This Week in Auto Racing October 24 - 26

Autoracing Betting Lines

10/21/2008 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The seventh race in the "Chase for the Sprint Cup" runs at one of the fastest tracks on the circuit, the Atlanta Motor Speedway. The Craftsman Truck Series kicks off the Atlanta weekend, while the Nationwide Series holds its final stand-alone event of the season at the Memphis Motorsports Park.

NASCAR

Sprint Cup Series

Pep Boys Auto 500 - Atlanta Motor Speedway - Hampton, GA

With four races remaining in the season, Jimmie Johnson holds a commanding 149-point lead over Greg Biffle in the championship standings. Johnson padded his lead after a dominating performance last Sunday at the Martinsville Speedway, where he led 339 of 504 laps en route to his sixth victory of the season.

Johnson is attempting to win his third-straight Cup championship, and if he does it, he'll join Cale Yarborough as the only drivers to capture three titles in a row in the series.

Yarborough won his Cup titles consecutively from 1976-78.

"As far as it lasting 30 years, I just wonder how come it took so long for somebody to win three in a row, Yarborough said. "That was a long streak. Thirty years is a long time, but I was happy to hold it."

Yarborough said he would be proud of Johnson if he accomplished the feat, but offered a bit of advice to the current points leader.

"The one thing I can say is Jimmie better be glad I'm not racing with him today," he said.

Three of the four remaining tracks this season are 1.5-miles in length, starting with this weekend at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Johnson could potentially runaway with the points lead at Atlanta where he swept both races last year.

"I'm ready to go to Atlanta," Johnson said. "I wish we were dropping the green flag at Atlanta right now."

Johnson finished 13th in March at Atlanta, while his former Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Busch took the checkered flag, giving Toyota its first Sprint Cup victory.

If Biffle rallies from 149 points down at this point of the season to win the championship, it would go down as the greatest title comeback in series history.

In 1992, Alan Kulwicki trailed Bill Elliott by 144 points with four races to go, but Kulwicki pulled off a remarkable comeback to finish the season just 10 points ahead of Elliott for his first and only Cup championship.

Forty-six teams are on the preliminary entry list for this weekend's race at Atlanta. Bryan Clauson will attempt to make his first career Sprint Cup start, driving the No.40 Dodge for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. Clauson, a Nationwide Series competitor, was scheduled to make his Cup debut at Lowe's, but did not make the field after qualifying was rained out.

Joey Logano will try to put the Joe Gibbs Racing No.02 entry in the field for Sunday's race. Logano already has two Cup starts to his credit as he drove the No.96 Toyota for Hall of Fame Racing at New Hampshire and Kansas.

Marcos Ambrose will drive the No.47 Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing. The No.00 MWR team switched to the No.47 with a driver yet to be determined for Texas, Phoenix and Homestead.

NASCAR's realigned schedule for the 2009 season includes Atlanta dropping out of the 10-race Chase schedule as the track's second event will be held September 6, replacing the Labor Day weekend slot formerly held by Auto Club Speedway in California. Talladega Superspeedway will become the seventh Chase race next year, while California will move into Talladega's position as the fourth event.

Nationwide Series

Kroger On Track for the Cure 250 - Memphis Motorsports Park - Millington, TN

Four races remain in the 2008 Nationwide Series season, and if Carl Edwards has any hopes of defending his series title, the time to catch Clint Bowyer in the point standings is now.

Bowyer enters Saturday's race at the Memphis Motorsports Park with a very comfortable 196-point lead.

"We maintained our cushion on Carl and finally got the lead in the owner's championship," Bowyer said after he finished fourth at Lowe's Motor Speedway. "I like where we are at going into the last four races."

Barring any misfortunes in the coming weeks, Bowyer is a pretty sure bet to capture his first championship in one of NASCAR's three top series. But if Edwards finds some miraculous way to repeat, it would by far eclipse the largest points deficit a champion has overcome at this point of the season.

In 1989, Rob Moroso came from 127 points behind with four races remaining to finish the season 55 markers ahead of runner-up Tommy Houston.

Memphis is the last of nine stand-alone events on the this year's Nationwide schedule and last time for the season double-duty drivers will make the back- and-forth trek, this time from Atlanta.

David Reutimann, one of the six drivers pulling double duty this weekend, is the defending winner at Memphis. Reutimann survived a track-record 25 cautions and held off Mike Bliss in a green-white-checkered finish for his first career victory in the series.

Jimmie Johnson's younger brother, Jarit, is among the 51 drivers on the preliminary entry list for Memphis. Johnson will make his Nationwide debut, driving the No.22 Dodge for Fitz Motorsports. He made two Craftsman Truck Series starts during the 2005 season.

Marc Davis will also attempt to make his first Nationwide start in the No.18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. Davis is part of Gibbs' driver development program as the 18-year-old competed in the NASCAR Camping World Series East this year.

Craftsman Truck Series

E-Z Go 200 - Atlanta Motor Speedway - Hampton, GA

The battle for the championship in the Craftsman Truck Series is far from being decided as Johnny Benson grabbed the points lead once again from Ron Hornaday, Jr. after winning last Saturday's race at the Martinsville Speedway.

The two drivers have swapped the points lead several times this year with Hornaday first claiming the top spot after his victory in April at Kansas. Benson moved up front for the first time this season in June at Michigan, but Hornaday was back on top two races later at New Hampshire.

Benson reclaimed the lead from Hornaday following his win in July at Kentucky. Hornaday was as far back as 119 points before regaining the advantage earlier this month at Talladega.

Hornaday, who entered Martinsville with a 39-point advantage over Benson, led 154 of 200 laps, but the defending series champion ran out of fuel in the final laps and ended up finishing 29th.

Benson now holds a 65-point advantage over Hornaday, making it the sixth- largest margin in series history after 21 races.

"We're not going to do anything different these last four races," Benson said. "My goal is to go out there and win the race. All I care about is winning."

But Benson isn't taking any comfort being on top.

"Anything can happen," he said.

Greg Biffle held a 125-point lead over Jack Sprague after the 21st race in 1999. Biffle scored his series-record ninth victory of the season the following race, but was slapped with a technical violation which cost him a majority of his points lead. The pair traded the top spot in the standings before Sprague, with his season-ending win at California, clinched the championship with a slim eight-point margin.

With Martinsville now in the rear-view mirror, it's on to the very fast Atlanta Motor Speedway, where Hornaday has started on the pole and finished second in the last two races there.

"Atlanta has been one of our best tracks lately," Hornaday said. "We started on the pole for the past two races and led a lot of laps, but finished second both times. Atlanta is a very fast track, probably one of the fastest tracks we run on. The turns have a lot of banking, and you can carry some really good speed into the straightaways. We're going to go to Atlanta this time and try to seal the deal and get another win."

Hornaday won the inaugural Truck Series race at Atlanta in 2004.

Benson's track record at Atlanta is not as impressive as Hornaday's with Benson finishing 28th or worse in three of the last four races there. He finished third there one year ago.

Sprint Cup regulars Ryan Newman, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Travis Kvapil are among the 34 drivers listed on the preliminary entry list for the truck event at Atlanta. Newman will make his series debut, driving the No.2 Chevrolet for Kevin Harvick Inc.

IndyCar Series

Nikon Indy 300 - Streets of Surfers Paradise - Surfers Paradise, Australia

Even though 2008 IndyCar Series points season has concluded with Scott Dixon capturing his second championship, the IRL will wrap up the year in "the land down under" with the Nikon Indy 300 in the Streets of Surfers Paradise, located in Australia's Gold Coast in Queensland (about 600 miles north of Sydney).

A field of 24 drivers, including five Indianapolis 500 champions and three former Gold Coast race winners, will compete in this weekend's Nikon Indy 300.

The overseas race will also feature the return of Dario Franchitti to the series as he will drive the No.10 entry for Target Chip Ganassi Racing. Franchitti, the 2007 IRL champ, spent the past year competing in the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series, but rejoined the open-wheel ranks when he replaced Dan Wheldon in Ganassi's No.10 car. Wheldon returned to his former team at Panther Racing where he will make his debut in the No.4 in Australia.

The event at Surfers Paradise has been held each year since 1991 and was part of the Champ Car World Series. The merger of Champ Cars and IndyCar earlier in February has made way for the inaugural IRL exhibition event.

There were 16 different winners in as many races at Surfers Paradise, but in 2007, Sebastien Bourdais became the first driver to win the event twice, with his first win coming in 2005.

Last year, pole sitter and Australian-native Will Power led in the early going, but failed to finish after making contact. Bourdais led a total of 30 laps, including the final 18, en route to his 30th Champ Car career victory. He is now a full-time competitor in Formula One.