Boys and a girl, have at it in 2012

Autoracing Betting Lines

02/16/2012 - Daytona Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - From Trevor Bayne's stunning win in the Daytona 500 to Tony Stewart beating Carl Edwards for the championship in a tiebreaker, NASCAR indeed had an unforgettable season in its premier series in 2011. Now the burning question is: Can this upcoming season in NASCAR top the one from last year.

One thing is for sure. The much-anticipated arrival of Danica Patrick to the Sprint Cup Series is upon us. The hype began the moment Patrick announced her intentions to run in the series last August, and it will continue throughout the season.

And don't be surprised if we have another year of temper tantrums and other shenanigans from Kyle and Kurt Busch on and off the track.

Yes, this should be another eventful year in NASCAR.

DANICUP

Danica-mania is now at an all-time high. All eyes will be on Patrick next week when she makes her Sprint Cup debut at Daytona International Speedway. Thanks to Tommy Baldwin Racing's alliance with Stewart-Haas Racing and therefore a transfer of owner points to Patrick's No.10 team, the former IndyCar star is guaranteed a starting position in the February 26 season-opening Daytona 500.

In addition to her full-time duties with JR Motorsports in the Nationwide Series, Patrick is expected to compete in at least 10 Sprint Cup races this season.

Nine of Patrick's races have already been determined. In addition to Daytona, she is slated to compete at Darlington (May 12), Charlotte (May 27), Bristol (August 25), Atlanta (September 2), Chicagoland (Sept. 16), Dover (Sept. 30), Texas (November 4) and Phoenix (Nov. 11).

"I'm excited about the season, and I'm excited about the racing," she said. "I'm a little bit nervous, too, because I want to do well. Any time you feel like you want to do well, whether it's on the track or doing your job, you get a little nervous, because you feel a little pressure to want to do it. But I'm very happy with where I am. I'm very fortunate to have the opportunity I do with two fantastic teams. That's all you can ask for as a driver - to have good racecars and good crew chiefs."

Will the July 29 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway be her 10th one?

"It would be great to go there and do the big NASCAR race and be around," she noted. "I love that track. It's my favorite track. So that's a great idea."

Patrick will not compete in this year's Indianapolis 500, which is scheduled on the same day as the 600-mile race at Charlotte.

While Patrick might be very popular and highly marketable, perhaps more so than Dale Earnhardt Jr. right now, she will have her work cut out on the racetrack in both Sprint Cup and Nationwide this year.

NEW FACES AT STEWART'S TEAM

After a host of personnel changes to his team during the offseason, Stewart is ready to begin his title defense. Stewart did not have much time to celebrate his third Cup championship during the winter break, as he spent a lot of his time getting new crew chief Steve Addington up to speed.

Following the completion of the 2011 season, Addington left Penske Racing and came on board with Stewart-Haas Racing to take over the crew chief role formerly held by Darian Grubb.

"Personality-wise, Steve and I get along really well, and it's similar to where Darian and I started out," Stewart said. "When I say it's a little loose, it's a question of what a little loose means to him. And Steve's worked with different drivers, so he knows how to go through that process too. So, it's literally trying to figure out what that combination is going to be like."

Greg Zipadelli has also joined SHR after spending the past 13 years as a crew chief at Joe Gibbs Racing. Zipadelli will serve as SHR's director of competition and Patrick's crew chief in her 10 scheduled races.

Stewart had a phenomenal ending to the '11 season by winning five of the 10 championship Chase races. Will his momentum carry over into the new season?

"Honestly, I think it's easy to keep that intensity up," he said. "The difference is, there are some variables that have changed. So you realize it's a different focus than necessarily what we had at the end of the season last year. There is always something when you get three or four races from the end of the year, and you know you've got a shot at it, that there is a redirected energy. It's like nothing else matters.

"Now, everybody's hit the reset button. We're all starting at zero again. You go down to Daytona and start at day one just like everybody else. You realize that intensity is still there, but you realize there is a learning process that's going to go on with learning a new crew chief. It's just part of the process, but you still keep that focus as high as you can."

Stewart has yet to win the Daytona 500 in 13 starts. How ironic would it be if the driver of the No.14 wins NASCAR's biggest race of the season in his 14th attempt.

RECLAIMING THE TITLE

Jimmie Johnson's record string of championships came to an end this past year. After winning five straight titles from 2006-10, Johnson endured a somewhat disappointing '11 season by finishing a career-worst sixth in points.

No doubt, Johnson, crew chief Chad Knaus and the No.48 Hendrick Motorsports team have spent extra hours at the race shop this winter, gearing up for what they hope will be a comeback season. Knaus was on vacation in South Africa during last month's preseason testing at Daytona, but hey, all of us need to take a break every once in a while.

"Not winning last year has been a good thing for the race team," Johnson said. "It's really tough to strip things down and critically evaluate yourself, your team, the guys around you, when you have great success. We had a great run, and things were amazing, but having lost this last championship, I think we've all looked at ourselves differently. There's been a lot of great conversation and bonding that's taken place. There has been a lot of growth."

In a NASCAR media poll released on Thursday, Johnson was selected as the preseason favorite to win the Sprint Cup championship. He received 147 votes, just two more than Edwards, who finished second in last year's point standings. Defending champ Stewart trailed Johnson by three votes.

CAN THE BUSCH BROTHERS BEHAVE THIS YEAR?

The 2011 season was a "rowdy" one for Kyle Busch and his elder brother, Kurt, and their actions during the tail end of the season cost them dearly.

In wake of his retaliation against Ron Hornaday Jr. in last November's truck race at Texas, NASCAR suspended Kyle for the Sprint Cup and Nationwide events there. The sanctioning body later fined him $50,000.

"Certainly, we went through a lot during the first few weeks and months after the Texas incident, but since then, it's been good," Kyle said. "We're back to a new year and starting off fresh and being able to get to Daytona, race how I need to race in order to get wins."

Kurt's inappropriate hand gesture and use of foul language while waiting to be interviewed by an ESPN reporter during the season-ending race at Homestead, FL not only led to a $50,000 fine from NASCAR but his dismissal from Penske Racing as well.

This year, Kurt has a one-year deal with Phoenix Racing. But he's hoping it will end up being a long-term relationship with the team.

"Phoenix Racing could be a place that I stay forever, with the amount of fun I know we're going to have," Kurt said. "It's been that way already. And now we just go to each race and settle in."

According to a recent poll from Forbes, Busch was voted as America's 10th most-disliked sports figure.

One thing the Busch brothers can look forward to this year is sharing driving duties at Kyle's new Nationwide team. Kyle will drive the car in the first five races this season, starting at Daytona. Kurt is also running a limited Nationwide schedule for Phoenix Racing.

NEW RIDES IN '12

In addition to Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne, Clint Bowyer, A.J. Allmendinger and Mark Martin are among a long list of drivers with new teams this year.

Kahne is now the driver of the No.5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports after a "lame duck" season with Red Bull Racing, though he did win at Phoenix three months ago. Kahne has settled in well with Hendrick and is figured to be a strong contender to make this year's Chase.

"The Daytona test [last month] was the first time I started to feel like kind of part of the team, and it's been really good," Kahne said. "It's been everything that I expected up to this point. I still am pretty fresh with the whole deal, so I think it only gets better from here."

After driving the No.5 car full-time the past three years, Martin begins a new chapter in his Cup career by running a limited schedule for Michael Waltrip Racing. MWR has beefed up its operation with the addition of Bowyer.

David Reutimann became the odd-man out at MWR, but Reutimann will team up with Patrick at Tommy Baldwin's team. He will drive the No.10 car in the races that she is not entered.

Busch's departure at Penske opened the door for Allmendinger in the No.22.

Aric Almirola moves up from the Nationwide ranks to replace Allmendinger in Richard Petty Motorsports' No.43, while David Ragan landed a ride at Front Row Motorsports after spending five seasons with Roush Fenway Racing.

A WIN FOR JUNIOR?

One other burning question for the '12 season: Will Earnhardt Jr. finally get back into victory lane? It's sure been a long time -- 129 races to be exact -- since Earnhardt Jr. has taken the checkered flag.

It's time for him to get another win.

It's also time to say gentlemen and a lady, start your engines and have at it.

Sexcasinosex Autoracing Betting News

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2007 online football betting Preview

My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."

The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.

To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.

However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.

Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.

Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.

Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.

2007 College Football Betting Preview

There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.

The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.

So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.

USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.

USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.

Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.

That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.

The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"

The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.

Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.

Las Vegas Sports Lines

The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.

It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."

The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.

The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.

Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.

After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.

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

Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.