Car racing betting: NASCAR, Subway Fresh 500, Phoenix International Raceway

Car racing betting: NASCAR, Subway Fresh 500

 This week's night race is one of two races this year at Phoenix International Raceway, one of the most celebrated and picturesque tracks on the circuit. Most of the year's racing so far has been on the uniform 1.5 mile tracks, which has allowed the heavyweight teams of Roush and Hendrick to dominate. Not surprisingly, their car's set-up is geared towards these similar tracks where the majority of the season's racing takes place. However, the uniqueness of PIR, while not excluding the top drivers, does at least give some of the smaller teams chance to compete this week. One of those teams is Childress, and two of their drivers, Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick, are both worth consideration at tasty odds. During his stint with Roush, Burton virtually owned Phoenix with back-to-back wins in 00 and 01 and, despite moving cars, has had respectable finishes in the last three races there. The fact that Childress used up one of their limited test dates in Phoenix last week, suggests that they believe his No. 31 car is close to winning. At 40/1 he's surely worth an interest, while his team-mate, Harvick, with a solid 4th place finish last year, also merits respect at 20/1. Last Sunday's pick, Jimmie Johnson, was 3rd to Greg Biffle, his seventh top-10 in as many starts this season, and the current points leader is our 13/8 favourite for the championship. Nigel's Checkered Flag: Jeff Burton @ 40/1, Kevin Harvick @ 20/1 (both each-way 1/5 1.2.3)

Event details:

  NASCAR Subway Fresh 500  Sa Apr 24 v 7:30 pm EST (FOX)/23:30 GMT

Online wagering at bet365.com.