2008 Pennsylvania 500 Predictions

Another big weekend in NASCAR racing is soon to be underway and Jimmy Boyd is here to help you make good on your wagers with his Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 Predictions. The tire fiasco at the Brickyard last week did not keep us from cashing in on last season’s cup winner Jimmie Johnson at 7-1 odds. Let’s see if the Jimmy’s can make it two in a row.

After this weekend’s race in Pocono, only five races will remain in the Race to the Chase so we are getting down to the nitty gritty. This week’s Pocono race falls just seven weeks after the last one. I expect all the teams who had success in that race to be good on the track again. Last week’s Brickyard race also sheds some more light on how this race will play out as the two tracks set up similarly. Kasey Kahne won the June race with Denny Hamlin finishing third and Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards close behind. Last Sunday at the Brickyard, Jimmie Johnson won with Edwards and Hamlin right behind. These correlations are no fluke I can assure you.

Jimmie Johnson swept both Pocono races in the 2004 season, Carl Edwards won a race in 2005 at Pocono, and Denny Hamlin swept the 2006 season. These three drivers have to be the building blocks for wagering strategies this week. Kasey Kahne is a driver who I will add to the mix. He was dominant in the June race at Pocono and has to be considered again when a driver has swept the two Pocono races in two of the last four years. For Kahne to win, he’ll have to drive the same car that he drove at Pocono in the first race. He surprisingly drove a different car at the Brickyard last week and paid the consequences.

Kyle Busch can’t be counted out in any race. He wasn’t a factor at the Brickyard or in the Pocono race earlier in the season, but he still has seven wins and has shown that he can win on any type of track. Prior to last week’s race in Indy, Busch had won three of the last four races.

It hasn’t been a glamorous season for Jeff Gordon, but we can’t soon forget that he is a four-time winner at Pocono and has finished in the top five at the track in half of his 30 races. Last season, he won the first Pocono race, finished fourth in the other, and also finished third at the Brickyard. His Car of Tomorrow clearly wasn’t ready to go in the first Pocono race of the season, but they had it ready to go last week when he finished fifth at Indy. I expect Gordon to be in the running for his first win of the season.

TOP 5 Finish prediction:
1) #11 Denny Hamlin +600
2) #24 Jeff Gordon +1200
3) #99 Carl Edwards +700
4) #48 Jimmie Johnson +600
5) #9 Kasey Kahne +500

Complete list of Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 odds by Sportsbook.com
AJ Allmendinger +10000
Bobby Labonte +10000
Brian Vickers +2500
Carl Edwards +700
Casey Mears +10000
Clint Bowyer +5000
Dale Earnhardt Jr +1200
Dave Blaney +10000
David Gilliland +10000
David Ragan +4000
David Reutimann +10000
Denny Hamlin +600
Elliott Sadler +4000
Greg Biffle +1500
Jamie McMurray +5000
Jeff Burton +3000
Jeff Gordon +1200
Jimmie Johnson +600
Juan Pablo Montoya +10000
Kasey Kahne +500
Kevin Harvick +2500
Kurt Busch +4000
Kyle Busch +600
Mark Martin +3000
Martin Truex Jr +3000
Matt Kenseth +1500
Michael Waltrip +10000
Paul Menard +10000
Reed Sorenson +10000
Ryan Newman +4000
Sam Hornish Jr +10000
Tony Stewart +1200
Travis Kvapil +10000
Field (Any Other Driver) +5000

2008 Pennsylvania 500 Predictions

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