The Sprint Cup series heads north to Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, PA for the running of the Pocono 400 presented by NASCAR. Sunday’s race is set to get underway at 10 a.m. (PT) and it will be broadcast nationally on TNT.
NASCAR
Betting Preview- Pocono 400
NASCAR’s Sprint Cup series first trip to
the Monster Mile at Dover International Speedway ended last Sunday with 11/2
favorite Jimmy Johnson notching his second win of the season in a point race to
go along with his victory in the Sprint All-Star Race. Kevin Harvick took
second and Matt Kenseth wound-up third. We went out on a limb with Brad
Keselowski at 15/1 as our value pick, but he could only manage a 12th-place
finish after starting 16th.
The following is a look at a few of the
favorites to watch in Sunday’s race along with our value pick according to
their current odds to win as provided by Bovada.
Favorites
Denny Hamlin has become particularly fond of Pocono Raceway over the years with
seven top-five finishes that includes four victories with the last one coming
in this race in 2010. With an average finishing position of 9.7 it is easy to
understand why the No.11 car is a 15/4 favorite to add a fifth victory this
Sunday. Hamlin also comes into this race in excellent form with two victories
and four other top-five finishes in 13 races. He is currently fourth in the
Sprint Cup standings with 464 points.
The run for Sprint Cup title number six
is on for the No.48 car as Jimmie
Johnson is clearly back in the form that led to five straight championships
with his win last week at Dover. He is now fifth in the standings with 453
points and just 33 points out of the lead. He has four other top-five finishes
this season as well as a victory in the non-point Sprint All-Star Race. Johnson
has been opened at 4/1 to win this week at Pocono. He has not taken the
checkered flag here since 2004 but has finished in the top 10 in eight of his
last nine races including a fourth-place finish in last year’s race.
The third-favorite at 15/2 to win on
Sunday is Tony Stewart. The
defending Sprint Cup Champion has been somewhat quiet the past few months after
racing to two victories in his first five races, but we all know how streaky
the No. 14 race team can be after last season’s dramatic run to the title. He
is currently eighth in the standings with 407 points and has two other top-five
finishes to go with his two wins. Pocono has not always been one of Stewart’s
favorite tracks with just two victories in 26 career starts, but he did win
this race in 2009 and record a third-place finish in 2010.
Another long-time Sprint Cup veteran, Jeff Gordon is the fourth-favorite to
win at 19/2. He too has been quiet this season after posting three victories
last year, but is always a factor at this track. He comes in as this race’s
defending champion to go along with four other checkered flags and 12 more
top-five finishes at Pocono. Gordon’s average finishing position at this track
is 10.2. A bit of the value in the No.24 car’s odds has been drained due to the
fact that this team is mired in 24th-place in the standings with
just one top-five finish.
Value Pick
Kevin Harvick’s second-place finish last
week helped to keep him in seventh place in
the standings with 440 points. The
No. 29 car is still searching for its first victory of the season but it has
come close with a total of three top-five finishes. Harvick has been opened at
12/1 to snag his first win this Sunday and given his current form along with
some recent success at this track,
he is our value pick for this race. He has
never won at Pocono, but he does have three top-five finishes in his last four
races here including a fifth-place finish in last year’s race.