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09/03/2010 - Sparta, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ed Carpenter earned his first pole in the IZOD IndyCar Series after edging points leader Will Power in Friday's qualifying for the Kentucky Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway.
Carpenter, making just his third IndyCar start in the No.20 car for Panther/Vision Racing this season, posted a two-lap average of 217.933 m.p.h. around the 1.5-mile oval for his first career pole in his 102nd start. He also became the 10th different pole sitter in 11 races at Kentucky.
"The way I kind of look at it, I'm trying to keep my career going during every minute I'm in the car," Carpenter said. "I have to do the best that I can and get the most out of it. I'm just having a lot of fun right now. The Panther team is doing a great job, in addition with the Vision Racing part of it. It's just a lot of fun."
Last year, Carpenter finished a career-best second at Kentucky. Ryan Briscoe from Team Penske nipped Carpenter at the finish line by only 0.0162 seconds, making it the seventh closest finish in series' history at the time.
Power captured the outside pole with a lap of 217.829 m.p.h. The Penske driver's two-lap total time was just 0.0234 seconds behind Carpenter. Last week at Chicagoland Speedway, Power finished a season-worst 16th after experiencing a fueling issue during a late-race pit stop and then ran out of gas while contending for the lead in the closing laps.
Carpenter's teammate, Dan Wheldon, will share the second row with Scott Dixon from Chip Ganassi Racing.
Hideki Mutoh qualified fifth, followed by Bertrand Baguette, and Mario Moraes.
Penske teammates Helio Castroneves and Briscoe, who won the pole at Chicagoland, took the eighth and ninth starting positions, respectively.
Tomas Scheckter, driving an entry for Conquest Racing, completed the top-10.
Dario Franchitti, who led the way in practice earlier in the day, qualified a disappointing 11th. The Ganassi driver and defending series champion trails Power by 23 points with three races to go.
All four drivers from Andretti Autosport struggled in qualifying. Marco Andretti qualified 15th, while Danica Patrick placed 17th. Tony Kanaan nearly crashed during his qualifying effort and wound up 26th. Ryan Hunter-Reay will start last in the 27-car field after he spun around and backed into the wall during his run.
Saturday's 300-mile race from Kentucky will start around 8:45 p.m. (et).
<< Red Bulls hope to end RSL's home streak
Sandy, UT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Red Bull New York travels to take on Real Salt
Lake at Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday night in Major League Soccer action.
Both teams are in second place in their respective conference tables, with RSL
holding
<< Fresno State hosts Cincinnati in season opener
When Fresno State visited Cincinnati last season, the Bulldogs outgained the Bearcats, controlled the ball for nearly 44 minutes and still ended up on the losing side of a 28-20 game that still rankles coach Pat Hill.While Fresno State controlled th
<< Hurricane Earl forces Boston-Chicago postponement
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Friday's contest between the Chicago White Sox
and Boston Red Sox was rained out.
The threat of Hurricane Earl heading toward Boston forced officials to make
the early postponement and reschedule the con
<< D.C. United, Columbus clash again in league play
Washington, D.C. (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - D.C. United interim coach Ben Olsen called
Wednesday's loss to the Columbus Crew in the U.S. Open Cup semifinals "cruel,"
but now the struggling squad will try to bounce back in Major League Soccer on
Saturda
Eagles trade for OL Wells, cut 10; Abiamiri to PUP >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia Eagles have traded for
Arizona Cardinals offensive lineman Reggie Wells, the team announced Friday.
The 29-year-old Wells, who was acquired in exchange for an undisclosed 2011
draft
L.A. wants better effort against Chicago >>
Bridgeview, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Landon Donovan and manager Bruce Arena both
agreed after last week's loss to the Kansas City Wizards that the Los Angeles
Galaxy were "outcompeted."
Davy Arnaud had a goal and an assist to lead K.C. to a 2
SEC, Nashville agree to multi-year deal to host hoops tournament >>
Birmingham, AL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Southeastern Conference and the
Nashville Sports Council agreed to play the SEC men's basketball tournament at
Bridgestone Arena in 2015, 2016 and 2019.
The event will now be held at the arena
Rapids not taking Chivas for granted >>
Commerce City, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Colorado Rapids will continue their
playoff push on Saturday when they host Western Conference cellar-dwellars,
Chivas USA at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.
Colorado enters the weekend in fifth p
American Idol odds : Blake Lewis the Early Standout
An important American Idol betting lines recap from February 20 Guys episode. The 12 men came out flat overall with Blake Lewis appearing to have the early edge after the first hour and a half.
Rudy - was quite good singing "Free Ride" to start off. Randy was not impressed though. Paula thought he started off fantastic. "Never had anyone stop off so lively" said Paula but Simon (who does not like Rudy) does not feel he has a distinct voice and was not impressed either.
Brandon was a little pitchy according to Randy and Paula agreed. Simon said he was a good singer but the song was "too safe" and he needs to make an impact. He was listed at +1200 odds or $1200 paid out on a $100 bet should he win the competition.
Big favorite Sundance came in with a flat version of "Knights in White Satin" and the judges let him have it, including Paula. Randy claimed the song was out of pitch throughout.
Korean American - and a Jenny Woo favorite - Paul Kim was up next. Another pitchy flat one but Randy said he still liked his potential. Kim at +3000 odds was said to have sung a "third rate version of that (George Michael) song" according to Simon Cowell. He sang "Careless Whisper".
22 year old Chris Richardson was up next. He was listed with +1100 odds coming in. He got the best response from the judges though Simon did not believe the vocal was that great.
Nick was boring and pitchy. Simon didn't think he was that bad though and predicted he would be back next week. Nick Pedro was a big +3000 dog coming into this competition.
Beat boxer Blake Lewis was listed with early +1000 odds or $1000 payout on a $100 bet if he were to become the next American Idol winner odds . These of course were the early odds. He was considered original for picking an "odd song". He did not beat box and the judges felt it was the best vocal of the night.
Sanjaya came in as the second biggest favorite after Chris Sligh but his performance Tuesday night was not very good.
Chris Sleigh was the early favorite at +450 odds. Great voice and a great sense of humor. He's a real standout. Randy felt it was on point but maybe ahead of the chorus a little bit. Simon Cowell said he felt like he was in some "sort of weird student gig".
Jared Cotter followed. He was listed with +2000 odds early on to win the competition. The judges felt he needs to take more risks but looked good.
22-year old AJ Talbado, who has tried out for American Idol five times, was up next. "Kind of a theme park performance" said Simon. Though the judges felt he performed okay. Simon did feel AJ might be better than he originally thought.
Phil - this season's military favorite - came into this competition with +1200 odds to win the competition. He was the last to perform. He was certainly strong enough to get through this stage of the competition and perhaps the best one after a shaky start.
Tomorrow night, the ladies perform and I sure hope they do a better job than the boys. Check out all the American Idol betting odds here.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com - this sportsbook accepts credit cards.
Is there such a thing as a trap game in the NFL?
I once asked that question to Pete Korner, who at the time was office manager and a senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants.
Korner almost ripped my head off. There is no such thing as a trap game, he loudly berated me. It’s a myth. The numbers are made using power ratings, he said.
There are trap games, though. They just might not be what you think. The perception is of a good team, say Philadelphia, laying a small number against New Orleans.
Using the highly-respected power ranking from The Gold Sheet, you’d find the Eagles with a power rating of 4 and the Saints at 8. When you factor the game being played in New Orleans, you could see why the line opened so short at less than a field goal.
For some, this makes it enticing to take the Eagles. That’s not a real trap game, though.
A real trap game, says professional gambler Dave Malinsky, is thinking you’re getting value betting a bad team, which brings us to the Oakland Raiders-Denver Broncos matchup.
The Raiders are +15 in this long-standing division rivalry. Denver is on a short week having dispatched Baltimore Monday. However, the Raiders haven’t covered the spread their last 10 games.
Many bettors don’t trust the Raiders to give a full effort. Few think much of Art Shell and his Oakland’s coaching staff.
So oddsmakers have to do something to make Oakland attractive if they hope to get equal action.
Now Malinsky is a value shopper. But he won’t touch the Raiders even getting more than two touchdowns.
“I try to eliminate the undisciplined, unfocused teams because they’re the ones most likely to suffer the bad beats,” he said.
Near the top of Malinsky’s list of stay-away teams is the Miami Dolphins, who have yet to cover a spread this season.
“Whatever you think of Nick Saban, you have to look at the penalties and turnovers,” Malinsky said.
It’s easy to point out the Dolphins failed to get the money this past week against New England because Olindo Mare missed a field goal and had another field goal blocked. But even though the Dolphins outgained the Patriots, 283-213, they committed eight penalties.
Bad teams not only cost themselves victories, but pointspread covers as well. The Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers are two more examples.
The Cardinals couldn’t have been in a better position this past Sunday, up 14-0 at home against a mediocre Kansas City Chiefs squad. But they couldn’t hold it. The Packers got a push against St. Louis, but also could have won losing by three when Brett Favre fumbled at the St. Louis 11-yard line with 44 seconds left.
“The Packers were in a position to beat Philadelphia, too,” Malinsky said. “But they couldn’t even cover double digits.
“These teams just make mistakes and it costs you … they always will look good from a value standpoint. They really will. But that’s the trap.”
Houston and Tennessee rank among the six-worst teams. Malinsky wouldn’t be afraid to take either of these teams, however, if the price were high enough.
The Texans are bad, Malinsky said, but they have some discipline. The Titans showed they could not only come up with an outstanding game plan, but execute it as well, losing by one to the Colts on the road as an 18 ?-point underdog this past Sunday.
“Jeff Fisher is a worker,” Malinsky said of the Titans coach. “I’m not sure how hard Art Shell wants to work when he gets out of bed.”
Fisher, though, could be out as Tennessee coach after this season. Is he still worth backing in the right spot, with the right price, as a lame duck coach?
“It’s in his nature to keep working hard and not worry about any possible lame duck status,” Malinsky said. “He’s coaching for his resume.”
Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines.
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