NASCAR’s Sprint Cup series has always enjoyed one of the largest fan-bases of any major sport, but one of the fastest growing trends is the popularity of betting on the races. It is not as simple as putting your money down on the favorite to win. If you want to really increase your chances of cashing a winning ticket more often than not there are a few simple betting tips to keep in mind.
The first tip to betting NASCAR is understanding the actual betting odds. Granted it is hard to win a race, but there is quite a bit of value in the payouts for the two or three favorites in any Sprint Cup event. Betting favorites at +500 odds in NASCAR makes all the sense in the world and if you go back to last season’s results you would find that five drivers won almost 70 percent of the 36 races on the Sprint Cup point-race schedule.
The trick to actually making money betting NASCAR is to knowing which of those handful of drivers is poised to win that particular week. This is definitely a sport where success has a pretty steady habit of repeating itself so a statistic such as average finishing position at that particular track becomes pretty important when handicapping the field. Even the top drivers in the series have tracks they thrive on and ones where their chances of winning are greatly diminished based on past performance. This is definitely a sport where past results can be a good indicator of future outcomes.
Along the same lines, NASCAR’s Sprint Cup race tracks are much like MLB ballparks. They are all designed in basically the same fashion, but the subtle differences in each can have a significant impact on performance. With the exception of a pair of road courses at Watkins Glen and Sonoma, all of the other NASCAR ovals can be broken down into three categories; short tracks, intermediate tracks and long tracks. You should always take into consideration the type of track for that week’s event as part of your handicapping efforts.
Hedging your bets is one of the best ways to win money betting NASCAR. Instead of betting on a sportsbook’s odds to win, look for books that offer betting odds for a Top 3 finish or head-to-head betting odds between just two drivers. It is far easier for one of the favorites to finish in the top three places of a race than actually win. It is also easier to try and pick one driver over another in a one-on-one matchup. The payoff odds will obviously be much lower with these type of bets as opposed to hitting a ticket on an outright winner, but you will give yourself a much better chance of winning on a regular basis.
One of the best tips for any kind of NASCAR bet is to shop your odds. Not every sportsbook offers betting on NASCAR so the first step in the process is to identify the four or five sportsbooks that will post betting odds for Sprint Cup racing on a regular basis. Money line odds for Sprint Cup races can vary quite so it is well worth your time to compare the numbers across each of the books in this group.
If you find some favorable odds for one of your picks then place the bet. Otherwise, another betting tip to go along with shopping the odds is to wait as long as possible before pulling the trigger. A book might post some interesting NASCAR props just hours before the start of a race that could offer some great value. You may also find a late movement in your favor based on the last minute money coming in.
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