2024 Pennzoil 400 odds, picks: NASCAR best bets for Las Vegas from proven racing expert

The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule continues on Sunday with the 2024 Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Kyle Larson failed to crack the top 30 in Atlanta last week, but he is the 4-1 favorite in the 2024 Pennzoil 400 odds, sitting ahead of William Byron (17-2), Denny Hamlin (17-2) and Ryan Blaney (9-1). Byron opened the season with a win in the Daytona 500, and he is the defending Pennzoil 400 champion. Hamlin won in Las Vegas in 2021, while Blaney is the defending Cup Series champion and is coming off a runner-up finish last weekend. Sunday's race on the 1.5-mile tri-oval is scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m. ET. 

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! He also moonlights as a sim racer and has 20 career wins in iRacing.

For the 2024 Pennzoil 400, we can tell you Taranto is high on Ross Chastain, even though he's a 15-1 longshot. Chastain picked up the first Xfinity Series win of his career at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2018, and he led 83 laps in a third-place finish in the 2022 Pennzoil 400. He has been inside the top 10 in three of his last four races in Las Vegas, and he is coming off a top-10 finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway last week. 

Another curveball: He's fading 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott (14-1). "I'm well-aware that Chase Elliott is very capable of running up front at Las Vegas, as he has three top fives at this track while also leading over 70 laps on two different occasions. However, Elliott's Las Vegas career also includes seven finishes outside of the top 20, including both of his last two starts here," Taranto told SportsLine.

Taranto also locked in four more Pennzoil 400 best bets and is also high on a major dark horse priced at over 90-1! You ABSOLUTELY need to see his picks before locking in any NASCAR picks of your own for the 2024 Pennzoil 400.

So who wins the 2024 Pennzoil 400? And which MASSIVE longshot do you need to target NOW? ... Join SportsLine right now to see the NASCAR at Las Vegas 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 at the Daytona 500!!