News that Tony Stewart is leaving Joe Gibbs Racing for 50 percent ownership in Stewart-Haas Racing might take the bite out of the bad luck that has been dogging Smoke all season with a return to Chicagoland Speedway on Saturday night, where Joliet Smoke is the defending two-time champion.

This will be the first time Sprint Cup will race under the lights at Chicagoland so look for some exciting side-by-side racing at the 1.5-mile intermediate D-oval. Featuring 18 degree banked turns and a 5-degree backstretch, Chicagoland should be an exciting race with many lead changes and a fight to the finish. If you are going, your seats in the grandstand could be 15 stories high, the same height as the Navy Pier Ferris Wheel.

Who will win the Lifelock.com 400?

Gamblers should be aware that Chevrolet has won the past four races and six of the last seven at Chicagoland. In that same time period defending champion Tony Stewart has won twice and so has Kevin Harvick while Gordon won in 2006 and Dale Jr. won in 2005.

Last week we rode shotgun with Kyle Busch at 5/1 and thanks to Matt Kenseth (depends upon your point of view) crashing race leader Jeff Gordon, Busch exacted his revenge from last year and found himself in victory lane for the sixth time this season. And who is to stop "Wild-thing" from winning again this weekend? Oddsmakers still like Busch to win since he has been set as the 5/1 favorite once again.

The bad news for Busch, if there is any, is that this season he has not won back-to-back races and he has only won twice the week after a win. That is not to say he won't win this week, but he is better at other venues. Of the three years he has raced at Chicagoland his best result was third place. Last year he finished 13th place and has an average finish of 10 at Chicagoland.

Ordinarily I'd pick Smoke to win this race but two factors are weighing heavily against this; the deal to own 50 percent of Stewart-Haas Racing next year and his really, really bad luck this year. I figure Smoke to finish the year healthy as he is already obviously looking ahead to next year.

The driver I am focusing my investment on this Saturday won USG Sheetrock 400 at Chicagoland in 2005. In 2006 he finished in fifth-place and last year finished 19th place after qualifying fifth on the grid. After last week's eighth place finish moved him to second place 182 points behind Kyle Busch, the Hendrick Motorsports representative has been their best driver this year. And the last race he won was the Lifelock 400 a few months ago.

To NASCAR fans having Busch at No.1 and Junior at No. 2 is like the battle between good and evil itself. This week I like good to beat evil.

Pick! Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 88, (8/1)

LifeLock.com 400 Solid Gold Picks

Sportsbook.com has listed many matchups on the Lifelock.com 400 this weekend. Last weekend we had a momentum play and backed Kurt Busch at -1.40 to finish the Coke Zero 400 in front of Clint Bowyer. Busch had another solid finish at Daytona as the No.2 car finished fourth and picked up 160 points chasing his brother while Bowyer ended the race in ninth place which was good enough for 138 points in the Sprint Cup. The win brings my record Over-the-Wall to 11-11 with -1.20 units on the season after 18 of 36 Sprint Cup races have been completed.

Long Odds Value Pick

I was quite surprised to see Kevin Harvick with double-digit odds in a race he could very well win. He has had as much success as any other driver at Chicagoland and has a good record on intermediate tracks. One thing that makes Harvick a choice for me on Saturday night is his average finish of eighth place; this includes two wins, four top-fives and five top-10 finishes. On intermediate tracks Harvick generally is a top driver with seven wins, 29 top-five finishes and 64 top-10 finishes. Harvick is on the bubble in the standings at 13th place 543 points behind Kyle Busch in Sprint Cup. While he has yet to win a race this year Chicagoland is a great place for him to make a run at the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Pick! Kevin Harvick, No. 29, 15/1

Square Tire Pick

Kurt Busch (+1.20) vs. Mark Martin (-1.50)

The "Old Man" will race for ailing Hendrick Motorsports next season replacing the No. 5 driver Casey Mears. While this is exciting for Martin he'll still have to finish out the year for DEI in the No. 8 National Guard Chevrolet. Chicagoland has not been Martin's best track. He's never won here, let alone start a race from the pole. In the past five years he has never finished better than 14th place and only back in 2002 when the race was called the Tropicana 400 did Martin finish in the top 10; he finished in ninth place and in 2001 had his best finish at sixth place. Martin has an average finish of 13.7. The other Busch, older brother Kurt, has experienced a renaissance the past two races for Penske racing as he won two weeks ago and finished fourth at Daytona last week. Busch is currently in 17th place in the Sprint Cup standings and needs to continue racing well to have a shot at the Chase. While Busch has an average finish of 15.7 place at Chicagoland this stat is reflective of two awful races in 2003 and 2004 where he finished 39th and 35th respectively. Other than that Busch has raced really well and commanded five top-10 finishes. In the past three years he has finished sixth, eighth and eighth which is why I am backing the older Busch against the Old Man on Saturday Night.

Pick! Kurt Busch, No.2 , (+1.20)

LifeLock.com 400 Odds
Sat, July 12th (8:00pm EST)
Chicagoland Speedway, IL

AJ Allmendinger 100/1
Bill Elliott 150/1
Bobby Labonte 100/1
Brian Vickers 20/1
Carl Edwards 11/2
Casey Mears 50/1
Clint Bowyer 25/1
Dale Earnhardt Jr. 8/1
Dave Blaney 100/1
David Gilliland 100/1
David Ragan 33/1
David Reutimann 100/1
Denny Hamlin 12/1
Elliott Sadler 60/1
Greg Biffle 9/1
J.J. Yeley 125/1
Jamie McMurray 50/1
Jason Leffler 150/1
Jeff Burton 25/1
Jeff Gordon 14/1
Jimmie Johnson 7/1
Joe Nemechek 100/1
Johnny Sauter 100/1
Juan Pablo Montoya 80/1
Kasey Kahne 10/1
Kevin Harvick 15/1
Kurt Busch 28/1
Kyle Busch 5/1
Mark Martin 30/1
Martin Truex Jr. 30/1
Matt Kenseth 15/2
Michael McDowell 150/1
Michael Waltrip 100/1
Patrick Carpentier 100/1
Paul Menard 100/1
Reed Sorenson 100/1
Regan Smith 100/1
Robby Gordon 100/1
Ryan Newman 40/1
Sam Hornish Jr. 100/1
Scott Riggs 125/1
Terry Labonte 100/1
Tony Raines 125/1
Tony Stewart 8/1
Travis Kvapil 100/1

*Odds courtesy of Bodog.