Gentlemen, Start your Betting!

That roar you hear coming from Florida's Atlantic Coast is the boys of NASCAR gearing up to open the 2011 Sprint Cup season with the 53rd running of the Daytona 500 Sunday at Daytona International Speedway (1:30 pm Eastern, Fox).

As we recall last season ended with the same season champion as the previous four, as Jimmie Johnson continued his unprecedented run through NASCAR history.

Last February Jamie McMurray, as a +4,000 longshot at oddsmaker.ag, won the Daytona 500. Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished second, Greg Biffle third, Clint Bowyer fourth, and David Reutimann fifth.

In winning the 500 last year McMurray became the ninth different driver to win the last nine Daytona 500s.

Over the last 10 races at DIS Kevin Harvick, the 500 winner four years ago, owns the best average finish at 12.0. Matt Kenseth, who won the 500 two years ago, is second at 12.6; Bowyer is third at 12.8; Kurt Busch is fourth at 13.6; and Kasey Kahne is fifth at 14.2.

Earnhardt Jr. won the pole for Sunday's race in qualifying last weekend, but crashed during practice Wednesday and will now start the 500 at the back of the pack with his backup car. So as of Thursday morning the front row will consist of three-time 500 winner Jeff Gordon and 19-year-old Sprint Cup rookie Trevor Bayne.

As of Thursday morning Johnson is the favorite on oddsmaker.ag's Daytona 500 betting board at +300. Harvick is the second choice at +600, followed by Gordon and Kyle Busch at +800; Tony Stewart at +1,000; Earnhardt Jr., McMurray, and Denny Hamlin at +1,200; Bowyer, Kurt Busch, Jeff Burton and Carl Edwards at +1,500; Joey Logano and Juan Pablo Montoya at +2,000; Kenseth, Biffle and Ryan Newman at +2,500; Kahne, Reutimann, Brian Vickers and Mark Martin at +3,000; AJ Allmendinger, Martin Truex Jr., and Brad Keselowski at +4,000; David Ragan at +5,000; Paul Menard at +6,000; Bobby Labonte at +7,500; Marcos Ambrose and Regan Smith at +10,000; and �The Field,� consisting of the other 15 drivers not listed above, is being offered at +2,500.

Oddsmaker is also offering odds on who will win Thursday's Gatorade Duels (2 pm Eastern, Speed), which will decide the rest of Sunday's starting lineup. Johnson, Earnhardt Jr., and Harvick are tri-favorites to win Duel 1 at +300, while Kyle Busch is favored to win Duel 2 at +300.

And oddsmaker.ag is in the process of updating its 2011 Sprint Cup championship betting board, which should be back up and open for action sometime soon. So racing bettors have plenty to choose from as this NASCAR season gets started.