“Between Bets” is an article series revealing our staff’s best wagers across the NFL, College Football, NASCAR and PGA Tour. This edition’s bets feature our favorite wagers for the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
(Odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook)
2024 FireKeepers Casino 400 Betting Picks: Outrights
Tyler Reddick (+850)
Outside of the typical week-in-week-out favoritism that I try not to buy into every race, Tyler Reddick is my favorite pick in Michigan. His +850 DraftKings outright is the fifth-shortest price this weekend.
Granted, my optimism is certainly not because of his past results on this track. Reddick finished 18th in his first Michigan start and has finished no better than that since. Though he did lead seven laps last year and blew a motor running well in 2022, Michigan hasn’t traditionally been great for Reddick.
But similar tracks have been and the No. 45 team has been arguably the best team in the sport in 2024. Reddick leads the series in T5 and T10 finishes and has finished no worse than P6 since New Hampshire.
Only once in the last 10 races has Reddick been worse than P8. Plus, on high-speed intermediate tracks in the last two seasons, Reddick is fourth-best in ifantasyrace.com‘s total speed ranking metric.
Chris Buescher (+1400)
If anyone deserves a win that hasn’t gotten one in the Cup Series this year, it’s Chris Buescher. Ultra-close calls at Kansas and Darlington leave the No. 17 team on the playoff bubble.
They’ll be happy to return to a track where Buescher won last season, making +1400 on DraftKings a more than reasonable outright. He finished P6 in 2017 at Michigan, as well.
Buescher has been in a bit of a slump of late, with no T10 finishes in the last four races. But with only a trio of races before the playoffs begin, this team will need to perform under pressure.
Bubba Wallace (+2000)
Both of the 23XI Racing teams are attractive to me this weekend, with Bubba Wallace (at a +2000 DraftKings outright) also teetering the playoff bubble line.
Wallace doesn’t have quite the same Michigan success as others, but he’s led laps here each of the last two seasons and won the pole in 2022.
The No. 23 has also been much stronger of late, with three T10s in a row and no finishes worse than 13th since the rain at Loudon. Wallace’s total speed ranking in the Next-Gen era at Michigan is the third-best in the series.
There’s no doubt Wallace will also be a favorite to go all-in next week for the win at Daytona. Still, I imagine he will not want to leave it up to the superspeedway to win his way into the playoffs.
Check out all of our content for the 2024 FireKeepers Casino 400:
- PropKings: 2024 FireKeepers Casino 400
- Between Bets: 2024 FireKeepers Casino 400 Outrights
- NASCAR DFS Picks, Tiers & Rankings: 2024 Firekeepers Casino 400
Thanks for reading my best bets for the 2024 FireKeepers Casino 400. Be sure to catch us live every Thursday night at 8:30 p.m. EST on The Backroad! Also, follow me on Twitter/X @ehicks39 for more NASCAR takes and betting advice.
*Photo Credit: Jim Dedmon – USA TODAY Sports*
