) and Richmond (second-fastest).
William Byron has been ju🎉st OK across the short, flat tracks in 2024, with just one finish better than 14th across three races.💎
Overall,🌊 he has finished 15t𝓡h or worse in four of his past six races.
Both drivers are trending down heading into Iowa. 🔥Ultimately, I trust Truex’s success on short, flat tracks in 2024.
Winning manufacture: Toyota (+125, DraftKings)
The Toyota camp comes into this race with🅠 high hopes.
Bell is the pre-race favorite, and Hamlಞin is not far behind. Many more contenders exist — including Truex, Reddick, Ty Gibbs and Bubba Wallace.
Bell won at Phoenix, and Re🔜ddick, Truex, Hamlin and Gibbs were top-six in speed ranking.
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Then Hamlin captured the ch🍬e🌊ckered flag at Richmond, with Truex, Wallace and Bell displaying top-five speed.
Bell was the class of the fiel𝓀d at Gateway before a late engine issue relegated him to a seventh-place finish.
Hamlin, Reddick and Gibbs also 𒆙had top-five spee🔥d.
The odds are t🍨oo short on Bell, but he’s my favorite pick꧅ for Sunday’s race.
If not him, it could be any driver from the Toyota🦄 caﷺmp.