Sprint Cup schedule restarts in Richmond

After a week off NASCAR's Sprint Cup circuit restarts its engines with the running of the Crown Royal 400 on Saturday night on the three-quarter mile oval at Richmond International Raceway (7:30 pm Eastern, Fox).

Two weeks ago Jimmie Johnson crossed the finish line a blink of an eye ahead of Clint Bowyer to win the Aaron's 499 at Talladega. Jeff Gordon took third, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. fourth, and Kevin Harvick fifth.

Johnson had started out early that week as a +1,500 choice on oddsmaker.ag's Aaron's 499 betting board, but by the time the green flag fell he'd been bet down to +800.

So through the first eight races of this Sprint Cup season Carl Edwards sits atop the standings, five points ahead of Johnson and 19 points ahead of Earnhardt. Harvick (-27), Kurt Busch (-28), Kyle Busch (-38), Ryan Newman (-42), Matt Kenseth (-43), Juan Montoya (-49) and Bowyer (-50) comprise the rest of the Top 10.

Last May Kyle Busch started on the pole, led 226 laps, passed Jeff Gordon on a late restart and won the Crown Royal 400 at Richmond. Gordon finished second, Harvick third, Jeff Burton fourth, and Edwards fifth.

Then last September Denny Hamlin led for 251 laps in winning the Air Guard 400 at Richmond. Kyle Busch, Johnson, Joey Logano and Marcos Ambrose rounded out the top five that day.

Over the course of the last 10 races at Richmond Kyle Busch, with two wins and six other top-5 placements, owns the best average finish at 5.5. Hamlin, with a couple of wins and three other top-5s, comes next at 8.0, followed by Harvick at 8.8 and Bowyer and Tony Stewart at 9.8.

As of Wednesday morning oddsmaker.ag has Johnson listed as the favorite on its Crown Royal 400 board at +300. Kyle Busch is the second betting choice at +400, followed by Hamlin at +600, Edwards, Gordon and Harvick at +800, Stewart at +1,000, Kurt Busch, Bowyer and Kenseth at +1,500, Dale Junior at +1,800, Greg Biffle at +2,000, Logano and Newman at +3,000, Burton, Kasey Kahne, Mark Martin and Montoya at +3,500, Jamie McMurray at +4,000, David Reutimann and Martin Truex, Jr. at +6,000, AJ Allmendinger, Paul Menard, David Ragan and Brian Vickers at +7,500, and Ambrose, Andy Lally, Regan Smith, Brad Keselowski, Bobby Labonte, David Gilliland, and �The Field� at +10,000.

Oddsmaker is also offering driver-vs.-driver matchup betting on Friday's Crown Royal 400 qualifying, and will be offering similar betting options on Saturday night's race. And racing bettors might want to peruse oddsmaker.ag's updated 2011 Sprint Cup championship board.