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2024 FireKeepers Casino 400 picks, bets, Michigan odds: NASCAR expert with 11 winners this year shares picks
By CBS Sports Staff,
3 hours ago
Sean Gardner, Getty
With three races remaining in the NASCAR Cup Series regular season, Kyle Larson will attempt to keep his hold on first place in the standings when he competes at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday in the 2024 FireKeepers Casino 400. Larson, who has recorded a series-leading four victories this year, owns a five-point lead over Tyler Reddick and is six ahead of Chase Elliott. The 2021 Cup Series regular-season and overall champion is tied with Joey Logano for the most wins at Michigan among active drivers with three and has finished seventh or better in his last four starts at the track.
Larson and Denny Hamlin are 6-1 co-favorites in the latest 2024 FireKeepers Casino 400 odds. Ryan Blaney is 13-2 and Reddick is 7-1, while Brad Keselowski rounds out the top five 2024 NASCAR at Michigan contenders at 9-1. Sunday's race is scheduled to start at 2:30 p.m. ET. Before making any 2024 FireKeepers Casino 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 has been red-hot for SportsLine in 2024, nailing 11 winners in his best bets -- including 16-1 longshot William Byron at the Daytona 500 and 14-1 longshot Elliott at Texas. Anyone following his NASCAR picks has seen huge returns.
For the 2024 FireKeepers Casino 400, Taranto is high on Bubba Wallace, even though he's a 20-1 longshot. Wallace has bettered his finishes in each of his last three starts, going from a 13th place at Chicago to 10th at Pocono to fifth at the Brickyard and fourth at Richmond. He also had a seventh-place finish before the Chicago Street Race so he's finished no worse than 13th in each of his last five starts.
Wallace's track history is also favorable as he won the pole at Michigan in 2022 and led for 21 laps before finishing the race in second place. Last year at Michigan, Wallace led for 22 laps -- which was the third-most amongst all drivers -- before fading, but he's shown a knack for getting the best out of his vehicle at Michigan International Speedway. With the momentum he's gathered over the last month and past success on this track, Wallace is a longshot to jump on with FireKeepers Casino 400 2024 bets.
Another curveball: Taranto is fading Chris Buescher (14-1), even though he won this race last year. Buescher had a strong start to this season, but hasn't been able to maintain that form throughout the summer. He had five top-10s through his first seven starts of 2024 but has just four top-10s over his last 16 races. He enters Sunday's race without a top-10 over his last four starts, which matches his longest drought over the last two-and-a-half years.
"If you take away his win a year ago, Buescher only has one other Michigan top-10, a sixth in 2017," Taranto told SportsLine. "Unless his team can figure out something quickly to stem his summertime slide and get him back to the form that he showed in May when he almost won Kansas and Darlington, I would stay away from betting on Buescher this weekend." See what other NASCAR picks he likes at SportsLine .
How to make 2024 FireKeepers Casino 400 predictions
Taranto has also identified four other drivers in his 2024 NASCAR at Michigan best bets. He's also high on a huge NASCAR longshot who's going off at more than 25-1, potentially netting any backer a huge payday. You can only see who they are here.
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