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NASCAR Sprint Cup Duck Commander 500 Preview and Prediction

NASCAR 2015 Sprint Cup Futures

NASCAR’s Sprint Cup series returns to action this Saturday night after taking last week off with its first prime time run of the season. All the action from Texas Motor Speedway for this season’s Duck Commander 500 gets underway at 7:30 p.m. and the race will be broadcast nationally on FOX.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Duck Commander 500 Preview and Prediction

Race: Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway
Date: Saturday, April 11, 2015       
Time: 7:30 p.m. (ET)                       
Broadcast: FOX
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2015 NASCAR SPRINT CUP STANDINGS (Link)

Denny Hamlin might have punched his ticket to this year’s Chase with a victory at Martinsville his last time out. Brad Keselowski stayed hot by finishing second in that race after winning at Fontana and Joey Logano ended-up third.

Turning to this Saturday night’s race, the following are my top picks for favorite, contender and longshot based on current betting odds as provided by Sportsbook.ag.

The Favorite (odd of less than 10/1)

Jimmie Johnson quickly posted his first victory this season by taking the checkered flag at Atlanta in the second Sprint Cup point race of the year, but since then it has been a bumpy ride for the No. 48 car.

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This team only has one top-10 finish in its last four races, but it comes into this week’s race as a +600 second-favorite to win on Saturday night. I think there is some solid value in those betting odds considering how Johnson has dominated the series at Texas in recent years.

He finished a disappointing 25th in last year’s race, but looking back at his last five Sprint Cup races here, he has gone on to win three of them.

The Contender (odds from 10/1 to 19/1)

Any time I can get longer odds on Matt Kenseth I will usually put him in the mix despite the fact that the No. 20 car has not won a Sprint Cup race since the 2013 season.

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This week he has been opened at +1000 betting odds to end that drought and believe he has a great chance to get it done.

Kenseth is coming off a solid run at Martinsville in which he finished fourth and he really adds value to these odds given his past performance at this week’s track.

Over the course of his career he has an average finishing position of 8.9 and he has finished in the top five in 10 of his last 16 Sprint Cup races at Texas. That run includes a victory in this race in 2011.

The Longshot (odds 20/1 or greater)

There was some concern for Kyle Larson when he fainted the day before the race at Martinsville, but has been cleared to go for Saturday night.

This will be just his fourth career run at Texas Motor Speedway in a Sprint Cup race, but I am going with the young gun as my top valued contender at +2000 odds.

He comes into this event in solid form with an eighth-place finish at Las Vegas and a 10th-place finish at Phoenix, but what sold me on this pick was Larson’s fifth place and seventh place finish in his two races last season at Texas.

*SPRINT Cup Odds provided by Bovada (Click Here now – Open A free Nascar betting account today!)

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