FedEx 400 Early Picks
NASCARWagers.com, NASCAR Handicapping Service
Over the last 24 hours, most online sportsbooks that carry NASCAR have released early head to head qualifying and race matchups for this Sunday’s FedEx 400 benefitting Autism Speaks. After studying some of the opening matchups, a few lines really stood out that we wanted to share with our audience. So far this year our qualifying bets have been sensational for our forum readers and we think we have a few winners that require some early attention this week.
Qualifying Matchup: Ryan Newman -115 over Kevin Harvick (2 units)
At first glance, this seems to be an easy winner for Harvick backers. After all, Harvick has been the most consistent front-runner in NASCAR this season and has also posted the best qualifying results of his career thus far through 2014. However once we really dove into the parameters of handicapping qualifying matchups, we noticed that Newman actually led nearly every category. ‘Rocketman’ has posted an outstanding 4.8 average starting position at Dover over the last 4 races and has been equally strong on similar track surfaces. While the #4 has been fast all season, they have not been as impressive on the short tracks. In fact, the entire Stewart-Haas Racing camp has been behind the curve on short tracks this year. Let’s make the sharp play and cash with the #31 team with qualifying on Friday!
Race Matchup: Clint Bowyer -130 over Denny Hamlin (2 units)
One of the biggest race matchups that jumped out at us this week was Denny Hamlin vs. Clint Bowyer. Bowyer is likely the best driver to never score a win at Dover and has the best average finish among winless drivers at the Monster Mile (12.56). Bowyer has posted 9 top 10 finishes in his 16 career starts including 6 straight top 10 finishes. Hamlin on the other hand has been on the other end of the totem pole. Hamlin has struggled severely at the Monster Mile posting just 1 top 10 finish in his last 6 starts and has a poor career average finishing position of 20.5 through 16 starts. If both drivers can replicate anything close to those trends on Sunday, Bowyer holds a rather significant advantage at just -130 odds.
Newsletter Pick: Joey Logano +1100
As a reminder, this week’s NASCARWagers Newsletter pick was Joey Logano at +1100. We had a few issues with our sign-up link but that has been resolved. Make sure you are getting our weekly opening odds analysis that our newsletter provides.