Posted 19 hours, 47 minutes agoThere are only a couple of questions left to be answered this NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Can Jimmie Johnson finish 25th or better in the final race of the year to ice down his record-setting fourth straight NSCS championship? Or can teammate Mark Martin, who's finished second in the season standings four times already in his long career, make up over 100 points this weekend at Homestead, and win his first-ever season title?
Proposition A seems very likely; Proposition B does not. But just to make sure, they'll run one more race, this Sunday down in Florida.
As a +245 go-time favorite on the Checker Auto Parts 500 betting board at BetJamaica.com, Johnson led 238 of 312 laps last week to win at Phoenix. In doing so, he extended his lead in the points race from 73 to 108 over second-place Martin, who remains the only driver who can mathematically catch JJ in the Chase for the Cup.
Jeff Burton, who went off at +3,000 at BetJamaica.com, ran second last week at Phoenix; Denny Hamlin, at +800, finished third; Martin, at +300, placed fourth; and pole-sitter Martin Truex, Jr., at +1,800, came in fifth.
Just before the running of the season-opening Daytona 500 back in February, BetJamaica.com was listing Johnson as a +300 favorite to win the NSCS championship this year, while Martin was the 10th pick on the board at +2,000.
This week NASCAR ends its season with the running of the Ford 400 on the mile-and-a-half asphalt oval at Homestead-Miami Speedway in South Florida on Sunday (2:30 pm Eastern, ABC).
Carl Edwards won the Ford 400 last year at Homestead, but the big news was that Johnson, needing to finish 36th or better to clinch his third straight drivers title, played it safe and placed 15th.
Kevin Harvick showed second last year at H-MS; Jamie McMurray took third; Jeff Gordon finished fourth and Clint Bowyer placed fifth.
Matt Kenseth won at Homestead in 2007; Greg Biffle won here three years in a row 2004-06; Bobby LaBonte won at H-MS in '03, Kurt Busch in '02, Bill Elliot in '01, and Tony Stewart did it back-to-back in 1999-2000.
Fords have won the last five races at Homestead.
As of Thursday night BetJamaica.com was listing Johnson and Martin as +400 co-favorites on our Ford 400 betting board. Those top two are followed by Gordon at +750; Biffle and Kurt Busch at +800; regular-season points leader Stewart at +900; Kyle Busch at +1,000; Edwards at +1,100; Hamlin at +1,200; Kenseth and Juan Pablo Montoya at +1,400; “The Field” at +1,500; Kasey Kahne at +1,600; Dale Earnhardt, Jr. at +2,000; Harvick, Ryan Newman and Brian Vickers at +2,500; and Bowyer at +3,000.
Racing bettors should also check back at BetJamaica.com for driver-vs.-driver matchup odds on this weekend's race as green flag-time approaches.
Perhaps we were a bit hasty last week in declaring this season's NASCAR Sprint Cup championship a done deal. Because just when it looked like Jimmie Johnson was simply going to run away with a record-setting fourth straight drivers title, fate stepped in last Sunday to postpone his celebration, if only for a while.
Kurt Busch, with help from some wise fuel usage late in the race, won the Dickies 500 last week at Texas. And in winning, the elder Busch brother provided his financial backers at BetJamaica.com with a healthy payout of +2,200. Denny Hamlin, who went off at +1,400 on BetJam's Dickies 500 betting board, placed second; Matt Kenseth, at +1,600, showed third; Mark Martin, at +1,000, finished fourth; and Kevin Harvick, at +4,200, ran fifth.
But Johnson, as a +350 favorite at BetJamaica.com Sunday, got pushed into the wall very early in the race, and ended up finishing 38th. Combined with Martin's finish, Johnson saw his lead in the season points race drop from 184 to 73. Which was the best thing that could have happened for those interested in NASCAR's television ratings, lest the circuit run the last two races of the year with the championship already in JJ's bag.
Jeff Gordon and Carl Edwards, Sunday's co-second choices at BetJamaica.com at +575, finished 13th and 39th, respectively; Tony Stewart, the fourth choice on the board at +800, placed sixth; and Greg Biffle and Kyle Busch, who went off together at +900, finished eighth and 11th, respectively.
Gordon sits in third place in the standings, 112 points back of Johnson. Kurt Busch is next at -171, and Tony Stewart follows at -178.
This weekend the Sprint Cup series stops back in Arizona for the running of the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 (Sunday, 2:30 pm Eastern, ABC) on the mile oval at Phoenix International Raceway. Back in April, Martin won the Subway 500 at Phoenix from the pole, besting Stewart, Kurt Busch, Johnson and Biffle, who rounded out the top five.
Johnson won both races at PIR last year, and split the two Phoenix events with Gordon in 2007. Harvick swept the two races at Phoenix in '06, and the Busch brothers split the two PIR events in 2005.
Chevys have won the last eight Sprint Cup races at Phoenix.
Hamlin and Stewart have both finished in the top five in three of the last five races at PIR. And Edwards finished fourth both races last year at Phoenix.
Of the 26 NSCS races that have been run at PIR, 13 winners have come from the top 10 starting positions, and 13 winners have started outside the top 10.
Johnson can clinch his fourth consecutive season championship if he can up his lead in the points standings to 195 on Sunday.
Racing bettors should check back at BetJamaica.com as race time approaches for odds on who will take the checkered flag down in the desert Sunday afternoon.
Stick a fork in it; the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup championship is done.
Well, not technically. There are still three races to be run, including one on Sunday in Texas. But with three-time defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson increasing his lead in the points race on a weekly basis, and the closest competitors having their problems, the ultimate result seems to be a foregone conclusion.
Last weekend Jamie McMurray won the Amp Energy 500 at Talladega, cashing in as a 40-to-1 shot on the BetJamaica.com betting board. Kasey Kahne, at +3,000, placed second in the green-white-checkered finish, Joey Logano (+4,000) showed third, Greg Biffle (part of “The Field” at +700) took fourth and Jeff Burton (+4,000) ran fifth.
But more importantly Johnson, after running near the back of the pack most of the day, finished sixth. And thanks to the misfortunes of many of his closest competitors in the points race, JJ extended his lead to 184 points over second-place Mark Martin, running that much closer to what will be his record-setting fourth straight drivers championship.
Jeff Gordon is third in the points standings, 192 back of Johnson. They're followed by Juan Pablo Montoya at -239 and Tony Stewart at -279. And those guys will have to set a new record for biggest rally to come back and catch Johnson atop the heap.
This weekend the circuit heads back down to Lone Star country for the running of the Dickies 500 on the mile-and-a-half oval at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth (2:30 pm ET, ABC). The boys ran at Texas back in April, when Gordon won the Samsung 500. Johnson, Biffle, Stewart and Matt Kenseth rounded out the top five that day.
Last year Carl Edwards won both races at TMS. The year before, Burton and Johnson split the two Texas events. Kahne and Stewart won at Texas in 2006, and Biffle and Edwards won there in '05.
Biffle has finished in the top five the last two races at Texas. Kenseth has three top-fives in his last five races at TMS. And Kyle Busch has two top-four finishes in his last four Texas races.
Hendrick Motorsports, the team that owns Johnson, Martin and Gordon, is shooting for the first 1-2-3 season finish in Winston/Nextel/Sprint Cup history.
Chevys have won four of the last six races at Texas, but Fords have won seven of the last 13 events run there.
Racing bettors should check back at BetJamaica.com for updated odds on Sunday's race, including driver-vs.-driver matchups, as go-time approaches.
Denny Hamlin won another race last week, but Jimmie Johnson took another step toward winning the war.
Hamlin took the checkered at the Tums 500 at Martinsville last Sunday, his third victory of this season, and paid out at +600 for his financial backers at BetJamaica.com. But Johnson, with his runner-up finish (as a +250 favorite), extended his lead in the Sprint Cup points race to 118 over second-place Mark Martin, 150 over Jeff Gordon, 192 over Tony Stewart and 200 over Juan Pablo Montoya, with just four races remaining.
So going into the home stretch, Johnson looks like a darn good bet to break Cale Yarborough's record of three straight NASCAR Winston/Nextel/Sprint Cup drivers championships, with his fourth title in a row.
Montoya, at +1,200, took third Sunday; Kyle Busch, at +2,000, finished fourth; and Gordon, at +550, ran fifth.
This week we'll see an entirely different kind of racing when the Sprint Cup circuit heads back to the big track at Talladega for the AMP Energy 500 (Sunday, 1:15 pm ET, ABC).
Brad Keselowski won the Aaron's 499 at Talladega back in April (as a member of “The Field” on the BetJam betting board) in typical Talladega fashion, nudging by Carl Edwards on the last lap. Keselowski took his first-ever Sprint Cup checkered, and Edwards ended up in the fence.
Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Ryan Newman, Marcos Ambrose and Scott Speed rounded out the top five that day.
Stewart – thanks to a penalty called on Regan Smith, who crossed the finish line first – and Kyle Busch won at Talladega last year; Gordon swept the two events there in 2007; and Johnson and Brian Vickers won there in '06.
Talladega isn't exactly one of JJ's favorite tracks. He's won once there in 15 career starts, and got wrecked and finished 30th there earlier this year.
As of Friday morning, Kyle Busch topped the AMP Energy 500 betting board at BetJamaica.com at +600. He's followed by Earnhardt, a five-time winner at Talladega, at +700; Montoya, Stewart and six-time Talladega winner Gordon at +800; Johnson at +850; Hamlin at +1,000; Kurt Busch and Matt Kenseth at +1,200; Martin at +1,400; Edwards at +1,500; Newman at +1,800; Kevin Harvick at +2,000; Clint Bowyer and Vickers at +2,800; Kasey Kahne +3,000; David Ragan at +3,500; Jeff Burton, Jamie McMurray and Joey Logano at +4,000; Martin Truex, Jr. at +4,500; and Keselowski and David Reutimann at +5,000.
And “The Field” is being offered at +700.
As one might expect, Chevys have won 14 of the last 17 races at Talladega.
Racing bettors will want to check back at BetJamaica.com for updated odds and driver-vs.-driver matchup prices on Sunday's race as go-time approaches.
With five Chase races run and five more to go, Jimmie Johnson rides on the edge of NASCAR history. If he can close out this year's title, and there appears little doubt that's exactly what he'll do, Johnson will win his fourth straight Sprint Cup drivers championship. And that's something no other driver of the Grand National/Winston/NEXTEL/Sprint Cup era has done.
Johnson took another step toward that record last week when he won the NASCAR Banking 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in North Carolina. After winning “just” three of the first 29 points races this season, JJ has now won three of the last four events to take control.
Matt Kenseth finished second Sunday, followed by Kasey Kahne, Jeff Gordon and rookie Joey Logano.
Johnson now leads the points race by 90 over Mark Martin, with Gordon at -135, Tony Stewart at -155, Kurt Busch at -177 and Juan Pablo Montoya at -195. Everyone else has already fallen at least 268 points out of first.
And those still in the top six other than Johnson had better kick things in gear, or the rest of the Chase is just going to turn into a big wet-kiss victory lap for JJ.
Those racing squares who took Johnson to win this year's title at BetJamaica.com just before the running of the Daytona 500 back in February are probably already planning on how to spend their winnings on a payoff of +300. And who can blame them.
Next up is the Tums Fast Relief 500 on Sunday (1:30 pm ET, ABC) on the half-mile oval at Martinsville, one of JJ's favorite tracks. NASCAR ran at Martinsville back in March, when Johnson won the Goody's 500. Denny Hamlin led for 296 laps but finished second, Stewart placed third, Gordon led 147 laps and finished fourth, and Clint Bowyer took fifth.
Johnson has won five of the last six races at Martinsville. Gordon has won seven Martinsville races, but he's run there 33 times.
Hamlin won the first race at Martinsville last year, and Stewart won here in 2006. Before that, Gordon swept the two Martinsville events in both 2003 and '05.
Chevys have won 11 of the last 13 races at Martinsville Speedway.
As of Friday morning Johnson tops BetJamaica.com's Tums 500 betting board at +250, followed by Gordon at +550; Hamlin at +600; Stewart at +800; Martin at +1,000; Montoya at +1,200; Bowyer at +1,600; Kyle Busch and Kenseth at +2,000; Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Carl Edwards and Kurt Busch at +2,500; Ryan Newman at +2,800; Greg Biffle and Kahne at +3,000; Kevin Harvick at +3,200; Logano at +4,000; Jeff Burton at +4,500; and David Reutimann at +5,500.
All other drivers not listed above are included in “The Field,” which is being offered at +1,500.
Bettors should check back at BetJamaica.com for updated odds on Sunday's race, including driver-vs.-driver matchup prices, as go-time approaches.