This Week in Auto Racing October 3 - 5

Autoracing Betting Lines

09/30/2008 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It should be an exciting and wild weekend of racing as the Sprint Cup Series heads to the 2.66-mile, high-banked Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama for round four in the "Chase for the Sprint Cup." The Craftsman Truck Series will also be at Talladega.

NASCAR

Sprint Cup Series

Amp Energy 500 - Talladega Superspeedway - Talladega, AL

It's Talladega, the "wild-card," the "crap-shoot" race in the 10-race "Chase for the Sprint Cup" championship. For the fans, it's a 188-lap, 500-mile edge- of-your-seat thriller, but for drivers, especially those competing in the "Chase," it's find a good drafting partner and hold your breath and pray like heck you're not involved in "the big one," if it happens.

Talladega is famous for its restrictor-plate racing, which creates big packs of cars running two, three or even four-wide, just inches apart from each other and moving at speeds over 200 m.p.h. The track is also well-known for its numerous last-lap battles and some of the closest margins of victory in racing history. But most of all, Talladega has featured many spectacular crashes, involving as many as 30 drivers in a single incident.

Heading into Talladega, 30 points separate the top three drivers, with Jimmie Johnson at the top of the standings, Carl Edwards second and Greg Biffle third. But no lead is protected when it comes to Talladega. In the four years of the "Chase," only once has the points leader retained the top spot after Talladega. Despite a 27th-place finish in the 2006 UAW-Ford 500, Jeff Burton remained first in the standings, but his lead was cut to just six points. Burton ended the '06 season seventh in points.

Meanwhile, Johnson moved into the points lead after winning last Sunday at Kansas. He has an impressive track record at Talladega, where he has led at least one lap in each race there since April 2003. Johnson won at Talladega in May 2006 and has finished second in two of the last three races there. He finished 13th in the Aaron's 499 earlier this season.

Hendrick Motorsports has dominated Talladega the past several years, winning five of the last seven races there. Jeff Gordon is the defending race champion. Gordon, who started 34th, ran behind Johnson with two laps to go, but got drafting help from Tony Stewart to grab the lead from his teammate on the final lap en route to his fifth victory of the season and the 80th of his Sprint Cup career. He also scored a season-sweep at Talladega in 2007.

"Last year in this race, I hung back away from the big pack for much of the day and was still able to win," Gordon said. "While I hate that strategy, it worked in that instance."

Last year's fall race at Talladega marked the first time the Car of Tomorrow ran on a superspeedway.

Gordon is currently sixth in the "Chase" standings, 143 points behind Johnson. He holds the record for most restrictor-plate victories with 12, including six wins at Talladega. Gordon has been winless in the last 34 races, but Talladega could be the track where the four-time Cup champion ends his drought.

"A lot can happen points-wise in this race," Gordon said. "Hopefully, there are no big accidents, and if there are, we are able to avoid them. I feel this is a race we can win. We just need to be in a position at the end to challenge for the victory."

Dale Earnhardt, Jr., in his first year with Hendrick, has experienced his share of success at Talladega with five victories to his credit, all of them coming with Dale Earnhardt Inc. However, Earnhardt, Jr. has not won there in four years. In fact, he's scored just two top-10 finishes in the last seven races at Talladega. But "Junior" always looks forward to running there.

"I don't think everyone gets that sensation going into the race, but to me it's a pretty important place just 'cause my family's done so well there," Earnhardt, Jr. said. "And the way the fans treat us there make it exciting, make it a place you look forward to. I think that's probably the biggest key, the fans and how they've treated us at that track. It really gets you excited when it's coming up on the schedule."

Earnhardt, Jr. is eighth in points (-190). His late-father holds the record for most victories at Talladega with 10.

"I think as far as our position now in the 'Chase,' we just kind of got to go for broke, really throw it out there and take some chances, really take some risks," Earnhardt, Jr. said. "At Talladega, you can make some pretty ridiculous moves, and some of them pay off, some of them don't. We'll just have to see what kind of position we're in on any given lap to be able to try to take advantage of some things happening around us."

Since the start of the 2000 season, Chevrolet drivers have won 15 of 17 races at Talladega. Dale Jarrett and Kyle Busch were the only exceptions to Chevrolet's total reign there with Jarrett driving a Ford to victory lane in the October 2005 race and Busch picking up the win in a Toyota in this year's spring event.

Craftsman Truck Series

Mountain Dew 250 - Talladega Superspeedway - Talladega, AL

With only one point separating Ron Hornaday, Jr. from leader Johnny Benson in the championship standings, Saturday's Mountain Dew 250 at the Talladega Superspeedway should make things that more interesting in the Craftsman Truck Series.

Benson saw his 74-point lead disappear September 20 with a 27th-place finish at Las Vegas. He cut a right-front tire and slammed into the wall during the mid-stages of the race.

Hornaday, meanwhile, dealt with an ill-handling truck in the early going but rallied for a fifth-place finish.

Benson is hoping for the best at Talladega, but knows how unpredictable the track is.

"Talladega is your typical superspeedway where anything can happen and happens fast," Benson said. "We just have to keep out of the big wreck and be there at the end of the race."

One year ago, Hornaday came to Talladega in the middle of a very tight points battle with Mike Skinner. He finished seventh in last year's Mountain Dew 250 and captured the points lead in the process.

"Last year going into Talladega, I would say we were more on the conservative side," Hornaday said. "We were only three points behind Skinner, and we just needed to make it out of Talladega with a good, solid finish and not try too hard and let one little mistake cause us to lose points. We need to have the same mindset this year."

Todd Bodine is the defending race winner. Bodine nipped Rick Crawford at the finish line by .014 seconds - about a fender length - to score the victory.

Crawford, a native of Mobile, AL, has not won since August 2006 (54 races).

"Just being able to participate at a race track of (Talladegas) size and magnitude with that history means enough to me," Crawford said.

The Truck Series veteran is currently sixth in points (-246).

"The points will take care of themselves," he said. "I'm going to Talladega to win."

Joey Logano is expected to make his first career truck start at Talladega. Logano, the 18-year-old NASCAR phenom, will drive the No.59 Toyota for team owner Jim Harris. Logano made his first Nationwide start in May at Dover and his Sprint Cup debut in September at New Hampshire.