The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule continues on Sunday with the 2024 EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas' road course. This is the fourth race at COTA, but just the second with the Next Gen car. All three former champions are in the field this year, with Chase Elliott (2021), Ross Chastain (2022) and Tyler Reddick (2023) all sitting near the top of the NASCAR odds board. Reddick is the 4-1 favorite in the 2024 EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix odds, followed by Elliott (8-1) and Chastain (12-1). 

Before making any NASCAR picks, be sure to see what CBS Sports NASCAR writer Steven Taranto has to say.

Taranto is the lead NASCAR writer for CBSSports.com, and he chronicles stock car racing with the same thoroughness and passion that he's had since becoming a full-time race fan in 2001. He has an annual NASCAR media credential and also publishes a popular weekly NASCAR predictions column, famously calling Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez's breakthrough wins in 2022. Taranto started this season with a bang by nailing William Byron as a 16-1 longshot in the Daytona 500, Kyle Larson at 4-1 in the Pennzoil 400 and Denny Hamlin at 5-1 in the Food City 500! He also moonlights as a sim racer and has 20 career wins in iRacing.

For the 2024 EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, we can tell you Taranto is high on Ross Chastain, even though he's a 12-1 longshot. "Sometimes, picking a driver for a certain race just boils down to them having a certain knack for that racetrack. And that's what Chastain has at Circuit of the Americas, where he's easy money no matter how you fill out your bet slip," Taranto said.

Another curveball: He's fading Shane Van Gisbergen (9-1), even though he became the first driver in the modern era of NASCAR to win his debut race when he did so at the Chicago Street Course last year. "A significant part of the reason why Van Gisbergen was able to pull off such a stunner at Chicago was because it was NASCAR's first ever race on a street course, a type of circuit he's very familiar with from V8 Supercars, and also because wet weather impacted the race and eventually led to it being shortened from its originally scheduled distance to due to impending darkness. I think SVG will eventually get to the point where he's extremely dangerous every single time he comes to a road course, but for now I'm going to bank against lightning striking twice," Taranto told SportsLine.

Taranto also locked in four more EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix best bets and is also high on a major dark horse priced at over 20-1! You ABSOLUTELY need to see his picks before locking in any NASCAR picks of your own for the 2024 EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix.

So who wins the 2024 EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix? And which MASSIVE longshot do you need to target NOW? ... Join SportsLine right now to see the NASCAR at Austin best bets, all from the expert who called Chastain and Suarez's first career wins as huge darkhorses in 2022, along with Byron's season-opening win in the Daytona 500, Larson's win in the Pennzoil 400 and Hamlin's win in the Food City 500!