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07/13/2010 - Madison, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - While the Sprint Cup Series takes a break this weekend, the Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series compete at Gateway International Raceway near St. Louis. The IZOD IndyCar Series runs on the streets of Toronto.
NASCAR
Nationwide Series
Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 - Gateway Int'l Raceway - Madison, IL
The Nationwide Series rolls into the "Gateway to the West" for the start of the second half of the 2010 season. With 18 of 35 races completed, Brad Keselowski heads to Gateway International Raceway, located just outside of St. Louis, with a commanding 227-point lead over Carl Edwards.
Keselowski's 21st-place finish coupled with a seventh-place run for Edwards in last Friday race at Chicagoland allowed Edwards to trim 50 points off of Keselowski's lead.
Edwards and Keselowski, along with Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, Paul Menard, Michael McDowell, Joe Nemechek and Reed Sorenson, are those Sprint Cup Series regulars spending their off-weekend at Gateway.
One year ago, Kyle Busch added Gateway to his list of different tracks where he has won a Nationwide race. Busch benefited from Harvick's late-race misfortune, as Harvick ran out of fuel and handed the lead over to Busch with 29 laps remaining. He then held off Sorenson and Edwards in the closing laps for his sixth win of the season.
Busch will not defend his race title at Gateway. Brad Coleman will take over driving duties in the No.18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing this weekend.
Keselowski's best finish in three Nationwide starts at Gateway is fifth, which came in 2008. When Keselowski competed here for the first time three years ago, he finished 26th in his just his second start for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Nationwide team JR Motorsports.
This is Keselowski's first year with Penske Racing.
Edwards, Harvick and Sorenson have two victories each at Gateway. Earnhardt Jr. is the only other repeat winner here.
"I am looking forward to going to Gateway," Edwards said. "Those wins there to me are it. There are no wins that are bigger. Those wins there are as big as any of my Cup wins. I have a lot of folks that are going to come out to the race there, folks that don't get to go to the races a lot, but are good friends of mine."
For the fifth year in a row, Edwards will make his annual trek on bike from his hometown of Columbia, MO to the 1.25-mile Gateway track, which is located five miles northeast of downtown St. Louis.
"We are going to ride our bikes," he said "It is about 200 miles, and we have a pretty crazy crew coming. The first part is going to be a charity event. We are going to leave from Walt's Bicycle Shop in Columbia, and we are going to ride a really neat ride down to the Missouri River, where we will have a bunch of folks help raise some money for a friend of mine that needs help with some hospital bills."
Harvick has competed in four Nationwide races at Gateway, with two victories and three-top-10 finishes. He finished 17th in last year's race here.
"Gateway has been a great track to me over the years," Harvick said. "I have two wins in four Nationwide Series starts, and look forward to continuing that success this time around with the No.33 Jimmy Johns Chevrolet. Gateway is a very unique track with two completely different sets of corners, which makes for some great racing that the fans will enjoy."
Ryan Truex, who is a development driver for Michael Waltrip Racing and the younger brother of Sprint Cup regular and two-time Nationwide champion Martin Truex Jr., will make his series debut at Gateway. The 18-year-old Truex won the 2009 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East champion. He currently holds the points lead in that series.
"It is a really big opportunity, and I'm just excited to get started," Truex said. "I just can't thank everyone enough at MWR (Michael Waltrip Racing) for giving me this opportunity.
"Three years ago, I remember racing a Legend car at Wall Stadium in New Jersey, and now I'm here. It's hard to believe how fast it's come, but I'm excited, ready to get started and make the most of my opportunity."
Forty-nine teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250.
The series will race again at Gateway on October 23. It's the first year this track hosts two Nationwide events in the same season.
Camping World Truck Series
CampingWorld.com 200 - Gateway International Raceway - Madison, IL
The Camping World Truck Series join the Nationwide Series at Gateway International Raceway on the same weekend for the first time.
With the Sprint Cup Series taking a break this weekend, three series regulars -- Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Max Papis -- are entered in Friday's truck race at Gateway. Harvick and Keselowski also will compete in Saturday's Nationwide event here.
Rookie Austin Dillon is hoping his winning momentum will continue at Gateway. Dillon, the grandson of NASCAR multi-team owner Richard Childress and the son of Richard Childress Racing General Manager Mike Dillon, won his first career truck race in dominating fashion last Sunday at Iowa Speedway.
Dillon started on the pole and led 187 of 205 laps to claim his maiden victory in just his 12th truck start. He is the only member of the Childress family to win a race in one of NASCAR's top-three series. His grandfather's highest finish in 258 NASCAR starts was third at Nashville Speedway in 1978, while his father's best run in 154 starts was fourth, which came at Dover International Speedway in 1997 and Hickory Speedway the following year.
The 20-year-old Dillon has yet to compete at Gateway.
"I've been getting a few notes from dad, and some other people have been telling me about the track," Dillon said. "The way our equipment and trucks have been handling, I feel like there's no reason we shouldn't be able to go out there and run well. We might not be able to pick up as fast as we usually do in practice and make the adjustments we're able to make when we were fast right off the truck."
Dillon also set a record at Iowa by becoming the first rookie in the series to win three consecutive poles. Can he make it four poles in a row at Gateway?
"There's a good shot at it," he said. "Four in a row would be awesome. I don't know what the record is for the Truck Series for how many poles in a row, but I'd love to go for it."
Four drivers on the entry list -- Todd Bodine, Ron Hornaday Jr., Mike Skinner and David Starr -- have won a truck race at Gateway in the past. Ted Musgrave is the only driver with multiple truck wins here.
Skinner won last year's race at Gateway in the most unlikely circumstances. Matt Crafton spoiled Hornaday's opportunity for a dominating victory when Crafton spun him out just after a late-race restart. Hornaday hit the wall and slid down the track, with Jason Young slamming into the back of his truck.
Crafton took the lead, but NASCAR penalized him for rough driving. That allowed Skinner to take the lead for the first time. Skinner then held off Johnny Sauter in a green-white-finish for his third and final victory of the 2009 season.
"We won with a fourth-place truck, and at the end of the day when the smoke cleared, the No.5 was in victory lane," Skinner said. "I kept asking myself, 'How did this happen?' But I'll take it."
Hornaday, who led 116 of 162 laps, attempted to become the first driver to win a truck race at Gateway in consecutive years.
Forty-four teams are on the preliminary entry list for the CampingWorld.com 200.
IZOD INDYCAR SERIES
Honda Indy Toronto - Streets of Toronto - Toronto, Canada
The IZOD IndyCar Series heads to Canada this weekend for the second running of the Honda Indy Toronto on the streets of Toronto.
Two weeks ago, Watkins Glen, NY kicked off a string of five races on street/road courses. Edmonton, Canada, Mid-Ohio and Sonoma, CA are upcoming on the IndyCar schedule.
Will Power from Team Penske gave his title hopes a huge boost by winning at Watkins Glen. Power picked up his third victory of the season, but his first since March at St. Petersburg, FL. All three of his wins this year have come on street/road courses. He also is the only repeat winner in the series so far this season.
With the win, Power widened his lead from 11 points to 32 over Dario Franchitti, the defending series champion. Franchitti's Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon is 40 points behind. Ryan Briscoe sits fourth in points (-47), and Helio Castroneves holds the fifth spot (-54).
With eight races remaining, it looks as though it will be another tight battle for the IndyCar championship.
"No question it's more competitive than it's ever been," Power said. "It's going to be tight. It could come down to five people at the end of the year. It's that close with someone different winning every week."
Franchitti won last year's inaugural IndyCar race at Toronto. He recovered from a pit road mishap and then capitalized on a series of late-race crashes to capture the victory. It was Franchitti's third win of the season.
Power rebounded from an opening lap incident. He cut his right-rear tire after making contact with Graham Rahal heading into the first turn. Power fell almost one lap behind, but bounced back nicely for a third-place finish.
The win at Toronto allowed Franchitti to regain the points.
"For me, I just look at it one at a time, road course, oval, whatever it is," Franchitti said. "It means you have to be on top of your game, whether Toronto, Chicago or Homestead for the last race. You have to be absolutely on it. If you can't win, finish second."
Twenty-five teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Honda Indy Toronto.
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Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"
A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."
Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.
In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.
"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."
Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.
But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"
Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.
This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.
Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.
In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.
No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.
And that's all any bettor can ask for.
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