Following a week off, the NASCAR Cup Series returns to action for Sunday's Ally 400 (7 p.m. ET, NBC) at Nashville Superspeedway.
To be as upfront and transparent as possible, NASCAR odds for Nashville aren't all that enticing at this point.
Therefore, I'm largely waiting for practice and qualifying before deciding just how heavily to get involved for Sunday night's race.
I haven't been very aggressive with outright NASCAR odds early in the week so far this season, though there is one driver worth a look right now for Sunday's Ally 400 at Nashville.
NASCAR Pick for Nashville
*NASCAR odds as of Wednesday
This weekend's race will be run on the same tire combination that NASCAR used at Auto Club, Las Vegas and Kansas earlier this season.
In those events, Denny Hamlin put up extremely impressive numbers, including a win at Kansas and the best driver rating across all three races.
In addition, Hamlin was very fast at Nashville last year. He led the most laps, ran the most fast laps and posted the top driver rating en route to a sixth-place finish.
For what it's worth, I'm putting much more emphasis on last year's Cup Series race at Nashville than the 2021 event since the Next Gen car was introduced prior to the 2022 season.
Based on the data above, you can make a valid argument that Hamlin should be the favorite for Sunday's race, though he's available at the very palatable price of +850 at FanDuel Sportsbook.
The bet: Hamlin (+850) to win via FanDuel
