Ryan Blaney will attempt to post his first victory of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season when he gets behind the wheel at Texas Motor Speedway for the 2024 AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 on Sunday. The reigning series champion, Blaney has yet to record a win this year after matching his career-high with three in 2023. The 30-year-old is coming off a fifth-place performance at Martinsville, his Cup Series-leading fourth top-five finish of the season. Blaney posted five straight top-10s and eight in nine starts at Texas before crashing out at the track last September.
Blaney is 8-1 and 2021 race winner Kyle Larson is the 4-1 favorite in the 2024 AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 odds. Tyler Reddick is 6-1, while Denny Hamlin and William Byron round out the top five 2024 NASCAR at Texas contenders at 7-1. The green flag drops at 3:30 p.m. ET. Before making any 2024 AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 picks or NASCAR predictions, you need to see what NASCAR insider Steven Taranto has to say.
Taranto, who moonlights as a sim racer and has 20 career wins in iRacing, is the lead NASCAR writer for CBSSports.com, and he chronicles stock car racing with the same thoroughness and passion that he’s had since becoming a full-time race fan in 2001. He has an annual NASCAR medial credential and also publishes a popular weekly NASCAR predictions column, famously calling Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez’s breakthrough wins in 2022.
Taranto is off to a red-hot start for SportsLine in 2024, nailing four winners in his best bets already, including 16-1 longshot Byron at the Daytona 500. Anyone following his NASCAR picks has seen some huge returns.
Now, Taranto has analyzed the field and odds for Sunday’s 2024 AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400. He’s sharing his best bets at SportsLine.
2024 AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 expert picks
For the 2024 AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400, Taranto is high on Chase Elliott, even though he’s a 12-1 longshot. The 28-year-old from Georgia has made 42 consecutive starts without a victory, last winning on Oct. 2, 2022 at Talladega. Elliott is coming off his best performance of the season after he was third at Martinsville last week. It was his second straight top-five finish and third top-10 in his last four races.
Elliott has yet to record a win in 13 Cup Series starts at Texas, with a fourth-place in November 2016 being his best finish. He has posted six top-10s over those 13 outings and enjoyed even better success at the track in NASCAR’s other two series. Elliott was eighth or better in his five Xfinity Series starts at Texas, making his way to Victory Lane in April 2014, and was runner-up in his only Truck Series race there three years ago.
Another surprise: Taranto is fading Denny Hamlin, even though he’s one of the top favorites. The three-time Daytona 500 winner is one of two drivers with multiple victories this season, as he has captured two checkered flags in his last four starts, doing so at Bristol and Richmond. Hamlin also has recorded three Cup Series victories at Texas in his career, the second-most among active drivers behind Kyle Busch (four).
Hamlin was fifth in this race last year but finished higher than ninth just once over his previous eight starts at the track. Since winning both Cup Series races at Texas in 2010, the 43-year-old has been better than ninth in just four of his 22 outings there. His only victory in that stretch came in March 2019, and over the last six seasons, he has led more than 12 laps just once in nine races at the track. See what other NASCAR picks he likes at SportsLine.
How to make 2024 AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 predictions
Taranto has also identified four other drivers in his 2024 NASCAR at Texas best bets. He’s also high on a massive NASCAR longshot that is priced higher than 75-1 in this week’s NASCAR odds. You can only see who they are here.
So who wins the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 2024, and which longshot could stun NASCAR? Visit SportsLine now to see the 2024 NASCAR at Texas picks and best bets from a NASCAR insider who has already nailed four winners this year, and find out.
2024 AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 odds
See full NASCAR at Texas picks at SportsLine
Kyle Larson 4-1
Tyler Reddick 6-1
William Byron 7-1
Denny Hamlin 7-1
Ryan Blaney 8-1
Christopher Bell 12-1
Chase Elliott 12-1
Martin Truex Jr. 12-1
Ty Gibbs 15-1
Bubba Wallace 15-1
Kyle Busch 16-1
Ross Chastain 16-1
Joey Logano 20-1
Alex Bowman 28-1
Brad Keselowski 30-1
Chris Buescher 33-1
Erik Jones 75-1
Daniel Suarez 75-1
Chase Briscoe 100-1
Noah Gragson 100-1
Austin Hill 150-1
Austin Cindric 200-1
Michael McDowell 200-1
John Hunter Nemechek 200-1
Jimmie Johnson 225-1
Josh Berry 250-1
Austin Dillon 250-1
Carson Hocevar 250-1
Corey LaJoie 300-1
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 300-1
Harrison Burton 500-1
Todd Gilliland 500-1
Ryan Preece 500-1
Zane Smith 500-1
Justin Haley 1000-1
Ty Dillon 2000-1
Kaz Grala 2000-1
Daniel Hemric 2000-1
