Category Archives: Auto Racing Betting

NASCAR Sprint Cup Goody’s Fast Relief 500 preview

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The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Martinsville Speedway for Sunday’s Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500. The event is the first of two Cup races there this season. Since 2004, when Martinsville was repaved, no track has featured more accidents than Martinsville with 154. The next highest is Charlotte with 108, then Bristol at 103. Bet on it at WagerWeb.com.

This could be the perfect track for Jeff Gordon to snap out of his slump. The four-time Sprint Cup Series champion is off to the worst start in his 20-year career. With five races completed so far this season, Gordon sits 25th in the point standings. He finished 40th in the Daytona 500 after suffering engine failure midway through the race. The 40-year-old driver has finished no better than 12th in the last three races.

But Gordon leads all active drivers with seven wins at the flat 0.526-mile track. Gordon has also posted 17 top-10 finishes in the last 18 races there. He placed 20th in the fall 2010 event.

In the previous 10 races at Martinsville, three drivers have separated themselves from the pack: Gordon, Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson. Those three all have an average finish of 5.1 or better in that time. No other driver has a mark better than 10th. If you look at pure speed, Gordon has been the fastest driver on the track most often. He’s run the fastest lap on 559 circuits over the 10 races. Johnson’s at 491, and Hamlin 420.

Since the fall of 2006, both Johnson and Denny had finished in the top 10 in every race at Martinsville. That streak was broken last spring when neither carded a top-10 finish. Hamlin won the second 2009 race at the track and swept the 2010 events. The Virginia driver won this year at Phoenix. Johnson has six Martinsville victories, winning five times in a six-race stretch from 2006-09. After getting crashed at Daytona, Johnson has been on a mission to get back into the top 10 in points, which he did last week at Auto Club. And Hamlin dominated and won at Phoenix to prove he should once more be favored on minimally banked tracks.

Last year in this race, Kevin Harvick raced to the second of his four 2011 victories, overcoming handling problems to charge to the front and pass Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The short tracks have the potential to be a wild card every time cars take to the track. Two weeks ago at Bristol, an early race accident eliminated several strong contenders including Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Kasey Kahne and Marcos Ambrose. Close side-by-side racing cut a tire on another top-five contender’s car and sent Gordon spinning into the outside wall. The confines of Martinsville are tighter and the action is even more frenzied.

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Bovada’s auto racing odds: Can Tony Stewart Continue Run at Goody’s Fast Relief 500?

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Reigning points champion Tony Stewart looks for this third win in the past four NASCAR Sprint Cup races on Sunday as the series moves to Martinsville for a little short-track racing at the Goody’s Fast Relief 500. Stewart (9/1) is among the favorites this week on Bovada’s auto racing odds.

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Stewart’s fast start is somewhat surprising because he replaced Darian Grubb as crew chief despite winning last year’s title. But Stewart and current chief Steve Addington are clearly on the same page. Dating to last year’s Chase, “Smoke” now has seven wins in the past 15 races overall. And he won the last race at Martinsville back on Oct. 30, 2011 in the Tums Fast Relief 500. Stewart won by passing Jimmie Johnson on a restart with three laps to go. Overall, Stewart has three wins in his 26-race career at Martinsville.

Virginia native Denny Hamlin (the 4/1 favorite) loves his home-state track. He has four career wins at Martinsville, including three straight: the fall race of 2009 and sweeping both 2010 races. Hamlin, who already has a win this year at Phoenix, finished 12th in this race in 2011.

Jimmie Johnson has six career wins at Martinsville, with his last coming in this 2009 race. That actually ended a stretch where Johnson had won five of six races here. Johnson has an average finish of 5.4 at Martinsville and a whopping 14 Top-5 finishes.

But perhaps no driver loves Martinsville more than Jeff Gordon. The four-time Sprint Cup champion has struggled this year and is just 25th in the points standings. He hasn’t even finished in the Top 10 in the past three races. But Gordon leads all active drivers with seven wins at the flat 0.526-mile track. Gordon has also posted 17 top-10 finishes in the last 18 races there. He was fifth in this race a year ago.

Is this the week that Dale Earnhardt Jr. ends his 134-race winless streak? He almost did here last year but was overtaken with four laps remaining by Kevin Harvick, who went on to win at Martinsville for the first time in his career. Junior has never won at Martinsville.

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IndyCar Betting Hits the Track Down in Alabama on Sunday

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Motor racing betting will get an IndyCar Series option alongside the usual Sprint Cup Series offering this weekend as that circuit takes to the track down in Birmingham for the 2012 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama.

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Sunday afternoon will mark just the third running of the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, as it was added to the IndyCar calendar just prior to the 2010 season. The event will take place at the Barber Motorsports Park, which is a 2.3-mile road course.

Helio Castroneves won the inaugural race in 2010, holding off Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti to pay off on the IndyCar betting lines for his supporters. Will Power and Marco Andretti rounded out the top five drivers at that race, with Ryan Briscoe, Justin Wilson, Tony Kanaan, Mike Conwayand Alex Tagliani making up the rest of the Top 10 on the day.

In 2011 it was then Power that won in Alabama, with Dixon finishing in second place, and Franchitti ending up in third place. Andretti, Oriol Servia, Kanaan, Castroneves, Simon Pagenaud, Simona de Silvestro and Charlie Kimball also turned in Top-10 results that race.

Castroneves also won the season-opening Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg last weekend, beating Dixon and Ryan Hunter-Reay across the finish line to take an early lead in the driver standings. James Hinchcliffe and Briscoe were fourth and fifth last weekend.

Pagenaud, Power, E.J. Viso, Kimball and Wilson completed the Top 10 at the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, while Franchitti ended up back in 13th place in the season opener.

On the IndyCar odds at Bovada Power is listed as the 3/2 favorite to win the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, with Franchitti and Dixon both at 5/1, Castroneves at 6/1 and Briscoe at 9/1. Hunter-Reay is then at 15/1, with Andretti and Kanaan each set at 30/1.

Bet on this weekend’s IndyCar Series action and find all your motor racing odds at Bovada.

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This week in NASCAR: Auto Club 400

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The NASCAR series shifts to California this weekend for the Auto Club 400 at Fontana. And you can expect both Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick to contend. The last two spring races at the two-mile racetrack have featured epic duels between the two California natives.

In February 2010, Johnson, who hails from nearby El Cajon, claimed his track-record-extending fifth win at Auto Club Speedway, but this one didn’t come with ease. Harvick, a Bakersfield-native, chased down Johnson and battled him for the lead after a late-race restart, but Harvick scraped the wall with just four laps to go, allowing Johnson to drive away for the victory. Harvick finished second in that race but got payback the following year when he passed Johnson for the lead between turns three and four on the final lap and then held off Johnson at the finish line by just 0.14 seconds for his first win at California.

Overall at the Auto Club Speedway, Johnson leads with the most wins and most top-5s, is tied for most top-10s, has led the most laps (846) and has the best average finish at 5.1. Over the past nine races on the two-mile track, Johnson has four wins, eight finishes of third or better with a worst of ninth. It all adds up to an average finish over that span of 2.5. Thus he is the +550 favorite on WagerWeb.com.

The home-state swing is a welcome sight for Johnson, who opened the season with a second-lap crash in the Daytona 500 and a 25-point penalty that left him in negative numbers in the standings. Since then, he’s logged three consecutive top-10 finishes and had the points penalty rescinded, leaving him 11th in the standings, just on the fringe of the Chase postseason field. A Johnson victory would also be the 200th for Hendrick Motorsports, which leads all teams with nine wins at the California track.

The only non-Hendrick or Roush drivers to win at Fontana in last 13 races are Harvick (22.9) and Tony Stewart (22.7). Those two have gate-crashed victory lane the past two trips to California and should be in the hunt again. No one has done more damage on the intermediate speedways at the end of last season and the beginning of this year than Stewart, who smoked the field when he grabbed his first career win at Las Vegas.

Harvick (+900 at WagerWeb.com) is the only driver to win at ACS with a last-lap pass (2011). Three of the past six Cup races won by a last-lap pass were won by Harvick. He and Johnson each have won four times on last-lap passes, the most of active drivers.

Martin Truex Jr. (+2500) is fourth in points with a 9.8 average finish in four starts. He has not scored a top-15 finish in the past six races at Fontana (and only has two finishes better than 15th in 11 career starts — both sixth-place runs).

Jamie McMurray (+4000) had five top-eight results his first six ACS races but has not finished better than 16th in the past 10.

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F1 Betting Odds: Vettel, Red Bull Poised for Run at Three-peat

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Can anybody keep up with Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing? That’s the big question as the Formula 1 season roars back into the auto-racing bettingspotlight with the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday morning (3:00 am Eastern) at Albert Park in Melbourne.

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Vettel enters his fourth season as the primary driver for Red Bull-Renault on the Formula 1 circuit as the two-time defending drivers champion and the overwhelming 1/1 betting favorite on the auto-racing futures to win his third consecutive individual title.

The 24-year-old German star won 11 of 19 races last season (including 15 pole-position starts) to run away with the championship by a margin of 392 points to 270 points over runner-up Jenson Button of McLaren-Mercedes, who won three races in 2011 and is listed at 9/1 odds to win the drivers championship this year.

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari (one victory), and Button’s teammate Lewis Hamilton (three victories) are rated second and third at 5/1 and 6/1 respectively on the futures to win the drivers championship, with Vettel’s Red Bull teammate Mark Webber (one victory) rounding out the Top 5 at 16/1 odds as they all head to Australia for the inaugural race of the season.

Red Bull Racing is also the heavy chalk at 10/11 to win the constructors championship – which would also mark their third consecutive crown – with McLaren at 2/1 odds, Ferrari at 7/1, and Mercedes GP at 12/1.

Mercedes GP was known as Brawn GP when it won the constructors championship in 2009, with Button as its primary driver. Nico Rosberg (25/1) and Michael Schumacher (28/1) now race for Mercedes GP.

Visit Bovada for all your Formula 1 betting lines and futures.

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NASCAR Kobalt Tools 400 betting preview

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The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stays in the desert this weekend as the series moves from Phoenix to Las Vegas for Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 400. And the early favorite at +500 on WagerWeb.com is Kyle Busch, a Vegas native.

One of Kyle Busch’s biggest wins in Sprint Cup came at Las Vegas in 2009. Busch won the pole position for the race but had start from the rear of the field due to an engine change. He held off then Richard Childress Racing teammates Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton in a three-lap shootout to the finish for his first victory at his home track.

Busch has the one win, three top-five finishes and four top-10s, and he’s led a total of 113 laps in his eight career Sprint Cup starts at Las Vegas. His average Vegas finish is 15.0. Busch moved up from 17th to ninth in the point standings after finishing sixth at Phoenix.

The second-favorite is Jimmie Johnson at +525 at WagerWeb.com. Johnson has four wins at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, including three consecutive wins (2005-2007) in 10 starts. His most recent win came in 2010. He has earned four top-five and five top-10 finishes. His average start is 15.2 and average finish is 10.6. He has completed 2,688 of 2,691 laps (99.9 percent) and has led 320 laps. He has finished every race in which he has competed at the 1.5-mile oval.

Phoenix race winner Denny Hamlin sits atop the series standings after opening the year with consecutive top-five finishes. The fast start has done wonders for Hamlin’s morale, which took a beating as the No. 11 team limped to the end of last season. But he’s tempering his optimism heading to Vegas, where he hasn’t led a lap in six Sprint Cup races.

“You never know what can happen next week,” Hamlin said after winning at Phoenix. “We’re at a totally different race track again, and it looks like really the first five race tracks that we go to are all dramatically different in a lot of different ways. So now our next step is to be competitive on a mile-and-a-half race track.”

Hamlin (4th and 1st), Greg Biffle (3rd and 3rd), Kevin Harvick (7th and 2nd), Mark Martin (10th and 9th) and Joey Logano are the only five drivers who have posted top-10 finishes in the first two races of the season.

In the past four races at Las Vegas, Jeff Gordon (+800) has two top-six finishes and two DNFs (crashes). In 14 overall starts, Gordon has seven top-sixes, including a win in 2001, and seven finishes of 15th or worse, including three DNFs for crashes.

Daytona 500 winner Matt Kenseth (+1000) has been passed for the win three times at Las Vegas, including the only last-lap pass in 2006, by Johnson. That remains the only race out of 14 where the leader with 10 laps to go did not win.

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NASCAR Betting Odds: Nationwide Series Hits Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

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Fresh off a win in Phoenix last weekend Elliott Sadler will look to pay out on theNASCAR betting lines for the second week in a row on Saturday as the Nationwide Series competes in the Sam’s Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

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Sadler (8/1 to win the Sam’s Town 300) held off Brad Keselowski (7/2) andRicky Stenhouse Jr. (5/1) to take the checkered flag in the Bashas’ Supermarkets 200 at Phoenix last time out, with Austin Dillon (20/1) and Kevin Harvick rounding out the Top 5 drivers at the event.

Sam Hornish Jr. (25/1), Trevor Bayne (12/1), Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin and Michael Annettmade up the rest of the Top 10 at that race, while Kyle Busch (4/1) was 11th and Danica Patrick(20/1) had to settle for a 21st-place result.

Truck Series regular James Buescher ended up 12th at the Bashas’ Supermarkets 200 after winning the Nationwide Series event at Daytona to open the season two weeks ago.

Sadler holds down top spot in the Nationwide Series standings after two weeks – with only regulars on that circuit eligible to collect points. Sadler has a 10-point lead on Dillon for top spot in the standings, with those two drivers (along with Keselowski) finishing in the Top 5 in each of the first two Nationwide Series races this season.

Sadler ended up in 12th place at Sam’s Club 300 in 2011, with Mark Martin (5/1) taking the checkered flag at that event. Justin Allgaier (25/1) and Keselowski followed Martin across the finish line that day, with Patrick ending up in fourth place and Bayne placing fifth.

Carl Edwards, Hamlin, Stenhouse Jr., Jason Leffler and Kenny Wallace also earned Top-10 results in Nationwide Series racing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last season.

Find all your NASCAR betting odds and futures for this weekend’s races at Bovada.

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Expect the Unexpected at 2012 Daytona 500 (Danica Patrick Will Not Win)

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The winner of the Daytona 500 hasn’t been the expected winner for more than a few years – will that change Sunday when the NASCAR season officially opens with its Super Bowl? Bet on the race at Bovada’s motorsports odds.

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A year ago, Trevor Bayne came from nowhere to win the Great American Race. In fact, he was just happy to be there, competing in his first Daytona 500 while on loan to the Woods Brothers racing team from Roush Fenway. Now he’s looking to become the third driver to win this race in consecutive years and the first since Sterling Marlin in 1994 and ’95.

On the pole is Carl Edwards, who was edged for the points title last year in the final race of the season at Miami by Tony Stewart. Many believe Edwards is the top driver in the series now, but being on the pole does not ensure success at the Daytona 500. In fact, no pole sitter has won since 2000 (Dale Jarrett). Since 2007, only one pole winner has even had a Top-10 finish. It was Edwards’ 12th career pole but first pole at a restrictor plate track. He was the runner-up to Bayne a year ago, his best finish at Daytona.

Much of the talk for this year’s 500 will be around Danica Patrick, who will be making her NASCAR Sprint Cup debut in the race. No driver has won a Sprint Cup race in his or her first start since 1963 when Johnny Rutherford took the checkered flag for the second Daytona 500 qualifier race. (Bayne’s win last year came in his second Sprint Cup start.) Patrick is the third female to compete in the Daytona 500, joining Janet Guthrie and Shawna Robinson. Her chances of winning got longer in Thursday’s Gatorade Duels as the crashed and will now start at the back of the field. She was assured of a spot in the 500 only because of owner’s points – otherwise that crash would have cost her a spot.

Is this finally the year Kurt Busch breaks through? He has finished second three times in his 11 Daytona 500s, and in the top five six times, including fifth in 2011. Busch has the best average finish in the past 10 Daytona races (11.4).

Many favor Kevin Harvick on Sunday. He won this race in 2007 and has four other Top-10 finishes in this race, although he was 42nd a year ago. Defending points champion Stewart, who starts third on Sunday, is looking for his first win in NASCAR’s biggest race. His best finish was runner-up in 2004 and Stewart was 13th a year ago. Greg Biffle starts next to Edwards on the front row. His best result here was third in 2010.

The past 10 Daytona 500s were won by 10 different drivers, the longest streak of 500 winners without a repeat winner. Each of the past five Daytona 500 winners led less than eight laps in their victory.

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2012 NASCAR betting preview: Clint Bowyer

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RIDE: No. 15 Toyota, Michael Waltrip Racing

BORN: May 30, 1979

HOMETOWN: Emporia, Kan.

CREW CHIEF: Brian Pattie

SPONSOR: Five Hour Energy Drink

WAGERWEB.COM NASCAR BETS LINE FOR SPRINT CUP: +1000

DAYTONA 500 NOTES:  Bowyer started 17th and finished eighth in the season-opening Budweiser Shootout at Daytona. Bowyer spun early in the race, but rallied late to finish in the top-10. Bowyer will make his 13th career NSCS Daytona start on Sunday. In 12 previous Daytona starts, he has two top-five and six top-10 finishes. He started a career-best third in July 2011 where he also recorded his lone DNF. Bowyer has an average starting position of 18th and finish of 15th. Bowyer has raced in every Daytona 500 since 2006—all with Richard Childress Racing. Bowyer will make his regular season race debut with Michael Waltrip Racing. In Bowyer’s previous six starts in The Great American Race he has a best finish of fourth, two top-five and three top-10 finishes. He started the 2011 Daytona 500 in sixth position – a career best for the season opener. His average starting position is 19th and finishing position is 12th. Bowyer has led more than 30 laps in each of the last two Daytona 500s (37 laps in 2010, 31 laps in 2011) and has led laps in three of his last four.

OVERVIEW: Bowyer begins his first season with MWR after six seasons with Richard Childress Racing. He won at Talladega last fall and finished 13th in points.

2011 STATS

2011 Stats

Starts: 36

Wins: 1

Top 5s: 4

Top 10s: 16

Poles: 0

DNF: 6

Laps Led: 345

Laps Completed: 10,441

Lead Lap Finishes: 25

Bonus Points: 20

Races Led: 16

Average Start: 16.4

Average Finish: 15.5

After First 26 Races: 14th

Final Points Standing: 13th

Driver Rating: 87.5 (12th)

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2012 NASCAR preview: Denny Hamlin

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RIDE: No. 11 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing

BORN: Nov. 18, 1980

HOMETOWN: Chesterfield, Va.

CREW CHIEF: Darian Grubb

SPONSOR: FedEx

Bovada.lv NASCAR BETS LINE FOR SPRINT CUP: +750

DAYTONA 500 NOTES: Hamlin drove to a fifth-place finish in Saturday night’s Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway, battling an overheating engine and avoiding a handful of late multi-car accidents.  On Sunday, Hamlin will make his seventh start in the ‘Great American Race’ and 13th Sprint Cup Series appearance at Daytona. Hamlin’s best finish in the Daytona 500 is 17th, coming in 2008 and 2010. He was running third with two laps to go in last year’s race before he was collected in an incident on the backstretch, which set up a ‘green-white-checkered’ finish eventually won by Trevor Bayne. Hamlin wound up 21st. His best-career finish at Daytona is third, coming in the summer race in 2009. Hamlin has lead at least one lap in eight of his last nine Cup Series starts at Daytona, and has led a total of 127 laps on the high-banked, 2.5-mile oval.

OVERVIEW: Had a miserable 2011 season after just missing out on the championship the year before. Team replaced longtime crew chief Mike Ford in December with Grubb, who led Tony Stewart to the title. Heading into the 2012 season, the No. 11 car is one win shy of tying the famed #43 for most all-time wins in NASCAR’s premier division (now Sprint Cup Series) at 198. The #11 has recorded 197 wins in 1,732 races and Hamlin has amassed 17 of those victories in his six full seasons in the cockpit. Parnelli Jones was the first driver to win in car #11 in 1957, and the number has seen its share of famous drivers behind the wheel, including Hamlin’s childhood hero, Bill Elliott, as well as NASCAR Hall of Famers Junior Johnson, Bobby Allison, Ned Jarrett, Cale Yarborough and Darrell Waltrip.

2011 STATS

Starts: 36

Wins: 1

Top 5s: 5

Top 10s: 14

Poles: 0

DNF: 2

Laps Led: 450

Laps Completed: 10,482

Lead Lap Finishes: 26

Bonus Points: 20

Races Led: 15

Average Start: 17.1

Average Finish: 16.0

After First 26 Races: 12th

Final Points Standing: 9th

Driver Rating: 88.1 (11th)

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