Busch looking for third straight win at California

Autoracing Betting Lines

10/06/2009 - Fontana, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Series: NASCAR Nationwide. Date: Saturday, October 10. Race: Copart 300. Site: Auto Club Speedway. Track: two-mile oval. Start Time: 4:30 p.m. (et). Laps: 150. Miles: 300. Last year's winner: Kyle Busch. Television: ESPN 2. Radio: Motor Racing Network (MRN)/SIRIUS XM Satellite.

Kyle Busch is looking to widen his points lead over Carl Edwards this Saturday at California.

Busch put on a dominating performance last week at Kansas, but after a late- race restart, Joey Logano passed Busch for the lead with four laps remaining. It was the fourth time this season that Logano has taken the lead away from his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate with less than 10 laps to go and then go on to victory.

With his second-place finish, Busch stretched his points lead to 245 with six races to go.

Logano, a four-time Nationwide Series race winner so far this year, will compete at California. The 19-year-old driver has finished third and sixth in his first two races there.

Busch, meanwhile, has won the last two races at California. He was simply unstoppable in last year's fall event there, leading all but six of the 150 laps. Busch briefly gave up the lead on two separate green-flag pit stops. He easily held off Carl Edwards in the final laps for his seventh win of the season.

In February, Busch won the Nationwide race at California several hours after he took the checkered flag for the Camping World Truck Series race there. He became the first driver in NASCAR history to win two national touring races on the same day.

Greg Biffle is the only other driver to win back-to-back Nationwide races at California. Biffle won there twice in 2004.

Matt Kenseth has the most victories at California with four, while Biffle and Busch have won there three times each. Kenseth is not competing in this weekend's race.

"I love this place; I always have," Biffle said. "This weekend is my last Nationwide Series race of the season, and I really want to go out on top."

Fifty teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Copart 300.

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Betting the NFL preseason

Rule No. 1 in the gamblers' handbook states, "Avoid sports betting on meaningless games."

When you're drowning in a sea of baseball monotony, however, things change. Even a hint of pro football betting can persuade the most disciplined bettor to break a few rules. 

The NFL preseason is around the corner, with a tempting Hall of Fame match kicking off on Sunday. But bettors must stay vigilant. Wagering on NFL exhibition games is an entirely different beast than the regular season. Most fans don't recognize the players on the field because starters get as much action in August as Warcraft fans get on Prom night.

The only certainty about the NFL this time of year is uncertainty – and yet there are some who say betting in August can be a gold mine.

“I actually feel the NFL preseason presents solid profit opportunities for sharp bettors and handicappers,” Sports Expert Steve Merril explains. “My experience has been that the sportsbooks fear the preseason, which is evident by lower limits and massive moves.”

The line moves are attributed to the limited knowledge available regarding playing-time distribution. One team’s top unit out on the field for one more series has an impact on the pointspread. Setting lines in the preseason often is a shot in the dark.

“We base the betting lines mostly on public perception,” Pete Korner, founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas, says. “It’s very tough to predict, almost a guessing game.”

The preseason is all about figuring out who’s in and for how long.

“It becomes a race between bettors and oddsmakers to find out how long the quarterbacks are going to stay in,” Korner admits. “If a sharp gets the information first, he could exploit an early line. I’m a full believer in moving the line in the preseason if the books find out something late in the week.”

Determining what each team’s motive is can help bettors handicap. To do this you must pay close attention to the philosophies head coaches employ in exhibition play.

“You need to know what a coach is trying to accomplish,” says Covers Expert Bryan Leonard. “Sometimes a new coach will want to instill a winning attitude. Others just want to make sure their starters don’t get hurt."

So how do you distinguish who’s playing scared and who’s playing for keeps?

“Head coaches on the hot seat or new coaches trying to implement a winning attitude usually try harder to win in the preseason,” Merril says.

Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel fits this criteria. He’s entering his third season as the sideline boss and has yet to lead the Browns to more than six wins.

Cleveland is an enticing bet as well because of the unresolved quarterback situation. General manager Phil Savage sacrificed the Browns’ first-round pick in next year’s draft for Brady Quinn, but the former Notre Dame quarterback hasn’t signed or reported to training camp yet.

Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson split time at QB last season and it looks like either player (or even Quinn) could be the opening-day starter.

“If a team has quarterback depth and the pecking order hasn’t been decided, it’s a big advantage,” Leonard says.

Even in the third week of the preseason when starters generally play the most, the final outcome of the game is in the hands of fringe players. A team's talent, all the way down to the last man on the roster, is something to consider.

The New England Patriots have long been considered one of the deeper teams in the NFL and coach Bill Belichick has said in the past he’s unafraid of stars getting hurt in games with nothing on the line. He shocked his colleagues in 2003 by playing some of his starters on special teams in the preseason.

“We want to have the team ready to play a tough, physical game and preparation has to go into that and I imagine a certain amount of injuries go with it,” Belichick told the Providence Journal in August 2003.

Bettors can only hope to find more teams that share the Pats' business-like approach to the preseason (New England is 17-9-3 against the spread since 2000) and take advantage of teams who detest the exhibition schedule.

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