After a grueling last couple of weeks at Daytona, NASCAR takes its show on the road to California. It won’t be just the Nextel Cup Series either. The Craftsman Truck Series and Busch Series will also be making the trip and will race on back to back to back days.



Just like last weeks race where there was a lot of data to go off of from pre-season testing, this weeks also has similar data. The Las Vegas test sessions a few weeks ago provided some valuable info about how the teams would set up and run on the cookie cutter tracks, or to be more tuned in, the down force tracks. Of those test sessions at Las Vegas, some news was discovered; Jack Roush cars are going to be very good......again.



At the two California races last year, Greg Biffle won and finished second. In the first race, Biffle paced the Roush gang who had four cars in the top-7 finish positions. It would not be a surprise at all to see them in almost the exact same position again this year. With of course the exception being Jamie McMurray now drives the Kurt Busch entry.

Jamie McMurray actually was doing quite well in a Ganassi Dodge at California. In the two races last year at California he had a fourth place finish and an eighth place finish. Now he has a better ride to go with what obviously is a track that he feels comfortable at. He should be considered at least the co-favorite to win the race with Greg Biffle.


Last week the Ford and Dodge entry was a minus-300 underdog to Chevy at Daytona. Of course the chalk gets there with Jimmie Johnson in his souped up legal Chevy. Well this week the odds are turned the other way with Ford being not quite as big a favorite as Chevy was last week, but more like a minus-160 favorite. Not only should Roush be good this week, but you also have to watch Yates with Elliott Sadler and Dale Jarrett.

Leading the resistance for Chevy is the three Hendrick cars of Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and last years fall race winner, Kyle Busch. Of the five Chevy cars that have won at California in its 11-race history, all were Hendrick cars....three by Gordon, one by Johnson, and then of course the Busch win last year.


When looking for other candidates from Chevy you could probably look in Tony Stewart’s direction, but it ends there. I wouldn’t expect the DEI entries to perform well with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Martin Truex Jr. These types of tracks gave DEI all sorts of problems last year. They would both be great bet against in matchups.


Do not expect to catch any big fish in this go a round because the favorites will most likely win. Last week at Daytona there really were some great possibilities with drivers that could pay off big, but not this week.


Your best bet may be to look for matchups this week and look for any matchup with a Roush driver against anyone other than a Roush driver. Odds to win prices will be short all over.