Okay, maybe you remember the Western comedy “4 For Texas” with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Charles Bronson and The Three Stooges, and maybe you don’t, but if you look at the NASCAR odds, we may have “4 For Texas” this weekend as the drivers converge on another location. The next stop for NASCAR is Texas Motor Speedway, where they will be competing in the Samsung Mobile 500 on Sunday (April 9), to be televised on FOX, and the Sprint Cup favorite in NASCAR odds, Jimmie Johnson (+350) will face at least four contenders with better history than he has.
NASCAR Odds
To Win Sprint Cup Championship
- Carl Edwards +450
- Clint Bowyer +2500
- Dale Earnhardt Jr +1200
- Denny Hamlin +1000
- Greg Biffle +2500
- Jeff Gordon +1000
- Jimmie Johnson +350
- Juan Pablo Montoya +2500
- Kevin Harvick +450
- Kurt Busch +1500
- Kyle Busch +300
- Mark Martin +3000
- Matt Kenseth +1500
- Ryan Newman +3000
- Tony Stewart +1200
- Field (Any Other Driver) +8000
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Tony Stewart has no one to blame but himself if he is not able to move into the top dozen in Sprint Cup points this week. The former Sprint Cup champion is sitting in 13th place, one point behind Mark Martin, and he is listed at +1200 in the NASCAR odds to win the Cup. He is also the competitor in Sunday’s race who has the highest Driver Rating out of anyone at Texas. Stewart’s 104.5 out-distances Matt Kenseth’s 101.9, and comes as a result of some very strong showings. Stewart’s won only once in Texas (2006), but he has had ten top ten finishes in 18 races there, and he won last year’s pole (even though he got into an accident and came 32nd).
Speaking of Kenseth, the Wisconsin-based driver, who is ninth in the standings and +1500 in the NASCAR odds, has an absolutely outstanding resume at Texas. Kenseth won there in 2002, coming from a qualifying spot of 31, which is the farthest back any winner has started. But in the last ten races there, not only has he been in the top ten eight times, he has finished as the runner-up FOUR times. So you are looking at someone who is unquestionably one of the people to beat. Kenseth has been on something of a roll, finishing fourth in the Jeff Byrd 500 and the Auto Club 400, and sixth in the Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500.
Carl Edwards lost his Cup points lead to Kyle Busch after Martinsville, though he is still in second place and one of the favorites to win the Cup at +450 in the NASCAR odds. In the last three races at Texas Motor Speedway, he’s finished 39th, 33rd and 19th (in the first two, he had accidents), and I guess you could say that is a dry spell at this venue, considering the three wins he’s had there in the past, including a sweep of the two races in 2008. In six races this year, Edwards has already won the pole twice, and while that resulted in a second-place finish in the Jeff Byrd 500, he was just 28th in Phoenix. At Texas, Edwards started in 2nd position and won the race in the spring of 2008, but last fall, he could only manage 19th after qualifying third. He’s got the most Cup wins of anyone at this track, followed by Denny Hamlin (+1000 in NASCAR odds) and Jeff Burton (+8000) with two apiece.
The 75th edition of the Masters gets underway on Thursday with defending champion Phil Mickelson the 5-1 favorite at 
