NASCAR: Kobalt Tools 500 Odds

NASCAR Motor Racing Betting
IN ATLANTA, THEY FEEL THE NEED FOR SPEED
By Aidan Yarborough


NASCAR Odds
To Win Kobalt Tools 500
March 7 - Atlanta

(Top 12)
Jimmie Johnson  +400
Jeff Gordon  +800
Mark Martin  +800
Kyle Busch  +1000
Clint Bowyer  +1200
Jeff Burton  +1200
Kevin Harvick  +1200
Kurt Busch  +1200
Carl Edwards  +1500
Denny Hamlin  +1500
Greg Biffle  +1500
Juan Pablo Montoya  +1500
Tony Stewart  +1500


"You’re dirt tracking at 200 miles per hour at a big race track."

That's veteran driver Clint Bowyer talking about the latest stop on the NASCAR trail.

You can count on some high speeds at the Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend for the Kobalt Tools 500, because this is one of the fastest tracks on the circuit. At the venue, they like to promote "Real Racing. Real Fast," obviously a reference to other Southern tracks in Daytona and Talladega, which use restrictor plates.

There's no lie about that.

"With fresh tires, this track is all about speed," says Sprint Cup driver Kevin Conway. "It's one of the fastest tracks on the circuit. Some of our corner speeds will be over 200 miles per hour in qualifying."

It is raced on a 1.54-mile quad-oval, with 24-degree banks on the turns and five-degree banked straightaways. The 125,000-seat facility is located in Hampton, GA, about 20 miles to the south of downtown Atlanta, and it is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year. It was originally opened in 1960 as Atlanta International Raceway. Atlanta Motor Speedway has hosted ninety-three 500-mile races, more than any other track in NASCAR history.

The track hosts Legends racing, and has a road course. Indy Racing League events have been held there, as well as recreational drag racing. AMS has also served in the past as a hurricane shelter. One of the interesting twists, which it has in common with some other facilities that are owned by Speedway Motorsports, is that there are a bunch of condominiums built over the northeast corner of the track, giving a bird's eye view of the races. I noticed one of them, a three-bedroom, was selling for as little as $295,000.

There are actually two Sprint Cup races contested at AMS on a yearly basis. The Kobalt Tools 500 takes place this weekend, while the Atlanta 500, which has recently been known as at the Pep Boys Auto 500, is held on Labor Day weekend and is also run under the lights.

You can look for some side-to-side racing at Atlanta, and there a lot of ways drivers can pass. The consensus among drivers is that this is a site they really look forward to.

"I really enjoy going there. It's a great challenge," says Jeff Burton. "The track gets so slick during the race and becomes a blast to drive on. You have to get up on the wheel and drive the car. It's so much fun."

Kyle Busch, who suffered through a disappointment last weekend in his hometown in Las Vegas, acknowledges that the track "doesn't have much grip," but adds, "It's really a driver's track because, when you get about 40 laps on your tires, you really start to slide around and that can be a handful." Brad Keselowski cautions, "The track is abrasive on tires, so you can't abuse them early in a run."

"Atlanta is a track where you not only race your competitors, but you race the track," says Matt Kenseth. "It's really high-banked and fast. You start off fast and the track gets slick, so you're always looking for a different groove and for more grip."

The people who run the AMS may have lost their grip when they started a promotion a few years ago that called for them to sell tickets to the Kobalt Tools 500 for the price of the number of whatever car won the Daytona 500.

Well, as we know by now, Jamie McMurray won at Daytona, and he's in car #1, so as a result the race track's box office was absolutely inundated with phone calls less than 24 hours later. By eleven o'clock on Monday there were 81,000 phone calls received in the offices looking for the $1 tickets, so needless to say, the 2000 that were available were sold pretty quickly.