The NASCAR Cup Series introduced a new car design this season with the goal of creating more parity in the sport. Through seven races, it’s producing the desired result with seven different winners. Now, the Cup Series will head to Martinsville Speedway for the 2022 Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 on Saturday. This is the first night race of the season, with the green flag scheduled to drop on the NASCAR Martinsville race at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Martin Truex Jr. has won three of the last five races at Martinsville and is the 9-2 favorite in the 2022 Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 odds from Caesars Sportsbook. There are a total of seven other drivers in the 2022 NASCAR at Martinsville odds listed at 10-1 or lower, including Ryan Blaney (15-2), Kyle Larson (8-1) and last week’s winner, Denny Hamlin (6-1). Before scouring the 2022 Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 starting lineup and making any 2022 NASCAR Martinsville predictions, be sure to see the latest 2022 Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 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 12-5 on its head-to-head matchup predictions to start the 2022 season. Then two weeks ago it was high on Ross Chastain to win in Austin, giving him a far better shot to win than his 40-1 odds implied. Anyone who followed its lead on those plays saw huge returns on their NASCAR picks.
Now, the model simulated the 2022 NASCAR Martinsville race 10,000 times. Head to SportsLine to see the complete projected 2022 Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 leaderboard.
Top 2022 Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 predictions
One surprise: the model is high on Joey Logano, even though he’s a 10-1 long shot in the latest 2022 NASCAR at Martinsville odds. He’s a target for anyone looking for a huge payday. The 2018 NASCAR Cup Series champion is already a 27-time Cup winner and has had plenty of success at Martinsville since joining the top circuit.
Logano won the 2018 First Data 500 at “The Paperclip” and has a total of 14 top-10 finishes at Martinsville Speedway in 26 career Cup starts. He’s led in the last four NASCAR Cup Series races at Martinsville and finished in the top 10 in five straight starts there. Logano has led in six of the seven races so far this season and is fifth in the NASCAR standings entering Saturday’s race.
And a massive shocker: Chase Elliott, one of the Vegas favorites at 7-1, stumbles big-time and barely cracks the top 10. There are far better values in the 2022 Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 starting grid. Another 26-year-old, Elliott already has 13 wins in the NASCAR Cup Series and won a championship in 2020, but he’s coming off a disappointing run last week at Richmond.
Elliott finished 14th in the first short-track run of the season in the Next-Gen car and finished 16th in his last start at Martinsville despite leading 289 laps. He has yet to make it to victory lane this year in the redesigned car and with so much parity in the sport this season, he’s a risky play at 7-1 on Saturday.
How to make 2022 NASCAR Martinsville picks
The model is also targeting two other drivers with 2022 NASCAR at Martinsville odds of 10-1 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 Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 2022? And which long shots make a run at the checkered flag? Check out the latest 2022 NASCAR in Martinsville odds below, then visit SportsLine now to see the full projected 2022 Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 leaderboard, all from the model that correctly predicted five of Kyle Larson’s wins last season.
2022 Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 odds
Martin Truex Jr. 9-2
Denny Hamlin 6-1
Chase Elliott 7-1
Ryan Blaney 15-2
Kyle Busch 15-2
Kyle Larson 8-1
William Byron 9-1
Joey Logano 10-1
Alex Bowman 15-1
Christopher Bell 17-1
Kevin Harvick 25-1
Ross Chastain 30-1
Brad Keselowski 30-1
Chase Briscoe 30-1
Tyler Reddick 30-1
Kurt Busch 50-1
A.J. Allmendinger 50-1
Aric Almirola 50-1
Erik Jones 60-1
Daniel Suarez 65-1
Bubba Wallace 70-1
Austin Cindric 75-1
Austin Dillon 100-1
Cole Custer 175-1
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 200-1
Harrison Burton 250-1
Justin Haley 250-1
Chris Buescher 250-1
Ty Dillon 500-1
Michael McDowell 1000-1
Todd Gilliland 1000-1
Corey Lajoie 1500-1
JJ Yeley 2500-1
Josh Bilicki 5000-1
BJ McLeod 5000-1
Cody Ware 5000-1
