Truex Jr. on top at TMS

Autoracing Betting Lines

11/02/2007 - Fort Worth, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The sun began to set, the track got cooler and Martin Truex Jr. took advantage of the situation winning the pole for Sunday's Dickies 500 Nextel Cup race at the Texas Motor Speedway, the eighth of 10 races that make up the Chase for the Nextel Cup. The No.1 DEI Chevrolet grabbed the top spot with a best lap of 27.964 seconds (193.105 m.p.h.).

The pole victory was the first of Truex Jr.'s Cup career.

"It's awesome, we've been trying to do this for a while," said Truex Jr. "We've been second a bunch this year. That's the way to start off our weekend and one of these days we're going to finish one off too."

Starting alongside Truex Jr. will be points leader Jeff Gordon who posted a time of 28.063 seconds. Gordon was fastest in the final practice and had already won seven pole awards this season so Truex Jr. wasn't assured of his win until Gordon came up just short in one of the final two qualifying attempts of the afternoon.

Juan Pablo Montoya (28.064) and Kevin Harvick (28.090) will make up row two.

"Everybody did an amazing job...and it puts us in a good position for the race," said Montoya.

The remainder of the "Chase" field will start in the following order: Kurt Busch (sixth), Denny Hamlin (seventh), Jimmie Johnson (eighth), Tony Stewart (15th), Kyle Busch (17th), Matt Kenseth (18th), Carl Edwards (21st), Jeff Burton (27th), Clint Bowyer (29th),

Johnson's second consecutive win, and series-leading eighth of the season, cut 44 points off his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Gordon's lead to close within nine points of the four-time series champion.

It's not a fluke that Gordon and Johnson are one-two. The statistics bare out that the two friends should be there.

Gordon has six wins, 20 top-fives and 27 top-10s in 33 events. He has led a series-leading 1,280 laps out of 9,669, (13.24%). He leads in pole wins (7). He has finished worse than 12th just four times all season.

Johnson has eight wins among his 18 top-fives and 21 top-10s. He is second to Gordon in laps led with 1,225 (12.67%).

By contrast Bowyer, who is in third place overall -111 points back, has just one win, five top-fives and 17 top-10s.

Surprisingly, despite 81 career wins (sixth all-time), Gordon has never won a pole or a race at the Texas Motor Speedway. He did finish second in April 2002 and has six top-10s in 13 career starts. Johnson has similar statistics at TMS - no poles, no wins, but six top-10s in eight career starts.

The race is scheduled to begin on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. (et).

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Football Betting

NFL Football Betting Online

The San Francisco 49ers (5-11 SU, 5-10-1 ATS in 2007; 1-1 SU & ATS in pre-season) found some offensive life last week, and they will try to build some momentum on Thursday night as they travel to the Windy City to take on the Chicago Bears (7-9 SU & ATS in 2007; 0-2 SU, 0-1-1 ATS in pre-season) in an NFL matchup that is set to get underway at 8 PM ET at Soldier Field (natural turf) in Chicago.

Thursday, August 21

NFL betting odds: CHICAGO -3 (-120), Total 37

NOTABLE STAT: San Francisco was last in points, last in total offense in 2007
KEY NFL BETTING TREND: SF has lost its last seven SU on pre-season road

In the BetUS NFL pre-season football betting odds, the Bears are listed as a three-point favorite (laying -120), with the total posted at 37 points.

Here are some NFL football betting trends as they relate to this matchup (reflecting numbers going into the 2008 season):

* SF has lost 11 of its last 14 games SU
* SF has covered three of its last 11 games
* SF has lost six of its last seven road games SU
* SF has covered one of its last seven road games
* CHI has covered five of its last eight games
* CHI has played five of its last seven games OVER the total
* CHI has covered four of its last 13 home games
* SF has lost its last seven pre-season road games SU
* CHI has covered two of its last seven home pre-season games

Well, I guess we should congratulate the Bears on making their quarterback choice for the season's opening game, as they have designated Kyle Orton the starter against Indianapolis. The Bears obviously have lost patience with Rex Grossman, and what they do with him at this point is anybody's guess. But suffice it to say that there isn't a quarterback competition anymore, at least in training camp.

Meanwhile, the quarterback competition may also be settled in San Francisco, where the Niners bounced back from a lackluster 18-6 loss to the Raiders, in which they turned the ball over four times, to execute a 34-6 rout of the Packers last Saturday. However, coach Mike Nolan has stopped short of saying that, insisting that the job is still open. But J.T. O'Sullivan, the longshot of the trio of Niner signal-callers who opened camp, will start his third straight pre-season game here. Against Green Bay, O'Sullivan was only 8-for-17, and was intercepted, but he also threw for 9.1 yards an attempt, which included a 59-yard TD pass to Josh Morgan. The others struggled.

Some offensive cohesion is badly needed, in light of the Niners' dismal 2007 campaign, in which they were dead last in the NFL in scoring, with just 13.7 points a game. And O'Sullivan is the guy who is most familiar with offensive coordinator Mike Martz's exacting system, because he learned it last year in Detroit. O'Sullivan will go at least the entire first half and may even last longer. He'll be relieved by Alex Smith, with Shawn Hill doing the mop-up work. Three receivers who were out last week - Bryant Johnson, Ashley Lelie and Arnaz Battle - will miss this game too.

That may hurt a little here, especially since the Bears will be using a lot of their defensive starters. And it's the defense that has been keeping the Bears in games thus far. In fact, the defense and special teams were responsible for the first 19 points Chicago scored against Seattle last time out, as the offense really struggled with Grossman at the controls. But maybe the first-team offense has a chance to settle a little bit as it works more with Orton at the helm.

Certainly we have concerns about the Bears' offensive line, but we like the scenario for them here, especially if O'Sullivan doesn't make some bis plays. The Niners may have nowhere else to turn right now, and they have lost seven straight road games in the pre-season. Let's take Chicago, the three-point favorite in the NFL football betting odds.

CHICAGO -3 (-120) **
(Graded on a scale of 1-4 stars)

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