Kahne oddsmakers favorite to win Banquet 400 at Kansas Speedway
Kasey Kahne and his Evernham Motorsports team had to mount a late-season rally to make the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series’ “Chase for the Championship.”
Now, after two bad finishes, Kahne will have to put on another charge if he wants to have any chance of winning the Nextel Cup championship, and it will have to begin with Sunday’s Banquet 400 at Kansas Speedway.
The oddsmakers like Kahne’s chances in the Banquet 400, with Bodog.com making him the favorite to win at +650. Only two other drivers — Matt Kenseth at +700 and Jeff Gordon at +750 — were listed at under +1000.
Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart are both listed at +1000, with Jimmie Johnson at +1100 and four others — Dale Earnhardt Jr., Greg Biffle, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards — at +1200.
Kahne is currently ninth in the Chase standings after starting the 10-race run to the Nextel Cup title in 10th and last place.
While he has moved up slightly in the standings thanks to bad weeks by Johnson and Busch, Kahne is still 182 points behind Jeff Burton entering this weekend’s race.
But there are two things that work in Kahne’s favor, not only for this weekend’s race but the next few weeks:
1. He leads the Nextel Cup series in wins this season with five, and all came on NASCAR’s intermediate ovals — the 1.5-milers at Atlanta, Texas and Charlotte (tracks the same length at Kansas, and tracks that are part of the Chase), and the two-milers at Michigan and California.
2. Kahne and his team have “bounce-back” experience under their belts. He was third in points until a midseason swoon (six finishes of 22nd or worse in seven races) dropped him to 11th. But three top-four runs in the final four races leading up to the Chase pushed him into the championship picture.
If that doesn’t give you enough to go on, then we don’t know what will. Get all your NASCAR betting lines and NASCAR racing odds at the Bodog Sportsbook.
NASCAR Sharpie 500 Prediction: BET on Earnhardt, Jr. to win this race.
