Sports Betting

Goody’s Cool Orange 500 Preview

Jeff Burton will be seeking his second straight Sprint Cup victory on March 30 when he takes to the track at Martinsville Speedway for this season's Goody's Cool Orange 500.

Burton held off Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer to take the checkered flag in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway in the series' last event on March 16. The win was Burton's first of the season, and it moved him up one spot to fourth place in the driver standings. Burton now has two Top-5 results and three Top-10 finishes on the season.

Greg Biffle was fourth in the Food City 500, while Dale Earnhardt Jr. rounded out the day's Top 5 drivers. Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne, Aric Almirola, David Gilliland, and Matt Kenseth also drove to Top-10 results. Jeff Gordon had been looking to pick up his first victory of the season in the Bristol race, but he had to settle for an 11th-place result.

Several other notable Sprint Cup Series names finished outside of the Top 10 in the Food City 500 as well. Kurt Busch was 12th, Martin Truex Jr. was 13th, Tony Stewart was 14th, Juan Montoya ended up in 15th place, and Carl Edwards finished in 16th place. Series points leader Kyle Busch ran into mechanical problems and wound up in 17th place, while Jimmie Johnson's early-season woes continued as he finished 18th.

The top three spots in the driver standings remained unchanged after Bristol, with Kyle Busch leading Biffle by 30 points and Harvick by 33 points atop the list. Burton, Earnhardt Jr., Kasey Kahne, and Stewart all moved up one spot in the standings, while Ryan Newman dropped four spots behind that group into eighth place. Bowyer's third-place result in the Food City 500 vaulted him seven places into ninth in the standings.

Kurt Busch, Kenseth, and Truex Jr. make up the rest of the standings' current Top 12, with Johnson in 13th place and Gordon in 14th place. Hamlin moved up four spots into 15th with his strong showing at Bristol, and he now sits 214 points behind Kyle Busch.

Johnson will get another chance to get his season back on track at Martinsville, where he's won each of the past three Cup events. Johnson won the Goody's Cool Orange 500 there last season, and he's also the two-time defending champ in Martinsville's Subway 500 (which is run in October). As well, he claimed the Subway 500 back in '04.

Gordon will be able to draw on past success at Martinsville as well - he's won seven Cup events on that track in his career. Gordon swept the races there in both 2005 and 2003, and he also visited victory lane in Martinsville events back in 1999, 1997, and 1996. Stewart (two), Kurt Busch (one), and Burton (one) also have wins on that track.

So who is the favorite to get the win at Martinsville this weekend? Vegas oddsmakers have both Johnson and Stewart at 6/1 odds, with Gordon and Kyle Busch each at 7/1 odds. Hamlin is sitting at 8/1 odds to pick up the victory, with Kenseth at 11/1. A big group of drivers is then listed at 14/1 odds to visit victory lane - Earnhardt Jr., Bowyer, Harvick, Burton, Edwards, Biffle, and Kurt Busch. Kasey Kahne is back of them at 17/1.

Johnson has been slipping on Vegas' Sprint Cup odds list, but he's still pegged as the 5/1 favorite to capture the championship again this season. Gordon and Earnhardt Jr. follow their teammate at 6/1 odds on that list, with Stewart, Edwards, and Kyle Busch all at 7/1 odds. Kenseth (9/1) and Hamlin (15/1) round out the top tier of title contenders.

After competing in the Goody's Cool Orange 500 the drivers of the Sprint Cup Series will head down to Texas Motor Speedway for the 2008 Samsung 500. That event will take place on April 6. From there the series will hit Phoenix for the Subway Fresh Fit 500 (April 12), and then Talladega for the Aaron's 499 (April 27) after a one-week break.