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08/03/2010 - Watkins Glen, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup. Date: Sunday, August 8. Race: Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen. Site: Watkins Glen International. Track: 2.45-mile road course. Start time: 1:00 p.m. (et). Laps: 90. Miles: 220.5. 2009 winner: Tony Stewart. Television: ESPN. Radio: Motor Racing Network (MRN)/SIRIUS NASCAR Radio.
The Sprint Cup Series will run its second and final road course race of the season this weekend at Watkins Glen International in Upstate New York. The series competed at the Sonoma, CA course in June.
Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon are the "road course aces" at Watkins Glen, with Stewart winning here a record five times and Gordon having four victories.
Stewart claimed his most recent victory at Watkins Glen one year ago, a race that was delayed one day due to inclement weather. He conserved enough fuel late in the race and easily held off Marcos Ambrose at the finish for the win.
"It's a race that we always look forward to," said Stewart, who has finished either first or second in that last six races at Watkins Glen. "We've had a lot of success there, and it's just fun. It's like taking Sonoma and just multiplying the speed times three. It's just a lot faster track. It still has the same elevation changes, but you're just running a lot quicker. Both Sonoma and Watkins Glen are two places on the schedule that we really enjoy coming to."
Gordon holds the series record for most career road course wins. Five of them have come at Sonoma.
The last several races at both Sonoma and Watkins Glen have been wild affairs.
Last year at Watkins Glen, a spectacular multi-car crash occurred on lap 62 when Kasey Kahne got loose in turn nine and bumped Sam Hornish Jr., who spun hard into the tire barrier. Hornish then bounced back on the track and slammed violently into Gordon, who hit the barrier head on. Gordon spent additional time inside the track's infield medical center for evaluation, as a precaution for his recent back problems.
"I think the road courses are always intense and challenging in its own way," Gordon said. "I don't know if [Watkins Glen] will be as wild as Sonoma. In Sonoma, you can run side-by-side for half a lap on those double-file restarts. It's a special place.
"Watkins Glen is a lot faster, and you can't really run side-by-side up through the 'S's.' I don't think you'll see the same type of racing you saw at Sonoma, but you'll see a great race."
Gordon's wife, Ingrid, is expected to have the couple's second child in the coming days. Scott Pruett, a two-time Grand-Am Rolex Series champion and former NASCAR driver, is standing by if Gordon needs to leave Watkins Glen during the weekend to be with his wife.
In June, Gordon was a marked man in the Sonoma garage. Several drivers, particularly Martin Truex Jr., were furious with Gordon's aggressive driving throughout the 110-lap race.
Following the second restart on lap 61, Truex was running among the top-10, but Gordon slammed into the back of him and turned him around.
Gordon also tangled with Elliott Sadler and Kurt Busch during the 110-lap race. Gordon's Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Jimmie Johnson, claimed his first road course victory in the series at Sonoma. Johnson benefited from Ambrose's costly mistake in the closing laps. Ambrose held the lead, but the Australian driver turned his engine off in an effort to conserve fuel. He slowed down on the track and lost the top position, as he fell to seventh. After the final restart, Johnson pulled ahead of Robby Gordon and then drove to his first road course win in 17 starts.
Can Johnson, the four-time defending series champion, establish himself as this year's "road course king?"
The Glen's been the better of the two tracks for me, so I feel real good about going back there," he said.
Ambrose, a road-course expert, certainly will be a favorite at Watkins Glen. He has yet to win his first Sprint Cup race, but he has finished second and third in the last two races here. Ambrose also has won the Nationwide race at The Glen in the past two seasons.
"Well it's the right course; that helps for me," Ambrose said. "The competition is fierce, and that track is high speed. It's got an old style feel to it. There's a lot of banking in the turns, and a lot of high-speed corners. It fits what I like in a racetrack. It fits my style pretty well."
Forty-six teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen.
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In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.
Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).
If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).
Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.
New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)
In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and online football betting thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
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