The fourth and the final superspeedway race of the 2021 season leads us to YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. If you are a NASCAR geek like us, we know that it’s impossible to contain your excitement this time of the year!
This season will be bumper to bumper as the top contenders’ race for their life and reputation. The Cup Series for 2021 will head to the Talladega Superspeedway on Monday for the second race in Round 12 after Sunday’s race had to be unfortunately postponed due to the unpredictable rain.
Nevertheless, it is the final that we all are eagerly looking forward to! The 2021 Playoffs will be contested over 188 laps on the Talladega. Our current points leader, Kyle Larson, has failed to finish in his last two appearances and has no wins in 13 starts. Therefore, the YellaWood 2021 odds don’t place him among the top five.
Nascar YellaWood 2021 Overview and Analysis
If you are a NASCAR fan, you know how difficult it is to predict the results. Once the drivers strap on their safety belts, we know no one can save them. They see an opening, they take it, and then the chaos descends.
This season is the fifth of 10 playoffs and also the 31st of 26 races. On that note, let’s analyze this season’s top players and their chances of winning the coveted NASCAR YellaWood 2021!
YellaWood 500 predictions 2021: Contenders
As you are already familiar, this season, Larson is at 12-1 at Ceasers Sportsbook. The driver behind him in the standings is Denny Hamlin, who also happens to be the 8-1 favorite. Brad Keselowski, who was a NASCAR at Talladega champion earlier this year, finishes at 10-1, accompanied by Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott.
If you have been following the previous seasons, you will know that Ford has won 10 of the last 12 at Talladega. At the same time, Team Penske did most of the damage with its three drivers. At the same time, Roush-Fenway racing was lucky enough to grab one in 2017 with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. The Stewart-Haas Racing with Aric Almirola won in 2018.
Brad Keselowski has been the six-time Talladega winner. He also won the spring Talladega earlier in 2021, and which was his only win this year. Now he is being offered at 16-1 odds to win this match with Circa Sports. The odds are indicative in favour of Brad Keselowski. He is incredible at the draft, knows what he is doing, and has known it since 2009 when he won his career’s first race cup at Talladega. Even though he competed as a part-time driver for an underfunded part-time team, he did prove his worth.
Ryan Blaney won at Dayon earlier this season in August. This was his career’s third superspeedway win, and he also finished ninth at Talladega in April after leading around 11 laps.
This week, the racer with great odds is 25-year-old Ford-driver Kevin Harvick, who is partnered with Circa Sports and has 16-1 odds at YellaWood 500 Talladega. Out of all the three-race packages run this season, he is the one who has proved to be the strongest when it comes to the superspeedway race package.
So far, he has had only one Talladega Cup win in 2010, but in this playoff situation, it can be predicted that the odds are in his favor. He finished fourth in the Dayton 500, leading about 17 laps, and fourth in the April Talladega race after leading 12 laps.
There have been nine wins for Harvick last season, but no wins in this season so far. However, this doesn’t disregard that he is one of the strongest competitors the Talladega superspeedway has ever seen. As a racer, he has always shown great promise, and we are hoping he continues to do so throughout this season. We are keeping our fingers crossed.
A massive shocker this season was Chase Elliott. Even though Chase Elliott was one of Vegas’ favorites at 10-1, he stumbled big time and failed to crack the top five. The 2020 Nascar Cup Series champion has seen to be coming off a second-place finish in Las Vegas last week. However, he is currently sixth in the overall NASCAR standings and 35 points behind Kyle Larson.
Kyle Larson has had six NASCAR Cup Series wins this season. He has enjoyed most of 2021 as the fan’s championship favorite. This Sunday, he will enter the YellaWood 500 with an almost 57-point gap on the cutline. This puts him in a pretty comfortable position with two races still left in Round 12.
Martin Truex Jr. is also sitting fourth and has a 31-point gap edge on his side. This compiles an average finish of 4.0 four races into the NASCAR playoffs.
The Talladega race is one of four NASCAR Cup Series playoffs currently run. The other three are the GEICO 500 in May, the Dayton 500, and the Coke Zero Sugar 400.
In the end, fans know that the Talladega superspeedway is an animal in its own right. No one knows what’s going to happen once the drivers fasten their seatbelts. In fact, the Talladega Superspeedway is the most unpredictable track in NASCAR history. We can only hope that luck is on the racers’ sides.
Earlier this season, Bubba Wallace scripted history with the first Cup Series Victory. He became the second African-American driver to win a race at NASCAR’s top level. Previously, the record was held by Wendell Scott in 1963.
YellaWood 500 Top-5 Finish Predictions
According to our NASCAR predictions this season, this is how the tally book for the YellaWood 500 odds looks like:
- #11 Denny Harlin (11/1)
- #2 Brad Keselowski (16/1)
- #4 Keven Harvick (16/1)
- #12 Ryan Blaney (11/1)
- #24 Willian Byron (11/1)
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