NASCAR Betting Odds

2008 Sharpie 500

By Jordan Walters
WagerWeb.com Contributing Writer

Sports Betting at WagerWeb Online Sportsbook

The first of three consecutive night races on the Sprint Cup Series will be run Saturday night in Bristol, Tenn., with the Sharpie 500.

A half-mile track with a lot of banking, Bristol often sees great racing, but it also requires hugging the bottom of the track to be truly successful. And there have been many a wreck at this bandbox with cars going bumper-to-bumper.

You have to like Carl Edwards’ chances on Saturday. Edwards is coming off a sweep at Michigan last weekend where he won both the Nationwide and Cup races. And he is the defending champion of the Sharpie 500.

"There's really no place like it as far as the racing," said Edwards. "It's a real challenge and the new surface has made it all the better for great racing.

"The wins there last year were huge. Any driver will tell you that a win in Bristol means a lot because it's a real driver's race track. The atmosphere there is awesome. Those wins were really special to me, so hopefully I can come back and win a couple more. That would be something else."

Only three races remain before the Chase for the Championship begins and Edwards is putting the heat on leader Kyle Busch. Busch has won eight times this year, but Edwards has won two of the last three and now has five wins for the season. He has 3,207 points - 222 behind Busch.

Then there?s Dale Earnhardt Jr., who counts his victory in the 2004 August night race at Bristol as one of his more memorable because of how well his father ran on this same track. Since the start of the 2002 season, Earnhardt has finished worse than 11th only once and in those 13 races he has earned 10 top-10s and averaged a finish of 6.8.

Greg Biffle, meanwhile, also has a good history here. In 11 career starts, he has finished outside the top 15 only twice. He has six top-10s in his last seven starts and two top-fives in his last three races. In fact, in terms of average finishes Bristol tops his list at 9.7.

 

Here are a few interesting stats, courtesy of ESPN.com, to keep in mind while betting on this race:

*-Going back to 1992, every August Bristol winner had at least one top-two finish earlier in the season.

*-The past five Bristol winners had finished in the top dozen in the previous Bristol race.

*-The past seven August Bristol winners and 11 of the past 12 Bristol winners overall had finished in the top nine in that Bristol race the previous season.

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