NASCAR Sprint Cup Futures - Picks

NASCAR Sprint Cup Futures - Picks

Clayton Duke

Both Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski have led the way to Victory Lane this season with four point race wins apiece and 2014 Sprint Cup Champ Kevin Harvick is right in the mix with the second-most points in the current standings. Veteran drivers such as Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin are solid shape for this year’s Chase making it a wide-open race to the 2016 title.

The following is a look at a recently updated futures list for a few of the top favorites to win this year’s Sprint Cup title along with my top value pick based on betting odds provided by 5Dimes.

Favorites

The driver with the best odds to win a title is Kevin Harvick at +560 betting odds, but right now I am not all that high on the value he brings to the table. There is no doubt that he is one of the best in the Sprint Cup series. However, winning a championship is all about winning races when the Chase rolls around and you would have to go all the way back to March to find the last time the No. 4 Chevrolet crossed the finish line first. Harvick still has some time to regain that winning form and he does have nine Top 5 finishes on the year, but he has not finished better than fourth in his last nine events.

The second-favorite on the board to win the 2016 Sprint Cup is Kyle Busch at +650 odds. Not only is he the defending champ, he is a driver that does know how to consistently win races on any size oval. Along with his four victories this season behind the wheel of the No. 18 Toyota, he has also made his way into the Top 5 in seven other point race events. He has already led a total of 987 laps and his average finishing position through the first 22 races is 12.0. The biggest value in his odds comes from a proven ability to win when it matters the most.

Joey Logano is third on the current list at +750 betting odds. He is currently in sixth-place in the Sprint Cup standings with 652 total points, which has him in solid position for the Chase. He does know how to keep the No. 22 Ford in the thick of things with nine Top 5 finishes this season including a second-place run at Watkins Glen his last time out, but some of the value in his odds to win a title is lost due to just one point race win this season. Logano fell to sixth in the final Sprint Cup standings last season after making it into the Championship Round in 2014.

Top Value Pick

It would be hard to overlook the value in Denny Hamlin’s odds to win his first Sprint Cup title at +1200. He started the season with a big win at Daytona and just this past Sunday he took the checkered flag at Watkins Glen. He has always been one of my favorite drivers and I do believe that he does give you a legitimate chance to win anytime he gets behind the wheel of his No. 11 Toyota. Hamlin faded to ninth place in last season’s final Sprint Cup standings after bowing out of the Chase in an early round, but he did make it into the four-driver Championship Round in 2014.