Pivotal Race in NASCAR This Weekend

Motor sports betting fans know that it is rarely over until it’s over, and this year that is proving to be the case. The Sprint Cup points race got a little more interesting last week after the results of the Coke Zero 400. Now Jeff Gordon can start taking dead aim at Kevin Harvick this week at Chicagoland during the Lifelock.com 400.

Meanwhile, in the most advanced racing cars on Earth, two Brits, on the same F1 team no less, will battle it out on home turf to try to keep their team at the top of the standings. (See the F1 British Grand Prix betting breakdown here). Just as exciting, here in America, we have:

NASCAR Betting Odds To Win Lifelock.com 400 – Top Ten
Saturday, July 10 at Chicagoland Speedway – Joliet, IL

Jimmie Johnson   +325
Denny Hamlin    +500
Kyle Busch        +500
Jeff Gordon       +700
Kurt Busch       +900
Jeff Burton        +1100
Kevin Harvick    +1100
Kasey Kahne     +1400
Tony Stewart     +1500
Clint Bowyer    +1800

Last week’s Coke Zero 400 was bizarre, to say the least. The cars that had to exit the race due to accident exceeded the cars that finished the race. It was the good fortune of some of the cars that they were so far away from the lead and/or the pack that they were not adversely affected by the crashes.

That’s how people like Mike Bliss and Reed Sorenson wound up in the top ten. Even J.J. Yeley had a top ten finish. As one of the survivors, Jeff Gordon (who is +700 to win this week’s race) greatly benefited, even though once again he didn’t win. Gordon’s third-place finish helped him jump three spots to second in the Sprint Cup standings, but Kevin Harvick, the Cup leader who is +1000 to win the Championship, gained on everybody with his win.

Another big beneficiary of Saturday night’s race at Daytona was Kasey Kahne, who ran second to Harvick and is now 16th in the standings. He is now in position to make a move, although he better make it in a hurry if he is going to pass Ryan Newman, Clint Bowyer (who led Saturday’s race for a while) and Mark Martin.

Kahne is at +1400 in the sports betting odds to win this Saturday night at Chicagoland, while Bowyer is listed as one of the other betting favorites at +1800.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is on the move; he is now eleventh in the Cup standings, which would put him in position to make the Chase for the Cup, and he is at +2500 to win this weekend’s race. Mark Martin, Earnhardt’s teammate with Hendrick Motorsports, dominated the field in last year’s race, leading 195 of the 267 laps and then had to survive a series of restarts to get the checkered flag, beating out Gordon and Kahne.

Jimmie Johnson, yet another Hendrick NASCAR driver, is the favorite in this race at +325 and he’s got some statistics to back him up. He has the best average finishing position at this track, at 8.1, the best average running position at 7.3 and the best driver rating, 112.8. The only thing Johnson has never done, believe it or not, is win a race at Chicagoland. Maybe that changes this week on the 1.5-mile tri-oval.