This Week in Auto Racing October 11 - October 13

Autoracing Betting Lines

10/09/2007 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It's the fifth race of the 10-race "Chase for the Nextel Cup" and Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson are threatening to make the championship their own private contest.

NASCAR

Nextel Cup

Bank of America 500 - Lowe's Motor Speedway - Concord, NC

For those who survived the mayhem of Dover and the Kansas Speedway and the "Big One" at Talladega with their championship hopes still in tact, it's on to the Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Of the 12 "Chase for the Nextel Cup" competitors, only three or possibly four still have a realistic chance at the championship.

Gordon leads the "Chase" just as he led the series for most of the season. Beginning in week five, Gordon was the points leader every week through race No.25. He has been either first or second in the standings for 28 of 30 weeks.

At Lowe's Gordon has a solid record. He owns four of his 80 career Nextel Cup wins on the Charlotte, NC track and 15 top-10s in 29 starts. That's a good record, but it pales next to the record of his teammate Johnson.

The No.48 Chevrolet driver has made 12 starts on the 1.5-mile oval named after his primary sponsor and has earned five wins and 11 top-10s. His average finish is an amazing 6.2. He swept the spring and fall events in both 2004 and 2005. Johnson is just nine points behind Gordon.

Clint Bowyer has also survived the past wild weeks with his championship dreams still alive. Bowyer has been consistent all season long and in the four "Chase" races has continued that streak. His worst finish is a 12th at Dover and he collected the first win of his Nextel Cup career in the "Chase" opener at the New Hampshire International Speedway. Still, an 11th-place finish at Talladega left him 63 points behind the leader.

Two-time Nextel Cup champion Tony Stewart is hanging on to his championship hopes by a thread. For Stewart, a 39th-place finish at Kansas may be the race that kills his title. He stands 154 points behind Gordon on the fringe of competitiveness.

But Stewart can still dream of a title because in 2006 Johnson showed him how it could be done. Johnson fell 156 points back before storming to victory. But putting together five consecutive top-two finishes like Johnson did in 2006 does not happen very often.

In 2005, Stewart put an eight-race streak together which included five wins and six top-two finishes. This year he won three out of four races from mid-July to mid-August so he is certainly capable of making a run like that.

Behind Stewart, Harvick sits fifth in the championship, but a distant 202 points behind. On top of that, the Richard Childress Racing driver has not been on top of his game since early in the year when he won at Daytona and the Nextel All-Star Challenge.

In fact, the RCR camp is struggling to figure out why four of their engines, including Harvick's, came apart at Talladega. Harvick managed to limp his No.29 Chevy to the checkered flag on seven cylinders, but three RCR-powered cars failed - Jeff Burton, Martin Truex Jr. and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Kasey Kahne, who disappeared in 2007, won last year's Bank of America 500 beating Johnson to the checkered flag by 1.624 seconds. The No.9 Gillett Evernham Motorsports driver has yet to visit Victory Lane in 2007 after winning a series-high six times in 2006. He also had 19 top-10s last year versus just six in 2007. This would be a good time for Kahne to set a tone for the remainder of the season and show that he will be back in 2008.

Unfortunately this is the Lowe's Motor Speedway and it is "owned" by Johnson and the No.48 team. Don't be surprised if he makes another trip to Victory Lane.

Busch

Dollar General 300 - Lowe's Motor Speedway - Concord, NC

The Busch championship has been over for weeks, it just hasn't been made official yet. Carl Edwards built a huge lead early on and will cruise to his first title any day now. The No.60 Roush Racing Ford driver owns a 696-point lead over David Reutimann with five races left on the schedule.

If he leaves this week's race with a 644-point margin, he only has to start the final four events to win the title. If he builds his lead to 780 points, he can take the rest of the season off and still win the championship.

Veteran Jason Keller will attempt to break one of the series' longtime records this Friday night. If he qualifies for the Dollar General 300, he'll become the all-time leader in starts at 418. He is currently tied with Busch Series legend Tommy Houston, who will drive the pace car. Over Keller's 16-year career he has accumulated 10 wins, 11 poles and 161 top-10s.

Houston's 15-year career included 24 wins, 18 poles and 198 top-10s. Houston was born in Hickory, NC and won nearly 150 NASCAR Late Model Sportsmen division races before the Busch Series was created. He is the uncle of Teresa Earnhardt.