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

Erik Jones is expected to make his return to the NASCAR Cup Series at what has become his favorite track as the 2024 Goodyear 400 takes place on Sunday at Darlington Raceway. Jones, who recorded his only top-10 finish of the year when he was eighth in the season-opening Daytona 500, missed the last two Cup Series races with a compression fracture in the lower vertebra that he suffered in a crash at Talladega on Apr. 21. The 27-year-old has posted a career high-tying eight top-10s and two of his three Cup Series victories over 12 starts at Darlington. The 2017 Rookie of the Year’s most recent win came at “The Lady in Black” in September 2022, when he finished 0.252 seconds ahead of Denny Hamlin.

Jones is 40-1, Hamlin, who leads all active drivers with four wins at Darlington, is 9-2 and Kyle Larson is the 17-4 favorite in the 2024 Goodyear 400 odds. Martin Truex Jr. is 13-2, while 2023 race winner William Byron and pole-sitter Tyler Reddick 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 picksFor the 2024 Goodyear 400, Taranto is high on William Byron, even though he’s a longshot at 8-1. The 26-year-old North Carolinian is hoping to avoid his longest drought of the season, as he has gone four races without capturing a checkered flag. Byron also was winless in four consecutive starts after making his way to Victory Lane in the season-opening Daytona 500, but followed that dry spell by recording wins in two of his next three outings.

After finishing eighth at Darlington in the fall of 2022, Byron registered his first win at the track when he beat Kevin Harvick by 0.781 seconds in this race last year. The 2018 Cup Series Rookie of the Year followed with his third straight top-10 and fifth overall in 11 starts at “The Track Too Tough to Tame,” as he finished fourth last September. Byron also performed well at Darlington in NASCAR’s other two series, finishing fifth in his only Xfinity Series start there in 2017 and fifth last year in his lone Truck Series race at the track.

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 predictionsTaranto 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 oddsSee 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