After back-to-back Team Penske wins, NASCAR heads to ISM Raceway’s one-mile horizontal track in Phoenix for the fourth race of the season.
Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano are driving streaks of eight top-12 finishes dating back to last year, but both drivers will take a backseat to the recent dominating performances of Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch in Phoenix.
Harvick (9/4) and Busch (7/2) have the shortest chances to win Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 and both won at the track last season. This weekend, when Harvick were to win, he would join an elite team, becoming only the sixth driver in series history to win 10 or more Cup Series races at one track; joining Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip, Jimmie Johnson, David Pearson and Dale Earnhardt.
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In three of those last four Phoenix races, Busch has led 359 laps, including 117 in his triumph throughout last year’s playoffs — the first under the new arrangement of the track.
Phoenix’s monitor is comparable to Richmond and New Hampshire and it’s no surprise both Harvick and Busch have experienced similar success at those racks. Busch has won the previous two races at Richmond and the fall race at New Hampshire of 2017. Harvick won the most-recent race in New Hampshire and has finished in the top five in five of the previous six races in Richmond.
But unlike in these previous races, all motorists will use a new car installment executed by NASCAR, one different from that which we watched the previous two weeks at Atlanta and Las Vegas. This season, teams may utilize a tapered spacer — and no ducts — for the very first time. They will use a 750-horsepower engine at Phoenix rather than their 550-horsepower engine in Vegas. NASCAR hopes to see a well-handling car. The package that is new could close the gap Harvick and Busch have experienced on the area.
So much in two races with the marginally differing rules package of NASCAR, Ford has led 65 percent of the laps and contains five stage wins. Ford driver Aric Almirola, Harvick’s teammate, will be a sleeper driver to observe this weekend. He was third in New Hampshire’s similar layout last season, fifth at Richmond and fourth in last year’s fall race at Phoenix. Almirola is 20/1 to win on Sunday and he is liked by us .
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Curious to win 2019 TicketGuardian 500 at Phoenix
Odds provided by Westgate LV SuperBook
Kevin HARVICK 9/4
Kyle BUSCH 7/2
Brad KESELOWSKI 7/1
Joey LOGANO 8/1
Martin TRUEX JR 10/1
Chase ELLIOTT 10/1
Denny HAMLIN 15/1
Kyle LARSON 20/1
Aric ALMIROLA 20/1
Clint BOWYER 25/1
Erik JONES 25/1
Kurt BUSCH 30/1
Ryan BLANEY 30/1
Jimmie JOHNSON 50/1
Austin DILLON 50/1
Alex BOWMAN 50/1
Ricky STENHOUSE JR 50/1
Daniel SUAREZ 60/1
Ryan NEWMAN 100/1
William BYRON 100/1
Daniel HEMRIC 100/1
Paul MENARD 100/1
Ryan PREECE 200/1
Chris BUESCHER 200/1
Matt DIBENEDETTO 200/1
Darrell WALLACE JR 500/1
Ty DILLON 1000/1
Michael McDOWELL 2000/1
David RAGAN 2000/1
FIELD (all others) 500/1
Read more: football-2019.com