NASCAR Shriners Children’s 500 Picks and Predictions: Bet Blaney (+500) to Win on Mar 9

Will Bell achieve this feat? Will William Byron win his second race? Or perhaps a new winner? Let’s break it all down with our NASCAR best bets for the week.

3 NASCAR Shriners Children’s 500 Picks

1. Bet on Blaney to Win

While Ford is the only manufacturer to not win a race and was a complete non-factor last week at COTA, we believe Ryan Blaney and Team Penske will bring the Blue Oval to victory lane this week. While he has never won in the desert, his numbers have been downright gaudy, per NASCAR betting trends.

Blaney has registered seven-straight top-fives, including four runner-up finishes. The fact that his odds for a top-five sit at minus-money is incredibly justified. We will take his +500 odds to win.

Bet this pick: Ryan Blaney (+500) to win the Shriners Children’s 500

2. Top-5 Larson in NASCAR Prop Picks

Naturally, after making NASCAR news by winning two of the first three races, Christopher Bell is the NASCAR betting odds favorite to win the Cup Series championship at +425. His numbers at Phoenix are solid. He won this race one year ago and has six top-10s in his last eight races. Time will tell if Bell’s success can carry over to non-drafting ovals.

Another fun name to watch is Chase Briscoe, who was excellent at Phoenix in his tenure with Stewart-Haas Racing with four top-10s in eight starts. He won his first Cup race here back in 2022. He is now in much better equipment at Joe Gibbs Racing, which should have him running up front. His odds to win sit at +1000.

Last week was a heartbreaker for Kyle Busch, who has not won a Cup race in 60 races, per NASCAR stats. He led the most laps but faded on the long run, yielding the win to Bell. We unfortunately do not believe Phoenix will be the location of his next win as he has finished outside the top-20 in the last three races.

You can never count out Kyle Larson, who has been relatively quiet through three races. Like many other tracks, he is great in the desert, with three top-fives in his last four races. We will take even money on him having his breakout race for the year and scoring a top-five to cash this NASCAR prop pick.

Bet this top-5 pick: Kyle Larson (Ev)

3. Buescher, Bubba Headline Top-10 Betting Values

You know we love hunting for top-10 bargains for our online bets and Chris Buescher for RFK Racing kicks off our list. While not fantastic at Phoenix, he has three-straight top-10s and four in his last six. Even when he ran in lesser equipment at JTG Daugherty Racing, he was routinely finishing inside the top-20. We’ll give Buescher a go at +120 odds.

Bubba Wallace also has some Phoenix success of late, with two top-10s in his last three races. We will take a shot on him at +180 NASCAR betting lines. We also like Bubba to prevail from group D, which consists of Alex Bowman, Austin Cindric and Carson Hocevar.

Bowman is typically one of our favorite value picks, but we are staying away from him this week. His numbers at Phoenix have simply not been good, with only one top-10 since 2018. John Hunter Nemechek is another driver with a hot start, scoring back-to-back top-10s to open the season.

We simply believe that was an outcome of drafting ovals and we do not like Nemechek at all this week. That team has yet to show consistent speed so even with a potential major payout at +2000 odds, don’t include him in NASCAR predictions.

Bet these top-10 picks: Chris Buescher +120; Bubba Wallace +160

Odds and information are accurate at the time of writing. Please check with official sources for the latest updates before placing any bets

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