It’s all about the left turns and right turns this week in NASCAR. The Series heads to the second road course of the season. After five straight wins on road courses last year, Shane Van Gisbergen was dethroned by Tyler Reddick earlier this year at COTA. The big question this week: Does that mean his run of dominance is over? Or was it a perfect race by Reddick at Van Gisbergen’s “weakest” road course that got him? The books and I agree on this one! Let’s jump in and look at this week’s NASCAR picks, odds, and best bets for Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International.
NASCAR made a few adjustments to the track, adding tire pack walls to the exit on turn 1 and the exit of the carousel to help enforce “track limits.” The weather forecast looks much better than it did earlier in the week, but if it does rain, NASCAR has wet-weather tires ready for the weekend.
Here are weee the tire packs will be in the Watkins Glen runoff of Turn 1 and the barrier of the carousel pic.twitter.com/UUXuV3OhjP
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) May 5, 2026
2026 Go Bowling at The Glen Odds
Shane Van Gisbergen (+140)
Connor Zilisch (+380)
Tyler Reddick (+900)
Christopher Bell (+1300)
William Byron (+2000)
Chris Buescher (+1900)
Chase Elliott (+2000)
Michael McDowell (+2200)
Kyle Larson (+2200)
Ty Gibbs (+2200)
Ryan Blaney (+2200)
Chase Briscoe (+2500)
AJ Allmendinger (+2800)
Ross Chastain (+3500)
Daniel Suarez (+4000)
Carson Hocevar (+4500)
Alex Bowman (+6000)
Kyle Busch (+6600)
Denny Hamlin (+8500)
Joey Logano (+12500)
Ryan Preece (+12500)
Austin Cindric (+15000)
Bubba Wallace (+20000)
Todd Gilliland (+25000)
Zane Smith (+30000)
Brad Keselowski (+35000)
John Hunter Nemechek (+50000)
Erik Jones (+50000)
Noah Gragson (+50000)
Austin Dillon (+50000)
Cole Custer (+75000)
Josh Berry (+10000)
Ty Dillon (+10000)
Ricky Stenhouse (+10000)
Riley Herbst (+10000)
Josh Bilicki (+250000)
Cody Ware (+25000)
Katherine Legge (+30000)
NASCAR Picks, Odds, and Best Bets: Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International
Shane Van Gisbergen Top Finishing Chevrolet (-120), Win (+140)
I will be betting Van Gisbergen’s outright at +140 because there is massive value there in my opinion. If you want to supplement that with this, or reduce your risk, this top Chevy is the best way to get in on SVG. This opens up Tyler Reddick winning as he did at COTA, and still being able to cash this bet. The biggest threats to SVG this weekend are all eliminated when you bet this. Reddick, Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, Chris Buescher. Now, Van Gisbergen just has to beat Connor Zilisch, who isn’t ready to compete for Cup Wins yet. Then drivers like Kyle Larson, William Byron, and Chase Elliott. What we’ve seen from them on road courses lately, they just don’t scare me against Shane.
It doesn’t need to be stated how amazing Shane Van Gisbergen is on road courses. He won five in a row last season. After COTA didn’t go his way, he didn’t look back. At Watkins Glen alone, he won by over 11 seconds. COTA this year was not a win, leading me to believe it’s just something about that track. Take advantage of his lower numbers now, we might not see them at San Diego and Sonoma.
Chase Elliott Top 10 (-120)
This number is a great gift from the books this week. Elliott is coming off his second win of the season at Texas Motor Speedway, and he’s a driver we can always rely on to be consistent. In 2018 he came to Watkins Glen as a young driver with no wins and left the track a NASCAR Cup Series winner. Elliott has run into some trouble the last few times here at The Glen, but expect him to recover from that this weekend.
With all his momentum coming into this, Elliott has also finished in the top 10 in six of the last eight road course races. In 15 of his 23 starts on road courses in NextGen races, Elliott has finished in the top 10.
John Hunter Nemechek Over Kyle Busch (+185)
DraftKings is jumping in on the fun of the last lap scuffle at Texas Motor Speedway last week. Busch intentionally wrecked Nemechek on the final lap and ruined both of their days. When you stack these two drivers up on road courses, Busch is clearly the better driver. However, getting a driver at almost 2/1 to just beat another driver, when they are racing around the same area each week, piques my interest.
Busch cannot be trusted right now. Last week, he got his first good run in how long? Then he can’t control himself and crashes out (figuratively, and literally) just before the end of the race. On top of that, Busch hasn’t made any friends lately, and there is no easier place to show displeasure than a road course. Give me the underdog!
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