This Sunday, March 13, NASCAR invades the Phoenix Raceway in Arizona for the Ruoff Mortgage 500. Coverage starts at 3:30pm EST on FOX. Here is some additional information on NASCAR odds to help you get prepared for this weekend to enjoy the action more and educate yourself before wagering.
DRIVERS
The defending Cup champion, Kyle Larson (+350), comes in as the early favorite. He revisits Phoenix, where he won his first Cup Series championship last fall. Although Martin Truex, Jr., (+700) won last spring’s race, he is not the favorite to win this race. Truex Jr. finished the season just five points behind Larson in the standings as he finished second in last year’s season finale race. Truex Jr will remember that race this week as he heads into Sunday.
Truex Jr is holding second in the early odds with Kyle Busch and followed by Chase Elliott and Joey Logano at +800.
Although he hasn’t won at Phoenix since 2018, Kevin Harvick is always a threat on the track, as he has the most wins at the Ruoff Mortgage 500 with five for two different teams and two different manufacturers. He just knows how to win here.
TEAMS
Holding the all-time wins lead for a team with five wins, Stewart-Haas leads the pack into the Ruoff Mortgage 500. Kevin Harvick claimed four of the wins for Stewart-Haas in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018 with Ryan Newman winning in 2010.
The last three races have seen Joe Gibbs Racing atop the podium for two of them with racers Kyle Busch (2019) and Martin Truex Jr (2021) leading the way to the checkered flag. The 2020 race was won by Joey Logano with his Team Penske-powered Ford. Kyle Larson is currently leading the points standings and will be pushing his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to the front this Sunday. The next four spots in the current NASCAR Cup Series point standings rounds out with Team Penske and Joe Gibbs Racing (Martin Truex Jr; Joey Logano; Austin Cindric; and Kyle Busch).
There is an interesting prop bet this week for the Joe Gibbs Team to finish all three of their cars in the top 10 at +450. As JGR has won two of the last three Ruoff Mortgage 500 races and all three of their drivers are previous winners, this is a wager that you can’t pass up. Since they are all driving Toyotas, it may behoove you to look at a wager for Toyota to win the race.
MANUFACTURERS
With Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman coming away with strong finishes last week and Larson sitting atop the points standings after the first three points races, Chevrolet aims to regain their dominance in the desert. Larson won last year’s race at Phoenix in the fall of 2021 to win his first career Cup Series points championship and will be looking to bring home another Chevrolet victory this Sunday.
Chevrolet leads all manufacturers in wins for the race with 10, followed by Ford (four) and Toyota (three). Chevrolet had won 10 of the first 13 Ruoff Mortgage 500 races, but Ford and Toyota have figured out their set-ups and have taken two wins each over the last four years.
SIDE NOTES
Three of the last Ruoff Mortgage 500’s have gone to overtime, utilizing the green-white-checkered finish. As Phoenix is the last west coast stop, this race will not be short on action, drama and thrilling passing. When lap 300 nears, be ready for aggressive excitement over the next 12 laps – and maybe a few more if it goes to overtime.
*The green-white-checkered finish used by NASCAR ensures a race is not ended within the regulation number of laps on a yellow caution flag. Instead, after the yellow flag is lifted and the green flag drops, the race resumes. The next lap marks the white flag indicating one lap to go. If an accident happens or other event brings out the yellow flag during the last lap, the final results are based on the white-flag lap and the race is completed. If there is a caution flag on the initial green-flag lap, the green-white-checkered system resets and action resumes with the green flag after the caution.
