Posted on 9/13/2007 3:37:43 PM

Cup Chase begins at Sylvania 300

By BetUS Staff

The 2007 Chase for the Nextel Cup begins this weekend in the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway, so that means there’s a double opportunity for NASCAR betting – the odds to win this weekend’s event, and the NASCAR odds to win the Cup.

Only a dozen drivers are in the running for this year’s championship as the Nextel Cup’s postseason gets underway – and at the top of the list is Jimmie Johnson, who leads the re-ordered standings with 5060 points. Johnson is pegged at +225 odds to finish the season atop the points race, while teammate Jeff Gordon (who is second in the driver standings, just 20 points behind Johnson) is next on the championship odds list at +250.

Tony Stewart (+300) and Kurt Busch (+400) round out the top tier of Cup contenders, while Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin are behind them on the list at +1000 odds. The rest of the contenders and their title odds: Matt Kenseth (+1200), Kyle Busch (+1500), Kevin Harvick (+2200), Martin Truex Jr. (+3000), Jeff Burton (+4000), and Clint Bowyer (+5000). The Chase for the Nextel Cup runs for 10 races, and finishes on November 18.

Johnson is also listed as the favorite to win this weekend; he’s tied with Gordon and Hamlin at +500 odds to visit victory lane in New Hampshire. Johnson won back-to-back New Hampshire titles in 2003, Gordon won at that venue in 1995, 1997, and 1998, and Denny Hamlin won the most recent event on the track, July’s Lenox Industrial Tools 300.

Stewart (+700), Edwards (+1000), and Kurt Busch (+1100) are next on this week’s NASCAR odds list, with each of Harvick, Kyle Busch, Truex Jr., Kenseth, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. at +1400 odds. Harvick and Kyle Busch won New Hampshire events last year, Stewart won in both 2005 and 2000, and Kurt Busch went back-to-back in 2004.

Burton and Ryan Newman are both pegged at +2000 odds to win this weekend; Burton won four New Hampshire titles back between 1997 and 2000, while Newman took the checkered flag in both the 2005 Sylvania 300 and the 2002 New Hampshire 300. Other odds to win this week’s event include Kasey Kahne (+2200), Bowyer (+2500), Greg Biffle (+5000), Casey Mears (+5000), and Jamie McMurray (+8000). Looking to take someone from beyond those NASCAR lines? The Field is pegged back at +2500 odds.

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