As a fan, I'm very excited about Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Verizon 200 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC) at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
This circuit, which is the road course at Indianapolis, has produced some wild racing since being introduced three years ago.
In addition, there are a handful of very talented road course ringers, including Shane van Gisbergen, who won already this season on the streets of Chicago. There's also Brodie Kostecki, Kamui Kobayashi and Jenson Button, who have the ability to compete with NASCAR's best as well this afternoon.
Fun.
And when it comes to NASCAR odds for Indianapolis, I'm also backing this skilled racer for a top-five finish this afternoon.
NASCAR Pick for Indianapolis
*NASCAR odds as of midday Sunday
Michael McDowell is having a career season and is very much in the NASCAR playoff hunt.
He now gets two cracks at his best style of racing – road racing – with today's race in Indy and next week's at Watkins Glen.
In the Next Gen era, McDowell has posted the third-best average finish, the third-best driver rating and third-best average running position at road courses.
And while not all that unexpected, the driver of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford has been very fast at Indianapolis again this weekend.
McDowell posted the fastest single-lap and the fastest 10-lap average in practice, showing his car has plenty of speed on short and potentially longer runs at IMS.
He backed up that speed in qualifying as well, securing a fourth-place position on the starting grid.
In McDowell we're getting a very strong performer at this style of track who has also showed plenty of pace since unloading at Indy.
For all of these reasons, I'm grabbing McDowell at +250 (Caesars) for a top-five finish this afternoon.
The bet:McDowell (+250) for a top five via Caesars
