If you are the type of punter who enjoys an event with a wide open field where an investment of a little can return a lot, NASCAR has something for you. As the green flag readies to drop on the 2016 Sprint Championship there is no clear-cut favorite and plenty of intriguing bets to sort through.
The days when Jimmie Johnson would casually run off five straight championships as he did between 2006 and 2010 seem a very long time ago these days. NASCAR switched to an elimination format for the 2014 season and the two years of racing since have produced first-time champions. Sportsbooks have put out odds that indicate the Chase will again be a wide open affair again in 2016.
【2016 NASCAR Sprint Championship Outright Winner Odds】
※ Current Odds Date & Time: February 11, 3:00 p.m. (GMT)
Kevin Harvick, who turned 40 years old last year, was the first Sprint Cup Series winner in 2014 and finished as runner-up in 2015, losing to Kyle Busch after leading the point standings for most of the season. NetBet fully expects the No.4 Chevrolet SS from the Stewart-Haas Racing team to once again be jockeying for the lead in 2016 and has installed Harvick at the head of the table at 5.30 odds.
Harvick signed on with Stewart-Haas in 2014 after a long association with Richard Childress Racing to take the ride in the storied No. 4 car at the head of the line-up and it has proved to be a winning combination. Co-owner and three-time Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart is still racing for the Kannapolis, North Carolina outfit but 2016 will be the swan song for the 45-year old who is still the only driver to win a championship in both IndyCar and NASCAR. If any punters feel a storybook ending is in the cards for Stewart they can get 41.00 odds. Also keep in mind that Stewart’s road to the championship became even longer after suffering a back injury in an ATV crack-up in the California desert. That mishap will cause him to miss the ride in the No. 14 car in the Daytona 500. As for the start of his farewell season, it is still up in the air at this point in time.
If that sounds like too much for a veteran driver to overcome, bettors do not have to look too far for a precedent. Kyle Busch busted his leg and foot to delay his 2015 season but returned to win four of five races to begin steering his way to the championship. Busch was an unlikely winner after a 10th place season finish in 2014 and missed 11 of the 26 races in 2015. His odds for 2016 are much shorter – 7.00 to repeat as champion.
For handicappers playing the team angle, Busch is only one of four drivers Joe Gibbs Racing sends to the track each week that can be expected to pilot a Toyota to the checkered flag. Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin are all among the eight drivers with the lowest 2016 odds. Kenseth (9.50) graduated from short track racing in Wisconsin to win the Sprint Cup championship in 2003. He has consistently been a reliable points earner ever since with high placements in races, placing in the Top 10 over 48 percent of the time.
Three-time Super Bowl champion Joe Gibbs found Hamlin (13.00) when he showed up in 2004 in Hickory, North Carolina to test drive cars and he ended up setting track speed records. He wound up as the first rookie to compete in the Chase. Hamlin had some bad racing luck with a crash at Talladega in 2015 so punters can decide if that will stick to him or if it is his turn to move to the lead of Joe Gibbs Racing.
Carl Edwards (13.00), scored two victories last year, including the Coca-Cola 600, and he while he has never been a Sprint Cup champion, he actually tied for the title with Stewart in 2011 but lost in the accounting room on a tiebreaker.
Jimmie Johnson can still not be counted out of the Chase. The six-time winner, now in car No. 48 for Hendrick Motorsports, shagged his last championship in 2013, the last year before the change in format. Elimination racing has not been kind to the 40-year old, however, as he has since finished 11th and 10th. The active leader in race wins with 75 is still among the favorites for the 2016 title with odds of 7.00.
Team Penske enters 2016 with a pair of stars ready to percolate to the top of the NASCAR world. Brad Keselowski, who will turn 32 years old on the eve of Daytona, has already been there. In 2012 he joined Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt as the only Sprint Cup Champions to drive home the title in their first three seasons. Keselowski notched only one win in 2015 but was second across the finish five times. For handicappers who predict he can find a little more horsepower in the stretch, bookmaker NetBet lists his car No. 2 at 8.00.
Another precocious driver for Team Penske is 25-year old Joey Logano who was the youngest driver to take the checkered flag at a Nationwide Series race when he was 18. Last year Logano became the second-youngest driver ever to win The Great American Race when he captured the Daytona 500 en route to a sixth place overall Sprint Cup finish. Bookmakers feel that it is time for youth to be served and Logano has been installed as the second choice behind Harvick at 6.30.
If the switch to elimination competition will indeed continue to breed first-time champions perhaps it is time to look at the candidacy of Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2016. He’s 41 years of age now and the fourth oldest active driver on the circuit. But he is not thinking about retirement. After a long dry spell between 2007 and 2013 when Earnhardt drove into victory lane only twice, he has won seven times in the past two seasons. 2015 in car no. 88 may have been his best year as he finished 12th in the overall Sprint Cup standings. Earnhardt has won the Most Popular Driver award 13 years in a row. If he finally wins his first driving championship in 2016, he will return 17.00.
