Three to watch, one to avoid as NASCAR heads to Martinsville

After this past weekend's race in Richmond, the NASCAR Cup Series is staying in Virginia for Sunday's Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway.

Many of the same drivers who contended in last Sunday's controversial Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond are likely to be up front again. Here are three names to watch – a favorite, contender and dark horse – and one to avoid.

Favorite: Martin Truex Jr. (+600, per DraftKings as of Friday afternoon)

Truex could either melt down and be a non-factor or dominate at Martinsville as he has in the past. Given his consistent speed just about everywhere so far in 2024 – as well as Joe Gibbs Racing's advantage on short tracks – the latter seems more likely.

Truex has the second-highest odds, just behind Denny Hamlin at +500. This time, he'll come out with the advantage over his teammate.

Contender: Chase Elliott (+1100)

Lost in all the drama of Richmond's finish was that Elliott picked up his first top-five finish of 2024. After showing speed at Bristol several weeks beforehand, he could be in line on Sunday for another strong short-track run at one of his best venues on the schedule. 

Elliott won at Martinsville in the fall of 2020 and has led 1,040 laps there during his career, nearly twice as many as he has at any other track.

Sunday seems like a great opportunity for NASCAR's most popular driver to finally get the monkey off his back and return to winning form. At +1100, watch out for the No. 9 car.

Dark horse: Bubba Wallace (+3000)

The oddsmakers seem to have caught onto the short-track prowess of Josh Berry (+2200), who was originally going to fill this slot, but that's not good enough dark-horse value. Wallace is, though, considering he ran near the front all race at Richmond before an incident with Kyle Larson and then a slow pit stop in the final laps.

Wallace has had only moderate success at Martinsville during his career (two top-10 finishes in 12 starts), but both of those finishes are in his past three races on the track. He seems to be the best under-the-radar pick of the week.

Avoid: Ryan Blaney (+650)

This could end up backfiring given that Blaney is the most recent winner at Martinsville. He has struggled recently, though, finishing 16th at Bristol and 19th at Richmond.

Blaney, a streaky driver, could very well bust out of his slump Sunday, but it feels that his +650 odds (third highest in the field) are too big of a risk.