Busch powers past Hornaday Jr. for truck win

Autoracing Betting Lines

10/27/2007 - Hampton, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kyle Busch captured Saturday afternoon's EasyCare Vehicle Service Contracts 200 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. The No.51 Chevrolet crossed the finish line 0.971 second ahead of Ron Hornaday Jr. but Hornaday Jr.'s finish was good enough to give him the series points lead.

The victory was Busch's first win in eight starts this season and fifth of his truck career.

Hornaday Jr. brought the field to the green flag for 130 laps of tight high- speed racing. But right beside him was the points leader and they raced into the first turn, side-by-side. Hornaday Jr. held off Skinner to lead the first lap and gain five important bonus points.

But while Hornaday Jr. had his eye on Skinner, Busch slipped underneath both drivers to grab the lead on lap three. Busch quickly moved out to a one and-a-half second lead over Skinner.

Before 20 laps were completed Hornaday Jr. got around Skinner for second place and it appeared Skinner was just cruising around waiting for later in the race.

Busch was still the leader on lap 31 when the caution flag flew for the first time. All the leaders pitted for fuel and tires. Skinner's crew decided on a two-tire stop and the decision gave him the race lead. Mark Martin also beat Busch off pit road to grab second place.

Two laps into the green-flag run Hornaday Jr. charged into the lead from fourth place. Busch was still fast after the stop and got around Skinner for second place.

A crash involving Josh Wise, Clay Rogers and Chad Chaffin on lap 46 slowed the action.

Most of the leaders stayed out, but Skinner needed to change tires because of a problem and it left him at the back in 17th place.

The race restarted on lap 54 and amazingly, the "King of Restarts" as Hornaday Jr. is known, was beaten into the first turn by Busch. Busch ran with the clean air and rebuilt his lead to almost one second. Then Hornaday Jr. fought back and on lap 67 slipped below Busch to take the lead back.

Meanwhile, by lap 60 Skinner was already up to 12th place and he cracked the top-10 on lap 68.

Another caution flag slowed the pace and all the leaders pitted. Busch was the big winner with Johnny Benson and Martin just behind. Hornaday Jr. seemed to have a slow stop and fell from first to fourth. Benson must have really found the setup, because he charged past Busch for the lead and built the lead to one second in just a few laps.

Now Hornaday Jr. got around Busch who seemed to be using up his tires quicker than the other leaders. By lap 102 Hornaday Jr caught and passed Benson for the lead.

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. Joey Clanton was second with Benson third.

Hornaday Jr. got a good restart, but the man on the move was 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., Benson, Busch and Martin. Then 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.

Benson, Martin and Skinner completed the top-five.

Despite finishing a solid fifth, Skinner lost his championship lead to Hornaday Jr. He will go to the next race, at the Texas Motor Speedway, four points back (3,547 - 3,543).

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LaDainian Tomlinson Favorite to be 2007 NFL MVP

With the first NFL preseason game less than two weeks away, it is time to start thinking about football once again at MySportsbook.com. Reigning NFL MVP LaDainian Tomlinson is currently the 5-1 co-favorite to win the award again alongside Super Bowl MVP Peyton Manning.

This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone after his all out assault on the record books last season. For those suffering from amnesia or were under a rock last football season, all L.T. did last season was set the NFL record for rushing touchdowns (28), total touchdowns (31) and total points scored (186) to go along with his 1815 rushing yards and 508 receiving yards. At 6-1, Tom Brady is next in line which isn’t surprising considering all of the firepower the Pats added over the off-season. With the addition of Randy Moss, Donte Stallworth and Wes Welker; it would be quite difficult for Brady’s numbers not to improve from last years 3529 yards and 24 touchdowns. There appears to be some decent value in Drew Bees at 10-1 considering he probably would have won the award last year if it wasn’t for L.T.’s record breaking season.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.