TUMS Fast Relief 500 Picks & Predictions
NASCAR heads back to its roots this Sunday when the Chase for the championship stops at Martinsville Speedway for the 2009 TUMS Fast Relief 500.
Short track racing was the norm in the early years of NASCAR and even though we won't see the high speeds we saw last week, exciting racing will be had thanks to lots of contact between the drivers.
Last weekend Jimmie Johnson was untouchable when he captured the pole, led the way in practices and won the 500-mile event in dominating fashion. Johnson was made the overwhelming favorite this week and while he deserves it, we just don't see any value betting on any driver pre-qualifying at 5/2. Therefore, we will look at a few drivers who offer more value at this point.
Denny Hamlin 5/1
Martinsville and Richmond are considered home tracks for Hamlin and he has lived up to the hype since he moved up to this series. In eight races here, Hamlin has only finished outside of the top-10 once, with five top-5 finishes.
Jeff Gordon 5/1
Gordon was one of the most dominating drivers at Martinsville untill Johnson came along. But since then, Gordon has reeled off seven straight top-5 finishes. With five wins here, Gordon has the second most wins of all active drivers and is one behind his teammate.
Johnson looks to have this race in the bag and betting against him could be fruitless with the way he has looked so far in the Chase. But maybe he’ll start to stumble this week with a little help from the double file restarts. That, or maybe he’ll get a bump from someone tired of seeing him week after week.
Nice to get back on track after a few tough beats the last few week. ;D
I had a great week in Fantasy but still got smoked. I had Gordon, Hamlin, Stewart and Ambrose and got beat by a guy who had Gordon, Hamlin, Newman and Labonte. He got like 370 points which is the most in our league all year to my 340.
My strategy of saving guys till the end of the year is paying off. I have moved from 15th to 6th on the year and have won 2 of the last 5 weeks.
I may need to tweak a little for next year because I don't think I have a chance to win now but my weekly wins have paid for my entry and gave me some nice profit.