NASCAR Betting Preview & Odds for 2018 STP 500

NASCAR Betting Preview & Odds for 2018 STP 500

Written by on March 25, 2018

Auto Racing Betting News, NASCAR
Well, NASCAR Betting enthusiasts, finally someone other than Kevin Harvick won a race for the first time in a month – and better yet, we predicted it perfectly. After seeing Harvick’s three-race winning streak come to halt last weekend as Martin Truex Jr. found his way into the winner’s circle, all eyes are on the upcoming STP 500 odds, so let’s dive into an analysis for this coming weekend.

NASCAR Betting Preview & Odds for 2018 STP 500

  • Venue: Martinsville Speedway
  • Location: Ridgeway, Virginia, United States
  • First race: 1950
  • Laps: 500 (Stage 1: 130, Stage 2: 130, Stage 3: 240)
To rehash the 2018 campaign so far. Brad Keselowski won the Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona on Feb. 11. Ryan Blaney won the first Can-Am Duel at Daytona four days later and then, Chase Elliott won the second Can-Am duel later that same day. On Sunday, Feb. 18, Austin Dillon won the prestigious Daytona 500 and then Harvick won three straight. First, he took the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 in Atlanta on Feb. 25, then followed that up by winning the Pennzoil 400 on March 4 in Las Vegas and then the TicketGuardian two weeks ago in Phoenix. However, in 35 career starts Martinsville, he has just one win (2011) with an average finish of 15.8 average. Last weekend, 2017 NASCAR champion Martin Truex Jr. won the Auto Club 400 in the fifth Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of the season. Truex dominated the field almost from the start. “People kept asking ‘When are you going to win again? When are you going to win one of these stages?’” said Truex, who went to Victory Lane eight times last year. “Well, there you go.”

NASCAR Betting Odds for 2018 STP 500

  • Kyle Busch +330
  • Brad Keselowski +400
  • Denny Hamlin +500
  • Joey Logano +580
  • Chase Elliott +650
  • Martin Truex Jr. +650
  • Kevin Harvick +800
  • Jimmie Johnson +1000
  • Clint Bowyer +1200
  • Kyle Larson +1600
  • Ryan Blaney +2500
  • Erik Jones +2500
  • Aric Almirola +3300
  • Kurt Busch +3300
  • Jamie McMurray +3300
Kyle Larson took second place, Kyle Busch finished third and Brad Keselowski finished fourth. Truex Jr. sits atop this year’s leaderboard with one win and four Top 5s. Kyle Busch is second with three Top-5s and one Top-10 finish. Joey Logano (fifth Sunday) and Brad Keselowski (fourth) are third and fourth in points, respectively. Ryan Blaney is fifth, Denny Hamlin, sixth, Kyle Larson, seventh, Harvick eighth, despite being the only driver with multiple wins. Clint Bowyer and Aric Almirola are ninth and 10th respectively. Busch, who finished as the runner-up to Harvick two consecutive races before his third-place finish last week has claimed two of the last four races at Martinsville by winning in the spring of 2016 and last fall. Busch has also recorded an impressive five straight top-five finishes at Martinsville. “We’ve run well the last two years especially at Martinsville and we’re definitely pumped about getting back there,” said Kyle Busch. “I’m hoping we can have a really good car there again this time around, like we did the last two years, especially. We led a lot of laps and we were really fast. Hoping that some of those things we were able to push through there last fall at Martinsville we’ll be able to do this time around with our M&M’s Caramel Camry.” Once again, Kyle Busch is one of the NASCAR Betting favorites to win the 2018 STP 500. Keselowski won last year in the spring at Martinsville and Jimmie Johnson won in the fall of 2016 and won a whopping nine times at Martinsville overall. “We are chipping away and still working hard,” said Johnson. “The small victories we had last weekend are good signs we are moving in the right direction – we know there is still a lot of work to do. Last week’s solid performance moved us up in points a bit as well. I always look forward to racing at Martinsville, it suits our team’s style and it’s one of our favorite tracks – you feel like you have stepped back in time when you walk in there.”

Expert NASCAR Betting Pick for 2018 STP 500

Okay, race betting fanatics. I’m going with Kyle Busch to get the win with Brad Keselowski second, five-time Martinsville winner Denny Hamlin for third place, Joey Logano, fourth and Jimmie Johnson fifth.

Top Five Finish Predictions

  • #18 Kyle Busch (7/2)
  • #2 Brad Keselowski (5/1)
  • #11 Denny Hamlin (6/1)
  • #22 Joey Logano (6/1)
  • #48 Jimmie Johnson

Last 5 Winners

  • 2017: Brad Keselowski
  • 2016: Kyle Busch
  • 2015: Denny Hamlin
  • 2014: Kurt Busch
  • 2013: Jimmie Johnson