This week we’re off to beautiful sunny California for the Labor Day weekend Sunday night Sprint Cup race. As much as I love having a race close to my home in Las Vegas, I’m still not happy with this race being in California at Darlington’s expense. The Southern 500 was an institution and something sacred on the annual NASCAR schedule. Without getting into the politics of why and how the dates moved, let’s just say money had a big part in the switch.

The irony of the whole move is that California Speedway and its parent company, International Speedway Corp., finally realized the mistake of putting the Labor Day race in California. ISC made a deal with bitter competitor Speedway Motorsports Inc. to switch dates giving Atlanta the Labor Day race beginning in 2009 and moving the California date to a cooler October date. Between folks vacationing elsewhere in California and the sweltering heat of Fontana in early September, the California facility never came close to selling out its 80,000, which is extremely small in capacity for NASCAR standards.

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Atlanta should be weary of dealings with ISC, who is owned by NASCAR, because of past dealings. Just before the announcement that “The Chase” would be a new format in deciding who won the Championship, ISC thought it would make a nice offer and trade their Miami race with Atlanta because it rained a lot in November. Atlanta figured the final race of the season didn’t matter much because the Championship was usually decided by then, so why not trade with Miami? Real subtle and coincidental NASCAR.

Even though the Atlanta race is no longer a chase race, the move should work out well from them just because they aren’t competing with College Football when it’s at its peak interest with their fans. Between Georgia and Georgia Tech in their own state, NASCAR becomes 2nd banana on the weekends. When you mix in all the travelers from Northern Florida, who are busy as well with their top programs, it seems that Labor Day weekend is a good date for Atlanta as far as getting the most people to the track. Still, Somehow, I think NASCAR has something up its sleeve. Time will only tell.

The last time we visited California Speedway, it was in week 2, just a week before the Vegas race. Carl Edwards won both of those races and showed that he doesn’t have many equals on this type of track, which some call cookie-cutters. California Speedway is a big 2 mile track that is relatively flat compared other larger tracks and because of his success and current run, Edwards is the clear cut favorite this week at 9 to 2.

Edwards is creeping up on Kyle Busch on wins and on points. They have combined to win 14 of the 24 races this season which is almost criminal. When you look at the drivers that haven’t won a race this season because of these two pigging everything, it really shows how great their season has been.

In this race, Edwards will be tough to beat. We just saw him win two weeks ago in Michigan, California’s sister track which is almost identical. He’s also got momentum going for him, which normally doesn’t account for much, but at this stage for them it just means they are dialed in. Edwards also has the pedigree of being a Jack Roush drivers going for him at California. Roush has won at California with just about every driver he has had. Mark Martin, Kurt Busch, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, and now Edwards have all won there.

The driver that could be added to that list this week is David Ragan who has value at 30 to 1. Should anything happen to the favorites like Edwards, Busch, or Jimmie Johnson, Ragan could be right there. He’ll have a car good enough to get a top 5, but beating those 3 will be a tough task. Jimmie Johnson won at California as a rookie in 2002 and has continued to have the best average finish there among all drivers with a 6.4 clip. Edwards is next followed Kenseth, Kyle Busch, and then Jeff Gordon. Gordon has 3 career wins there and would love to just get any win in 2008. Gordon’s quality finish last week let him breath a little easier as he tries to hold on to his 9th spot in standings with only 2 races to go in the Chase.

Without a doubt, Edwards is the best, but it can’t be that easy, can it? Let’s have some fuel mileage fun this week and get a guy a win for the first time this season. Matt Kenseth is likely to be a top 5 car all day, but he’ll need some kind of help to get in the winners circle. Because odds on the BIG 2 are so low, nice value can be found on the others. So let’s root for value and luck over quality and for an all around good guy in Matt Kenseth!

TOP 5 Finish Prediction:
1- #17 Matt Kenseth (12/1)
2- #16 Greg Biffle (12/1)
3-#99 Carl Edwards (9/2)
4- #48 Jimmie Johnson (6/1)
5- #18 Kyle Busch (5/1)

Micah Roberts is a Race and Sports Director for Station Casinos in Las Vegas , Nevada who covers motor sports from both a bettor and bookmaker's perspective.