Ryan Blaney will continue the quest for his first win of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season when he takes part in the 2024 Wurth 400 at Dover Motor Speedway on Sunday. The reigning series champion has yet to make it to Victory Lane this year after matching his career high by capturing three checkered flags in 2023, but his four top-five finishes have him tied with five other drivers for most on the circuit. Blaney is winless in 13 Cup Series starts at Dover, but finished a career-best third last season. Meanwhile, Jimmie Johnson makes just his third start of 2024 in a race he has won a record six times, most recently in 2017. The seven-time Cup Series champion owns the mark for most series wins at Dover with 11.
Blaney is 14-1 and Johnson is 125-1, while Kyle Larson Larson is the 9-2 favorite in the 2024 Wurth 400 odds. Martin Truex Jr., who won this race for the third time in his career last season, is 6-1, while William Byron, Denny Hamlin and Ross Chastain round out the top five 2024 NASCAR at Dover contenders at 15-2. Sunday's race at "The Monster Mile" is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. ET. Before making any 2024 Wurth 400 picks or NASCAR predictions, you need to see what NASCAR insider Steven Taranto has to say.
Taranto, who moonlights as a sim racer and has 20 career wins in iRacing, is the lead NASCAR writer for CBSSports.com, and he chronicles stock car racing with the same thoroughness and passion that he's had since becoming a full-time race fan in 2001. He has an annual NASCAR medial credential and also publishes a popular weekly NASCAR predictions column, famously calling Chastain and Daniel Suarez's breakthrough wins in 2022.
Taranto is off to a red-hot start for SportsLine in 2024, nailing five winners in his best bets already, including 16-1 longshot Byron at the Daytona 500 and 14-1 longshot Chase Elliott at Texas two weeks ago. Anyone following his NASCAR picks has seen some huge returns.
Now, Taranto has analyzed the field and odds for Sunday's Wurth 400. He's sharing his best bets at SportsLine.
2024 Wurth 400 expert picks
For the 2024 Wurth 400, Taranto is high on Alex Bowman, even though he's a 16-1 longshot. The 30-year-old from Arizona is hoping to finally record the victory that has eluded him since March 6, 2022, when he captured the checkered flag at Las Vegas. Bowman has come close to ending his drought, which has reached 71 starts, as he was runner-up in the season-opening Daytona 500 and has posted three top-five finishes since, including a fifth-place at Talladega last weekend.
Bowman is tied with five other drivers for the most top-fives this year with four, including back-to-back fourth-place finishes last month at Bristol and the Circuit of the Americas. He has a good chance of reaching Victory Lane on Sunday, as he has posted top-fives in five of his last six Cup Series starts at Dover - including a win in this race in 2021. Bowman also recorded top-fives in his final two outings at the track while competing in the Xfinity Series, finishing third and fifth in 2016.
Another surprise: Taranto is fading Christopher Bell, who also has fared well at Dover of late. After finishing no better than 21st in his first three Cup Series starts at the track, the 29-year-old Oklahoman was fourth in this race in 2022 and sixth in last year's edition. Bell also excelled at "The Monster Mile" while competing in NASCAR's other two series, as he posted top-five finishes in three of his four Xfinity Series outings - including back-to-back victories in 2018 and 2019 - and was third in one of his two Truck Series races there.
Bell performed well over his first seven Cup Series starts this year, finishing third in the Daytona 500 and winning at Phoenix to begin a stretch of four consecutive top-10 finishes. Things have not gone very well for him lately, however, as he has been 17th or worse in each of his last three starts. Last weekend at Talladega, Bell was involved in an accident that prevented him from completing the race and forced him to settle for a last-place result. See what other NASCAR picks he likes at SportsLine.
How to make 2024 Wurth 400 predictions
Taranto has also identified four other drivers in his 2024 NASCAR at Dover best bets. He's also high on a massive NASCAR longshot who's going off at more than 40-1. You can only see who they are here.
So who wins the Wurth 400 2024, and which massive longshot could stun NASCAR? Visit SportsLine now to see the 2024 NASCAR at Dover picks and best bets from a NASCAR insider who has already nailed five winners this year, and find out.
2024 Wurth 400 odds
See full NASCAR at Dover picks at SportsLine
Kyle Larson 9-2
Martin Truex Jr. 6-1
William Byron 15-2
Ross Chastain 15-2
Denny Hamlin 15-2
Christopher Bell 12-1
Chase Elliott 12-1
Ty Gibbs 12-1
Ryan Blaney 14-1
Alex Bowman 16-1
Kyle Busch 18-1
Chris Buescher 20-1
Brad Keselowski 20-1
Tyler Reddick 22-1
Joey Logano 25-1
Josh Berry 45-1
Bubba Wallace 45-1
Chase Briscoe 60-1
Noah Gragson 90-1
Corey Heim 100-1
Carson Hocevar 100-1
Ryan Preece 100-1
Daniel Suarez 100-1
Austin Dillon 125-1
Jimmie Johnson 125-1
Michael McDowell 125-1
John Hunter Nemechek 125-1
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 125-1
A.J. Allmendinger 250-1
Austin Cindric 250-1
Justin Haley 250-1
Corey LaJoie 250-1
Todd Gilliland 400-1
Zane Smith 400-1
Harrison Burton 750-1
Daniel Hemric 1000-1
Kaz Grala 2500-1
