This Week in Auto Racing October 10 - 12

Autoracing Betting Lines

10/07/2008 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Race five in the "Chase for the Sprint Cup" runs under the lights Saturday night at the Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte. The Nationwide Series will also be in Charlotte this weekend. Meanwhile, Formula One travels to the "Land of the Rising Sun" for the Japanese Grand Prix.

NASCAR

Sprint Cup Series

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

With Talladega, the "wild-card" race, out of the way, those drivers still in the championship hunt can now focus on the remaining six races of the season, starting with this weekend's Bank of America 500 at the Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte.

Jimmie Johnson finished ninth at Talladega and retained the lead in the championship "Chase" standings. Johnson fell a lap down early in the Amp Energy 500 and suffered a broken splitter brace on his car from an incident involving David Reutimann and Jeff Gordon. He currently holds a 72-point advantage over second-place Carl Edwards, who finished 29th.

"To come out of here with a top 10, with guys that were real close to me having some problems, today was a good day, a really, really good day in the big picture," Johnson said.

Now the two-time defending Sprint Cup Series champion returns to Lowe's, which has also been labeled "Jimmie's House" over the years since he has a very impressive track record there. Johnson leads all active drivers with five victories at Lowe's, including four straight from 2004-05.

"Since the track has been repaved, we end up competitive at the end of the race to get things right, but we've had tough practice sessions in the past and tough tests in the past," Johnson said. "The test that we had a couple of weeks ago didn't go as we wanted it to there. But I have a lot of confidence in the team and I know when we get into race conditions that our stuff will be where it needs to be. If it were the old track, I would feel more confident about it."

Johnson has struggled at his "house" lately, finishing 14th and 39th in the last two races at Lowe's.

Edwards, meanwhile, has finished 15th or better in all seven of his races there with his best finish of third coming in the Coca-Cola 600 in 2005 and 2006.

Greg Biffle, currently third in the standings (-77), finished second in this year's Coca-Cola 600, his career-best performance at Lowe's.

Fourth-place Jeff Burton (-99) is a two-time Charlotte winner but has not been to victory lane for a Cup race there since May 2001. Burton has finished fourth and sixth in the last two races there.

Tony Stewart snapped a 43-race winless streak with a victory in last Sunday's race at Talladega and moved up four positions to seventh in points .

"It's just a lot of excitement finally," Stewart said. "It's been a little over 12 months since we won a race, so to get our first one of the year, and of all places, to get it at Talladega, which is one of four tracks that we hadn't won a Cup race at in our career, it was a huge, huge day for us."

Despite a 203-point deficit, Stewart believes he has a realistic chance at winning his third Cup title.

"My standpoint has always been, until they say that you're mathematically out of it, you always have a shot," Stewart said. "We won the Silver Crown - the USAC Silver Crown Series Championship in '95, and we were the third driver of three that had a shot mathematically to win it. There were two drivers, Jack Hewitt and Dave Darland, that were neck-and-neck in the point standings, and we were kind of the third wheel. We were only included in the group in the media sessions because we were mathematically in the hunt. Both of those drivers had problems in the race, and we won the point championship by two points."

Stewart hopes his momentum will continue at Lowe's where he won in October 2003 but has not scored a top-five finish since then.

Eighth-place Jeff Gordon (-232) is the defending race winner. Gordon, however, has not won a race since Lowe's one year ago. After a disappointing 38th-place finish at Talladega, Gordon is looking to regroup at Lowe's.

"We've just got to do the same thing we do every weekend and just go out there to win and work as hard as we can and put this one behind us and get the car out there and get as many points as we can," Gordon said.

Kasey Kahne is not in this year's "Chase," but he has a chance to make history at Lowe's. Kahne won the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race and the Coca-Cola 600 in May. If he scores the victory in the Bank of America 500, he'll become the first driver to sweep all three Cup events at Lowe's in a single season.

Brad Keselowski and Scott Speed will attempt to make their first career Cup starts this weekend. Keselowski will drive the No.25 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, while Speed will behind the wheel of the No.82 Toyota for Red Bull Racing.

AJ Allmendinger returns to the series as he takes over driving duties of the No.00 Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing.

Nationwide Series

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

After taking a week off, the Nationwide Series returns with the Dollar General 300 at the Lowe's Motor Speedway. Clint Bowyer enters the 300-mile event at Lowe's with a 196-point lead over second-place Carl Edwards in the Nationwide championship standings.

Bowyer finished second to Denny Hamlin, while Edwards came in fourth at Kansas.

With five races remaining in the season, time is running out in Edwards' attempt for a second-straight series title.

Edwards won at Lowe's in May 2006, but has finished 13th or worse in the last four races there.

Bowyer has established a comfortable points lead by finishing in the top-10 in each race since two months ago at Watkins Glen. He has also recorded top-10 finishes in the last four races at Lowe's.

"Consistency wins championships," Bowyer said. "It always has and always will. I would like to win more races, and I've let two of them slip away. I haven't forgot about them and that's certainly something you have to live with and thats probably worse than running fifth or even having a devastating day and running 30th or something. When you give one away it's just something that burns inside of you. I'm not racing that but for one reason and that's for one trophy. That one trophy that I don't have is the championship trophy in one of these elite divisions and that's what I'm racing in the Nationwide Series for."

Nationwide team owner James Finch will celebrate his 500th career start at Lowe's. Mike Bliss drives the No.1 Chevrolet for Finch's Phoenix Racing.

"It's an honor to be driving for James and Miccosukee in his 500th start as a team owner," Bliss said. "James has contributed a lot to this sport, and it would be nice to celebrate this momentous occasion with a trip to victory lane."

Finch has competed in the series the last 20 years with drivers Bliss, Jeff Purvis and two-time Nationwide champion Randy LaJoie to name a few.

Jimmie Johnson is among the 53 drivers entered in Friday night's race at Lowe's. Johnson will drive the No.5 Chevrolet for team owner Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

Formula One

Japanese Grand Prix - Fuji Speedway - Oyama, Japan

With the 2008 season winding down, Formula One heads to Fuji Speedway in Japan for the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend. Lewis Hamilton holds a seven-point lead over rival Felipe Massa in the World Championship standings with just three races to go in the season.

Hamilton, in his rookie F1 season, won last year's Japanese GP at Fuji. He overcame rain and fog as the first 19 laps were run under the safety car because of inclement weather. Hamilton dominated the event and crossed the finish line 8.377 seconds ahead of Heikki Kovalainen for his fourth victory of the season.

"I love Japan," Hamilton said. "Last year might have been difficult because of the wet weather and the poor visibility, but I actually really enjoyed that weekend...This weekend, I'll be hoping for dry weather for another reason. I want the fans at the track to have the best weekend possible and to enjoy the atmosphere of one of the season's best races."

Fresh off a victory in last week's race at Singapore, Fernando Alonso is looking to continue his momentum at Fuji, where he finished second in the 2007 event.

"We worked hard to develop some new parts for Singapore, but also for the final three races of the season, so I think that we can be on the pace in Fuji," Alonso said. "We will give our maximum to try and make that the case and to benefit from the free practice sessions on Friday as much as possible."

Alonso ended a year-long winless drought with his Singapore GP victory.

Meanwhile, Japanese driver Kazuki Nakajima returns to his home country and hopes for a good run to please the fans.

"I'm really excited about my home Grand Prix and this will be the first time I've been back to Fuji for three years," Nakajima said. "It used to be my F3 team's home track so I lived in the area for a year. It feels really good to be going back, and this time I'll be driving a Formula One car so I can't wait. I think there will be some expectation from the fans because I'm the only Japanese driver at the moment so I'm a bit more nervous for this race."

Nakajima is the son of retired F1 driver Satoru Nakajima.

The Japanese GP returned to Fiji last year for the first time since 1977. It was held at Suzuka International Racing Course for 20 years.

In 1976, Mario Andretti won a rain-filled race at Fuji in his Lotus, but James Hunt won the World Championship by out-pointing Niki Lauda. Lauda withdrew from the race after three laps citing dangerous conditions.

The following year, Hunt won the race, but Gilles Villeneuve was involved in a crash that killed two people on the side of the track. After the event, Japan would not hold another F1 race for 10 years, and then the venue was shifted to Suzuka.

In 2003, Fuji was closed for redesign by Hermann Tilke. It reopened in 2005 with a 1.5 km straight, one of the longest in all motorsports.