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2008 LifeLock.com 400 Predictions

NASCAR's biggest fans are not the big city Chicago folk, but the Missouri, Southern Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa fans will roll into Joliet to cell out another race near the Windy City this weekend. Jimmy Boyd has weighed the field and is ready to deliver you his top five finishers with his 2008 Lifelock.com odds and predictions.

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The Chicago track has sold out each of the last seven years, filling all 90,000 seats, so the atmosphere figures to be electric once again. While the race track's dimensions give it the appearance of just another cookie cutter track, the history of top performers here do not line up with those at other cookie cutter courses like Jimmie Johnson and the Roush boys. In a bizarre twist, Childress driver Kevin Harvick actually has the best average finish in the track's seven year existence. The Childress program and Havick may not be the best on any other track, but they have proven themselves in Chicago.

Mr. Harvick won the first two races at Chicago back in 2001 and he has finished fourth the last two seasons. The only driver to even come close to Harvick's domination has been Tony Stewart. Stewart has pulled off two wins in the race track's short history including one in last year's event.

Stewart has not won a race yet this season, but we know that this is the part of the year when he really starts to take off. However, the uncertainty of his future may throw a wrinkle into things the way it did for Dale Jr. last season. Stewart has plenty of questions on the brain that reporters bombard him with week after week. Is Joe Gibbs going to let him out of his contract? Will he drive for Chevy again? Where will he be next year? Stewart doesn't appear to be the type of guy to let a little controversy bog him down, but the fact is that he is winless in 2008 while his teammates have combined to win seven races.

Besides Stewart and Harvick, Carl Edwards and Kasey Kahne seem to be obvious choices because of the track's layout. And, of course, Kyle Busch can never be completely factored out with the success he has had this season.

Kahne has win at Charlotte and Pocono this season which could be a link to the Chicago track considering that Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart both had success in all three places in 2003. Newman won at Chicago and Pocono that year and Stewart finished second at Chicago and won at Charlotte and Pocono. While the connection seems slight, I'm buying the correlation. These are the type of threads that have made our NASCAR picks a success for years and we won't turn on them now.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth are two more strong possibilities. Earnhardt has had a great comeback season and Kenseth is among the race favorites with three top five finishes and nine top tens this season.

Boyd's Top Five

1) #9 Kasey Kahne 15-1
2) #20 Tony Stewart 8-1
3) #17 Matt Kenseth 7-1
4) #99 Carl Edwards 7-1
5) #88 Dale Earnhardt Jr 8-1

AJ Allmendinger 100 - 1
Bobby Labonte 100 - 1
Brian Vickers 15 - 1
Carl Edwards 7 - 1
Casey Mears 75 - 1
Clint Bowyer 30 - 1
Dale Earnhardt Jr 8 - 1
Dave Blaney 100 - 1
David Gilliland 100 - 1
David Ragan 30 - 1
David Reutimann 100 - 1
Denny Hamlin 15 - 1
Elliott Sadler 50 - 1
Greg Biffle 10 - 1
Jamie McMurray 50 - 1
Jeff Burton 30 - 1
Jeff Gordon 15 - 1
Jimmie Johnson 7 - 1
Juan Pablo Montoya 100 - 1
Kasey Kahne 15 - 1
Kevin Harvick 30 - 1
Kurt Busch 40 - 1
Kyle Busch 6 - 1
Mark Martin 40 - 1
Martin Truex Jr 30 - 1
Matt Kenseth 7 - 1
Michael Waltrip 100 - 1
Paul Menard 100 - 1
Reed Sorenson 100 - 1
Ryan Newman 40 - 1
Sam Hornish Jr 100 - 1
Tony Stewart 8 - 1
Travis Kvapil 100 - 1
Field (Any Other Driver) 25 - 1

July 10th, 2008