Seven races remain until the Chase for the Sprint Cup is set and that puts a premium on points for drivers on the bubble as NASCAR heads to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Brickyard 400 on Sunday, July 31 at 1:15 p.m. The race will be televised by ESPN and chances are that Pastor Joe Nelms won’t be asked to give another memorable invocation before the Brickyard 400.

Auto sports investors looking for an edge at the Brickyard this Sunday should note that in the 17 Sprint Cup races at IMS there have been 10 different winners. Jeff Gordon leads all active drivers with four wins, Jimmie Johnson has three wins and Tony Stewart has won twice. Nine of the last 17 races have been won from the Top-5 starting position, including last year when Jamie McMurray won from the four hole. There are only three active drivers that average Top-10 finishes at IMS: Stewart (8.2), Jeff Gordon (9.4), and Kevin Harvick (9.9). Finally, three of the last five races at IMS have been so close they ended under the green flag and had a winning margin of less than one second.  Johnson has notched three wins in the last five races at IMS.

NASCAR Picks: Who will win the Brickyard 400?

McMurray is the unlikely defending champion of the Brickyard 400. It was McMurray’s second win of 2010, but it’s significant because he is only the third driver in Sprint Cup history to win both the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 in the same year. Only Dale Jarrett (1996) and Jimmie Johnson (2006) have accomplished this feat.

Meanwhile, Carl Edwards managed to return to first place and Johnson moved up three spots into second place and is now seven points behind Edwards.  Kyle Busch dropped four spots to fifth place and Harvick dropped to fourth place. Kurt Bush is in third place and he moved up one spot after New Hampshire.

This week features the first week of ESPN’s much ballyhooed stock car broadcast, but it is not only the drivers that will battle each other, but the actual race track that has been fighting declining attendance in recent years. The first-ever Sprint Cup race at the Brickyard was sold out. Last year’s attendance was 140,000, down from the 180,000 fans from the previous year, a precipitous decline of 40,000 fans. It’s estimated that there will be 100,000 empty seats on Sunday. If the attendance slide continues can NASCAR afford to keep running races at IMS? IMS is one of the most boring races to watch on the Sprint Cup circuit despite the historic track, which is one of the main reasons fans have been staying away.

Jeff Gordon has dominated flat-track racing this year, and he has already notched a win at another flat track at Pocono. Gordon has a ton of experience at IMS and is only one of four active drivers to race at every one of the 17 stock car races at IMS. As I mentioned earlier in this column, Gordon also has four wins at IMS and is only one of three drivers to have a Top-10 average finish at IMS, which makes him my boogity, boogity, boogity A-men pick to kiss the bricks this Sunday.

Pick! Jeff Gordon, No. 24, (+1000)
 
Brickyard 400 - Lucky Dog Special 

Juan Pablo Montoya should have won the last two Brickyard 400s, but unfortunately he lost both races on pit road. JPM returns to IMS determined not to let his pit crew cost him another race. The ex-open wheel racer loves escaping the confines of the cookie-cutter tracks for the super-speedway of IMS. JPM is currently in 17th place in the standings, but he has not recorded a Top-10 finish this year, so changes were made and JPM will start IMS with a new crew chief and hopefully for JPM pit road won’t be his Waterloo.

Pick! Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 42, (+700)

Brickyard 400 - Finish in the Top-Three

Thanks to a string of finishes outside of the Top-10, Tony Stewart finds himself facing the very real possibility of missing the Chase for Stewart-Haas Racing. Stewart is currently seven points out of the Top 10 and tied with Denny Hamlin with 570 points, 82 points behind the leader. Despite finishing second place last time out, Stewart didn’t move in the Sprint Cup standings during the off week. Two weeks ago at New Hampshire Stewart-Haas Racing dominated the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 as Ryan Newman won from the pole and Stewart finished second. The finish solidified Stewart’s tenuous hold on 11th place and moved Newman up one spot to eighth in the Sprint Cup standings.  In fact, now that it is the middle of summer it’s time that Stewart finds his groove. When it comes to IMS few drivers are better than “Smoke,” who has two wins a IMS under his belt, and it wouldn’t be too surprising to see him win his third on Sunday.

Pick! Tony Stewart, No. 14, (+180)

Odds to finish Top-Three – Brickyard 400
Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IN
           
AJ Allmendinger +2000
Brad Keselowski +1000
Brian Vickers +1500
Carl Edwards +175
Clint Bowyer +800
Dale Earnhardt Jr +750
David Ragan +1500
David Reutimann +1800
Denny Hamlin +300
Greg Biffle +400
Jamie McMurray +1800
Jeff Burton +1800
Jeff Gordon +300
Jimmie Johnson +180
Joey Logano +1000
Juan Pablo Montoya +300
Kasey Kahne +800
Kevin Harvick +300
Kurt Busch +300
Kyle Busch +250
Marcos Ambrose +3000
Mark Martin +1200
Martin Truex Jr +1500
Matt Kenseth +300
Paul Menard +2000
Regan Smith +2500
Ryan Newman +1000
Tony Stewart +300
Trevor Bayne +3000
Field (Any Other Driver) +2800
           
Odds to win – Brickyard 400
Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IN

AJ Allmendinger +7500
Brad Keselowski +3500
Brian Vickers +6000
Carl Edwards +600
Clint Bowyer +3000
Dale Earnhardt Jr +2500
David Ragan +5000
David Reutimann +6000
Denny Hamlin +1200
Greg Biffle +1500
Jamie McMurray +6000
Jeff Burton +6000
Jeff Gordon +1000
Jimmie Johnson +600
Joey Logano +3500
Juan Pablo Montoya +700
Kasey Kahne +3000
Kevin Harvick +1000
Kurt Busch +1000
Kyle Busch +800
Marcos Ambrose +10000
Mark Martin +4000
Martin Truex Jr +5000
Matt Kenseth +1000
Paul Menard +7500
Regan Smith +10000
Ryan Newman +3500
Tony Stewart +1000
Trevor Bayne +10000
Field (Any Other Driver) +7000