NASCAR Betting 101
While NASCAR may not be a sport that you’re intimately familiar with, it’s actually one of the easier sports to make money on. In general, NASCAR lines aren’t as sharp as those in most spots. Unlike sports like football or basketball, relatively few people bet on NASCAR, which means that there are many more lines where the player can find an advantage.
Keys to Betting NASCAR
There are four keys to understand if you want to profit from NASCAR betting:
1. Types of Bets
2. Driver Averages
3. Practice Speeds
4. Qualifying Results
Types of Bets
There are two popular NASCAR bets that you should familiarize yourself with before you start betting on the sport. The most popular is the outright bet, which is a wager on who will win a given race. This is a fairly simple bet; you put money on a single driver, and if he wins, you get paid. For instance, if you bet on Jimmie Johnson to win a race at 8-1 odds, then you will win $8 for each $1 you bet should Johnson win the race.
The second important type of bet in NASCAR is the head-to-head driver matchup. This is essentially a bet on which of two drivers will finish higher in the upcoming race. Essentially, it turns the race into a match between two drivers which you can bet on just like making a money line bet in team sports. For instance, you might see a line of Jeff Gordon -120 vs. Carl Edwards +100. If you bet $120 on Gordon, you’d win $100 if he finished ahead of Edwards.
Now that you understand the two types of NASCAR bets, let’s look at a few things you’ll want to watch out for when deciding who to bet on.
Driver Averages
Driver averages can be found that will tell you a driver’s average finish over the course of the season, or their entire career, but what we’re interested in is their average finish on each individual track. Almost every NASCAR driver has some tracks that they do particularly well on, as well as a few they tend to struggle on. Many drivers have a preference for super speedways, while others do better on the mile-and-a-half tracks, and some are adept on the road courses. Along with recent results, you should definitely take a driver’s track record (no pun intended) into consideration before making any bets.
Practice Speeds
How a driver performs during the two or three practice sessions leading up to each week’s race is an excellent way to gauge how well a driver and his car are shaping up for the race. Of course, adjustments can be made between practice and race time, but if a driver is posting excellent times during the practice runs, it’s a good bet that he’s in line for a solid finish on race day.
Qualifying Results
Qualifying results are overrated as a method for handicapping NASCAR races, but they aren’t without value. The biggest issue is that some drivers (and cars) perform better in qualifying than on race day, while others do the opposite. However, there are definitely benefits to backing a driver that qualified well. If a driver starts near the front of the pack, they won’t have to navigate as much traffic to fight for the lead, and are less likely to be hurt by an accident in front of them.
By taking these factors into account, you should have a good idea of how to bet on NASCAR. In addition, if you want to be a successful NASCAR bettor, it’s important to watch as many races as possible; there’s information and insights that you simply can’t get without watching the races live that could come in handy later in the season.
Nascar is’nt like other sports in the way sportsbooks offer bets. Although most sportsbooks will have the same outright race options, the odds may be different but you’ll be able to bet on a driver to win the race. Where sportsbooks differ is in driver vs driver matchups most sportsbook will have different matchups and this is where 5Dimes sets itself apart from other books. They have by far the biggest selection of driver matchups plus other betting options you wont find at most sportsbooks like totals, group betting and a buch of prop type bets.
