Samsung 500- Rainy Friday

So much for qualifying.race from the pole) finished "just" 12th, his worst
Inclement weather and some mixed messages fromfinish so far in a very good year. Will these drivers be
NASCAR led to delay after delay in Friday's qualifyingthe story once again on Sunday? Read on.
session at Texas Motor Speedway, until finally theTwo weeks ago: A very nice week at Martinsville,
track ran out of light, and qualifying was officiallywhere our pick of Johnson to win at +750 odds,
considered defunct. As a result, we get little idea ofcombined with our head-to-head selection of J.J. over
who's got a fast li'l rocket ship for SundayKyle Busch, led to profit galore. On 1.5 units wagered,
afternoon's race; the cars will roll off in the order ofwe netted 1.92 units, a return of 128%; for the
the points standings.season, on nine units wagered, we've netted a
But we do have a not-so-secret weapon picking thispositive 3.37 units, for a return of 37.4%. (And note
race: the venue. Texas is an awful lot like Atlanta,that if you'd eschewed the conservative unit
where the Smokeless Set ran just a few weeks ago.strategy I advise below, and simply placed one unit
Jimmie Johnson won that race (as he always seemson every wager I've recommended, you'd be up a
to do), and Tony Stewart was coming hard and fastnet 20.67 units on 24 units wagered, for an 86.1%
at event's end. Juan Pablo Montoya posted areturn. It's riskier on a week-to-week basis, though.)
Nextel-Cup-career-best fifth-place finish in that event,Let's keep it going.
and the points leader, Jeff Gordon, (who'll begin this