NASCAR Betting Odds: Firestone 600, Canadian Grand Prix, Axalta 400

BetDSI.com has your NASCAR betting odds for this week’s Firestone 600, Axalta 400 and Canadian Grand Prix.

Penske Power

Juan Pablo Montoya has already won twice this season and he leads the IndyCar standings while Will Power has won once and is in second place. Helio Castroneves is in fifth place in the standings while Simon Pagenaud is in 9th. The four drivers have a combined 16 top five finishes this season.

"If you look at the front, it’s pretty stacked,’’ said Scott Dixon, "Roger (Penske) has gone out and found some heavy hitters.”

Montoya is leading Power by just 21 points heading into Saturday night’s race in Texas. All four drivers have been enjoying the competition this season. "It’s good,’’ said Power, “We’re learning off each other. It’s really created this atmosphere where we’re pushing each other so hard. That’s a bit of why we’re doing so well.’’

Juan Pablo Montoya

The IndyCar points leader has had a resurgence this season and is proving that veteran drivers still have a lot left. “Look at me and Helio and Montoya,” said Tony Kanaan, “Everybody says, ‘You’re too old.’ I’d say we’re still fast. We’re still right up there.” Montoya struggled with Chip Ganassi Racing in NASCAR but he has been very successful with Penske in IndyCar. He has three wins and eight top-three finishes in 26 starts with Penske. “We had a tough seven years in NASCAR,” Montoya said, “We had some success, but it was very inconsistent. To come back to IndyCar at this point and do what I’m doing now, it’s pretty cool.”

Race Notes

Texas has not always been dominated by big name drivers as Ed Carpenter won this race a year ago while Justin Wilson won in 2012. Helio Castroneves won this race two years ago while Will Power won it in 2011. The Firestone 600 is considered the second most popular oval track race on the IndyCar schedule.

Race Notes

Dale Earnhardt Jr. won both of the races at Pocono last season while Jimmie Johnson was the winner in this race in 2013. There have been 74 races in the top series in NASCAR held at Pocono with two races each year since 1982. Jeff Gordon has made 44 starts at the track and has the record for most wins with six. The pole sitter has won this race 15 times.

Top Contenders

Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson are co-favorites. Harvick has never won at Pocono in 28 starts but he did finish second last season. “Pocono is one of those places where I haven’t had a ton of success.” Harvick said, “I think right before they repaved it is when I started to figure the old Pocono out and we were starting to run better. Probably the best memory I have there is winning a (Camping World) Truck (Series) race, so that’s about the extent of it for me.”

Johnson has won three times at the track and has a 9.88 average finish. Jeff Gordon has won six times at the track with his last win in 2012. Denny Hamlin has been really good at Pocono in his career and he was good last week at Dover because getting into a wreck.

Bet on NASCAR at BetDSI

NASCAR Predictions

Jeff Gordon is way overdue to get a win and Pocono would be the perfect place so I will take him at odds of 8-1. I have no idea why Denny Hamlin is listed at double-digit odds as he should be one of the favorites so I will take him at odds of 12-1.

Canadian Grand Prix Odds

Lewis Hamilton -160

Nico Rosberg +150

Sebastian Vettel +800

Kimi Raikkonen +2000

Hamilton Ready to Make Amends

Two weeks ago it was looking like an easy win for Lewis Hamilton in Monaco when his team inexplicably decided to pit while Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel stayed out. The decision cost Hamilton the win as Rosberg got the victory. Hamilton said the team has put the race behind them. “I think everything that needs to be said about Monaco has already been said,” Hamilton said. “Obviously, it was a huge disappointment for me and also for the team. But we'll learn from it and move forwards together like we always do. I just want to get back out there and bounce back and I could hardly ask for a better place to do that than Montreal.” Hamilton won his first Formula 1 race in Canada in 2007 so he is very fond of the circuit. “This is always one of my favorite weekends. The racing is fantastic, the city is a lot of fun and the crowds are really enthusiastic.”

If Mercedes wasn’t dominating Formula One this season they would be facing a lot more heat about the bad decision two weeks ago but Hamilton is still leading the standings and Rosberg got the win. Mercedes will also be bringing new Power Units to Canada. “We will bring new Power Units to this event, the second units of 2015 for each driver," Mercedes Executive Director Paddy Lowe said, "Our first Power Units were used for six complete race weekends, an incredible achievement by the team at Brixworth that saw both achieve total mileages of over 4,000 km.”

Bet on Formula 1 at BetDSI

Race Notes

This race on Sunday will be the first of four in North America in 2015. It takes place at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve which is a high-speed track where passing is actually possible. Daniel Ricciardo won this race a year ago while Nico Rosberg finishing second. Sebastian Vettel won two years ago while Lewis Hamilton won in 2012.

Formula 1 Picks

I think Hamilton is a great bet to bounce back this week so I will lay the price and expect him to get the win on Sunday.

You can wager on the Canadian Grand Prix in your online sports betting book, and you should be able to find a full assortment of drivers, or betting options, in this case. Most of the drivers, if not all of them, will have a positive sign by their odds, and the formula is very straightforward. If you see a line such as +750, this means you could win $750 by wagering $100 on that driver, if they were to win the race, and that is how you calculate it up and down the line. On the other hand, if you do see a driver with a negative sign in front of their odds, for example, -175, this means that you could win $100 by wagering $175 on that driver, but they would have to win as well.

Daniel Ricciardo broke Mercedes' stranglehold on first place by beating pole winner Nico Rosberg to the checkered flag to win the first race of his Formula One career. Rosberg would have to settle for second while Ricciardo's teammate at Red Bull-Renault, Sebastian Vettel was third, followed by Jenson Button and Nico Hulkenberg. Felipe Massa ran the fastest lap, but he could only finish 12th, while Lewis Hamilton had problems with his brakes and had to retire after 46 laps.

Hamilton has won this race three times and is the only active drivers with multiple wins here, and he joins Nelson Piquet with a trio of wins, but put those men together and they still do not have as many wins as Michael Schumacher, who won this race seven times between 1994 and 2004.