The playoffs are here.
NASCAR's 2022 postseason kicks off Sunday with the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, pitting the Top 16 drivers in a gradual-elimination format that will see a quarter of the playoff field ousted every three races.
Defending Cup Series champion Kyle Larson is still among the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series odds contenders, and leads the way on this week's Cook Out Southern 500 odds board.
Let's check out how the field stacks up, and be sure to visit our Cook Out Southern 500 picks for a full race analysis!
Cook Out Southern 500 odds
| Driver | Odds to win |
|---|---|
| Kyle Larson | +600 |
| Denny Hamlin | +600 |
| Tyler Reddick | +700 |
| Chase Elliott | +700 |
| Kyle Busch | +900 |
| Joey Logano | +900 |
| Ross Chastain | +1,100 |
| Martin Truex Jr. | +1,100 |
| Ryan Blaney | +1,600 |
| William Byron | +1,800 |
| Kevin Harvick | +2,000 |
| Christopher Bell | +2,000 |
| Alex Bowman | +2,500 |
| Daniel Suarez | +3,500 |
| Austin Dillon | +4,000 |
| Michael McDowell | +5,000 |
| Chase Briscoe | +5,000 |
| Erik Jones | +6,000 |
| Ty Gibbs | +7,000 |
| Bubba Wallace | +7,000 |
| Austin Cindric | +7,000 |
| Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | +8,000 |
| Chris Buescher | +8,000 |
Odds courtesy of DraftKings as of August 30, 2022.
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Cook Out Southern 500 pre-race favorites
Kyle Larson (+600)
Larson and the rest of the field have closed the gap on Chase Elliott considerably, as he's now just 21 points back of the overall Cup Series lead heading into the playoffs.
Larson was runner-up in both of the Darlington races last year, and has Top-3 finishes in four of his last five starts there, despite having no wins.
The defending Cup Series champ has alternated strong showings with poor results for weeks now, and after a predictably subpar 37th-place at Daytona last week following a Watkins Glen win, books are eyeing him to rebound with the playoffs now here.
Denny Hamlin (+600)
A four-time Darlington winner, Hamlin has to be entering this weekend feeling confident despite finishes of 20th and 25th in the last two races and a 21st here earlier this year.
Hamlin won this race last season to kick off a dominant run of six-straight Top-10 finishes, and eight in the final 10 races — including another win and four total Top 3s — to finish third overall on the season.
Now gaining a bit of momentum after an extremely uneven start to 2022, Hamlin will look to use a track he's accustomed to winning on as a springboard yet again.
Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott (+700)
Reddick's price here is more a matter of current form than Darlington track record, where he has ho-hum results despite a runner-up finish there this spring. Reddick's posted two wins and two seconds in his last nine races, coming off a runner-up last weekend.
Meanwhile, Elliott still leads the overall points standings, and excluding last weekend's Daytona crapshoot, has no finish worse than 16th in his last 10 races — with half of those results in the Top 2 and seven Top 5s.
How to bet on NASCAR
The most popular way to bet on NASCAR is by simply picking the winner of a race, which is also referred to as an outright. There are plenty of other ways to wager, including betting on whether or not a driver will finish in the Top 3 or Top 10 of a race.
Another popular betting option is head-to-head matchup betting, where sportsbooks pair up two drivers and you choose who you think will finish better in the race, which is far easier than trying to select someone to win out of a field of approximately 40 drivers. For tips on NASCAR betting check out our How to Bet NASCAR page.
