Iowa Corn 350 betting report: Christopher Bell priced as unusual favorite

Christopher Bell is not a name that NASCAR bettors are used to seeing at the top oddsboards for Cup Series races, but that’s where the driver of the No. 20 Toyota sits ahead of Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol (7 p.m. ET, USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

A combination of Bell’s dominance in Xfinity Series races at Iowa Speedway, his participation in tire tests on the repaved track last month and Toyota’s supremacy on comparable layouts has him priced as the betting favorite this weekend

In five Xfinity Series starts on this 7/8-mile oval, Bell has two wins and two second-place finishes, leading 668 of 1,257 laps. At the comparable Phoenix Raceway on the Cup circuit in March, he won the Shriners Children’s 500 by over five seconds, and Toyotas led all but 14 of the laps. Three weeks later, at Richmond Raceway, a speeding penalty cost Bell another potential victory on a short flat track as Denny Hamlin, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, took the checkers.

The market-making Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas took immediate action on Bell’s opening odds of +600.