Dillon looking to win truck title at Homestead
Autoracing Betting Lines
11/16/2011 - Homestead, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Series: NASCAR Camping World Truck. Date: Friday, November 18. Race: Ford 200. Site: Homestead-Miami Speedway. Track: 1.5-mile oval. Start time: 8:00 p.m. (et). Laps: 134. Miles: 201. 2010 winner: Kyle Busch. Television: Speed. Radio: Motor Racing Network (MRN)/SIRIUS NASCAR Satellite.
The Camping World Truck Series will kick off NASCAR's "championship weekend" at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Friday night's 200-mile race should be an entertaining one, with three drivers still in title contention. Austin Dillon currently holds a 20-point lead over Johnny Sauter and a 28-point advantage over James Buescher.
Dillon -- the grandson of NASCAR team owner Richard Childress -- is attempting to become the youngest series champion at 21 years of age. He would also be the first driver to win the series' rookie-of-the-year title and clinch the championship in consecutive seasons.
If Dillon finishes 16th or better at Homestead, he will wrap up the title, regardless of any other driver's performance. He would also clinch it if he finishes 17th or better with at least one lap led...or 18th or better with the most laps led.
Dillon finished 31st in his first race at Homestead last year. He started on the pole and led 11 laps but was involved in an on-track incident during the closing laps of the event.
"The pressure isn't too bad, actually," Dillon said. "I like racing at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and my finish last year doesn't reflect how good our team is at that track. We led laps and had one of the fastest trucks all day but were involved in a late-race incident and it cost us a good finish. We know we are capable of doing what we need to do there. I hope we are celebrating at the end of the race."
Dillon has posted two wins -- Nashville and Chicago -- and 15 top-10 finishes so far this year. His two DNFs during the season came at Daytona and Michigan.
Sauter has scored two top-10 finishes in four starts at Homestead. He placed third in last year's race here.
"All you can ask for is a shot, and I'm privileged right now," Sauter said. "It's a pretty tall order, 20 points, but there are a lot of competitive trucks out there. It's a full field and a tough road for anybody to hoe. We just need to sit on the pole, lead laps and win. That's the coolest thing about racing; you just never know how it's all going to turn out."
Buescher has finished either 18th or 19th in his three races at Homestead.
"The team is going to Homestead-Miami Speedway with one goal, which is to win the race," Buescher said. "We have had a great year, and I can think of nothing better than to cap it off with a win. We know we have to get the most points we can in order to have a shot to win the championship. We have proven we never give up."
Had he not failed to qualify for the February 25 race at Phoenix, Buescher might have been in better contention to win the truck championship. Buescher has recorded 19 top-10 finishes in 23 starts. He has yet to win a race in the series.
Ron Hornaday Jr. would have been in the title fight at Homestead as well had it not been for Kyle Busch intentionally wrecking him in the early going of the November 4 race at Texas. Hornaday trailed Dillon by 15 points heading into Texas, but after his 34th-place finish there, he dropped to 48 points out of the lead.
"I wish we were in the middle of the championship battle, but we are not, so we will race hard and do what we have to do for the win," Hornaday said.
Hornaday will celebrate a career milestone at Homestead, as he will make his 300th start in the series. This will also be Hornaday's last race with Kevin Harvick Inc. KHI is in its last year of truck competition.
Kevin Harvick's win at Texas allowed KHI's No.2 team to clinch the owner's championship. Harvick is scheduled to drive the No.2 truck at Homestead.
Busch will not be competing in this race. Denny Hamlin is slated to drive the No.18 truck. Busch won last year's race here.
Forty-three teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Ford 200.
Homestead, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Series: NASCAR Nationwide. Date: Saturday, November 19. Race: Ford 300. Site: Homestead-Miami Speedway. Track: 1.5-mile oval. Start time: 4:30 p.m. (et). Laps: 200. Miles: 300. 2010 Winner: Kyle Busch. Televisio
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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.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL BETTING
NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.
No. 1 always seems to fit USC.
Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.
Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.
Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."
Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.
"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."
The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.
"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.
"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"
USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.
"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."
While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.
As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.
But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.
Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.
The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.
The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.
The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.
No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.
Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.
Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.
The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.
South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.
The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.
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