How WynnBET’s Virginia-based NASCAR deal benefits race fans

Posted on April 8, 2021April 10, 2021 by Marcus DiNitto

The NASCAR circuit heads to Martinsville this weekend for the first of two consecutive stops in Virginia, marking a soft launch of WynnBET’s sponsorship that is closely tied to the state. WynnBET, a subsidiary of the posh Las Vegas-based Wynn Resorts, has partnerships with both Virginia tracks – Martinsville Speedway and Richmond Raceway.

WynnBET’s foray into auto racing looks to be only positive for fans and bettors, and to be clear, you do not need to be a resident of Virginia to place a legal bet in the state; you just need to be in the state, so if you’re headed to Martinsville or Richmond from out of state, downloading a betting app, making a deposit and placing a few wagers should be a snap.

WynnBET’s NASCAR deal includes access to live data feeds that allow the sportsbook to post in-race odds that change as the race progresses. We’ve touched several times in this space on in-race betting, or live betting, which offers bettors the opportunity to get involved after the green flag drops. It’s a fun way to wager, and it favors astute race observers able to analyze what they’ve been witnessing to find an edge in the betting markets. Expect in-race betting options to expand as we move forward, particularly with deals such as WynnBET’s.

Another aspect of the deal of interest to race fans – WynnBET lounges are planned for both Virginia tracks. Such sportsbook-themed lounges are becoming popular across the entire sports landscape, as most states’ regulations do not allow actual sportsbooks within sports facilities (Illinois and the District of Columbia are exceptions). To recreate an experience similar to what one would find at a sportsbook, venues and their sponsors are constructing lounges with oddsboards, big screens and bars.

In Virginia, in fact, there are not yet any brick-and-mortar establishments at which to make a bet – mobile sports betting is your only option. The state’s regulations allow for a maximum of 12 sports betting apps, and six are now live and ready for your action. In addition to WynnBET, BetMGM – an official NASCAR partner – is up and running. Barstool Sportsbook expects to launch in Virginia in the coming months.

As is always our recommendation, bettors should shop around various sportsbooks to find the best odds, best experience and best sign-up bonuses, which they nearly all offer. Be careful with these sign-up bonuses, however. Yes, they can be used to a bettor’s advantage, but there’s always fine print to be mindful of. WynnBET is offering a $500 “risk-free bet” when you sign up, and SportsHandle does a nice job of summarizing how this works.

Odds at WynnBET

As of Thursday, numerous betting markets are posted on WynnBET’s Virginia app – race winner, team of race winner, drivers to finish in the top four, top five and top 10, top finisher among groups of six, top Chevy driver, top Ford driver, and the last digit of the winning car. The offerings in Virginia are more robust than what WynnBET has posted in other states.

Picking the race winner is extraordinarily difficult, exemplified through the early stretch of this season with seven different drivers winning the first seven races. If you can nail it, though, you’ll be rewarded with a nice payday.

While Martin Truex Jr., winner of two of the three most recent Cup races in Martinsville, is the betting favorite heading into the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500, priced at +500 (bet $100 to win $500) at WynnBET, he is one of six drivers priced at odds of less than 10/1, an indication we’re in for another wide-open affair.

Truex is followed on the oddsboard by Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski, both listed at +600. Keselowski has two Martinsville victories on his resume, and Elliott won here in November.

Next up is Ryan Blaney at +700 and then it’s Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano at +750.

With the race favorite plus Hamlin, who was once dominant at Martinsville, and 12/1 Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing has the shortest price in the winning team market, offered at +170 at WynnBET.

Team Penske, which boasts three drivers near the top of the oddsboard, looks to be the better value at +215. Hendrick Motorsports is +300.

Download the WynnBET app and check out all the odds here, and scroll through BetMGM’s opening outright prices here.

Marcus DiNitto is a writer and editor living in Charlotte, North Carolina. He has been covering sports for nearly two-and-a-half decades and sports betting for more than 10 years. His first NASCAR betting experience was in 1995 at North Wilkesboro Speedway, where he went 0-for-3 on his matchup picks. Read his articles and follow him on Twitter; do not bet his picks.

Posted on April 8, 2021April 8, 2021 by Team Release

David Gilliland Racing driver Taylor Gray underwent surgery earlier today at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C. for a fractured L4 vertebra. Gray will also undergo another surgery in the coming days for a fractured left foot and ankle due to the accident. Gray is expected to make a full recovery.

Gray will not make his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start in the No. 17 entry at Richmond (Va.) Raceway on April 17 as previously scheduled. The No. 17 has been withdrawn from the Richmond event.

MORE: Camping World Truck Series news

Posted on April 7, 2021April 10, 2021 by Staff Report

After a week off from racing, the NASCAR Cup Series is rested, rejuvenated and ready to take on “The Paperclip” under the lights in the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway (resumes on Sunday at 4 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Want the inside scoop? Here’s what you need to know ahead of the race.

STARTING LINEUP
Bristol winner Joey Logano starts his Team Penske Ford right where he left off, securing the Busch Pole Award for the Saturday night showdown. Joining Logano on the front row is points leader Denny Hamlin, followed by William Byron and Ryan Blaney — both winners already this season — in row two. Chase Elliott, the most recent Martinsville winner, rounds out the top five. Check out the full starting lineup.

RELATED: Pit stall picks | Paint schemes

BETTING ODDS, ONES TO WATCH
Martin Truex Jr. leads this weekend’s NASCAR betting odds after dominating two of the last three races at the southern Virginia track. Truex opens at 11-2 with Hamlin hot on his heels at 23-4, followed by Elliott (6-1), Brad Keselowski (6-1) and Logan0 (7-1), who each have track wins under their belt.

Though winless here, Ryan Blaney (8-1) and Matt DiBenedetto (66-1) present great value alongside the weekend favorites. Two-time winner Kurt Busch (30-1) might have a say, as well.

Blaney finished runner-up in both 2020 Martinsville races, while both of DiBenedetto’s two career top 10s at the track have come in the last two trips and the elder Busch has three consecutive finishes of ninth or better.

Should you side with the sleepers? See the full list of BetMGM Martinsville odds.

TICKETS AND TRAVEL PACKAGES
General admission tickets for Saturday’s Blue-Emu 500 at Martinsville have sold out. However, travel packages and tickets for the fall race may still be available. For more information, visit the Martinsville event site.

SHORT TRACK SETUP
The NASCAR rules package for short tracks will be in effect with a tapered spacer used to set a target of 750 horsepower. The cars will use a reduced downforce package with a shorter spoiler, a shorter splitter overhang and other aerodynamic changes.

GOODYEAR TIRES
Back to the radials we go, with each team getting nine sets of Goodyear Eagle Short Track Radials for the 263-mile race on the 0.526-mile oval.

Drivers will be tasked with tire management on a mixed surface of asphalt straightaways and concrete corners. For the relatively flat track, recommended inflation is 10 psi for the left side tires, 23 psi for the right front and 22 psi for the right rear.

TRACK FACTS, RECENT TRENDS
— Martinsville Speedway is the only track to host a race in every season of NASCAR’s existence and is the only remaining active “Charter Track” on the current schedule.

— Saturday’s Cup Series race is the 145th race at Martinsville but just the second season that it will be a scheduled night race.

— The last five short track races were won by five different drivers, most recently Chase Elliott during the 2020 Cup Series Playoffs.

— After going winless in his first 80 premier series starts, Martin Truex Jr. has won four of the last 10 short track races.

— There have only been 12 first-time winners at Martinsville and the last was Ricky Craven in October 2001.

Source: Racing Insights

FANTASY

Another week means another chance to beat the competition and show off your NASCAR instincts. Take control of your very own team each week with NASCAR Fantasy Live — it’s free to play! Learn everything you need to know at fantasygames.nascar.com.

The 2021 fantasy points leaders are Denny Hamlin (327), Joey Logano (262) and Martin Truex Jr. (247).

ALSO ON NASCAR.COM

Get additional camera views by logging on to NASCAR Drive, where each week a select number of in-car cameras will be available – as well as a battle cam and an overhead look.

New for this season, NASCAR has partnered with LiveLike to add fan engagement in the NASCAR Mobile App. Log in to the mobile app during the race for polls, quizzes, the cheer meter and more – and see instant results from NASCAR fans like you.

Posted on April 7, 2021April 7, 2021 by Staff Report

Tyler Reddick took his turn behind the wheel of the Next Gen car during a two-day Goodyear tire test Tuesday and Wednesday at Darlington Raceway.

Reddick, who drives the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, is in his second season in the NASCAR Cup Series but this marked his first time driving the Next Gen car.

PHOTOS: Scenes from the Next Gen test at Darlington

“I heard how much different this car was, and I wanted to see it for myself,” Reddick said. “Darlington is one of the top 3-4 most challenging tracks we get around. It might be the most difficult. This track in turns 1-2 is different than 3-4. I really wanted to get to drive this car and see what this thing’s like at a track that I’m comfortable at. I have a good understanding of this track, and what it takes to get rubbered in and what direction to go to hopefully find us the best tire.”

The Next Gen car features 18-inch wheels as opposed to the 15-inch wheels that are currently used in the Cup Series. The workhorse P3 prototype was used for the test at Darlington.

Given Reddick’s propensity to run the high line at high-wear tracks, it’s worth asking if he had gotten the first Next Gen Darlington Stripe. Day 1 went without incident, but Reddick’s final run of the day Wednesday ended with slight right-side damage.

“Well, the Lady in Black bit me,” Reddick said on Twitter, recounting details of his 360-degree spin and contact with the retaining wall. “It’s definitely a lot harder to hold onto these cars than what I was used to in the sixth-gen.”

.@TylerReddick and the Next Gen car made contact with the wall at @TooToughToTame during the final run of the Goodyear tire test. pic.twitter.com/LHMOJvCFRI

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) April 7, 2021

NASCAR Managing Director of Vehicle Systems, R&D, Brandon Thomas, says Tuesday that the goal is to leave the test with Goodyear having enough information to be able to make a decision on the tire for next year’s events with the Next Gen car on track.

“There’s a reverence for the track that is Darlington,” Thomas said. “So when you take a brand-new car, and you bring it to a track with this much history, you want to make sure the car respects the track. Reddick got out one time and was like, ‘This still drives like Darlington.’ And that to me is important.

“We want the car to come here and still slide around, still have to play with the throttle, still have to play the track, and that’s exactly what Reddick said it did.”

This week’s test marks the first appearance at the historic South Carolina track for the Next Gen model, which is scheduled for its official competition debut in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series. Manufacturer-specific Next Gen cars also tested last week at Martinsville Speedway, gathering data with wheel-force transducers.

Also on Wednesday, NASCAR officials announced that the three automakers’ Next Gen entries for 2022 will get their full unveiling in Charlotte on May 5.

Posted on April 7, 2021April 7, 2021 by Staff Report

As the Next Gen car inches toward its 2022 competition debut in the NASCAR Cup Series, a full look at the models from each of the sport’s three manufacturers is also closing in.

The three Next Gen entries will be unveiled May 5 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The automakers’ three models took their first turns on the track last week at Martinsville Speedway, but in a closed test and with busy, camouflaged paint schemes to disguise their appearance. In addition to the new race car bodies, specs and elements of the new car also will be announced.

RELATED: Next Gen scenes at Darlington

It’s the next phase in the car’s timeline, moving past the development phase and into tire testing and eventually organizational tests. Wednesday’s announcement dovetailed with Tyler Reddick’s track time in the P3 prototype this week at Darlington Raceway, working with Goodyear officials to determine tire combinations.

Posted on April 7, 2021April 7, 2021 by Chase Wilhelm

Nearly two weeks after their post-race fisticuffs at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Noah Gragson would still like to discuss the incident with Daniel Hemric.

To refresh your memory, the two drivers tangled during a late-race pit stop in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the 1.54-mile Georgia track. Hemric overshot his pit stall, which slowed up Gragson’s entry into his respective stall just ahead. Gragson showed Hemric a middle-finger gesture, then entered his stall at an awkward angle, which forced him to back up to get in a better position. Gragson then backed up the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet into Hemric’s No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota while Hemric’s car was being serviced.

Hemric confronted Gragson on pit road after the race, which led to punches thrown by both parties.

Hemric felt Gragson’s move was intentional, but NASCAR officials determined no penalty would be handed down to Gragson as a result of the incident.

“Oh yeah, crammed it into reverse and backed up,” Hemric said at the time. “Punched a hole in the nose of our car. Punched a hole in our car and I got one punched in his eye. We’re even.”

Although Hemric thinks they’re square, it’s Gragson who still wants to have a conversation before the series heads to Martinsville Speedway for Friday night’s Cook Out 250 (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Gragson also explained why he wanted to wait until this week to pick up the phone.

“I’m going to call him in the next day or two,” Gragson said on Wednesday. “For me right now, I took a little bit of a break for Easter. I kind of wanted to reset my mind. I didn’t want to jump into anything too premature. I wanted emotions in check. I wanted to kind of give it a few days or a week to cool off. Emotions are high, tempers are high right after the fact.”

Gragson and Hemric are fairly familiar with each other after being teammates at JR Motorsports in 2020 before Hemric moved to a full-time ride at Joe Gibbs Racing. Although a relationship between the two drivers may never be the same, Gragson has no hard feelings toward Hemric after exchanging jabs.

“With that being said, I think Daniel is a good guy. “… We’ve been to lunch together. I’ve seen him around at dinner and whatnot. I have no hard feelings toward Daniel or anyone else in the Xfinity garage. But at the same time, I need to keep a job and I need to race as hard as I can.”

Posted on April 7, 2021April 10, 2021 by Staff Report

See where your favorite driver will pit in the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway (resumes Sunday at 4 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on April 7, 2021 by Staff Report

“Lost Speedways” with Dale Earnhardt Jr. will return for a second season this summer on Peacock, the soon-to-be NASCAR Hall of Famer revealed on his “The Dale Jr. Download” podcast on Tuesday.

The second season, which will be available on Peacock — an OTT-streaming service owned by NBCUniversal, will consist of eight episodes. Season 1 debuted last summer with eight episodes.

RELATED: Dale Jr. through the years

In a release announcing the second season, Earnhardt said, “We’re excited to bring you a second season of that show. We were so happy with the response from season one. We’ve got a whole new batch of really unique race tracks. Going to these places produced some incredible experiences. I just can’t wait for you to see them.”

The show documents Dale Jr.’s passion, exploration and historical look at race tracks around the country that are now desolate and unused. Matthew Dillner serves as the co-host of the show.

Posted on April 7, 2021April 7, 2021 by Staff Report

Joey Logano has won the Busch Pole Award for Saturday night’s Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Martinsville Speedway.

Logano, the series’ most recent winner at Bristol Motor Speedway’s dirt-track event, will start his No. 22 Team Penske Ford from the pole position. The starting lineup was made official Wednesday morning.

Harrison Burton won the pole for Friday’s Cook Out 250 (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. The 20-year-old driver is the most recent Xfinity winner at the .526-mile Martinsville track.

As NASCAR adapted to COVID-19 protocols last season, practice and qualifying were eliminated at a majority of national-series events to limit at-track time, exposure and to cut race weekend costs. To determine starting lineups, competition officials used grouped draws, added inversions for weekend doubleheaders, and eventually adopted a performance-metrics formula. That metrics format remains in place this season, drawing on performance from both individual races and season-long results.

NASCAR’s metrics formula for 2021 weighs:

25 percent: Driver’s finishing position from the previous race
25 percent: Car owner’s finishing position from the previous race
35 percent: Team owner points ranking
15 percent: Fastest lap from the previous race

See the full lineup for Sunday’s Cup Series race below.

Start pos.	Driver	Car #	Team
1	Joey Logano	22	Team Penske
2	Denny Hamlin	11	Joe Gibbs Racing
3	William Byron	24	Hendrick Motorsports
4	Ryan Blaney	12	Team Penske
5	Chase Elliott	9	Hendrick Motorsports
6	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	47	JTG Daugherty Racing
7	Martin Truex Jr.	19	Joe Gibbs Racing
8	Ryan Newman	6	Roush Fenway Racing
9	Kevin Harvick	4	Stewart-Haas Racing
10	Brad Keselowski	2	Team Penske
11	Daniel Suarez	99	Trackhouse Racing Team
12	Kyle Busch	18	Joe Gibbs Racing
13	Tyler Reddick	8	Richard Childress Racing
14	Michael McDowell	34	Front Row Motorsports
15	Chris Buescher	17	Roush Fenway Racing
16	Erik Jones	43	Richard Petty Motorsports
17	Ryan Preece	37	JTG Daugherty Racing
18	Austin Dillon	3	Richard Childress Racing
19	Kyle Larson	5	Hendrick Motorsports
20	Alex Bowman	48	Hendrick Motorsports
21	Kurt Busch	1	Chip Ganassi Racing
22	Matt DiBenedetto	21	Wood Brothers Racing
23	Christopher Bell	20	Joe Gibbs Racing
24	Chase Briscoe	14	Stewart-Haas Racing
25	Bubba Wallace	23	23XI Racing
26	Cole Custer	41	Stewart-Haas Racing
27	Ross Chastain	42	Chip Ganassi Racing
28	JJ Yeley	53	Rick Ware Racing
29	Quin Houff	00	StarCom Racing
30	Justin Haley	77	Spire Motorsports
31	Aric Almirola	10	Stewart-Haas Racing
32	Cody Ware	51	Petty Ware Racing
33	Josh Bilicki	52	Rick Ware Racing
34	Corey LaJoie	7	Spire Motorsports
35	Anthony Alfredo	38	Front Row Motorsports
36	BJ McLeod	78	Live Fast Motorsports
37	James Davison	15	Rick Ware Racing

Practice and qualifying are tentatively scheduled for eight Cup Series races this year. Busch Pole Qualifying was held for the season-opening Daytona 500 but rain canceled the qualifying races for Bristol Motor Speedway’s dirt-track race. The next Cup Series event with qualifying scheduled is the May 23 debut at the Circuit of the Americas road course in Austin, Texas.

Posted on April 7, 2021 by Paul Lambert

After an unpredictable 2020 season, 2021 promises to bring the same excitement Modified fans have come to love.

It all starts in Virginia at Martinsville Speedway Thursday night for the Virginia Is For Racing Lovers 200 (buy tickets | watch on TrackPass). And it will wrap up Saturday, Sept. 25, at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway with the 48th Annual NAPA Auto Parts Fall Final.

In between, plenty of action and emerging stars vying for race wins and the 37th championship in tour history.

A revamped schedule

The 2021 schedule is made up of 14 races, from Maine to Virginia, highlighted by three shared Cup weekends and three new tracks.

In just two days, the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour returns to Martinsville for 200 laps in the series’ first visit to the track since 2010.

After a year away due to the pandemic, both New York’s Riverhead Raceway and Oswego Speedway are back on the schedule, each with a pair of race dates. Jennerstown Speedway in Pennsylvania, which stepped in last year as the tour season-opener, has a date this year on Memorial Day weekend.

The tour heads to New Hampshire Motor Speedway in July for 100 laps as part of the Cup Series weekend.

Stafford hosts three Tour races in 2021, including the 49th Annual NAPA Auto Parts Spring Sizzler in April.

There are other tracks making a long-awaited return to the schedule, too, and another making its first foray onto the Whelen Modified Tour scene.

Richmond also brings the tour south for their September Cup weekend, and Maine’s Beech Ridge Motor Speedway will see ground-pounder action for the first time since 2005.

New York International Raceway in Lancaster will host its first race on July 31. Western New York is a traditional modified hotbed, and the track joins Oswego on the schedule.

Defending Tour champion Justin Bonsignore dealt with plenty of schedule curveballs in his 2020 title run. And 2021 isn’t a concern for him.

“I welcome the new tracks,” Bonsignore said. “Any time a new facility is willing to host the Modified Tour, that’s a huge thing and we really appreciate the racetracks that are on the schedule this year with all the uncertainties of COVID. For them to take on the task of hosting a Tour race, that’s really, really cool.”

Chasing down the champs

The biggest question mark coming into 2021 in terms of competition: Who is going to stop the juggernaut that is Bonsignore and the No. 51 Phoenix Communications Chevrolet team?

It’s one of the greatest runs of success in Modified history. They’ve finished in the top 10 in 20 straight races and inside the top five 15 consecutive times, streaks that date back to June and August of 2019. Last year, Bonsignore’s average finish of 2.7 set the all-time record for best average finish by any Whelen Modified Tour champion.

Ron Silk was one of the hottest drivers in the series in the back half of the 2020 season. After the No. 85 team withdrew from the August race at Jennerstown, the 2011 tour champion tore off five top-three finishes including two wins to wrap up the year.

While he didn’t win a race in 2020, Jon McKennedy rallied late in the season to finish second in the standings in his first full-time season. Working with Tommy Baldwin, McKennedy was the only driver besides Bonsignore to finish all nine races inside the top 10. McKennedy’s average finish of 5.6 was far and away the best of his tour career.

Of course, it would be silly to count out six-time Tour champion Doug Coby. In his first year as an owner-driver, Coby won a race at New Hampshire’s White Mountain Motorsports Park, making 2020 the 10th straight season he won a race; That tops all other active drivers. Coby also scored two poles en route to a third-place points finish.

A 22nd in the season-finale at Thompson was the only time Coby failed to score a top-10 all year.

Coby was the only driver to keep within striking distance of Bonsignore in points. With championship No. 7 at stake, Coby will almost certainly be in the title discussion down the stretch.

And don’t forget about Craig Lutz. Lutz won a pair of races in 2020. In doing so, Lutz became one of three drivers, along with Bonsignore and Silk, to win multiple races last season. More consistency from Lutz would vault him into serious championship contention. Considering the steps that the No. 46 team took in 2019 and 2020, Lutz appears ready to do just that.

For their part, the No. 51 Ken Massa-owned team finished building a new car this offseason that will make its debut at Martinsville. They plan to use it alongside their other chassis that have led the Tour in wins the last three seasons.

“We have a program in our team where we rotate cars based on the schedule,” Bonsignore said. “I’m sure we’ll continue to do that this year as well, but we’re just looking to see how this new car debuts. If it’s really successful, we’ll probably use it more than we expect to.”

Craig Lutz, driver of the #46 Riverhead Building Supplies Chevrolet, won a pair of races last year and is expected to be a championship contender in 2021. (Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)

Fans back in the stands

When the Modifieds take the green flag at Martinsville, the grandstands will be open at 30 percent capacity. That will give the tour its largest crowd since the 2019 season.

Connecticut currently allows racetracks to operate at 50 percent capacity, meaning another robust crowd when the series heads north to Stafford for the Spring Sizzler.

The 2021 Whelen Modified Tour season will be decidedly more normal than a year ago. It’s something that Bonsignore looks forward to as things begin to open up over the course of the spring and summer.

“The fact that we can go to a big facility like Martinsville and have a 30 percent capacity, that’s great for our series,” Bonsignore said. That would be an awesome crowd.”

Bonsignore’s victory at the season-opener at Jennerstown last May underscored to him what fans mean to a raceday atmosphere, when he got out of his car to complete silence in front of an empty grandstand.

“You always realize how important fans are, but when they’re not there at all, it just really is eye-opening,” Bonsignore said.

“We definitely miss the fans being at the racetrack. Whether they’re cheering or booing for you, they’re just diehards about our series. To me, that’s what makes the Modified Tour so special.”

The 2021 Whelen Modified Tour season is just about here. It’s going to be one heck of a ride.