NASCAR Odds for Las Vegas: Yes, there's an over/under for winning car number

You don’t often associate Las Vegas with reality, but here’s where we are nearly a quarter way into the 21st century.

This week, after back-to-back “plate races” to open the season, NASCAR’s Haves begin separating themselves from the Have Nots, unless you prefer to call them Ain’t Gots.

Whatever, we’re looking at a track that could be Daytona’s little brother — a 1½-mile tri-oval. After watching that three-wide photo-finish at Atlanta this past Sunday, along with plenty of four-wide action earlier in the afternoon, will NASCAR cave to network desires and eventually slap on horsepower restrictions at other 1½-mile tracks to equalize the field and provide more of of that?

NASCAR SPEED FREAKS Can Las Vegas come up aces after Atlanta photo finish?

Human nature remains undefeated, so my guess is yes, eventually.

But not this week.

Daniel Suarez won’t win Sunday. Todd Gilliland won’t lead the most laps. Corey LaJoie won’t spend enough time with the leaders to learn their names.

That doesn’t mean it can’t be fun. And since we’re into fun around here, let’s check the Hard Rock Bets odds board — the only above-ground betting app available in the Good ol’ F-L-A — and spice things up a bit as we lead things off.

Winning car number: Yes, we have an over/under

And that over/under is 14.5. Being an over/under, this is an even-money bet. Bet a sawbuck, win a sawbuck, bet a c-note, win a c-note.

Let’s think about that 14.5 …

Here’s who you get with the under: Ross Chastain (can see it), Austin Cindric (nope), Austin Dillon (nope), Josh Berry (not yet), Kyle Larson (a big maybe), Brad Keselowski (probably not), Corey LaJoie (come on!), Kyle Busch (hmmm), Chase Elliott (the peoples’ choice), Noah Gragson (nope), Denny Hamlin (see Larson), Ryan Blaney (see Hamlin) and Chase Briscoe (highly doubtful).

Man, there are some real keepers with car numbers at 15 or higher, including Chris Buescher, Martin Truex, Christopher Bell, Joey Logano, William Byron and Tyler Reddick.

Gotta really like the over, I say.

Odds to win: The faves

Kyle Larson +400; Denny Hamlin +900; Ryan Blaney +900; William Byron +900; Christopher Bell +1000

No more +1000 and higher for the odds-maker’s favorite. The plate-racin’ is done for a while. But still, man oh man, that’s quite a gulf between Kyle and Denny. Then again, Denny has dug a lot of gulfs between himself and others in recent years. Tell me the winner comes from this fivesome, and I don’t flinch a bit.

Second tier … or is it third tier?

Chase Elliott +1400; Joey Logano +1500; Bubba Wallace +2000

I did some counting on the all-inclusive board, and Billy Clyde was the ninth favorite, at the +1400 you see above. It’s almost like the Elliott legion has discovered he hasn’t won in a very, very long time

“Thanks but no thanks, baby”

Daniel Suarez +6000; Michael McDowell +7500; Austin Cindric +10000; Corey LaJoie +15000

Delbert McClinton wasn’t thinking of this group when he wrote Honky Tonkin’, but I am. As we've mentioned, plate-racin' is done for now.

Group it up

Chris Buescher +250; Alex Bowman +260; Ty Gibbs +275; Erik Jones +350.

Hard Rock offers a handful of “group bets” each week, where you can pick the driver from a group to finish above his group mates.

I kinda think Buescher is the favorite among this not-so-fab four for a reason. He might be the closest one to fab. But there’s such a low return on a bet that can go bad with one clunky pit stop or ill-timed twitch in Turn 3.

I’ll avoid this one. For now.

— Reach Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR keeps it 'real' in Las Vegas? Look at that over/under!