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2026 Focused Health 250 Betting Race Picks
- Updated: February 26, 2026
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On Saturday, NASCAR will host another double header between the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and the Craftsman Truck Series. While the Truck Series will kick off the day from St. Petersburg, the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series will take center stage from Circuit of the Americas shortly after 3:00PM (EST) for the running of the Focused Health 250. Both the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and the Cup Series will be participating at COTA this weekend and all 3 series will be participating in road course racing which will be vastly different from the superspeedway style racing we have witnessed over the last two weeks.
Fortunately, road course racing is better for handicappers and bettors who are looking to cash a few winning tickets. Unlike the unpredictable style of superspeedway racing where nearly anyone can win given the right circumstances, road course racing has much less parity because lap times are wildly top heavy. For those reasons, we can narrow down the potential winners to a very small list. For Saturday’s Focused Health 250, that potential winners list could be narrowed down to just two drivers because both Shane Van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch will be stepping down from Cup Series competition to chase a checkered flag at COTA.
As most are aware, SVG and Zilisch are the top two drivers in the sport at road course racing and by a relatively wide margin, especially in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series’ cars. Zilisch is the defending winner of the Focused Health 250 and has been absolutely phenomenal in these cars. In fact, Zilisch set a rookie record last year with 10 victories in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series with 6 of those victories coming on the road courses. Meanwhile, SVG has been the dominant drivers in the Cup Series at the road courses following a 2025 campaign that produced a massive 5 victories. SVG also has an extremely high win-rate in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series at the road courses which means he will likely be battling Zilisch for the victory on Saturday, especially when you consider both drivers are in top rides with J.R. Motorsports.
The betting outlook for Saturday’s race at COTA is relatively grim. Both Zilisch and SVG have an extremely high likelihood of winning this race and the betting odds for both drivers are deservingly low. One of the reasons that I am putting out this preview relatively early is because I don’t expect much to change from Friday’s practice and qualifying sessions to Saturday’s green flag. Despite how qualifying may unfold on Friday, Zilisch and SVG are the drivers to beat by a wide margin and those drivers will likely need to experience trouble to bring other competitors into the mix. For that reason, our futures bets for this race will be extremely conservative and we may not have many bets at all depending on odds related to prop bets and H2H match-ups.
As stated above, SVG and Zilisch are deserving heavy favorites going into Saturday and will likely win this race 4 out of every 5 times. Personally, I like Zilisch as the slightly better driver at COTA because SVG has not been quite as dominant at COTA compared to some of the other road courses. For that reason and Zilisch’s resume in this car, I prefer Zilisch over SVG as the top betting option. However, betting odds are not allowing much value on either driver. As a result, I will probably look for a way to include Zilisch in a parlay in hopes to create better value for Sunday’s DureMax Grand Prix. With that said, SVG is nearly interchangeable with Zilisch as the top option and I would not blame anyone for putting SVG at the top of their betting list.
Behind the top two drivers, Austin Hill, Sam Mayer, and Ross Chastain would be my top options to potentially put an upset if the top two drivers run into trouble. Hill has an excellent resume at COTA and is easily the best full-time series driver at COTA going into Saturday. Sam Mayer would likely be 2nd on that list in terms of series regulars with quality performances in all 4 career starts. Meanwhile, Ross Chastain has always been really good at COTA and has a Cup Series win to show for it. Chastain always has elite lap times but often struggles more in race trim which is likely more of a product of his equipment than his talent. Chastain will be piloting the #32 for Jordan Anderson Racing this week which is not exactly among the top teams in the garage and that is the only reason I’m not quite as high on Chastain going into Saturday.
Jesse Love, Sammy Smith, and Brent Crews are some additional names that I consider quality road course talents for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. Crews is easily the biggest sleeper of the group because most casual fans do not recognize his name. However, Crews is a serious upcoming talent and will have the luxury of piloting the #19 car from Joe Gibbs Racing. If he can keep the fenders clean, I believe he will surprise a lot of people on Saturday. While I think the chances of Crews, Love, and Smith winning is slim, they are potential targets in other betting formats (H2H/prop/fantasy). If we are looking for deep sleepers in fantasy formats, I would point to drivers like Austin Green and Anthony Alfredo as low-priced options that could pay dividends in fantasy formats.
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Judging by early betting odds, this weekend's races in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series and Cup Series at Phoenix...