NASCAR’s seemingly never ending racing season starts today and I, for one, couldn’t be happier. Whether or not you enjoy NASCAR, sportsbooks are offering more and more opportunities to bet on it. And NASCAR betting is one of the best value opportunities on the board.
There’s a number of different ways to wager on NASCAR and a wide variety of strategies to employ. Over the next week or so, we’ll get you up to speed (no pun intended) on some of the theoretical background of NASCAR betting and some of the various strategies and tactics you can use to turn a profit. For today, however, we’ll keep it simple.
One of the most popular types of NASCAR wagering–not surprisingly–is picking who’ll win the race. What I usually like to do is come up with a mix of several drivers and split up my wager in such a way that if any of them win I make a profit. Alternately, you can try and narrow down the field to one likely winner, take a big position on him and a hedge position on the other likely winning drivers. Today, however, we’ll put all of our wagering eggs in one very fast basket.
NASCAR–DAYTONA 500 10 AM PACIFIC TIME
As noted above, the race starts at 10 AM Pacific Time so make sure you get down early. If you read Saturday’s Wall Street Journal you no doubt saw a blurb in their sports section where a couple of University of Redlands professors have quantified what those of us who bet on NASCAR have long suspected–there’s a big correlation between several factors, sports betting and race performance. One factor doesn’t apply in this race–Professors Kathleen and Francisco Silva found that there was a significant correlation between a driver’s points standing before the race and his finish in 86% of NASCAR races. Obviously since this is the first race of the year, that factor isn’t relevant here.
The other two components of their study are. 75% of races have a significant correlation between qualifying position and finish. 81% of races have a significant correlation between a driver’s final practice performance and their race performance. Qualifying position is actually something that is very situational depending on which racetrack you’re dealing with. Some tend to be more forgiving of drivers that start at the back of the field. Others greatly favor the drivers at the front.
Despite the seemingly unpredictable nature of restrictor plate racing, Daytona has a very significant bias to the drivers at the front of the field. 26 of the 51 Daytona 500 races have been won from a top 5 starting position. Since 1980, only 6 drivers have won from outside the top ten. Interestingly, only 9 pole winners have captured this race in 51 years with the last being Dale Jarrett in 2000.
So that leaves us with this profile for a potential winner–starting at positions #2 through 5 with a strong final practice run. And that puts us on Kevin Harvick, who will start 4th and had the 2nd fastest time in the final practice. And he’s a real nice value at 15/1. Furthermore, he’s won here before which is also a good sign. You could definitely do a wagering mix with some of the other four drivers in the top 5 starters, particularly Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. who have won this race previously. But since the prices on JJ and Junior aren’t particularly favorable, for the first race of the year lets take a position on Harvick at a nice price and hope for a big payday:
PLAY KEVIN HARVICK +1500 TO WIN THE DAYTONA 500
TweetLeave a Reply


- Best Live Score Sites – NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, CFL, Golf, Tennis and Soccer
- How Not To Rob A Sportsbook
- NASCAR Betting Free Picks: Daytona 500
- Winter Olympics Betting: Total Medal Count
- Handicapping the ‘new’ Arena Football League
- Tips On Betting The Superbowl: Part 2 of 2
- Tips On Betting The Superbowl: Part 1 of 2
- NFL football betting: Handicapping the wild card round
- College football betting: handicapping the ‘late’ bowl games
- Handicapping final week NFL betting

- September 13th, 2016
Tiger Woods returning to competitive golf - September 12th, 2016
Formula 1 sold for $4.4 billion - August 29th, 2016
Russian hockey player Damir Ryspayev handed lifetime ban - August 29th, 2016
Russia booted out of 2016 Paralympics - August 15th, 2016
Swimmer Michael Phelps could be greatest Olympian of all time - August 9th, 2016
Golfer Jim Furyk makes PGA history with score of 58 - August 1st, 2016
American golfer Jimmy Walker takes the PGA Championship - July 25th, 2016
Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady finally accepts four-game suspension - July 19th, 2016
Henrik Stenson wins 2016 British Open in record fashion - July 19th, 2016
2016 ESPY Award Winners announced