NASCAR odds: Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway

Less than a month ago, Jeff Burton was looking more and more like the guy to beat in the “Chase for the Championship.” However, the past three weeks haven’t been kind to Burton and his bid to win his first NASCAR Nextel Cup Series title.

But Burton and his Richard Childress Racing team aren’t so much worried about where they stand in points entering this weekend’s Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Burton, in his 13th full season on the Nextel Cup tour, fought off a late-season slump to finish the “Chase for the Chase” eighth in points.

He promptly moved to the top of the heap with a seventh-place finish at New Hampshire and a win at Dover, and stayed there by coming in fifth at Kansas City.

Burton bobbled slightly the following week at Talladega — coming in 27th after a late-race flat tire cost him a top-10 finish — but recovered nicely with a third at Charlotte.

But Burton hit a major road bump at Martinsville — he finished 42nd after getting in a wreck, then losing the motor on his Chevrolet — to fall from first to fifth in the standings.

After a 13th-place run at Atlanta last week, Burton is now tied for fourth with Dale Earnhardt Jr., 84 behind Matt Kenseth. Even with his recent run of bad luck, Burton is considered one of five drivers in contention to win the Nextel Cup title, along with Kenseth, Earnhardt, Jimmie Johnson and rookie Denny Hamlin.

Texas may be a good place for Burton to improve his odds. He won the inaugural race there in 1997, finished second in 2000 and was sixth in last April’s race at the 1.5-mile speedway.

The oddsmakers have Kasey Kahne — who has four wins this season on 1.5-mile tracks, including last April’s race at Texas — the favorite for Sunday’s race, with Bodog.com listing him at +350.

Johnson, who won two weeks ago at Charlotte, is second at +600, followed by Tony Stewart (+700), Earnhardt (+800), and Kenseth and Jeff Gordon (+900). Hamlin and Carl Edwards, the winner of last fall’s Texas race, are at +1000, with Burton and Greg Biffle at +1200.

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.