2024 Goodyear 400 expert picks, best bets, Darlington odds, time: NASCAR expert high on William Byron

Chase Elliott hopes to continue his impressive driving in the NASCAR Cup Series when he gets behind the wheel on Sunday for the 2024 Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway. Elliott has recorded top-five finishes in five of his last six starts, including a victory at Texas Motor Speedway. The 2020 Cup Series champion is coming off a third-place showing at Kansas last weekend. Elliott has yet to win at Darlington, but has posted top-10s in half of his 14 outings at “The Lady in Black,” including a career-best third place in this race last year. The 28-year-old owns a 12.26 average finish in the Next Gen era, the best among all drivers.

Elliott is 16-1 and Kyle Larson is the 17-4 favorite in the 2024 Goodyear 400 odds. Denny Hamlin, who leads all active drivers with four victories at Darlington, is 9-2 and Martin Truex Jr. is 13-2. William Byron and Tyler Reddick, who will be on the pole, round out the top five 2024 NASCAR at Darlington contenders at 8-1. Sunday’s race is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. ET. Before making any 2024 Goodyear 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 six winners in his best bets already, including 16-1 longshot Byron at the Daytona 500 and 14-1 longshot Chase Elliott at Texas three weeks ago. Anyone following his NASCAR picks has seen some huge returns.

Now, Taranto has analyzed the field and odds for Sunday’s Goodyear 400. He’s sharing his best bets at SportsLine.

2024 Goodyear 400 expert picks

For the 2024 Goodyear 400, Taranto is high on William Byron, even though he’s a longshot at 8-1. A native of North Carolina, Byron is looking to avoid a third consecutive disappointing outing after a five-race stretch in which he finished seventh or better in each outing and posted a pair of victories. An accident with 71 laps remaining at Dover two weeks ago ended that streak, and the 26-year-old was 23rd at Kansas last weekend.

Byron has been masterful at Darlington with the Next Gen car, as he leads all drivers in several categories at the track since it debuted in 2022. The 2018 Cup Series Rookie of the Year has a series-best 6.5 average finish at “The Track Too Tough to Tame” during the Next Gen era and also ranks first there with 898 laps run in the top five and 1,083 in the top 10. Byron has posted top-10 finishes in three of his four starts at Darlington with the new car, including a victory in this race last year.

Another surprise: Taranto is fading Martin Truex Jr., even though he is one of the favorites at 13-2. The 2017 Cup Series champion has recorded seven top-10 finishes in 12 starts this season, including a third-place at Dover and fourth-place at Kansas in his last two outings. Truex led 248 of the 293 laps to win this race in 2021 and finished fourth at Darlington later that year but has struggled at the track since then.

Truex failed to finish each of his next three starts at Darlington, crashing out twice while being forced to exit in the other due to an issue with his car’s water pump. He ended his run of bad luck at the South Carolina track last September but only was able to muster an 18th-place finish. Truex, who was the Cup Series regular-season champion last year, has been 10th or better in only four of his last 11 starts at Darlington. See what other NASCAR picks he likes at SportsLine.

How to make 2024 Goodyear 400 predictions

Taranto has also identified four other drivers in his 2024 NASCAR at Darlington best bets. He’s also high on a huge NASCAR longshot who’s going off at more than 20-1. You can only see who they are here.

So who wins the Goodyear 400 2024, and which massive longshot could stun NASCAR? Visit SportsLine now to see the 2024 NASCAR at Darlington picks and best bets from a NASCAR insider who has already nailed six winners this year, and find out.

2024 Goodyear 400 odds

See full NASCAR at Darlington picks at SportsLine

Kyle Larson 17-4
Denny Hamlin 9-2
Martin Truex Jr. 13-2
William Byron 8-1
Tyler Reddick 8-1
Christopher Bell 9-1
Ross Chastain 15-1
Kyle Busch 16-1
Chase Elliott 16-1
Brad Keselowski 16-1
Chris Buescher 20-1
Ty Gibbs 22-1
Joey Logano 25-1
Ryan Blaney 28-1
Bubba Wallace 30-1
Alex Bowman 35-1
Erik Jones 40-1
Noah Gragson 50-1
Josh Berry 100-1
Chase Briscoe 100-1
Daniel Suarez 125-1
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 150-1
Michael McDowell 250-1
Austin Cindric 300-1
Austin Dillon 300-1
Carson Hocevar 300-1
John Hunter Nemechek 350-1
Todd Gilliland 500-1
Ryan Preece 500-1
Corey LaJoie 750-1
Harrison Burton 1000-1
Justin Haley 1000-1
Zane Smith 1000-1
Daniel Hemric 1500-1
Kaz Grala 5000-1
Derek Kraus 5000-1