Taking the Chase to the "Lone Star State"
Autoracing Betting Lines
11/02/2011 - Fort Worth, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup. Date: Sunday, November 6. Race: AAA Texas 500. Site: Texas Motor Speedway. Track: 1.5-mile oval. Start time: 3:00 p.m. (et). Laps: 334. Miles: 501. 2010 Winner: Denny Hamlin. Television: ESPN. Radio: Performance Racing Network (PRN)/SIRIUS NASCAR Satellite.
With seven races down and three to go in this year's Chase for the Sprint Cup, it's looking like it will be a two-man battle for the championship in NASCAR's premier series.
Tony Stewart's win coupled with a ninth-place finish for Carl Edwards last Sunday at Martinsville Speedway allowed Stewart to trim Edwards' points lead to just eight.
Stewart has hyped up the title fight by telling Edwards "he better be worried" and "he is not going to have an easy three weeks."
Edwards response? "We'll see what happens at Texas."
It's no holds barred between the two, and Texas Motor Speedway, the site of the next Chase race this Sunday, is loving every minute of it.
Texas has been an up and down track for Edwards. Even though Edwards leads all drivers with three wins at this track, his average finish here is 16.5.
"You never know how you're going to run, but I feel good going there," Edwards said. "I love that place. I love everything about Texas, from [track president] Eddie Gossage, down to the fans, the way they make everything such a big event."
Edwards finished 39th in the 2009 fall race at Texas. He then placed 19th and 33rd in the two races at this track last year before improving his performance here with a third-place run in April.
Stewart's average finish at Texas is 13.2. He won the fall race here in 2006.
After winning the first two Chase races -- Chicagoland and New Hampshire -- Stewart lost his momentum in the playoffs by finishing 25th at Dover and then 15th at Kansas. He had dropped to seventh in the point standings. But Stewart has bounced back nicely since then, scoring three straight top-10 finishes, including the win at Martinsville.
"I don't know anybody that doesn't enjoy being in the middle of it with three weeks to go; it's a great feeling," Stewart said. "To be in a position that we're in right now, sitting here knowing that we're right in the middle of this thing with three weeks to go, it is obviously a great feeling and great position to be in. We just got to go out and keep doing what we're doing here."
Edwards has finished no worse than 11th in this year's Chase so far.
"I feel like we made it through the first seven races of the Chase better than we expected," he said. "Now we just go to these last three races and go for broke."
None of the 12 drivers in the Chase field have been mathematically eliminated from the championship yet. Heading into Texas, 89 points separate Edwards from 12th-place Ryan Newman.
Kevin Harvick is currently 21 points out of the lead, while Brad Keselowski trails by 27 markers.
Matt Kenseth is hoping to rebound in the Chase after a disappointing finish at Martinsville. Kenseth entered the Martinsville race 14 points behind Edwards, but after his 31st-place run there, he has fallen 36 points in back of his Roush Fenway Racing teammate.
Kenseth has performed well at Texas lately. He finished second here one year ago and then followed up with a win in this year's spring race.
"I probably have more confidence going into Texas because, historically, it's been one of our best tracks," he said. "Past success doesn't guarantee anything for future success, but we certainly perform well there."
Jimmie Johnson is now 43 points behind Edwards, as his hopes of a record- extending sixth straight series championship are fading away.
"The window is getting smaller and smaller as the weeks go by, so I'm going out for maximum points, trying to win races and get trophies," Johnson said. "It's out of my control where things are at this point. It's up to other guys to have major mistakes in these next three events to let us back in."
Forty-eight teams are on the preliminary entry list for the AAA Texas 500.
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FOOTBALL BETTING : Cassel Signs Contract
Kansas City, MO - Kansas City has not officially named Matt Cassel its starting quarterback, but there can be no doubt now.
NFL Betting
After praising his leadership and work ethic through spring workouts, the Chiefs announced Tuesday they had signed the 27-year-old Cassel to a multiyear contract. Terms were not disclosed, but he will almost certainly be one of the highest-paid members of the team.
"We are excited to be able to reach a long-term agreement for Matt Cassel to be a Kansas City Chief for many years to come," owner and board chairman Clark Hunt said in a statement. "His proven leadership on and off the field will be a tremendous asset to the organization."
Patriots made him their franchise player, meaning his salary for this season will be about $15 million.
New head coach Todd Haley, taking over for Herm Edwards after a 2-14 season, refused to name a starter at any position during offseason workouts. But it was obvious to everyone the team belonged to Cassel.
"I go out there each and every day with that focus that I'm the starter," Cassel said during a June minicamp. "Competition brings out the best in everybody."
The signing will come as welcome news to Cassel's new coaches and teammates. Amiable and hardworking, online football betting he appeared to win over everyone at minicamp.
"I think he's got some unique leadership qualities. I think his teammates like him and have respect for him. I think he's doing a pretty good job on the field, too," Haley said last month. "He's doing everything that I'm asking him, that our coaches are asking him to do. I don't have one single complaint how he's carrying himself."
After one workout, wide receiver Devard Darling declared Cassel "a breath of fresh air."
"He has a lot of swagger, a lot of confidence. It's good for us," said Darling. "We trust in him that he's going to go out there and lead us all the way."
nse to accommodate his specific abilities.
Trapped on the bench behind Heisman winners Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart at USC and then unable to unseat Super Bowl MVP Brady at New England, Cassel seemed destined to be a backup all his life. As Brady was helped off the field last September, Cassel seized the opportunity he'd been waiting for since high school.
In his only sustained action since his teens, he hit 349 of 555 passes for 3,949 yards at New England. He had 23 touchdown passes and 13 interceptions as the Patriots, who had gone unbeaten through the regular season the year before, finished 11-5 and out of the playoffs.
Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli, who had been Bill Belichick's assistant in New England, engineered the trade after the Patriots became convinced that Brady would recover fully from his knee operation.
"Since Matt arrived in Kansas City, he has embraced the team and the community," Pioli said. "His work ethic, his ability and competitive presence is what we expect from our players."
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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting
NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.
That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.
A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."
It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.
The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.
So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."
Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.
Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.
Seriously.
The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.
The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.
Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."
The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.
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