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2008 Toyota Save Mart 350 Odds & Predictions

NASCAR heads to Sonoma this week for one of its two road races and Jimmy Boyd has you covered with his Toyota/Save Mart 350 odds and predictions. With road races being so vastly different from what we are used to seeing week in and week out, it looks like we will see some new blood at the top of the leaderboard this week.
 

These road races are usually a thorn in the side of the drivers who have been dominating all season and because of that, I think they are good for the sport. I love watching a road course specialist take over a subpar car from a lowly financed team and finish better than the corporate mega teams. It happens each and every year and it will happen again this weekend.

While good cars can perform well on normal race tracks, it takes good drivers to win road races. I'm not saying that Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, and Kasey Kahne aren't good drivers, but their success can be attributed more so to driving great cars with great crews and research staffs behind them.

If you haven't followed road races very closely, then you need to pay close attention to what I'm about to tell you. Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart win just about every single road race. This comes as no surprise to me since these two drivers are able to combine their exceptional driving skills with their high-priced equipment. Only Juan Pablo Montoya, Kevin Harvick, and Robby Gordon have provided any competition during the Gordon/Stewart road race reign.

Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart enter the race as 4-1 co-favorites at Sportsbook.com. Gordon has nine career road course Cup wins and Stewart has six. Stewart has been more dominant on the road courses of late, with a road course win as recent as last season at Watkins Glenn. He has taken away Gordon's road course title belt so to speak.

Robby Gordon has had lots of success in these road course races. He led the most laps in this race this season and should have done better than 16th if it weren't for failed late pit strategies. In 2003, Gordon won both road course races. He is one of the best pure drivers in the Series, but he is normally a 200-1 or higher underdog in every race. This week, he is listed at 10-1 odds. That goes a long ways to show you how respected he is in these races.

Juan Pablo Montoya is known as a road course specialist and he won this race last year despite starting in the impossible 32nd position. Prior to Montoya's win, the furthest back anyone had ever come from to win at Sonoma was 13th.

Tony Stewart has been notorious for coming on strong in the second half of the season and I'm expecting the same here, but Jeff Gordon will likely be right on his tail. I like the road course champ to take the checkered.

TOP 5 Finish Prediction:

1) Tony Stewart 4-1

2) Jeff Gordon 4-1

3) Kevin Harvick 8-1

4) Robby Gordon 10-1

5) Juan Pablo Montoya 8-1

Toyota/Save Mart 350 complete odds

AJ Allmendinger 35 - 1

Bobby Labonte 100 - 1

Boris Said 20 - 1

Brian Simo 100 - 1

Brian Vickers 100 - 1

Carl Edwards 40 - 1

Casey Mears 100 - 1

Clint Bowyer 50 - 1

Dale Earnhardt Jr 40 - 1

Dario Franchitti 60 - 1

David Ragan 100 - 1

Denny Hamlin 20 - 1

Elliott Sadler 40 - 1

Greg Biffle 40 - 1

Jamie McMurray 20 - 1

Jeff Burton 40 - 1

Jeff Gordon 4 - 1

Jimmie Johnson 30 - 1

Juan Pablo Montoya 8 - 1

Kasey Kahne 75 - 1

Kevin Harvick 8 - 1

Kurt Busch 20 - 1

Kyle Busch 20 - 1

Marcos Ambrose 30 - 1

Martin Truex Jr 60 - 1

Matt Kenseth 100 - 1

Max Papis 100 - 1

Patrick Carpentier 30 - 1

Robby Gordon 10 - 1

Ron Fellows 20 - 1

Ryan Newman 30 - 1

Sam Hornish Jr 100 - 1

Tony Stewart 4 - 1

Field (Any Other Driver) 15 - 1

June 18th, 2008