This Week in Auto Racing November 1 - November 4

Autoracing Betting Lines

10/30/2007 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With IndyCar and Formula One seasons over and the Champ Car Series decided and irrelevant, it will be all NASCAR all the time until the end of the racing season.

NASCAR

Nextel Cup

Dickies 500 - Texas Motor Speedway - Fort Worth, Texas

Jimmie Johnson's second consecutive win, and series-leading eighth of the season, cut 44 points off his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon's lead to close within nine points of the four-time series champion.

But Johnson wasn't as dominant as he had been the week before at Martinsville. Instead, he did it with smart decisions from crew chief extraordinaire Chad Knaus and taking advantage of being in the right place at the right time.

It's a familiar refrain for the No.48 Lowe's Chevrolet team. They are frequently not the best car at the start of a race. But the team works and works on their car and by the end of the race they are usually one of the best on the track.

"Today wasn't the best day for this Lowe's car, it was decent but a fifth to eighth-place car " said Johnson, who won both Atlanta races this season. "Circumstances at the end really worked out for us and we took advantage of it...When I left pit road and there were five or six cars behind us on two tires, I knew we were in great shape."

Then when race leader Denny Hamlin stalled on the restart, Johnson was right there to jump on the opening and he took the lead. On the final green-white- checker restart he had a great jump and even if Dale Earnhardt Jr. hadn't crashed it was unlikely that Carl Edwards could have caught him.

It's now on to the Texas Motor Speedway and the two-man shootout for the 2007 Nextel Cup title continues. It's not a fluke that Gordon and Johnson are here. The statistics bare out that the two friends should be there.

Gordon has six wins, 20 top-fives and 27 top-10s in 33 events. He has led a series-leading 1,280 laps out of 9,669, (13.24%). He leads in pole wins (7). He has finished worse than 12th just four times all season.

Johnson has eight wins among his 18 top-fives and 21 top-10s. He is second to Gordon in laps led with 1,225 (12.67%).

By contrast Clint Bowyer, who is in third place overall -111 points back, has just one win, five top-fives and 17 top-10s.

Surprisingly, despite 81 career wins (sixth all-time), Gordon has never won a pole or a race at the Texas Motor Speedway. He did finish second in April 2002 and has six top-10s in 13 career starts.

Johnson has similar statistics at TMS - no poles, no wins, but six top-10s in eight career starts.

It appears that Gordon and Johnson will mirror each other all the way to Homestead where the championship will likely be decided on the final lap of the final race.

Busch

O'Reilly Challenge - Texas Motor Speedway - Fort Worth, Texas

Carl Edwards continues to stumble down the stretch, but it makes no difference in who will win the drivers championship. The No.60 Roush Fenway Racing drivers still leads the Busch Series championship by a whopping 531 points with three races remaining on the schedule.

But it would have made a nice finish to a tough week which started with his very public display towards Nextel Cup teammate Matt Kenseth.

"It was a very frustrating race, but I feel good," said Edwards on his team's website. "The silver lining is that David Reutimann won the race and he's a heck of a guy. So, that's good for him. But that's just racing. We got caught up in some stuff. We had a great race car."

Assuming Edwards starts the final three races, he has already clinched the title. But in a sport where people crash into walls at very high speeds, anything is possible. Therefore, to mathematically clinch the drivers title Edwards has to finish in 36th place or 38th if he leads at least one lap.

"You can't count on anything until it's done, Edwards added."We'll keep digging and head to Texas next week and do everything we can to get this team back into Victory Lane."

In April, Edwards finished third at TMS behind Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin.

While the driver's title has been essentially clinched, the owner's championship is a much tighter race, one that Edwards's No.60 Ford doesn't even lead.

A combination of drivers for the No.29 Richard Childress Racing team hold a 36-point edge on the No.20 Joe Gibbs Racing team and 42 points on Edwards' team.

Craftsman

Silverado 350K - Texas Motor Speedway - Fort Worth, Texas

The Nextel Cup races may get all the publicity, but the two-man race between Mike Skinner and Ron Hornaday Jr. has been every bit as exciting as the Jeff Gordon-Jimmie Johnson matchup. The two have been at each other almost the entire season.

Skinner has been either first or second in the standings since the second race in late February.

Hornaday Jr. and the Kevin Harvick Inc. team took a little longer to get it going and he took over second place in race number seven at Mansfield, OH. Since then he has been either first or second. For the past five races, the pair have exchanged the lead back in forth each week.

Last week was Hornaday Jr.'s turn to take the lead. Following a second-place finish at Atlanta on Saturday, Hornaday Jr. took a four-point lead over Skinner, who finished fifth.

A caution flag with 25 laps to go (Jack Sprague accident) set up the final stops and the run to the checkered flag. This time the No.33 KHI pit crew did the job and Hornaday Jr. beat everyone back onto the track.

Hornaday Jr. got a good restart, but the man on the move was Kyle Busch who charged through the field like a hot knife through butter. He was fourth with 18 laps to go and second with 16 laps remaining. Benson fought back and retook second, but Busch still held the inside lane and wasn't giving up.

A dozen laps to go and four trucks were left with a chance for the win - Hornaday Jr., Johnny Benson, Busch and Mark Martin. A caution flag on lap 118 when Chad McCumbee's truck left some fluid on the track to slow the race to a crawl.

They restarted on lap 122 and Busch charged to the lead building the margin to four lengths with six laps to go. He kept it going and flew to the checkered flag unchallenged the rest of the way. Skinner, who had to make an early unscheduled stop dropping him back to 17th place, fought back to get a top- five, but had to hand the points lead to his rival.

"We never did really get the truck fixed like we wanted it," said Skinner. "It was really, really good yesterday (during practice), but we struggled today."

"Kevin and DeLana Harvick have given us everything we need and more," said Hornaday Jr. after last Saturday's race. "The way we're going to beat him (Skinner) is just to race as hard as we can."

Now it's on to Texas where in June Skinner finished second and Hornaday Jr. fourth.

Wwwsupremecasino Autoracing Betting News

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Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl Odds

Will he or won't he?  Now that the Dallas Cowboys have a new head coach in Wade Phillips, the big question will be: Does Terrell Owens stay with the team.

Jerry Jones continues to suggest that Terrell Owens will remain with the team.

"I've said that he's back, he's here, he's under contract," Jones said. "In the interviews I've just been through (to hire a new coach), it was very clear to me how highly he's thought of and how much of an impact he had on our offensive success."

Just to be sure though, Terrell Owens cleared out his locker and removed his name plate.

Terrell Owens was among the Cowboys most productive players this past season, catching 85 passes for 1,180 yards and a league-best 13 touchdowns.

But T.O. is due a $3 million roster bonus in June, then a $5 million salary this season. Cutting him before then would save a lot of money and headaches.

Aside from the questions surrounding Terrell Owens, the oddsmakers at MySportsbook.com have concerns over starting quarterback Tony Romo's state of mind and whether he will remain a starting quarterback.  It is also not known how players will adjust to new head coach, Wade Phillips.

Here are the football odds as seen at MySportsbook.com and subject to change after February 10, 2007 if not locked in prior to that date.
Arizona Cardinals 60-1


Atlanta Falcons 50-1


Baltimore Ravens 15-1


Buffalo Bills 50-1


Carolina Panthers 18-1


Chicago Bears 10-1


Cincinnati Bengals 15-1


Cleveland Browns 100-1


Dallas Cowboys 15-1


Denver Broncos 15-1


Detroit Lions 100-1


Green Bay Packers 50-1


Houston Texans 100-1


Indianapolis Colts 6-1


Jacksonville Jaguars 30-1


Kansas City Chiefs 30-1


Miami Dolphins 40-1


Minnesota Vikings 75-1


New England Patriots 10-1


New Orleans Saints 18-1


New York Giants 20-1


New York Jets 30-1


Oakland Raiders 100-1


Philadelphia Eagles 18-1


Pittsburgh Steelers 10-1


Saint Louis Rams 60-1


San Diego Chargers 6-1


San Francisco 49ers 75-1


Seattle Seahawks 20-1


Tampa Bay Buccanneers 75-1


Tennessee Titans 40-1


Washington Redskins 50-1

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your Sportsbook credit cards needs.

College Football Betting Tips From a Pro

While the NFL is the sport wagered on the heaviest, college football betting lines has become more and more popular as people realize it’s a game that can be beat. The NCAA football season gets longer each year with the addition of numerous bowl games and with that comes more opportunities for more money in your pocket, if handled correctly.

Betting on college football is not the same as with the NFL, so make sure you separate the two. Because of the vast number of teams, the parity between college football programs is slight and thus, you are going to see some high numbers in the NCAA. Teams favored by more than 40 points are not uncommon especially early in the season when teams playing their non-conference schedules.

The best advice when trying to tackle these enormous spreads and is to just stay away. A team that is favored by 40 points is favored by that many for a reason while teams getting 40 points are bad enough that they shouldn’t be touched. Set yourself a spread limit. Getting rid of these games will cut down on the number of contests that you need to handicap while staying away from backdoor or front-door covers.

What is a backdoor and front-door cover you ask? A backdoor cover is a team that is getting beat by more than the spread, but scores late to get within that number thus covering the spread. A front-door cover is just the opposite where the favorite scores late and covers the number they are favored by.

These front-door and backdoor covers are common when second and third string players enter games in college football and it can be the worst nightmare for some bettors. These players can also be your best friend, but ask any bettor and he will give you more instances on losing in this situation than winning. It just seems to work out that way even though everything evens out in the end.

College football betting has some of the softest lines of any sport and it’s being able to find these lines that will make you a successful college football handicapper. The NFL and NBA have the tightest lines around and while those sports can be beat by looking at situations and systems, college football doesn’t quite work that way. It’s much more manual, but when done correctly, it’s much more gratifying as well.

Getting into the nuts and bolts of college football means looking at the many stats in order to beat the number. As opposed to pro football, college football is less dependent on situations and angles and more on certain statistics. Rushing offense and defense, pass efficiency offense and defense and turnover margins are huge. These are vital in the NFL, but even more so when it comes to college football.

Being able to run the ball in college football has always been a key factor in the overall success of a team. The same adage also goes for teams who have the ability to stop the run. Putting these two factors together can produce some positive results in a team’s record both straight up and against the spread. These numbers show huge differences in teams and the spread may not take those into effect, which is where the value comes into play.

Passing yardage numbers both for and against can be a misinterpreted statistic. However, pass efficiency has always been one of the best ways to look at a teams’ passing game ability both offensively and defensively. But is it really a true indication of how they perform? I wouldn’t say so since they are raw passing numbers with nothing else taken into consideration.

I use pass efficiency ratings when doing my handicapping but I adjust my numbers based on a number of factors including power ratings, strength of schedules, personnel and injuries. This gives a much better picture of a team’s ability to pass effectively and also being able to defend the pass. Tweaking pass efficiency stats instead of raw passing yards is the key.

Turnovers are the single most frustrating, and at times the most gratifying, aspect of a college football lines, mostly because they are so unpredictable. They are part of the game and most of the time nothing can be done to control them. However, turnovers are contagious and they can carry over from game to game and season to season.

It’s important to know how to forecast these unforeseen events and how to use them to your advantage. You can find ways to give yourself an edge by looking at past histories of teams and coaches and how they have fared in turnover wars in the past. Instead of turnovers hurting you at the wrong times, find ways to use them to your advantage.

As you can see, college football handicapping is very labor intensive and isn’t just based on where teams are ranked in the AP and coaches polls. Experience, coaching and match-ups are all important since unlike the NFL, college teams turn over much more often with new personnel at most positions every single year. Keeping current on this information is vital.

Betting NCAA football can be lucrative if done correctly, but more importantly, it’s just plain enjoyable because it can be beat. College football is one of the best sports to watch with some of the best rivalries taking place in all of sports. The only downfall is that a championship isn’t decided on the field but on a computer-based system that is the Bowl Championship Series. That will change someday and we will all be better off for it.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your NCAA college football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.