Three races remain in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Jeff Gordon profited off the red-hot Joey Logano’s crash, as he was the first to punch his ticket for the final four at Homestead with a big win at Martinsville. Logano will be one of the favorites to resume his winning ways at the Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday.
Read on for our preview of the favorites, sleepers and long shot for the AAA Texas 500. Also, don’t forget to check out our preview of the NFL’s big Sunday night showdown between the Eagles and Cowboys here.
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AAA Texas 500 Preview
Where: Texas Motor Speedway, Fort Worth
When: Sunday, November 8, 2:30 PM ET
TV Broadcast: NBC
Favorites
Kevin Harvick
[sc:Other240banner ]Apart from an impressive two-race run at Dover and Charlotte, Kevin Harvick has been pretty underwhelming for the most part during the Chase. The defending champion finished eighth in Martinsville, which is an improvement from his 16th– and 15th-place finishes in the previous two races.
However, this was the race when Harvick came on strong last year. Harvick finished second at Fort Worth, and went on to win the next two races en route to the Sprint Cup title.
Harvick has never won in 25 career races at the Texas Motor Speedway, but he has been a constant contender. He’s finished in the top-5 five times, and has finished in the top 10 in half his starts. He’s priced at +400 to finally end that winless drought this weekend.
Joey Logano
Joey Logano’s three-race winning streak finally came to an end at Martinsville care of Matt Kenseth, who intentionally crashed Logano’s car. Logano was well on course for his fourth-consecutive win – he started on pole, and had led for 207 laps – before crashing out.
However, Logano is priced at +450 to get his winning run back on track at Texas Motor Speedway, where he has had a lot of success in recent years. Logano has finished in the top-5 in four of his last five races in Fort Worth.
Jimmie Johnson
Jimmie Johnson has been pretty disappointing during the Chase. He has just one top-5 finish in seven races, and has gone 18th and 12th in his last two races. But if there’s one track to snap Johnson from his recent funk, it’s Texas Motor Speedway.
Johnson owns the most ever race wins at the track with five, which include the last three editions of the AAA Texas 500 and the Duck Commander 500 earlier this year. At +500, Johnson is good value to make it four consecutive AAA Texas 500 wins.
Despite getting eliminated in the Contender Round, no one has had a better Chase than Denny Hamlin. Hamlin has a very impressive five top-5 finishes in seven races thus far, including a third-place finish last time out at Martinsville. Don’t sleep on Hamlin, who’s +1,500 to turn one of those very good performances into a win at Fort Worth. Hamlin has two career wins at Texas Motor Speedway, and five top-5 finishes.
Kasey Kahne
Kasey Kahne has long been eliminated from the Sprint Cup title, but he’s still churning out decent results. He finished fourth in Kansas and ninth most recently in Martinsville. Kahne, has a win at Fort Worth to his name, although it was nine years ago. However, he’s also finished in the top-5 four other times in 22 career races at the track, which makes Kahne at +2,000 a good bet to turn back the clock.
Long Shot
Tony Stewart
It’s been a wildly disappointing season for Tony Stewart, who had finished 25th or worse in five of his last six races. However, he got his third top-10 finish of the season at Martinsville, which means he’s got some life left in him.
Stewart’s a major long shot at +10,000 to grab the checkered flag, but he’s worth that flyer since he’ll be racing at the Texas Motor Speedway. Stewart owns a couple of wins at Fort Worth (the latest one coming in 2011) with four other top-5 finishes.
Writer’s Prediction
Jimmie Johnson (+600) ends the season strong with another win at Fort Worth.
