Watkins Glen Betting Notes: 2016 Cheez-It 355

Tony Stewart might be best value on odds board in Las Vegas.

Carl Edwards won the pole Saturday at Watkins Glen International, and track history suggests he’s a strong contender to win Sunday’s Cheez-It 355, the second and final race this season on a road course.

Edwards also won the pole at Sonoma Raceway’s road course in June, then finished fourth.

Edwards, listed at 8-1 odds, was already a strong contender based on his own history on the seven-turn, 2.45-mile road course at which he has an 8.4 average finish in 11 starts. His best finish was third in 2009, but his consistency has been incredible with eight top-10 finishes.

Track history shows the pole winner has won nine times in 33 Cup races. Las Vegan Kyle Busch was the last to do it in 2008.

Starting from the top five has produced 21 of the 33 winners, which makes those starting behind Edwards worthy of a strong look at the betting window. Kyle Larson (30-1) starts second, followed by Sonoma winner Tony Stewart (18-1), Matt Kenseth (30-1) and race co-favorite Busch (6-1).

Among those, Busch is the driver to beat. He’s a two-time winner at Watkins Glen with a 10.5 average finish, and he practiced extremely well in both of Friday’s 85-minute sessions, with top-five speeds that included having the best 10-consecutive lap average.

STEWART ON A ROLL

When Stewart came back after missing the first eight races this season, he looked as if he was just going through the motions to close out his final season. He didn’t have any top-five finishes in his first seven races, but something clicked at Sonoma. He won his eighth career road race there and first victory anywhere since 2013.

The win gave him a career reboot, and he started looking like Stewart circa 2011 when he won the last of his three Cup titles. In his past four starts, he’s finished fifth at Kentucky, second at New Hampshire, 11th at Indianapolis and fifth last week at Pocono.

His five wins at Watkins Glen are a track record, and in four of them, he started within the top five. He’s the best value on the board at 18-1.

NEW SURFACE AND TIRE

Along with the track being repaved after last season’s race, there was a new Goodyear tire compound that never has been used in the series. It’s a much harder compound that barely wears out. Las Vegan Kurt Busch said during an interview halfway through the second practice Friday that he was still using the same set of tires that ran all 27 laps during the first session.

The effect will create all kinds of opportunities for teams to scrap four-tire changes during pit stops and gain a few seconds, and positions, by taking two tires while fueling up.

Read More Here........Las Vegas Review-Journal

Turn Talladega TV sound down and crank up Tchaikovsky

This track is a flat out badass.

LAS VEGAS -- After seeing the first half of the short track season completed, the first race of May and 10th race of the Sprint Cup season takes us to the biggest, baddest track on the planet.

When I watch races on the 2.66-mile, high-banked monster at Talladega Superspeedway, I like to get the full effect of how awesome it is by turning the volume down on the TV and cranking up Tchaikovsky or Darth Vader’s Imperial March and just watch these drivers play a symphony at over 200 mph, side-by-side, four-wide for three straight hours.

Yes, it may sound a bit dramatic, but it really just plays out better that way, and it makes me real excited twice a year when Talladega races occur. The spring race is actually the best of the two just because I’m not pre-occupied with all those pesky Sunday NFL games in the fall.

The reason Talladega gets theme music and no other track does, is because it’s a beast, an element like no other track. It becomes as much an enemy to each driver as the drivers themselves. It will allow anyone to win, and doesn’t play favorites to any team.

Joe Gibbs Racing has won four straight races on the schedule coming in, but Talladega doesn’t care. Austin Dillon or Ricky Stenholuse Jr. have just as good a shot to win as Carl Edwards, who won the past two races. I like that equality, and we don’t get that anywhere else but Talladega. Daytona is the other track featuring plate racing, but when looking at both tracks from above, Talladega just screams like a horror film. It's total badass!

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Phoenix NASCAR Preview: 2016 Good Sam 500

Brad Keselowski is 10-to-1 this week at Phoenix.

LAS VEGAS -- The fourth race of the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup season takes us to the flat one-mile layout at Phoenix International Raceway, one of the most beautiful backdrops the tour will see all year until making the trip again in November during the Chase. Situated on the base of the Estella Mountains, the combination of Saguaro cacti everywhere, constant sunshine and fun on Rattlesnake hill make it one of a kind.

I love the concept of having three straight West Coast races early in the season, but it's not very practical from a west coast fan perspective. When I was at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last Sunday I had the opportunity to talk with lots of the fans. There were a couple of parties I met anchored in on the infield with their RV's that will be going to Phoenix this week and Fontana in two weeks. They've taken three weeks out of their lives to live NASCAR -- pretty awesome stuff. I was extremely jealous.

But others I talked to at Las Vegas that don't have the liberty to take off work so long aren't very happy about three straight West Coast races this early. The problem is that NASCAR forces almost everyone to make a destination choice between the three. Where do I go, Las Vegas, Phoenix or Fontana? If the races were spaced out more across the schedule, there would be more people able to attend all three west coast dates. After Fontana next week, the series won't come out west again until late June at Sonoma and then not again until November with Phoenix again.

When I heard multiple fans at Las Vegas tell me this and then I looked around at LVMS and saw less people than ever in the stands, I thought they had some valid points. The wind was hitting 40 mph on Sunday, which may have discouraged some to attend, but there should still be cause for concern. If Las Vegas is having trouble filling the track, with all the city has to offer, there is something wrong with the set-up. The west coast swing thing may sound nice to the NASCAR folks in Daytona making the schedule, and they are saving some fuel with less travel, but it should be called west coast cannibalism.

Okay, that's all I have to say about that. As usual, I'll be watching the race on television, where to be truthful, I actually enjoy more in my older age than being at the race. Phoenix has always been a track I enjoyed watching not just because it's unique, but also because its one of the truest to driver ratings. Drivers expected to do well usually do and that's a big advantage in betting driving matchups.

Read More Here...Top-5 Finish Prediction on VegasInsider.com