Colton Herta is PointsBet favorite at Barber

Colton Herta continues to be the PointsBet Sportsbook favorite for the Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park (Sunday, 1 p.m. ET on NBC and streaming on Peacock, the NBC Sports App and NBCSports.com).

Herta’s line this week is +550, a slight increase from the +475 he showed prior to the Long Beach Grand Prix. Herta was the favorite that race also, but crashed on Lap 23 after leading the field to green. In two starts at Barber, Herta has yet to crack the top 20.

One way to view American Odds is to move the decimal point two positions to the left. That will let a bettor know what they will make on a $1 bet, so the return on investment this week for Herta is $5.50. For bettors more comfortable with fractional odds, a bet of +300 is the same as 3/1.

MORE: NBC Sports Predictor, Grand Prix of Long Beach

Last week’s winner Josef Newgarden is ranked second for the Grand Prix of Alabama with a line of +600. His win in Long Beach was his second consecutive after also winning on the Texas Motor Speedway oval. Newgarden won at Barber in 2017 and 2018. He finished fourth the following year, but was involved in a crash at the start of last year’s race.

Ranked third this week is last year’s Barber winner, Alex Palou. His line for this year’s edition is +800. Palou led 56 of the 90 laps last year to beat Will Power by less than half a second.

Scott Dixon is ranked fourth with a line of +900. Dixon has not won an IndyCar race since last year at Texas, but has 11 top-10s in his last 15 starts, including a sweep of those positions in 2022. He was sixth last week in Long Beach. Dixon has top-three finishes in his last two starts at Barber.

Rounding out the top five this week in PointsBet’s ranking is Patricio O’Ward at +1000. He is coming off his first top-10 of the season after finishing fifth last week in Long Beach. O’Ward was fourth in the 2021 Grand Prix of Alabama.

One noteworthy PointsBet longshot is Takuma Sato, who won this race in 2019. If he can repeat, that would be worth 40/1.

Previous Betting Lines

Round 1: St Petersburg: Colton Herta favored

Round 2: Texas: Scott Dixon favored

Round 3: Long Beach: Herta favored for second street race

PointsBet is our Official Sports Betting Partner, and we may receive compensation if you place a bet on PointsBet for the first time after clicking our links.

It took four attempts for Kyle Larson to win his first High Limit Sprint Car Series race in the series he co-owns with brother-in-law Brad Sweet, but once he found victory lane, he has been undefeated with his win at Eagle (Nebraska) Raceway. For the second week, Abreu led early only to fall prey to Larson.

The win was Larson’s third straight victory and the fifth consecutive top-five, giving him a perfect sweep of the season after finishing 10th in last year’s inaugural race at Lincoln Park Speedway in Putnamville, Indiana.

Larson started third behind Abreu and Brent Marks but was embroiled in a fierce battle with Anthony Macri for third during the first dozen laps. Larson slipped by Macri in traffic until a red flag waved for a flip by Lachlan McHugh.

Meanwhile at the front of the pack, Marks retook the lead from Abreu on Lap 18. Larson followed one lap later and then caution waved again. Tyler Courtney lost power and fell to 24th after starting eighth.

Marks scooted away on the restart but tragedy struck in Lap 26. Leading the race, Marks hit a pothole in Turn 1, bicycled and then flipped, handing the lead to Larson.

Abreu caught Larson again during the final laps and in a reprise of their battle at Tri-City Speedway, the two threw sliders at one another for several laps until Larson built some separation and ran away to the checkers.

𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧. 𝗪𝗔𝗦. 𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗖.@EagleRaceway went above and beyond in their return to the main stage with the High Limit Sprint Car Series tonight!

pic.twitter.com/H3XKQEOpg6

— High Limit Racing (@HighLimitRacing) June 7, 2023

“I didn’t feel like my pace in [Turns] 1 & 2 slowed down a ton,” Larson said from victory lane. “I missed it once there and then I saw his nose in 3 & 4. I didn’t know if he nailed the bottom that well behind me and I think he might have slid me in the next corner, so he was definitely on the top.

“I was nervous to move up there because my car was really pogoing up in the entry of 1. I got up just in time, made a few mistakes and he threw a couple more sliders at me but he was just a little too far back and I was able to squirt around him. Then I really had to commit to hitting my marks – back my effort down a bit to avoid mistakes.”

After leading early, Abreu fell back as far as sixth, but faith in his car kept hope alive.

“I just needed to do a few things a few laps before I did and fix some angles, then my car got a whole lot better,” Abreu said. “I’m thankful for this team; they do an amazing job. They don’t give up on me. I know my car is going to be there right at the end of these races, so it’s just the discipline of being patient.”

For Abreu, it was his third near-miss this season. He was leading at Lakeside in the 2023 opener until a tire went flat in the closing laps and he lost the lead to Larson late in the Tri-City Speedway race. Abreu has finished sixth or better in his last three High Limit races with each result being progressively better until his pair of runner-up results.

Third-place finisher Scelzi was the hard charger, advancing from 17th.

“I had a very specific plan; don’t go near [the hole in Turn 1],” Scelzi said. “It worked out. No one wanted to start on the top. I think I gained a couple of rows there on the choose cone and ran the middle, which seemed to be better than right around the bottom.”

Michael “Buddy” Kofoid in fourth and Macri rounded out the top five.

World of Outlaws star and former NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne was one of 41 entrants, but he was not among the 26 starters. He failed to advance to the Main after finishing eighth in the B Main and seventh in his heat.

Feature Results

A Feature (40 Laps): 1. 57-Kyle Larson[4]; 2. 24-Rico Abreu[1]; 3. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[17]; 4. 71-Michael Kofoid[5]; 5. 39M-Anthony Macri[3]; 6. 9-Chase Randall[9]; 7. 26-Zeb Wise[14]; 8. 1X-Jake Bubak[15]; 9. 8-Aaron Reutzel[10]; 10. 14D-Corey Day[18]; 11. 11-Cory Eliason[12]; 12. 5T-Ryan Timms[11]; 13. 88-Austin McCarl[13]; 14. 21H-Brady Bacon[22]; 15. 48-Danny Dietrich[16]; 16. 7S-Robbie Price[19]; 17. 21-Brian Brown[23]; 18. 22-Riley Goodno[26]; 19. 52-Blake Hahn[25]; 20. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[21]; 21. 3J-Dusty Zomer[6]; 22. 14-Cole Macedo[7]; 23. 19-Brent Marks[2]; 24. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[8]; 25. 25-Lachlan McHugh[20]; 26. 53-Jack Dover[24]

2023 High Limit Sprint Car Series

Race 1: Giovanni Scelzi wins at Lakeside Speedway
Race2: Anthony Macri wins at 34 Raceway
Race 3: Kyle Larson wins at Wayne County Speedway
Race 4: Kyle Larson wins at Tri-City Speedway

Colton Herta is PointsBet favorite at Barber Motorsports Park

Kyle Larson wins third consecutive High Limit Sprint race at Eagle Raceway, Rico Abreu second again

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