Kyle Busch is a Major Cup Contender, Even After Two Rough Rides – Bet on NASCAR

NASCAR bettors know that Kyle Busch is one of the hottest young drivers to come along in a while, and he is a major contender to win the Sprint Cup title this year. He will try to get past two rough rides the past couple of weeks when he competes in Sunday’s Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Busch is matched in a special betting matchup for qualifying with Tony Stewart, who is now in position to qualify for the Chase for the Cup, which is where the Sprint Cup champ will come out of. Busch is the -120 betting favorite in the proposition, and +600 to win the race, while Stewart is at -110 in the prop, and +1400 in the NASCAR betting odds for Sunday. The race begins at 1 PM ET and will be televised on TNT, while Friday’s qualifying, which begins at 3 PM ET, is on SPEED Channel.

Lenox Industrial Tools 301
New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Loudon, NH
Sunday, June 27 – 1 PM ET (TNT)

Qualifying:
Friday, June 15 – 3 PM ET (SPEED)

Betting Odds – Qualifying Matchup          
KYLE BUSCH               -120     
TONY STEWART          -110       

Look who’s back in the Sprint Cup standings! It’s "Smoke," and he’s corrected his little slump with four top tens in his last five races. he climbed back into the top dozen after the race at Michigan, where he finished fifth. Stewart was, frankly speaking, probably expecting something better out of his run at Infineon, where he had won twice, among his seven road course wins in NASCAR. But he finished ninth, which was good enough to elevate him back into the top ten in the points, and who would really want to bet against him making the Chase at this point? He is +1500 in the NASCAR betting odds to win the title, so he’s got some respect.

Speaking of respect, Kyle Busch has it in spades, and rightly so, as he is one of those drivers who goes all out to win every week no matter the circumstances. He swings hard and sometimes falls woefully short, but he can also hit the grand slam. Kyle is currently in third place in the Sprint Cup standings, and he is at +400 in the betting to go all the way. That means he is considered to be a serious challenger to the reign of Jimmie Johnson, who has won four straight titles and is currently at betting odds of +250.

Busch had an amazing run of eight straight races in the top ten, including wins at Richmond and Dover, which brought him to second place in the standings behind Kevin Harvick. Last week was kind of disastrous, as he finished 39th at Infineon. that came on the heels of a 20th-place finish at Michigan, but we know he is capable of much more. There have been 16 races; Busch has been a top-ten qualifier in eleven of them. He won the summer race at New Hampshire in 2006, and won the pole in the September race in 2008. He was 7th, then 5th, in Loudon last year. He is +600 in the betting odds to win Sunday.

Stewart’s had six top-ten qualifying efforts, including one pole. He’s won two poles at New Hampshire. Last year he was the pole-sitter at the Lenox 301 and started second in the Sylvania 300. He won this race when it was the New England 300 in 2005, and the Thatlook.com 300 in 2000, and he’s been the runner-up three times. We’ll give him the betting edge.

JAY’S BETTING PLAY:  TONY STEWART (-110) ***
(Graded on a scale of 1-4 stars)