posted February 17, 2006 at 09:43 EST in NASCAR Betting Trends

First big race of year

Could Richard Childress Racing be an intimidating force on the NASCAR circuit once again?

The team has not seen much success on the circuit since losing its star driver Dale Earnhardt during the 2001 Daytona 500. But team owner Richard Childress overhauled the team in the offseason and early signs suggest the changes might pay off.

Last weekend, driving his Childress Chevrolet, 38-year-old veteran Jeff Burton captured the pole position for NASCAR’s most important race, the Daytona 500, which takes place this Sunday (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC).

It was just the third pole in Burton’s 14-year career and his first since 2000 when he was with Roush Racing. Burton joined Childress last year and had three top 5 and six top 10 finishes. He ended the season 18th in the Nextel Cup standings.

Burton has 17 victories in total including a career-high six in 1999. He has one win at Daytona – the Pepsi 400 in 2000. That was the year he finished a career-best third in the standings.

But Burton has not won a race since 2001. Perhaps because of that, he is not on many radar screens to win this year’s Nextel Cup Championship.

At BetUS, he is not among those listed to win the title. Instead, he has been lumped in with the field at +2500. Tony Stewart is currently favored to repeat as NASCAR champion at +400 followed by Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson at +500, and Greg Biffle and Jeff Gordon at +600.

Gordon, incidentally, earned the No. 2 spot for Sunday’s race. He is the defending champion of the Daytona 500, a race he has won three times.

During last weekend’s qualifying, Burton had the fastest run at 189.151 mph. It was the fastest qualifying run at the Daytona International Speedway since Dale Jarrett’s 191.091 in 2000.

Burton’s teammate Kevin Harvick, the driver who replaced Earnhardt, had one of the fastest cars during practice last Saturday and was a favorite to capture the pole. However, he wound up 13th in qualifying. Harvick finished 28th in last year’s Daytona 500 and was 14th in the driver standings. He is currently listed at +4500 to win this year’s Nextel Cup.

A third member of the Childress team is highly-regarded rookie Clint Bowyer. He was seventh in qualifying at 187.786 mph and was the fastest among this year’s large rookie contingent. Bowyer, who finished second in the Busch Series last season, is not one of the favorites to win the 2006 Nextel Cup Rookie of the Year honors. Among the eight official rookie drivers, Bowyer is listed at +500 along with J.J. Yeley (Joe Gibbs Racing).

The favorite to win is Martin Truex Jr., who is listed at +100. The back-to-back Busch Series Champ will be racing for Dale Earnhardt Inc.

Truex is followed by Denny Hamlin (Joe Gibbs Racing) at +200 and Reed Sorrenson (Chip Ganassi Racing) at +350.

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