2008 Samsung 500 NASCAR Predictions & Betting Odds
June 9, 2008
Get ready Texas NASCAR is heading to town this weekend for the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. After a week off things got back underway last week at the Goody’s Orange 500. Kenny Hamlin took home his 4th career victory with an impressive run at Martinsville Speedway. Fellow teammate Tony Stewart helped Joe Gibbs racing to yet another solid performance with a 5th place finish. It was also a good week for Hendricks Motorsports, as all 3 drivers finished in the top 6, with Jeff Gordon taking home 2nd, and Jimmie Johnson finally found his way back into the top 5 after a very slow start to the 2008 season. While its good to look at last week to see who is coming off a good performance, for this race its better to take a look a little farther back to the Kobalt Tools 500, as both tracks are owned by SMI (Speedway Motorsports Inc.). For those who don’t remember Kyle Busch took home the checkered flag back in the 4th race of the season. Jeff Burton will be the guy trying to defend his championship, as he took home the victory last season. This hasn’t been an easy task to handle, as no one has been able to defend here at the Samsung 500. So with that said here is our prediction on the 1-2-3 finish this week.
1. #24 Jeff Gordon 8-1 odds to win
We are going with a trend here at the Texas Motor Speedway and picking a guy that has yet to win here. It started off with 12 different racers winning the first 12 races, before Burton won for the second time last year. So why not pick a guy that has pretty good success on these types of tracks who has yet to win here. Gordon is coming off his best finish of the season last week and also performed well at the very similar track at the Kobalt Tools 500, with a 5th place finish. Its not like Gordon has raced bad here as he has five top 5 finishes.
2. #17 Matt Kenseth 7-1 odds to win
Kenseth has really struggled to start the 2008 season, as he has yet to finish better than 5th and has as many races outside of the top 20 as he does in the top 10. But we are throwing all that out the window this weekend, as Kenseth has been pretty dominant at the Texas Motor Speedway. He is coming off a 2nd place finish here last year, and has five top 3 finishes on this track since he took home the checkered flag here back in 2002. So don’t be shocked when Kenseth enters back into the racing world with a great finish this weekend.
3. #48 Jimmie Johnson 10-1 odds to win
Its pretty simply here, you just can’t keep this good of driver down for long. With a good finish last week we really think this guy is going to turn his season around with another solid performance this week. Johnson won here at the Texas Motor Speedway in the second race of the season on this track last year, and has only finished outside of the top 10 twice since 2002. While we have Johnson picked to finish 3rd this week, don’t be surprised if this guy gets his first win of the season. Our thinking is we are going to wait till he shows us he can put back-to-back good weeks together before we go predicting him to win the race.
Sportsbook.com is a great place for all of your NASCAR betting needs, so check out one of the best sportsbooks on the net and get your plays in on this week’s big race at Texas Motor Speedway. Sportsbook.com not only has all your NASCAR needs, it is a great place for all your March Madness betting. Please leave any comments you might have on NASCAR and the Samsung 500.
Here are the odds for each driver at the Goody’s Cool Orange 500 at Sportsbook.com
Bobby Labonte 100 - 1
Brian Vickers 100 - 1
Carl Edwards 5 - 1
Casey Mears 40 - 1
Clint Bowyer 18 - 1
Dale Earnhardt Jr 8 - 1
David Gilliland 100 - 1
David Ragan 75 - 1
Denny Hamlin 15 - 1
Elliott Sadler 100 - 1
Greg Biffle 10 - 1
JJ Yeley 100 - 1
Jamie McMurray 75 - 1
Jeff Burton 20 - 1
Jeff Gordon 8 - 1
Jimmie Johnson 10 - 1
Juan Pablo Montoya 75 - 1
Kasey Kahne 20 - 1
Kevin Harvick 25 - 1
Kurt Busch 25 - 1
Kyle Busch 7 - 1
Mark Martin 40 - 1
Martin Truex Jr 30 - 1
Matt Kenseth 7 - 1
Michael Waltrip 100 - 1
Paul Menard 100 - 1
Reed Sorenson 100 - 1
Robby Gordon 100 - 1
Ryan Newman 30 - 1
Sam Hornish Jr 100 - 1
Scott Riggs 100 - 1
Tony Stewart 8 - 1
Travis Kvapil 100 - 1
zx Field (Any Other Driver) 35 - 1