NASCAR In-Season Challenge First Round Predictions: Matchup Odds for Atlanta

I’m all for filling out brackets for the inaugural NASCAR In-Season Challenge.

In fact, we even ran through my driver rankings for all five rounds earlier this week. It’s a fun little gimmick to spice up the summer stretch.

But let’s be honest: the real appeal here is the betting opportunities.

In addition to betting on who could win the tournament, we’re probably going to get tons of head-to-heads for each weekly individual matchup. And with the NBA and NHL wrapped up – and the MLB and WNBA All-Star breaks around the corner – I’m a lil bored.

So let’s sim every matchup for Atlanta, shall we?

Below are the opening-round matchups for Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta. I ran these matchups through my model to see not only who was favored but how often they should pull off the victory.

You can find those odds both in percentage form and the respective break-even betting odds.

You’ll notice that a lot of these are pretty flat. No driver has opening-round win odds at even 70%. That’s because Atlanta is a drafting track where wrecks are plentiful, so even the strongest cars can flop. We’ll see bigger splits later in the tournament as things get a bit less chaotic.

It’s worth noting that I’m not necessarily recommending you bet every edge here. Atlanta’s a tough track to predict, so it’s fully possible these predictions suck. But let’s at least have some fun and see which drivers pop for the opening round.

NASCAR In-Season Tournament Opening Round Matchup Picks

Want to fill out your own bracket? Check out our free printable bracket for the NASCAR In-Season Challenge tournament here.

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Want to see what betting markets say about the In-Season Challenge? Check out FanDuel Sportsbook's latest NASCAR betting odds to see the full menu of options.

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The above author is a FanDuel employee and is not eligible to compete in public daily fantasy contests or place sports betting wagers on FanDuel. The advice provided by the author does not necessarily represent the views of FanDuel. Taking the author's advice will not guarantee a successful outcome. You should use your own judgment when participating in daily fantasy contests or placing sports wagers.