After winning his first NASCAR Cup Series championship in 2020, Chase Elliott finds himself on top of the NASCAR standings once again with just four races remaining in the regular season. Elliott has opened up a 125-point lead on Ryan Blaney and his four wins on the season are twice as many as any other driver. Now he’ll look to continue his strong season at Michigan International Speedway in the 2022 FireKeepers Casino 400. The 2022 NASCAR at Michigan green flag drops at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday on NBC (stream now on FuboTV).
Elliott is listed at 13-2 in the 2022 FireKeepers Casino 400 odds from Caesars Sportsbook, while Kyle Busch is the 11-2 favorite. Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson is sandwiched between the two drivers at 6-1, while Busch’s teammate Denny Hamlin is 7-1 in the NASCAR at Michigan odds. Before scouring the 2022 FireKeepers Casino 400 starting lineup and making any 2022 NASCAR Michigan predictions, be sure to see the latest NASCAR at Michigan picks from SportsLine’s proven projection model.
Developed by daily Fantasy pro and SportsLine predictive data engineer Mike McClure, this proprietary NASCAR prediction model simulates every race 10,000 times, taking into account factors such as track history and recent results.
In the 2021 season, McClure nailed Martin Truex Jr. to win at Martinsville for a strong 3-1 payout. Then, it called Chase Elliott to win at Road America for a 5-2 payout. McClure’s model also called Larson’s win at Texas for an 11-4 payout and his win at Kansas for a 9-4 payout in back-to-back weeks before nailing Larson to win the season-finale in Phoenix to claim the 2021 NASCAR Cup Championship.
In total, it nailed five of Larson’s wins during a historic season and has also gone 15-9 on its head-to-head matchup predictions in the 2022 season. Earlier this season, it was high on Ross Chastain to win in Austin, giving him a far better shot to win than his 40-1 odds implied. The model was also high on Joey Logano before he won as a 15-1 underdog at Darlington and high on him again when he returned 14-1 for his win in St. Louis. Anyone who followed its lead on those plays saw huge returns on their NASCAR picks.
Now, the model simulated the 2022 NASCAR at Michigan race 10,000 times. Head to SportsLine to see the complete projected 2022 FireKeepers Casino 400 leaderboard.
Top 2022 NASCAR at Michigan predictions
One surprise: the model is high on Ryan Blaney, even though he’s a 12-1 long shot in the latest 2022 NASCAR at Michigan odds. He’s a target for anyone looking for a huge payday. Despite finishing 26th and making headlines last week in Indianapolis when he spun out Daniel Suarez during the cool-down lap as retaliation for an earlier wreck, Blaney jumped back into second in the 2022 NASCAR standings last week.
However, with 14 different race winners this season, Blaney won’t want to leave the door open to being squeezed out of the postseason. So he’ll look to go back-to-back at Michigan International Speedway to punch his ticket after winning the 2021 FireKeepers Casino 400. Blaney only led seven laps en route to his sixth career NASCAR Cup Series victory, but he’s now led in six of his last seven starts in Michigan with three top-five finishes and five top 10s to his credit during that span. See which other NASCAR underdogs to pick here.
And a massive shocker: Chase Elliott, one of the Vegas favorites at 13-2, stumbles big-time and barely cracks the top five. There are far better values in the 2022 FireKeepers Casino 400 starting lineup. The 26-year-old is already a NASCAR Cup Series champion (2020) and he sits atop the 2022 NASCAR standings by 125 points with four wins on the season.
However, he’s coming off a disappointing 16th-place finish where he didn’t lead a lap on the Indianapolis road course and he’s never won in 11 career starts at Michigan International Speedway. In fact, after three straight runner-up finishes at Michigan to start his NASCAR Cup Series career, Elliott has finished seventh or worse in each of his last eight starts there. See which other favorites to avoid here.
How to make 2022 NASCAR at Michigan picks
The model is also targeting two other drivers with 2022 NASCAR at Michigan odds of 12-1 or longer to make a serious run at the checkered flag. Anyone who backs these drivers could hit it big. You can see all of the model’s NASCAR picks over at SportsLine.
So who wins the FireKeepers Casino 400 2022? And which long shots make a run at the checkered flag? Check out the latest 2022 NASCAR at Michigan odds below, then visit SportsLine now to see the full projected 2022 NASCAR Michigan leaderboard, all from the model that correctly predicted five of Kyle Larson’s wins last season.
2022 FireKeepers Casino 400 odds, field
See full NASCAR Michigan picks, best bets, and predictions here
Kyle Busch 11-2
Kyle Larson 6-1
Chase Elliott 13-2
Denny Hamlin 7-1
Tyler Reddick 10-1
Ross Chastain 10-1
Martin Truex Jr. 11-1
William Byron 12-1
Ryan Blaney 12-1
Joey Logano 15-1
Christopher Bell 15-1
Kevin Harvick 17-1
Alex Bowman 22-1
Daniel Suarez 30-1
Erik Jones 30-1
Bubba Wallace 40-1
Kurt Busch 40-1
Chase Briscoe 50-1
Austin Cindric 50-1
Austin Dillon 75-1
Brad Keselowski 100-1
Aric Almirola 100-1
Ricky Stenhouse 100-1
Chris Buescher 100-1
Austin Hill 125-1
Cole Custer 250-1
Michael McDowell 250-1
Harrison Burton 300-1
Ty Dillon 500-1
Justin Haley 500-1
Noah Gragson 500-1
Todd Gilliland 1000-1
Corey Lajoie 1500-1
JJ Yeley 2000-1
Cody Ware 5000-1
Josh Bilicki 5000-1
BJ McLeod 5000-1
