Betting odds favour Kyle Busch to win Sunday in NASCAR's return

After a two-month layoff, NASCAR drivers are set to start their engines once again with The Real Heroes 400 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday and the betting odds favour Kyle Busch taking the checkered flag.

According to Bodog, Busch is going off at +600 to win as the Cup Series, despite sitting 12th in points through the first four races of the season. 

Watch The Real Heroes 400 LIVE Sunday at 3:30pm et/12:30pm pt on TSN1/4, TSN Direct, and streaming on TSN.ca.

Busch, the reigning Cup Series champion, appeared to be heating up when the season was paused, finishing second at the Auto Club Speedway and third in Phoenix after a disastrous start in Daytona and 15th-place finish in Las Vegas.

Working against Busch's chances on Sunday, could be a poor start for Toyota in the first month before the season was paused. There are currently six Ford drivers and four Chevrolet drivers in the Top 10 in the Cup Series standings, with the top Toyota drivers - Denny Hamlin, Busch and Martin Truex Jr. - sitting 11th, 12th and 15th, respectively. 

A 56-time winner in the Cup Series, Busch also has just one career win at Darlington, which came way back in 2008. His average finish in 15 career races at the South Carolina track is 11.1 with 10 top 10 finishes and four top-five results. He finished third at the most recent race, in September of last year. 

Listed behind Busch at +650 to win Sunday's race are Hamlin and Chevrolet driver Chase Elliott, who currently sits third in the standings. Hamlin won the Daytona 500 to open the season, but managed just one top-10 finish in the following three races. Hamlin has won twice at Darlington, most recently in 2017, and has an average finish of 7.8 in 14 career starts.  

Elliott leads the Cup Series with three stage wins this season, but has just one top-five finish to show for it. He finished seventh at Phoenix in the final race before the pause after opening in the pole position.

Current points leader Kevin Harvick enters Sunday's race at +700 after being NASCAR's most consistent driver through four races. Harvick has posted a top-10 finish at each of the four races to date, with two top-fives and one stage win. He's also qualified in the top 10 for each race this season. 

Rounding out the top five favourites is 2017 Cup Series champion Truex Jr., who picked up his lone win at Darlington during his championship season. The results have been hard to come by for the 39-year-old this season, though, with a top finish of just 14th with two DNFs through four races. 

Providing more value could be Joey Logano, going off at +1100 despite having already won two races this season. After failing to finish to Daytona, Logano bounced back with a win in Las Vegas and raced up from 13th to take the checkered flag in Phoenix. Darlington, however, has not been kind to Logano in the past as he has just three top-five finishes and an average finish of 16.5 in 11 career starts at the racetrack. Most recently, he finished 14th at the South Carolina track last September after a career-best second-place finish in 2018.

Brad Keselowski, who won at Darlington in 2018, could also be a value bet, going off a +1200. The 36-year-old has had plenty of success at this track, posting four top-five finishes and six top-10 results in 11 career starts. After failing to finish at Daytona in February, Keselowski finished seventh at the Auto Club and fifth in Las Vegas. He finished 11th when we last saw him race in Phoenix. 

Longshots to win Sunday include Jimmie Johnson at +2000 as he makes his 22nd career start at Darlington and looks for his third career win at the track. Racing his final season in the Cup Series, Johnson finished in the top 12 in each of the three races after a DNF at Daytona. Johnson, whose last Cup Series win came in 2017, has however failed to post a top-10 finish at Darlington in each of his past five starts.

Going off at +10,000, Ryan Newman has a chance to provide the feel-good story of NASCAR's return as he gets back behind the wheel for the first time since his horrifying wreck in the last lap of the Daytona 500 on Feb.17. Newman was closing on his first victory since 2017 when he was spun into the wall just before taking the checkered flag at Daytona. Hospitalized after the incident, Newman will now make his 22nd career start at Darlington, where he has never won. If his strong start at Daytona was a sign of things to come, Newman could pay off Sunday.

One factor to watch ahead Sunday is the qualifying position, while the pole winner should see their odds rise, the winner in each of the past five races at Darlington has come up from eighth or worse, with Erik Jones rising from 15th last year to take the checkered flag.

Winning Manufacturer 

Despite their struggles early this season, Toyota has dominated at Darlington in recent history, with four of the past five winners racing for the manufacturer. Toyota is going off at +160 to have one of their cars win Sunday, just behind Ford at +150. Chevrolet is considered the biggest longshot, going off at +220.

Cautions

The over-under for cautions is set a 10.5 for Sunday's race. with the under being the favourite at -145 and over coming at +110. After seeing 18 yellow flags in 2015, there have been no more than 10 cautions in each of the past four races at Darlington. What factor rust will play in adding to the caution total remains to be seen with drivers set for their first competitive action after a long layoff.

*All odds courtery of Bodog.