Martinsville Betting – Gordon returns to Victory Lane at Martinsville
Online betting players will gear up this weekend for the Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500 at NASCAR’s shortest track, the half-mile paper clip at Martinsville Speedway. There has been a stranglehold at this track by three different drivers, and the trio will again beat and bang fenders on their way to a win, and this week’s victor will be someone that hasn’t been to Victory Lane here since 2005.
- What: NASCAR odds
- When: Sunday, March 28, 1:00 PM ET
- Where: Martinsville Speedway, Ridgeway, VA
- Key Stat: Jeff Gordon’s seven Martinsville wins are the best among active drivers
Johnson has to be the favorite at +275, especially after getting his first win at Bristol last week. The No.48 driver has dominated Martinsville over the last few years, winning two of the last three spring races here, and he’s won at least one of the Martinsville races each year since 2004, except for 2005, when teammate Jeff Gordon pulled off the sweep. Johnson didn’t have the best car last year, but he still led 42 laps for the win.
Gordon and Denny Hamlin are next at +600, and only two other drivers (Rusty Wallace in the ’04 spring race, Tony Stewart in the ’06 spring race) have won a race at Martinsville outside the trio of Johnson, Gordon and Hamlin. Gordon has seven overall wins here, one more than Johnson, but he hasn’t taken the checkered flag at Martinsville since the 2005 sweep. Hamlin led the most laps in both races here last year, finishing second to Johnson in this event, and then he guaranteed a win in the fall race, leading 206 laps en route to his second win here. Hamlin has yet to break the top 10 this year, but that will change this week.
Tony Stewart comes in at +1000, and he has eight top-10s in 11 spring races here, including his 2006 win. Stewart has three top-10s in his last four races, including a second-place run at Bristol, and we know how consistent he was during the regular season in 2009. The No.14 driver gets the nod over a group of drivers in your sportsbook at +1500, such as Kyle and Kurt Busch, points leader Kevin Harvick, Mark Martin and Juan Montoya, who has an average finish of 11.0 in six Martinsville races.
There isn’t much room for darkhorses at Martinsville, but Dale Earnhardt Jr. could end up a winner at +2200. He has never won here, but “Junior” has an 8.4 average in 10 Martinsville spring races, and even during a horror 2009, he managed a seventh-place run in this event. He is coming off a seventh-place result at Bristol, and he’s sitting eighth in the standings, and another good run would build up some confidence in the No.88 team.
Lee-Roy’s Pick: Good luck trying to find someone to pick a driver outside of Johnson, Gordon and Hamlin. Stewart and Montoya are capable, but it’s not very likely with the Nos. 11, 24 and 48 on the track. Jeff Gordon gets the nod as he is generally a good qualifier at Martinsville, and up front is always the best place to be on short tracks. He muscled a decent car to a 14th-place run at Bristol last week, and the No.24 team is getting their act together after a slow start. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Johnson or Hamlin makes it to Victory Lane this week, but we’re going with the veteran and four-time champion in his own right, Jeff Gordon.
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