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2008 Coke Zero 400 Odds

Written by Jimmy Boyd

It’s time to head back to Daytona and Jimmy Boyd has you covered with his 2008 Coke Zero 400 odds and predictions. Jimmy weighs the field again this week and gives you the five drivers he likes best.

Just how dominant has Chevy been in plate races? I’ll put it to you this way. Coming into this season, only three restrictor plate races have been won by a manufacturer other than Chevy since 2001. At four plate races a season, Ford and Dodge aren’t getting the job done.

Some experts thought that the Car of Tomorrow could help even the field because the aerodynamics the car were so different. I mean, this seemed more feasible than Dodge and Ford teams gaining ground just by the new body design of the car when super teams like Hendrick Motorsports have been dominating for seven years. In the final plate race of 2007, the COT was ran and the results were the same as they were in the spring race at Talladega – Jeff Gordon first and Jimmie Johnson second.

Chevy and Hendrick seemed to be the team to beat heading into the 2008 season, especially after signing the biggest free agent in NASCAR history and one of the best plate race drivers in the world – Dale Earnhardt Jr. Junior, Gordon, and Johnson have combined to dominate with 16 plate race wins in Chevy cars since 2000.

Let’s build up the story a little more. Junior showed off his plate race skills and his new equipment at Daytona in February by winning both the Bud Shootout and one of the Gatorade qualifying races. With this early success, Junior’s Dayton 500 odds dropped as low as 2/1 in some Vegas sportsbooks. But when the Dayton 500 finished, no Chevy car was in victory lane. It came as an even bigger surprise that only one Chevy was in the top 12. Instead, two Penske Dodge’s finished one and two with two Gibbs Toyota’s right behind.

When Talladega came around, Chevy’s dominance still got most of the pub, but quietly some were wondering if Joe Gibbs and his Toyota’s could be as fast as they were during Dayton Speedweeks. We quickly found out that the answer was yes! Kyle Busch won the race with Denny Hamlin finishing third. Tony Stewart led the most laps during the race but was involved in an accident that cost him the checkered.

So, as look ahead to Saturday night’s race at Daytona, we have to think that Gibbs will be in the driver’s seat again. Weirder things have happened, like Jamie McMurray winning this race last year, but based on what we know, Gibbs is the way to go.

Junior has ran well in both plate races this season, but he hasn’t been in the same league as the Gibbs cars. Tony Stewart has been unstoppable in July Daytona races, winning in 2005 and 2006. He traditionally kicks things in high gear this time of year and I like him to get his first win of the season.

TOP 5 Finish prediction:

1) #20 Tony Stewart 6 – 1

2) #11 Denny Hamlin 10 – 1

3) #88 Dale Earnhardt Jr 6 – 1

4) #18 Kyle Busch 5 -1

5) #07 Clint Bowyer 25 -1

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