There 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.