There are just two races left until the start of this season’s 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup title starting with the Advo Care 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Sunday night’s race is set to get underway at 3:30 p.m. (PT) and it will be broadcast nationally on ESPN.
Last Saturday night, Denny Hamlin
captured his third checkered flag of the season with a thrilling victory under
the lights in the Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol. Jimmie Johnson finished
second and our value pick for the week, Jeff Gordon at 12/1 ended-up third.
NASCAR Betting Preview- Advo Care 500
The following is a look at a few of the favorites to watch on Sunday afternoon along with our value pick according to their current odds to win as provided by Wagerweb.
Favorites
Jimmy
Johnson’s second-place finish last
week was his 12th top five in 24 point races this season. The No. 48
car is now in second place in the Sprint Cup standings with 838 points and has
already clinched a spot in this year’s Chase. This week, Johnson has been
opened as the +500 favorite to add a fourth victory to this year’s already
impressive resume. He finished second in last year’s race after posting a
third-place finish in 2010. Overall, Johnson has three victories at this track
and an average finishing position of 9.9.
The current Sprint Cup point leader, Greg Biffle is a +700 second-favorite
to win at Atlanta this Sunday night. The No. 16 race team vaulted back into the
lead with a victory two weeks ago at Michigan. Altogether, it has two wins this
season and eight other top five’s. Biffle loses a bit of value in his odds to
finish first this week with his past performance at this track. He has never
won here and his best finish was third in 2005. His average finishing position
here is 16.1.
There are a pair of drivers at +750 to
win this race starting with Kyle Busch.
This has not been one of the best seasons for the No. 18 car. It currently
holds one of the two Wildcard spots for the Chase by virtue of a win in the
first race at Richmond this year but is actually 13th in the
standings with 707 points. A win on Sunday would go a long way towards
locking-up one of the 12 available spots. Busch finished fifth in this race in
2010 but ended-up a disappointing 23rd last year. He does have one
victory at this track but his average finishing position is just 17.7.
The other driver at +750 is Matt Kenseth. He has yet to clinch a
berth for the Chase but is almost guaranteed a spot with 823 points which is
currently fourth in the standings. It has been a rough stretch for the No. 17
car with just one top-10 finish in the past six point races. Overall, it has
one win and eight other top-five finishes this season. Kenseth has never won a
race at Atlanta, but he does have 13 top-10 finishes and an average finishing
position of 12.9.
Top
Value Pick
For the second week in-a-row we are
going with Jeff Gordon as our top
value NASCAR pick to win this week at +1000. He is currently on the outside looking in
for the Chase despite last week’s third-place finish. The No. 24 car needs a
win to earn a berth unless he can pass Kyle Busch in the standings. The fact
that Gordon comes into this race as the defending champion adds even more value
to his odds. The long-time Sprint Cup veteran has five career victories at this
track, 10 other top-five finishes, and an average finishing position of 12.2.