Federated Auto Parts 400 Betting Preview/Prop Play
11 September 2021
The next race coming up for the Cup Series takes place in Henrico County, Virginia. After Denny Hamlin finally posted a win on the season, this makes the playoffs even more interesting.
With a handful of drivers competing well here recently, this could be anyone’s race. Below you will see the likely contenders.
Race Details
Date: Saturday, September 11, at 6:30 PM
Watch on: NBCS
Track: Richmond Raceway VA
Betting Overview
If history has any indication to the outcome of this one, the typical favorites will not place as well as some of the others. For example, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliot both have outside top-five finishes over the last few years here.
Head to Head Matchup to Watch
Aric Almirola (152.842) and Kurt Busch (147.998) make a great duo to watch and bet on. Busch has had three top-six finishes looking at his last four events.
For Almirola, you never know if he will take over an event or not. However, he has only had two top-five finishes all season.
Dunkel Index For This Event
The Dunkel Index is showing these top 10 drivers that could win this event. The following ten are:
1 Kyle Larson 144.967
2 Denny Hamlin 145.243
3 Ryan Blaney 146.564
4 Martin Truex Jr 147.791
5 Kurt Busch 147.998
6 Chase Elliott 149.622
7 Kevin Harvick 151.263
8 Chris Buescher 151.750
9 Kyle Busch 152.639
10 Aric Almirola 152.842
*index is subject to changes
Drivers That Could Win
You could easily blink while watching this race and see Kyle Busch (152.639) take over. Looking at his recent performances, he has done fairly well here.
These include six consecutive top-eight finishes. Even more, he has a top-two finish to cap off an impressive 11 races here.
Brad Keselowski (157.110) is a bit of a sleeper here for some reason. Bettors might not like his performances at other races, but he has a solid record driving here.
When it comes to Richmond races, he won the only one last year on the Virginia short track. In addition, he also has seven top 10 finishes out of 10 starts there.
Denny Hamlin (145.243) has gotten a lot of attention as he won the last race. A lot of bettors were not expecting him to finally breakthrough.
With his win, the 11th ranked driver in the competition was able to move to the round of 12. However, can he perform well again to advance to another round?
Potential Winning Pick
Martin Truex Jr (147.791) is quite the favorite despite recent performances. But when you look at how he has performed here and with other races hosted here, he will be hard to ignore.
He won twice in 2019 and finished in second place in last fall’s race. On top of that, he had a great performance at the Phoenix race and then placed fifth at this track in April of this year.
Prop Play
Top 10 Finish: Kevin Harvick (-180)
Harvick had one of the most dominant seasons last year in NASCAR history as he won nine races, the most since Carl Edwards won nine back in 2008.
But there hasn’t been much carryover this season as he’s failed to win a single race and has now gone winless in 33 straight dating back to last year. The struggles had Harvick just squeaking into the playoffs in last place among the 16 drivers that advanced. It’s a far cry from the regular season championship he claimed last year along with the No. 1 seed.
The 45-year-old showed he’s not ready to throw in the towel, though, with a fifth-place finish last week at Darlington. It was his first Top 5 finish since a fourth in the second race at Pocono back in June.
The strong performance pushed Harvick up to seventh in the playoff standings and 20 points ahead of the cutoff line. Rated No. 7 in the Dunkel Index, we’ll stick with Harvick (-180) to continue to take advantage of the “new season” and finish in the Top 10 tonight in Richmond.
Keep up with your latest NASCAR news coverage and betting pick previews at The Dunkel Index.
