NASCAR Picks from Atlanta - This is Carl Edwards' Track

Betting NASCAR Online - Kobalt Tools 500 Selections

Online NASCAR betting heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday and that means exciting three-wide racing and eye-popping speeds. The 1.5-mile high-banked quad-oval in Hampton, GA makes it one of the fastest tracks on the circuit with speeds approaching 200 mph. If you bet on NASCAR, this race will have you on the edge of your seat and will undoubtedly fulfill your need for speed.

Though, it's not a track notorious first-time winners and I'm not expecting a huge payday from a dark horse, as the BetUS NASCAR odds gurus have clearly done their homework and have correctly placed the likely winner among the favorites. We might not break the bank with this race, however, there's three obvious selections towing enough sports betting value worth investing in.

Carl Edwards (+400), Jimmie Johnson (+500) and Jeff Gordon (+600) are the three strongest players in Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500, starting at 2:15pm EST. A case could also be made for Kyle Busch (+500), who won last week at Vegas from 43rd and is the defending champion of this weekend's race. However, I'm leaving Busch off my BetUS wagering ticket because outside of the 2008 victory at Atlanta, which makes for one of his only two top-five runs there, Rowdy has no other finishes inside the top-10s in nine career starts there.

With that said, the million dollar question becomes who to ride with—Edwards, Johnson or Gordon? Atlanta is Edwards' best track, where he has three victories, five top-five finishes and seven top-10s in just nine career starts. His wins came in a sweep of both 2005 races and in the fall race last season and the NASCAR wagering community is aware of Cousin Carl's intermediate track dominance. In 2008, five of his series-best nine wins came on 1.5-mile configurations. Therefore, I'm using Edwards as my winning selection.

The Hendrick duo of Johnson and Gordon have been too strong at Atlanta to throw out, so I'm making room on my ticket for one of them in the way of a Top 3 finish wager. I'm picking Gordon over Johnson primarily because the No. 24 is very close to ending a 44-race winless drought, but if he doesn't find Victory Lane at Atlanta, a second or third-place finish will cash at odds of +180.

We're all aware by now that 2008 was Gordon's first winless season since his rookie year in 1993, but the beginning of this campaign clearly indicates the team is much stronger than compared to this time last year. So far, Gordon won a 150 qualifying event in Daytona, ran a respectable 13th in the Daytona 500, finished a strong second in Fontana and salvaged a sixth-place run last week at Vegas with a damaged left front fender and a mental mistake made with 65 laps to go as he missed pit road. If it weren't for snake eyes rolled in Vegas, he was on his was at worst to a Top-3 finish in a car that was capable of winning.

His strong start has him atop the standings entering Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, which is race 4-of-36 on the Sprint Cup betting schedule. Edwards is the man to beat and Gordon is beyond due for a win. So my coins are on the intermediate track king and a driver who's hungry to end a winless drought that's already proven he's caught up with Hendricks' COT program.

Free NASCAR Picks: Carl Edwards +400 (Win) and Jeff Gordon +180 (Top 3)