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2008 Daytona 500 Predictions

Written by Jimmy Boyd on February 26, 2008

It’s race time again so rev up your engines for the 50th running or the Daytona 500 to kick off NASCAR’s 50th year of stock car racing. The big race goes down Sunday, February 17th at the Dayton International Speedway in Daytona, Florida. So ladies, get your hubby a pair of tickets for The Great American Race and I promise he’ll love you for life. Sportsbook.com has posted the 2008 Daytona 500 odds so you can cash in on your favorite drivers.

To give you NASCAR junkies a little stroll down memory lane, you’ll remember that the 2007 Daytona 500 came down to a green-white-checkers finish. Mark Martin was the frontrunner with Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle, David Gilliland, and Elliot Sadler in line behind. Kevin Harvick got a run on the outside, but there was a big wreck coming off turn four in the last lap. When NASCAR decided not to throw the yellow flag, Harvick beat Martin to the stripe by a nose. Just rehashing that one gets my blood boiling.

This year, Sportsbook.com lists, Dale Earnhardt Jr. as the favorite at 4-1 odds, just ahead of new Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. In 2004, Junior passed Tony Stewart on the 3rd anniversary of his father’s death to win the Daytona 500 and now on a new team, with less politics, oddsmakers feel Junior can pull off the Super Bowl of Racing again.

Oddsmakers aren’t giving much of a shot to last year’s champ Kevin Harvick, listing him at 20-1 odds. Harvick won as a healthy dog last season and could get some attention from long shot lovers here. While quite a few have won numerous Daytona titles in alternating years, only Sterling Martin has won the biggest race in history back-to-back times. That came in the 1994 and 1995 seasons. That’s why taking Harvick likely isn’t the call here.

We do know one thing for sure, your driver better be racing a Chevy. Each of the last five Daytona 500 winners have crossed the finish line in a Chevy. In fact, 15 of the last 19 winners have been Chevy drivers.

When wagering on the 2008 Daytona 500, we can’t forget that Jeff Gordon has three Daytona 500 titles under his belt. His last one came in 2005 and we feel he will be hungry for another one in ’08. Gordon led the NASCAR Cup Series much of last season before being edged out by teammate Jimmie Johnson. We think Gordon, who has won four NASCAR Cup Series titles, will be especially hungry for this big race. This is what Gordon had to say about the race: “You always want to win the Daytona 500 — it’s the ultimate. “This is our Super Bowl and there’s a lot of attention given to this race and to the race winner, maybe more so this year because it’s the 50th anniversary of the ‘500.’ I’m fortunate enough to have a few of the Daytona 500 trophies, but none have gold in it like this year’s trophy.”

With teammate Jimmie Johnson stealing much of Gordon’s thunder the past two seasons with back-to-back titles, we see Gordon going balls to the wall from the git-go. Gordon is showing slightly better value than Earnhardt Jr. and we believe he gives us the best chance on race day.

Bobby Labonte 100 – 1

Travis Kvapil 100 – 1

Paul Menard 100 – 1

Reed Sorenson 100 – 1

Dario Franchitti 75 – 1

Jacques Villeneuve 75 – 1

Sam Hornish Jr 75 – 1

JJ Yeley 75 – 1

Robby Gordon 75 – 1

Dave Blaney 75 – 1

David Ragan 75 – 1

Elliott Sadler 75 – 1