By Cole Cusumano, Staff Writer
Betting is almost always better when Las Vegas is involved, but especially when the NASCAR Cup Series returns to Sin City for the playoffs. Whether placing prop bets through trusted sportsbooks or entering the wide range of unique daily fantasy contests provided by GridRival, The Money Stop podcast has bettors covered on how to hit the jackpot in the Round of 8 opener.
For those who don’t know, the “money stop” – typically the final pit stop of the race – is regarded as the most important stop of the day. It’s not often a team will win the race without executing on the money stop. The Money Stop podcast is a NASCAR gambling show hosted by industry journalist Cole Cusumano and his brother, the voice of the New York Yankees double-a affiliate Somerset Patriots, Steven.
The Cusumano brothers debuted The Money Stop podcast in 2021, coining the slogan, “the most important NASCAR betting stop of the day,” because bettors can’t bank out without tuning into their show, presented by Kickin’ the Tires and GridRival, and streaming weekly on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.
Before jumping into Las Vegas, it’s important to provide evidence of an immense success rate. Over the past two races at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway and the Charlotte (N.C.) ROVAL, the Cusumano brothers highlighted seven of the top-10 finishers from each race, including four of the top-five finishers. For the Bank of America ROVAL 400, they proposed 17 prop bets and 11 of them hit once the checkered flag waved.
Now that there’s an understanding of what The Money Stop podcast is, in addition to proven results, here are the top-five shortest odds for the South Point 400 win at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway as of the lines opening up on October 15, per BetMGM:
- Kyle Larson +325
- William Byron +700
- Tyler Reddick +800
- Christopher Bell +800
- Denny Hamlin +800
Favorites
Rightfully so, Kyle Larson enters as a heavy favorite for the win at Las Vegas for many reasons. One contributing factor is that the 2021 champion is coming off his series-best sixth victory of the season and his second in the postseason. The other obvious detail being he secured the checkered-flag in the most recent race at the 1.5-mile track in dominating fashion back in March, after leading 181 laps.
In the Next-Gen era, one could make the case that no one is better than Larson at Las Vegas. Between five starts, he’s won and finished runner-up twice with the most laps led. In his career, he has a 75% top-10 rate with top fives in half of his 16 starts, in addition to a series-best 9.3 average and most laps led with over 620.
With his Vegas numbers in mind, Larson has also established himself as one of the best drivers at traditional 1.5-mile tracks in the seventh-generation car. This season alone, he’s scored wins with 321 laps led. Going back to 2022 when it was introduced, he has four wins and four runner-up finishes each with over 1,200 laps led.
To give one more favorite, and to differ from the Hendrick Motorsports stable – which should be seen as the team to beat in Sin City, it’s impossible to ignore the strength and dominance of Christopher Bell and the No. 20 team this postseason.
The 29-year-old looks to be all but a lock for his third consecutive Championship 4 appearance, posting a series-best 6.3 average finish through six playoff starts. Extending beyond the postseason, Bell has seven finishes of seventh or better over his last eight races, with his weakest outing being a 14th-place day at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International.
Coming off his second runner-up this season at the ROVAL, on top of scoring three wins, Bell has already matched career-best marks in 2024 set two years prior with four races remaining in terms of victories, top fives (12) and top 10s (20), going into a track where he finished runner-up last fall.
Bell has three top 10s, including an additional top-five finish, at Vegas in the Next-Gen era. Maybe even more notably, he’s got a win at a 1.5-mile track this season – albeit in rain-shortened fashion at Charlotte – as well as two more top 10s, including a seventh-place finish with most laps led in the most recent race at Kansas Speedway.
Truthfully, there are better drivers from a statistical sense at Vegas one could rely on to bet as a favorite for the win, but it’s impossible to ignore the tear the Joe Gibbs Racing talent is on currently. Find out who the other two are by listening to The Money Stop.
Sleepers & Spoiler
Thinking outside the box of which drivers can serve as sleepers or spoilers for the win is where bettors can really optimize values and get the most bang (or bank) for their buck. It also happens to be the section where The Money Stop has excelled on an annual basis, this season included.
Through six playoff races, half of the winners have been spoilers, and two of those drivers were highlighted by the Cusumano brothers on the show with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. at Talladega and the victor at Kansas, who should also be a threat for the checkered flag at this upcoming 1.5-mile track: Ross Chastain.
Chastain surprised with his first victory of the season at Kansas, and there’s good reason to believe he could be in line to spoil once again at Las Vegas. The Trackhouse Racing “disruptor” is the only other driver besides Larson with top-five finishes in all but one Next-Gen start at Sin City. The difference is the driver of the No. 1 happens to have the best average finish in the series at 5.3, courtesy of an outlier 12th-place finish, contrasted to Larson’s lone DNF.
The Melon Man also has the third-most laps led at Vegas in the current car behind Larson and William Byron with over 150, including this past March race. Chastain scored a career-best runner-up finish in the fall 2022 event. Opening the weekend at +1800 for the win, that’s one prop bettors may want to jump on, in addition to his top-five finisher prop at +225, before the odds adjust following on-track activity Saturday.
One more sleeper, also deriving from the Hendrick stable and bowtie brigade, will be a gut call in Chase Elliott. The reason the 2020 champion enters as an intuitive pick is because his one top-10 in four Next-Gen starts at Vegas doesn’t scream “bet him for the win.” However, recency and the eye test tell a different story.
Elliott is coming off a fifth-place finish at the ROVAL, which marked his fourth quality outing in the postseason. This helped him accumulate the third-best average finish in the series through the playoffs at 12.0, which is also right on par with his series-leading average finish on the season though 32 starts at 11.7.
Consistency aside, Elliott has quietly asserted himself as one of the best drivers in 2024 at traditional 1.5-mile tracks. The driver of the No. 9 has placed top-10 in four-out-of-five starts, including a win at Texas Motor Speedway and lowest finish of 12th, granting him a series-best average finish of 6.4 on this specific configuration.
Additionally, Elliott saw success at Vegas right before the current car was introduced in 2022, leading all 170 of his laps over the last five prior, as well as scoring a second-place finish back in the fall of 2021.
Although the most consistent driver in the sport, Elliott has been criticized for being quiet for a bulk of the season. Entering the Round of 8 nine points below the cutoff as the seventh-ranked driver, he’ll have to make some noise in the semi-final set if he wants to contend for his second championship. His race winner value of +1400 and top-five finisher prop at +190 are also very enticing.
For two more favorites and sleepers each, tune into The Money Stop podcast later this week. This article will also be updated with Daily Fantasy value picks and specific prop bets to consider once contests are made available later in the week on GridRival.
GridRival is a motorsport-specific gaming platform, where people can enter contests and make predictions on everything from NASCAR to F1 and IndyCar via numerous unique methods not available on any other app. You can download the app here (https://gridrival.onelink.me/dLVy/kickine) and use the code “KICKINTHETIRES” upon signing up to get a $100 deposit match.