Daytona Joins Series Over Sorenson

Autoracing Betting Lines

Sonoma, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tony Stewart offered some simple advice to his fellow competitors during Sunday's Sprint Cup Series race at Infineon Raceway. "If they block, they are going to get dumped." Stewart and Brian Vickers wrote the next chapter in NASCAR's "boys, have at it" with their multiple altercations during the 110-lap race at the Northern California road course.

 

"I've been complaining about the way guys have been racing all year," Stewart said. "I like Brian. I'm not holding it against him at all. I don't care if it was Ryan Newman [Stewart's teammate]. I would have dumped him too. If they want to block, that's what is going to happen to them every time for the rest of my career."

 

Vickers disagreed with Stewart.

 

After Stewart passed Vickers for position, Vickers bumped Stewart from behind and sent him into the wall. Stewart's car came to rest on a pile of tires in front of the wall.

 

This wasn't just payback, it was road rage. Careful boys, the State of California has stiff penalties for reckless driving.

 

NASCAR has not taken any action against either driver. In other words, officials let Stewart and Vickers have at it.

 

"We haven't had any problems in a long time," Vickers said. "Actually, I think the last real problem we had was turn 11 [at Sonoma] in 2004, funny enough. That was the last time we actually got together."

 

Turn 11 at the 1.99-mile Sonoma course has had its share of incidents over the years.

 

It was a crazy affair at Sonoma, but it was fun to watch.

 

Daytona Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Series: NASCAR Nationwide. Date: Friday, July 1. Race: Subway Jalapeno 250. Site: Daytona International Speedway. Track: 2.5-mile tri-oval. Start time: 7:30 p.m. (et). Laps: 100. Miles: 250. 2010 Winner: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Television: ESPN. Radio: Motor Racing Network (MRN)/SIRIUS NASCAR Radio. NASCAR's weekend of fireworks at Daytona International Speedway begins with the Nationwide Series race on Friday night.

 

The July 2010 race at Daytona marked the debut of the new Nationwide car. Earnhardt Jr. drove the No.3 Wrangler Chevrolet, the number and paint scheme made famous by his father.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

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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