Sprint Cup Betting – Tony Stewart still pursuing third Sprint Cup title

Those customers who are involved in Sprint Cup betting know that Tony Stewart is pursuing an elusive third Cup championship, while Joey Logano is only now starting to build what he hopes will be an illustrious NASCAR career. These two will line up in the Kobalt Tools 400, which will take place at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday at 3 PM ET, to be televised on FOX. Stewart and Logano are paired in a special qualifying matchup for Sprint Cup betting purposes, with Logano the -140 favorite (Stewart is priced at +110).

NASCAR Odds
Kobalt Tools 400
Live at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Las Vegas, NV
Sunday, March 6 — 3 PM ET
TV:  FOX

Qualifying Matchup
JOEY LOGANO  -140
TONY STEWART  +110

Is this the year Joey Logano (at 50/1 in Sprint Cup betting to win this year’s championship) finally breaks out and becomes a Sprint Cup driver who can post top ten finishes on a consistent basis? Surely there is nothing that should be holding him back; he certainly has one of the top teams behind him (Joe Gibbs Racing) and he has now had a couple of full years of Sprint Cup driving under his belt. He has also indoctrinated himself though enough brouhahas with other drivers (notably Greg Biffle and Kevin Harvick) and he’s still going strong. But maybe not strong enough; he has run two races this year, finishing 23rd in the Daytona 500 and officially 33rd last week at Phoenix when he went out of the race after 213 laps with engine trouble. He’s not one of the Sprint Cup betting favorites this week, as he is +2500 to win in Las Vegas. And among the new hotshot drivers, Trevor Bayne completely stole his thunder with that historic win at Daytona.

Logano has had little experience on most tracks, and the Las Vegas Motor Speedway is no exception. He started 20th and finished 13th in his debut race as a Cup driver there in 2009, and last year he both started and finished sixth. That was one of his more impressive performances to date, and I imagine why he is the -140 favorite in Sprint Cup betting in this matchup.

Maybe another reason is that this has never been the best track for Tony Stewart. The former Sprint Cup champion (2002 and 2005) has never won there, although he has finished in the top ten seven different times. It’s one of only two tracks on the circuit (Darlington is the other) where he hasn’t tasted victory. He didn’t even on the oval when he was racing Indy cars. He came close to winning the pole in 2006, but he has started among the top eight drivers on on three occasions. The interesting thing is, Stewart should have a better record there, as he has the sixth-best Driver Rating in Vegas (96.0). And you would figure he is taking more momentum into this race than Logano, as he was seventh in Phoenix after starting 18th. Stewart is third in the Sprint Cup standings, behind the Busch brothers, and he is sitting at +1000 in Sprint Cup betting to win the title at the end of the year.

Stewart has been making news, in an amusing way, off the track this week. He turned into a cab driver for a day, running passengers from the MGM Grand to the airport in a street-legal Mobil #14 Chevy (for publicity purposes, of course). And it was announced that he will trade cars with Formula One star Lewis Hamilton in an exhibition at Watkins Glen during the summer. Everyone knows Stewart can handle just about anything, having been a former Indy Car champion. It’s that kind of experience we rely on when we make him our choice at +110 in Sprint Cup betting.

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