The 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup racing season officially gets underway this Saturday night with the running of the 34thBudweiser Shootout at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona, Florida. All the action is slated to start at 5:10 p.m. (PT) and the race will be broadcast nationally on FOX.
2012 Budweiser
Shootout Betting Preview
The Bud Shootout is a non-points race that is open to the
top 25 drivers in last season’s point standings, past Shootout winners, past
winners of point races at Daytona, previous Sprint Cup champions, and the last
10 rookies of the year. Of the eligible field of 33 drivers for this year’s
race, it appears that 25 drivers have signed-on to race on Saturday night.
The race format is made up of two segments; an opening 25
lap run followed by a 50 lap race to the finish. The main draw of this race,
besides early season bragging rights, is a $200,000 purse for the winner. This
amount of first-place money usually ensures that drivers will go all-out in an
effort to win, making this one of the most exciting races of the season.
Bovada has released its NASCAR odds for this year’s Bud Shootout
and the NASCAR betting favorite to win at 9/1 is Kevin Harvick driving, ironically
enough, the No. 29 Budweiser car. He won this race in both 2009 and 2010 and finished
seventh last year. Harvick is coming off a very successful racing season in
2011 with a third-place finish in the standings; just 58 points out of first.
He posted four victories last year, which was tied with Kyle Busch for the most
in the Sprint Cup series. At 9/1 odds, the sports betting value is certainly there for Harvick
on Saturday night.
There are four drivers that sportsbooks list next at 10/1 to win this race
starting with last season’s runner-up to the Sprint Cup title, Carl Edwards in
the No. 99 car. Edwards was easily one of the most consistent drivers in NASCAR
last year with 26 top-10 finishes in 36 races, but only recorded one point-race
victory to go along with a win in the Sprint All-Star Race, a non-points event
held in mid-May. Edwards has never won a Shootout and he finished 21st
last year, after getting involved in an early wreck.
Another driver at 10/1 is fan-favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr.
racing in the No. 88 car. Junior is coming off his best racing season in recent
memory, but still cannot be completely satisfied with a seventh-place finish in
the point standings and another winless campaign. Last year he finished 19th
in the Shootout, getting caught-up in the same wreck that ended Edwards’ night,
but he does have two career victories in this race in 2003 and 2008. Looking to
generate some momentum heading into next Sunday’s Daytona 500, expect Dale Jr.
to be racing hard this Saturday night.
The other two drivers at 10/1 are Kyle Busch and
Jeff Gordon, but the most value in the odds really lies in five-time Sprint Cup
Champion Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 car at 11/1. Nobody in this field is
coming off a more disappointing 2011 season than Johnson. He finished sixth in
the standings, a full 99 points behind champion Tony Stewart. Even more
upsetting was the way he struggled to contend for a sixth-straight Sprint Cup
all the way through the 10-race Chase at the end of the year. Johnson has only
won the Bud Shootout once in his storied career (in 2005) and finished fourth
last season, but much like Earnhardt Jr., look for him to try and make an early
statement for this season with a victory right out of the gate.