NASCAR brings it's ready for prime-time, back-flippin' road show under-the-lights for the first time this season to Phoenix International Raceway in Phoenix for the Subway Fresh Fit 500 on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. EST.

PIR is a one-mile tri-oval that sits at the foothills of the Estrella Mountains. The drivers that are successful at PIR are the ones who are best able to manage the track. Although it's an intermediate track it has the feel of a short track with very tight corners on one end, a dog-leg on the backstretch and grand sweeping turns on the other end of the track that makes finding a good line of paramount importance. The driver who can overcome these challenges successfully often ends up winning at this streaky track.

Who will win the Subway Fresh Fit 500?

It appears that Johnson has recovered from a horrible outing at Texas a few weeks ago. While it's tempting to say what's wrong with Johnson this year, it's easy to overlook the positive strides he has made over the season. He is still a legitimate threat to win when he races.

Keep in mind Johnson has won four poles this season if you count the Bud Shootout. The improvement has been obvious the last two races. Johnson started 10th two weeks ago at Martinsville and finished fourth and last week at Texas he started fifth and finished second place behind Carl Edwards. HMS Crew Chief Chad Knauss has made the right adjustments on the No. 48 car to bring Johnson back in the top 10 in the Sprint Cup standings.

Of Johnson's 33 career wins, 25 have come on intermediate tracks. Johnson is not only a winner but he has recorded an astounding 96 top 10 and 61 top five finishes on this type of track. At PIR Johnson has seven top 10s, four top fives and one win. Make that two.

Pick! Jimmie Johnson (6/1)

Subway Fresh Fit 500 Solid Gold Picks

I knew that Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was going to do well and perhaps even win at Martinsville two week's ago, but I did not expect him to win the pole. As things turned out the race could have been won, and almost was, by any driver of the Hendrick Motorsports stable. As Gordon (2nd place), Johnson (4th place), Earnhardt, Jr, (6th place), and Casey Mears (7th place) figured pack mentality was as good a strategy as any and ran bumper to bumper for the later part of the Goody's Cool Orange 500. This made it difficult for the rest of the field and for our purposes helped out in the end as Junior bested Edwards who finished in ninth place. Sportsbook.com has listed many matchups on the Subway Fresh Fit 500 but here are a few picks I like to cash under the lights on Saturday. Over the wall I am a blistering 3-0 in the last three weeks with my NASCAR match-ups bringing my record to positive territory at 6-5 as I fall just below the money mark down -.75 units on the season.

Long Odds Value Pick

Continuing our hex on drivers we pick for value and long odds our pick, Greg Biffle (20/1), finished in 39th place the Goody's Cool Orange 500. This week in Phoenix we are going to maintain our Richard Childress Racing thread and look at the third driver in the stable, Clint Bowyer. Bowyer has quietly had a very consistent year for RCR with four top 10 finishes and one top five which is good enough to put him in 11th place in the Sprint Cup standings. Moreover, in the past four races Bowyer has finished not higher than 10th place. Bowyer seems to do well when you least expect it and considering how well RCR drivers have done this year with the CoT. I wouldn't be surprised if Bowyer does well at PIR.

Pick! Clint Bowyer (16/1)

Square Tire Pick

Kevin Harvick (+1.10)/Jeff Gordon (-1.40)

Currently Harvick sits in the two-spot on the Sprint Cup leader board, a scant 59 points behind teammate Jeff Burton, while PIR defending champion Gordon, thanks to another DNF last Sunday at the Samsung 500, is in 14th place and 282 points behind first. Keep in mind, however, that while Harvick has more top 10 finishes this year than Gordon at four he has two top five finishes to Gordon's three. But you can throw stats out the window when they race under the lights on Saturday night. What makes this matchup a standard square tire play is name recognition (public will see Jeff Gordon as a medium favorite and toss good money after him). What I see is the four-time Cup champion's downward momentum. While it looked like he'd figured things out two week's ago when he finished second at Goody's last weekend's crash seems like it is becoming the norm for Gordon this year. Meanwhile, RCR's Harvick seems to be doing everything right this season. Harvick also swept races at PIR in 2006 while HMS drivers Gordon and Johnson split victories here last year.

Pick! Kevin Harvick (+1.10)

* Subway Fresh Fit 500 Odds
Sat, Apr 12th (8.30pm EST)
Phoenix International Raceway

Bill Elliott 150/1
Bobby Labonte 100/1
Brian Vickers 100/1
Carl Edwards 5/1
Casey Mears 50/1
Clint Bowyer 16/1
Dale Earnhardt Jr. 9/1
Dario Franchitti 200/1
Dave Blaney 150/1
David Gilliland 125/1
David Ragan 65/1
David Reutimann 100/1
Denny Hamlin 15/2
Elliott Sadler 100/1
Greg Biffle 14/1
J.J. Yeley 100/1
Jamie McMurray 50/1
Jeff Burton 16/1
Jeff Gordon 9/1
Jimmie Johnson 6/1
Joe Nemechek 200/1
John Andretti 200/1
Johnny Sauter 150/1
Juan Pablo Montoya 80/1
Kasey Kahne 30/1
Kevin Harvick 12/1
Kurt Busch 35/1
Kyle Busch 7/1
Kyle Petty 200/1
Mark Martin 50/1
Martin Truex Jr. 28/1
Matt Kenseth 9/1
Michael McDowell 200/1
Michael Waltrip 125/1
Mike Skinner 150/1
Patrick Carpentier 150/1
Paul Menard 100/1
Reed Sorenson 100/1
Regan Smith 150/1
Robby Gordon 125/1
Ryan Newman 30/1
Sam Hornish Jr. 100/1
Scott Riggs 100/1
Tony Stewart 8/1
Travis Kvapil 125/1

*Odds courtesy of Bodog.