Jackpot for NASCAR contest skyrockets to $1,700
|
The bad news is no one has won the jackpot yet. On the flip side, that means the jackpot has become a handsome amount of cash. Should anyone successfully pick the top three drivers for this Sunday’s Pop Secret 400 at North Carolina Speedway, that person would receive $1,700.
“The entries have really been coming in these last few weeks,” said Standard general manager Sharon Patrick. “People see how much money is available so they figure why not take a chance?”
Mathematically speaking, that chance is a longshot. According to high school math teacher Linda King, the chances of picking the top three drivers – in exact order – from a 43-car starting lineup is 1 in 74,046.
The logic behind those odds is as follows: The odds of picking the winning car is 1 in 43; with the winner selected, the odds of picking the second-place finisher is 1 in 42; with first and second place picked, the odds of selecting the third-place car is 1 in 41. You would then multiply 43 by 42 by 41 to get the 1 in 74,046 odds.
“Your chances of winning are ? not so good,” said King. “It looks like your game is a little too hard.”
But King also said those are strictly mathematical odds. Realistically, the odds are much better if you consider recent racing results and drivers who have little or no chance of finishing in the top three.
Dave Blaney, Kyle Petty, Todd Bodine, Casey Atwood, Derrike Cope and Mike Wallace, for example, are drivers who seldom finish in the top 20. On the other hand, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Jarrett are drivers who frequently finish near the top.
“It skews the probability somewhat because you’re not really picking totally at random,” said King. “But even if you can narrow it down to 30 drivers, the odds are still 1 in 24,360. That’s still not too good.”
The odds of having an eventual winner, however, are 100 percent. Should no one win during the last three weeks of the racing season, the Standard will take every entry received this year and conduct a random drawing for what will be a $1,800 jackpot. Until that time, entry forms are available in every Sunday edition of the Standard.
1 in 74,046, there might not be a winner before the season is over. If that’s the case, a winner will be picked at random from every entry received.