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Charlotte hosts the Sprint All-Star Race Saturday
By: Freddy Wander - StatFox
Published: 5/16/2015  at  7:27:00 AM
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NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Sprint All-Star Race

Saturday, May 16th – 7:00 p.m. EDT
Charlotte Motor Speedway – Concord, NC

Odds to Win Race

(For the latest Odds, connect to Sportsbook.ag)

In one of the more interesting formats in the series, the winners from the past year will get together in the Sprint Showdown for bragging rights and a chance at the $1 million plus top prize. The race has taken place at Charlotte Motor Speedway since 1987 and the 1.5-mile, quad-oval track has seen plenty of action on its 24-degree turns. The format of this race has been changed frequently, but currently, they run four 20-lap segments before doing a 10-lap sprint at the end as the drivers have short breaks in between each segment. It’s not surprising that Jimmie Johnson has been the most dominant force here, winning four times (2003, 2006, 2012, 2013) but he failed to get the jump on last year’s victor; Jamie McMurray. McMurray’s time of 1:20:35 was the fastest mark since the start of this new format in 2012 as he had an average speed of 100.517 MPH on the asphalt track. There are currently 17 racers entered into this battle of top drivers with three possibly coming from winning the two segments of the Sprint Showdown on Friday and by taking the fan vote. Let’s take a look at who could be the best of the best this week in Charlotte.

Jimmie Johnson (6/1) - Johnson is one of the few drivers that is only behind Harvick in the odds this week, but could be worth putting money on with his recent hot streak and past success both at this track and at this particular race. In the past five races, Johnson has done no worse than third and has two victories while never doing better than fifth in the pole. We all know that he is dominant, but his track record in Charlotte is still very impressive as he has taken this race four times in the past and has won another three events when hitting the asphalt of Charlotte. He also has another six top-five showings in his 27 attempts at the track and sits behind just Joey Logano (10.0) and Carl Edwards (11.3) with an average finish of 11.4. Johnson should have no issues continuing his hot streak again this week.

Joey Logano (6/1) - The aforementioned Logano has been itching at the bit to get a win in Charlotte as he ranks best among his peers with an average finish of 10.0 at the venue with four top-fives, but has yet to take a ride in victory lane. He’s been in the All-Star Race four times in his young career, getting two top-fives in those attempts as he owns an average green-flag speed of 180.366 MPG (5th-fastest). He seems to be great in fewer laps as he has been in the top two of the pole six times this year and used a fifth pole position to get a win at Daytona in February. The soon to be 25-year-old has been keeping his wits sharp on the Xfinity Race circuit as well, running five times in those events with three victories and two runner-ups. He could soon supplement Johnson as the perennial winner of this race.

Kasey Kahne (20/1) - Kahne has started at this track 22 times in his career, and in that time he owns four victories, including one in the All-Star Race. His average green-flag speed of 180.143 MPH at the race ranks sixth-fastest and he nearly always is near the front of the pack with an average finish of 11.5 at Charlotte (4th best). The 17-time Sprint Cup Series winner has had a somewhat erratic 2015, though, putting up four top-10s while also finished worse than 15th five times. He does seem to do well when at this track, so look for Kahne to stay near the front with all of the top racers in the series.

Ryan Newman (40/1) - Newman has yet to grab a win in the 2015 campaign, but has not been doing poorly either, finishing in the top-five on four occasions and has an average finish of 8.3 over his last four races heading into this week. As a rookie in 2002, Newman was able to get the checkered flag here amongst the largest field (27) in race history, joining just Jeff Gordon as first-year drivers to win the All-Star Race. In total he has been here 13 times in his solid career and has seven top-10s while also failing to finish four times. Newman’s odds are high, but the 17-time Sprint Cup Series winner should have no problem showing up and dotting the top of the leaderboard.

A.J. Allmendinger (Field: 10/1) - Allmendinger is joined by Almirola with the worst odds to win this week, but since having a rough couple of years with drug suspensions and team changes, he has seemed to level off and is racing at a much higher level. He has two top-10 finishes in 2015 and has been having a nice run leading up to this week with an average finish of 14.7 over his last three races. Allmendinger has one career top-five on this course and could surprise many this week, so putting a unit or two on the field and having him along with a few others isn’t a bad move.


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