NASCAR Odds: It is down to 12 drivers who can win the Chase heading into this start of the Contender Round on Sunday in Kansas. The first of three races in this round will be the Hollywood Casino 400 on Sunday on ESPN at Kansas Speedway. Jeff Gordon is listed as the 4-1 favorite in NASCAR odds to win the race. Let’s look at the Hollywood Casino 400 and NASCAR predictions.
Contender Round
The 12 drivers who can still win the Chase are Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth, Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin and Kasey Kahne. Four more drivers will be eliminated after this round which includes races at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway. “In some ways all the brackets are survival brackets,” said Keselowski, “but this particular bracket is probably more so than the others. Surviving Talladega is its own horror-film title, but it’s also a reality.” The three winners in the Challenger round were Keselowski, his teammate Joey Logano and this week’s favorite, Jeff Gordon.
The points are reset for each round so all 12 drivers start off even. “You’re going to see drivers and teams taking big risks at Kansas and Charlotte, because to me, the chances of wrecking at Talladega these days are about 80 percent,” Gordon said. Gordon’s Hendrick teammate Jimmie Johnson had a similar feeling. “Talladega is definitely the wild card,” said Johnson. “If I’m one of the guys who wins at Charlotte or Kansas, it’s sure going to make the race at Talladega fun. Otherwise you’re just going to be on pins and needles and stressing like crazy.”
NASCAR Predictions
It has been all Penske and Hendrick Motorsports in the first three races of the Chase. It could be Penske or Hendrick again on Sunday as in all of the previous seven races this season that were run on mile and a half tracks it has been a Penske or Hendrick driver who won. Gordon won the race in May and he has three wins in his career at Kansas. We’ll take Gordon at odds of 4-1 and Keselowski at NASCAR odds of 5-1.
