The NASCAR Spring Cup Series begins this weekend with the Daytona 500 on Sunday. While Kevin Harvick leads the odds for the Daytona 500, Jimmie Johnson leads the odds for the man to back long term.

Johnson heads the Drivers Championship odds, mainly because he is a five-time defending series champion. He has really dominated motor racing over the past half decade. 2010 was close but he still came out on top. He hasn’t finished outside the top five of the point standings since he started fully racing in 2002.

Denny Hamlin is second in the odds. He was leading the series before the final race of 2010 but lost to Johnson by 39 points. He has improved each season, finishing eighth in 2008, fifth in 2009 and second last year. He led the series with eight wins in 2010. If he can finish higher more consistently in the races he doesn’t win, this could be his year.

Carl Edwards is next in the odds after finishing fourth in the point standings. He was also a runner up in 2008. He only had two wins last year but consecutively finished near the top. He had nine top five finishes in 2010.

Harvick is next after finishing third in the standings, 41 points short of first. He had only three wins but led the series with 26 top 10 finishes. He is difficult to back because of the two-year winless streak he had before last season. He best season was 2006 where he had just four wins. His average finish of 8.7 was a big improvement of his average of 20 from the previous two seasons. Maybe a new sponsor in Budweiser can give him the kick-start he needs.

The best outside bet is Tony Stewart, the last man to win the Sprint Cup championship besides Johnson. He is a two-time champion but hasn’t finish in the top five since 2005. He has never gone a full season without a win but only has seven wins over the last three years.

NASCAR changed its point system this year, cutting down the total number of points earned in each race and putting an emphasis on winning. The maximum is now 48. Forty-three drivers will run in each race and the winner receives 43 points, second gets 42, third 41, and so on until last gets one point. The winner also receives three bonus points. One bonus point is given to each driver that leads at least one lap in the race and to the driver that leads the most laps in the race. So, the winner earns at least 47 points total.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Winner (odds provided by Party Bets)

Jimmie Johnson: 5/2

Denny Hamlin: 6/1

Carl Edwards: 8/1

Kevin Harvick: 9/1

Kyle Busch: 9/1

Jeff Gordon: 10/1

Tony Stewart: 12/1

Greg Biffle: 15/1

Matt Kenseth: 16/1

Clint Bowyer: 20/1

Kurt Busch: 20/1

Mike Martin: 25/1

Jamie McMurray: 28/1

Jeff Burton: 33/1

Joey Logano: 33/1

Kasey Kahne: 40/1

Juan Pablo Montoya: 50/1

Marcos Ambrose: 50/1

David Reutimann: 50/1

Ryan Newman: 50/1