Sports Time Radio

We are nine races into the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup series and so far we’ve had nine different race winners. This week the series moves to Talladega Super Speedway for race #10. Will we have our tenth different winner of the season? Or will one of the drivers who’ve already won a race this season find a way to get their second win of the year?

Don’t forget that winning a race gets you an automatic spot in the playoffs as long as you can stay in the Top 20 in points and so far I believe that all nine race winners are inside that Top 20. With 19 races left before the playoffs even start you have to wonder how many different race winners we might see this season. Is it possible that everyone who qualifies for the playoffs has won a race this season?

The last time a driver won 10 races in a season was in 2007 when Jimmie Johnson accomplished the feat driving the #48 car. Carl Edwards came close the next season as he won 9 races in 2008. Right now it doesn’t look like we have a driver that’s going to dominant and win a large number of races, but with 19 left to go it is possible that someone gets on a roll.

To be honest I can of like not seeing one guy go out and win every week. It actually makes it more fun for me to watch a race when it seems like almost anybody can get their car into victory lane. With Talladega being a plate race and in general with plate races there is one big wreck or two that eliminates a bunch of cars this race could easily be won by someone you’re not expecting to win.

Right now it appears that Denny Hamlin is the odds on favorite to pick up the win on Sunday. While Hamlin has yet to find his way to victory lane this season he has been the most consistent driver with 8 Top 5’s in the 9 races this season. Hamlin is current points leader on the season as well.

If you’re not interested in betting on the favorite Joey Logano has the second best odds to win followed by Ryan Blaney while Chase Elliot and Bard Keslowski are tied for the fourth best odds to win. If you’re looking for a sleeper type of bet then a driver like Ryan Newman might be your pick. Newman is one of the drivers with the most experience in plate racing and might be able to stay out of the “big one” and be around for the end of the race. Don’t don’t forget that Michael McDowell won the first plate race of the season at Daytona. If you think McDowell has a shot at picking up another win at a plate race on Sunday you can get really good odds on him.

These plate races are probably the toughest to predict when it comes to NASCAR. Now there are always accidents in a NASCAR race, but rarely do they take out multiple cars like they do when they’re plate racing. That really opens up the field and gives any driver the chance to win the race as long as he can keep his car out of trouble.

While you’re considering your pick; here’s how they’re going to start on Sunday. Denny Hamlin is on the pole with Joey Logano 2nd, Martin Truex Jr. 3rd, William Byron 4th and last week’s winner Alex Bowman 5th. Christopher Bell will start 6th with Ryan Blaney 7th, Chase Elliot 8th, Kyle Busch 9th and Brad Keslowski round out the Top 10 as he’ll start 10th.

Can you of those drivers stay up front all race and win? Or do you have someone else in mind as the winner of the race tomorrow? Let me know who you think is going to win at Talladega tomorrow.

In case you don’t remember the NHL is playing a shortened season and that season is winding down rather quickly. Just this week the Colorado Avalanche and the Las Vegas Golden Knights became the first two teams to officially clinch playoff spots while the New Jersey Devils and the Buffalo Sabres and the Columbus Blue Jackets where the first three teams officially eliminated from the playoffs.

The Golden Knights currently have the most points in the NHL with 68 while the Avalanche have the 3rd most points in the league with 66. The team in between them right now is the Carolina Hurricanes with 67. The Hurricanes haven’t yet clinched their playoff spot, but that should happen for them soon.

There are some tight races to see who might grab what playoff spot in each division and remember in the NHL lower seeded teams have beaten higher seeded teams on multiple occasions; so who gets into the playoffs could be very important.

The Nashville Predators are trying to hang onto the final playoff spot in the Central division while the East division is still wide open and it looks like there are five or maybe even six teams battling to get into the playoffs in that division. The Montreal Canadiens are holding onto the final playoff spot in the North division and they currently have a solid six point lead over the Calgary Flames. With two spots already locked up in the West division and the Minnesota Wild doesn’t look like they’re far off from locking up a third playoff spot out of that division. That means there’s just one playoff spot in that division to be decided between Arizona Coyotes, St. Louis Blues, San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings. Arizona currently has the final playoff spot, but they’re just one point ahead of the Blues. While the Sharks find themselves four points out of that final playoffs spot and the Kings are five points out of that last spot. This should make for some interesting games down the stretch.

Don’t forget to check out the Sports Time Radio podcast. The podcast airs live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but is also available to listen to on TuneIn.com.

I’m also on Twitter @Burketime if you want to look me up.