There are a number of different forms of auto racing, but when it comes to US race fans nothing is more popular than NASCAR’s Sprint Cup series, especially when it comes to betting on the sport. Most of the top sportsbooks featured on SportsBettingStats.com will post betting odds for each week’s race during the season so all you need is a betting account to get in on all the action.
The basic way to bet on a NASCAR event is to pick the outright winner. Odd to win will be posted for all of the top contenders as well as some popular longshots and there is usually an option to bet the field. The field would include all the other drivers in that week’s race that do not have posted odds.
The main thing to remember about betting on NASCAR is that even though there are usually over 40 different drivers in the field for a typical race, in reality there are probably only nine or 10 drivers that have a realistic chance to win. If you go back to the final Sprint Cup standings for the 2015 season, there were a total of 50 different drivers with at least one point, but the total number of drivers with at least one win in a point-race event was just 12. Breaking things down even further, of the 36 races on the schedule, five drivers accounted for 24 checkered flags.
While you can definitely win a decent amount of money picking the outright winner of a NASCAR race even if you only bet on favorites, it is still a hard thing to do. All the top drivers in the series have their favorite tracks, but over the course of a 500 mile race anything can happen. A better way to wager on NASCAR is to look for posted odds for a Top 3 finish. The payout will be much lower, especially when it comes to the favorites, but you have a much more realistic chance to cash-in on this type of bet. Going back to the 2015 Sprint Cup season, Kevin Harvick won three events, but he also finished second or third in 17 additional races. You would of still had won money on a Top 3 wager even if you bet on Harvick in all 36 races.
The next type of wager that some sportsbooks will offer for a NASCAR race are referred to as “Speed Row Bets”. This type of bet groups together a pool of five to seven drivers and you have to bet on which one places the highest of the group in the official finishing order of the race. This is a great way to add even more excitement by creating a race within a race.
Another popular way to bet on NASCAR is head-to-head matchups. The betting odds are set for each driver in a particular matchup and you bet on which one finishes higher. Neither driver has to win the race; they just have to beat the other driver to pay off.
Over the course of the Sprint Cup season each driver is awarded points for their performance in each individual race. Combined with their actual wins as the first tiebreaker, the top 16 drivers in the point standings after the first 26 point races on the schedule then compete in a 10-race playoff series known as the Chase. There are elimination rounds and the top four drivers on the list after the ninth race then compete for NASCAR’s Sprint Cup title in that final point-race event of the season. This system sets-up the opportunity to bet on futures odds for which driver wins that season’s title. The betting odds are first posted well before the Daytona 500, which traditionally kicks-off the new season and they are constantly updated after each point race event.
NASCAR 2019 Cup Series Championship Futures
When a season starts in mid-February and does not end until mid-November, it becomes one of the few sports that can be thought of as a year-round betting opportunity. NASCAR's Cup Series may not generate the most significant handle at online sportsbooks such as...
