Sportsbook.ag NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Betting Preview
Sportsbook.ag NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Betting Preview Coca-Cola 600 Charlotte Motor Speedway – Concord, NC
The All-Star racers stay in North Carolina and will be joined by the others for the Coca-Cola 600 this week, a long-standing race that was first established in 1959. Since that time there has been 14 different racers that have claimed multiple victories on the 1.5-mile, asphalt track, with four
of them (Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne, Kevin Harvick) running this week.
Sportsbook.ag Odds to Win Race
The best of that group has been Johnson who has won this event four times in the past (2003, 2004, 2005, 2014), dominating the 24-degree banks with his time of 4:07:27 in the win last year.
Just last week, the track was busy with the Sprint All-Star race which was won by Denny Hamlin, but featured a very different format. Let’s now look at some of the entrants who have a chance to do well this week.
Kevin Harvick (+300) - Vegas believes that Harvick is the clear-cut favorite this week in Charlotte and there is good reason for that as he’s dominated this year with top-eight finishes in all but one race, which was Bristol where he led for 184 laps, and has been either first or second nine times. He has been the runner-up at three of the past four races and is coming off one of those at this track last week. He does have three career wins when running on Charlotte Motor
Speedway and has done great recently at the Coca-Cola 600 with two wins, a runner up and an eighth-place showing in the past four years. Harvick is as good as a lock as there could be to top the leaderboard and it would not be a mistake to drop some units on him.Matt Kenseth (+1500) - Kenseth has also been running hot recently with four top-seven finishes, including a win in Bristol, over his last five times out. His fifth place in the All-Star race last week was no fluke as he has been tremendous at this venue in the past with two wins and a total of 16 top-10s in 31 races. His driver rating of 95.5 at the track ranks fifth-best and he’s always been near the top with an average running position of 13.8 (5th best) behind blazing fast speeds (176.531 MPH, fifth-fastest). Kenseth is nowhere near Harvick at this point, but the price point is nice for him and putting a few units on the 32-time Sprint Cup race winner could
pay out.
Kyle Busch (+1800) - Busch made his return to the track last week after dealing with multiple injuries during the Xfinity Series race in Daytona back in February. Following a lengthy recovery, he showed up at the All-Star race ready to compete again and was able to grab a sixth-place finish. He could continue a solid comeback in Charlotte this week as he has 10 top-five finishes here in 22 attempts, putting him only behind Jimmie Johnson for most since 1975, as
Johnson has needed 27 visits to the track to accomplish his mark of 13. He’s spent 5,624 laps (78.4%) in the top-15 (second-most) when here and is always on the lookout to make moves with 1,007 quality passes (second-most). Busch’s odds are likely low with his limited races this year, so now is the time to jump on him before they go up.
Jamie McMurray (+3000) - McMurray is joined by Johnson, Kahne, Harvick and Kenseth as the five active racers who have earned multiple wins here in their careers and all four of them sit ahead of him in odds. He did struggle in the All-Star race, ranking 16th out of 20, but was fifth in this race during the 2014 season and has been one of the more consistent racers this year. He ranks 10th in the Sprint Cup Series standings behind finishing in the top-14 at each of the past six races prior to last week and had a runner-up performance in Phoenix back in March. Charlotte Motor Speedway is where McMurray won his first of seven Sprint Cup Series races back in 2002, and now 449 starts later, he could get an upset win here once again.
Paul Menard (+10000) - Menard has just one career win, but is in the midst of a career season and has finished in the top-20 at the last four point earning races. As a result, he’s jumped up to 14th in the Sprint Cup Series standings and looks to build on that mark in Charlotte where he has earned two top-10s in the past. He has been able to improve his standing in this particular race over each of the past four years and earned one of those top-10s here last season when he finished eighth after starting with a pole position of 21st. Menard has been having success this year and his improvements at this track in recent years put him as one of the top sleepers.
