NASCAR takes residence in North Carolina at the 1.5-mile Lowes Motor Speedway for the next two weeks as they put on All-Star weekend featuring the $1 million purse for the Sprint All-Star Race this Saturday Night at 7 p.m. and the Coca-Cola 600 next weekend.

And while the results of the 100-lap race do not count toward the official Sprint Cup standings the $1 million dollar purse is very real and the second largest single race pay out in NASCAR so you can expect to get a lot of throttle to the floor speed racers for this stop-and-start race.

Who will win the Sprint All-Star Race?

If you are unfamiliar with the Sprint All-Star Race format the first thing you should know is that it's about 400 laps less than a regular NASCAR race and is done in four 25-lap segments. In the first segment there is a five-lap caution for the last five laps with optional pit stops.

In segment two the green flag drops and the cars are off for 25 more laps after which there is a 10-minute break where pit crews can make adjustments to the cars and the cars will be frozen and maintain track position for the next segment. The third 25 laps begin with the green flag and feature a caution flag for minimum stop-n-go pits. The fourth and final segment of the All-Star Race begins with cars resuming in the order in which they pitted and only green flag laps count with the winner pocketing a cool million for the effort.

It'd be easy for me to say that this driver owes me from two weeks ago, but for the same reasons I liked Denny Hamlin then I like him now. His No. 11 Toyota is one of the best cars on the circuit (next to Kyle Busch), and he'll need to run pretty much a similar type of race as he did at the Dan Lowry 400; except this time the race is much shorter which can give him plenty of opportunity to keep the lead if he breaks out of the grid early.

Pick! Denny Hamlin (9/1)

Sprint All-Star Race Solid Gold Picks

Sportsbook.com has listed many matchups on the Sprint All-Star exhibition race this weekend. Last week, I won one unit on my Square Tire Pick, backing even money Jeff Burton over favorite Greg Biffle--who won the pole and led for 95 laps at Darlington. While it looked like Biffle had the best car on the track for a majority of the evening, a blown right front tire ended his bid to win the Dodge Challenger 500 and Biffle earned a DNF while Burton finished the race in 10th place. This brings my record over the wall to 7-8 with -2.80 units on the season as I have the lead lap in focus after 11 of 36 races on the Sprint Cup circuit.

Long Odds Value Pick

Handicapping the All-Star race is much different than handicapping regular Sprint Cup races due to its unique four-segment format. Since you can basically throw out all the regular season angles for this race due to the stop-and-start nature of the All-Star beast. Chevrolet's have been consistent this year and the old man, Mark Martin, in the No. 8 car has done well in the past at Lowes recording two wins, 12 top-five and 14 top-10 finishes with and average finish of 10.8. Martin came in third last year and I see him challenging for the win again this year.

Pick: Mark Martin (25/1)

Square Tire Pick

Carl Edwards (-1.25)/Jimmie Johnson (-1.05)

This year Johnson will try to win again at the track that he has dominated in the past. Last year Johnson chased Kevin Harvick in an exciting race but was unable to catch him the last 10 laps and finished second. However, at Lowes (who is also Johnson's sponsor) Johnson has been the dominator over the past several years. In fact, Johnson boasts one of the best average finishes at LMS with 6.8 and has won five times. "Concrete" Carl Edwards, meanwhile, has had a great start to the year with three wins out of 11 races and a seventh place in the Sprint Cup standings. Edwards has also done well at LMS, but nothing like the success of Johnson. Edwards has never won, but has posted three top-five and five top-10 finishes with an average finish of 7.3 at LMS. I believe that Edwards has been designated the favorite in this matchup due to his early success this year in Sprint Cup races and how competitive Rousch Fenway Racing's CoT Fords have been. But, I can't lay the wood against Johnson on his sponsor's home track. It's going to be a fun, short race, but in the end I see Johnson finishing ahead of Edwards.

Pick! Jimmie Johnson (-1.05)

*Sprint All-Star Race Odds
Lowe's Motor Speedway
Saturday, 17th May (7:30 p.m. EST)

Bobby Labonte 50/1
Carl Edwards 6/1
Casey Mears 30/1
Clint Bowyer 20/1
Dale Earnhardt Jr. 13/2
Dale Jarrett 80/1
Denny Hamlin 9/1
Greg Biffle 14/1
Jamie McMurray 40/1
Jeff Burton 20/1
Jeff Gordon 8/1
Jimmie Johnson 13/2
Juan Pablo Montoya 40/1
Kevin Harvick 16/1
Kurt Busch 28/1
Kyle Busch 6/1
Mark Martin 25/1
Martin Truex Jr. 20/1
Matt Kenseth 16/1
Ryan Newman 28/1
Tony Stewart 9/1
Field (Any Other Driver) 20/1

*Odds courtesy of Bodog