Hornaday Jr. picks up first win of the season at ORP
Autoracing Betting Lines
07/23/2010 - Clermont, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ron Hornaday Jr. snapped a 22-race winless streak in the Camping World Truck Series with an impressive performance in Friday's AAA Insurance 200 at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis.
Hornaday Jr., the four-time and defending series champion, took the lead from pole sitter Timothy Peters after 62 laps and dominated from there. Peters reclaimed the top position during the fifth and final caution when he opted to stay on track, while most of the leaders, including Hornaday, pitted for the last time.
Shortly after the final restart, Hornaday and Kyle Busch chased down Peters. Hornaday then made his winning pass with 48 laps remaining. He finished two seconds ahead of Busch for his 46th career truck victory, but his first since August 1, 2009 at Nashville.
"It was just a great day," said Hornaday, who led 129 of 200 laps. "Hopefully, it keeps everybody a little bit quiet, but it took [crew chief] Ernie [Cope] to come here and settle everyone down, because the guys were getting a little anxious. We know we've got a winning team, but we just had to prove it to them."
One year ago at ORP, Hornaday made series history by becoming the first driver to win four races in a row. Hornaday extended his record to five consecutive victories the following week at Nashville.
At the end of the 2009 season, Hornaday's then crew chief Rick Ren left his Kevin Harvick Inc. team and moved over to Kyle Busch's new Truck Series team to serve as director of competition.
Hornaday also won a truck event at ORP in 1997 and 2007. He will compete in Saturday's 200-lap Nationwide Series race for Kevin Harvick Inc.
Busch's second-place run was his best finish at this short 0.686-mile oval.
"We made it through the evening pretty well," Busch said. "I thought we had a shot to win there and battle with Hornaday a little bit. I felt like if maybe I could have stayed in front of him the results would have been a little different, but we knew going into practice, he was a little bit better than we were. Unfortunately, we just didn't have enough for him tonight."
Matt Crafton finished third, while Johnny Sauter and James Buescher rounded out the top-five.
Rookie Austin Dillon took the sixth spot, followed by Todd Bodine, the current points leader, Brad Sweet and David Starr.
Peters, who led 71 laps, faded in the late-stages and wound up finishing 10th.
Bodine now holds a 177-point advantage over Aric Almirola, who crashed halfway through the race and ended up with a 31st-place finish. Almirola got collected in an accident involving Mario Gosselin and Narain Karthikeyan.
"We're struggling, and we're racing for 20th," Almirola said. "We were trying to work on our truck and get it better with a hundred laps to go, and [Karthikeyan] kept running into me every corner. This place is as wide as they come for short tracks."
With the win, Hornaday moved up to fourth in the standings, trailing Bodine by 212 points.
Johanna Long made an impressive debut in the series with a 17th-place run. Long, who drove the No.15 Toyota for Billy Ballew Motorsports, became the youngest female to compete in a truck race at age 18.
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Donnie Murphy had the game-winning pinch-hit single in the ninth to cap a wild back-and-forth 7-6 Marlins win to open a three-game series with the Braves. Billy Wagner (5-1) was called on to protect a
<< Parker's INT return for TD lifts Argos over Lions
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Byron Parker's 41-yard interception return for
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<< Wilson, Young lead Rangers past Angels
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the second installment of a four-game series.
Young and Nelson Cruz each had two
<< Roddick, Isner advance to semis in Atlanta
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Americans Andy Roddick and John Isner were a
pair of quarterfinal winners in Friday's action at the Atlanta Tennis
Championships.
Roddick, the top seed, recovered after dropping the first set to b
<< Rangers catcher Treanor leaves game
Arlington, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Texas Rangers catcher Matt Treanor left
Friday's game 1-0 win against the Angels after seven innings due to a sprained
right knee. He'll have an MRI on Saturday.
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Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jay Bruce doubled in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning to lift the Reds to a 6-4 win in the opener of a three-game series with the Astros. Joey Votto was 3-for-4 with a home run, walked and scored
Brewers broadcaster Uecker returns to booth >>
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Legendary broadcaster Bob Uecker made his
return to the booth on Friday, when the Brewers began a three-game series
versus Washington.
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Bronx, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Robinson Cano went 2-for-4 with a three-run
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Brewers' Hart leaves with injury >>
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Corey Hart left
Friday's game against Washington due to an injured right wrist.
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in his return. How
Edmonds powers Brewers past Nationals >>
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jim Edmonds entered as an injury replacement
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Terrell Owens could return for Cowboys next game
A bye week will allow Terrell Owens broken hand to recover just in time for the next game the Dallas Cowboys are slated to play, according to reports. MySportsbook.com, an football sportsbook, has posted football betting lines on TO playing.
Owens broke the bone leading to his right ring finger Sunday night and had a plate surgically attached to it Monday. Although Owens' hand was swollen and aching Wednesday, Dallas Cowboys coach Bill Parcells said he's optimistic the receiver will be back at work next week and catching passes a week from Sunday against the Tennessee Titans.
MySportsbook.com online sportsbook listed Terrell Owens with odds of 7-2 (or $7 paid out for every $2 bet) to return back for the game against Tennessee.
"I certainly wouldn't rule it out now," Parcells said, referring to Terrell Owens immediate return. "Maybe five days from now I might, but I wouldn't rule it out now. ... I know we're looking to try to get him moving around pretty good in the next day or so. So we'll see where we are."
Owens did not speak with reporters Wednesday, but said Sunday he'd be out two to four weeks. A return against the Titans would be 13 days after the surgery. The Cowboys were listed as an early -7 1/2 favorite vs. the Tennessee Titans for Week 4 at MySportsbook.com
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Numerous College Basketball teams take final big step to March Madness betting
So, what turned on the lock spigot? Well, after what felt like weeks of teams treading water and slipping back into the bubble muck, a bunch of them finally decided to say "to heck with parity" and won games that should put them into the Big Dance.
Disagree with some of these? Then here's the challenge. Take all of the "should be ins" and make a legit case that each should be ahead of the team that's a lock. Then find 10 more teams that also should be placed in the bracket ahead of that lock team. Not so easy, is it?
If you want more evidence that these locks should be good to go, check out what our research department dug up. Since the NCAA Tournament went to 64 teams in 1985, only six teams from a "big six" conference have had a record of 10-6 or better in conference play and not been selected: Colorado (2004) and Nebraska (1999) from the Big 12, Boston College and Seton Hall (both 2003) from the Big East, Indiana (2005) from the Big Ten and UCLA, which somehow went 12-6 in the Pac-10 in 1988 and still missed out. (Note: Five teams went 11-7 and didn't get in, the latest being last season's Stanford team, which had a brutal nonconference run.)
Yes, 10 conference wins doesn't always mean what it used to because of unbalanced schedules, but this season, it should be plenty good in all but the extreme cases (see: Iowa).
In a way, this is a welcome development, because this is a bubble watch, not a lock watch. We can finally be done with teams like Maryland and Virginia Tech and start really bearing down on at-large battles such as Syracuse-West Virginia and Appalachian State-Georgia Tech.
Interestingly, all the shifting of teams into lock status appears to be more administrative than impactful. The number of remaining available at-larges didn't change one iota. The only difference is that teams on the bubble now have a clearer idea of which team(s) they are competing with for those precious bids.
| The Bubble Breakdown | |||
| CONFERENCE | LOCKS | SHOULD BE INS | AT-LARGES TAKEN (assuming no auto bid outlier) |
| ACC Betting Odds | 6 | 0 | 5 |
| Big East Betting Odds | 5 | 0 | 4 |
| Big Ten Betting Odds | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Big 12 Betting Odds | 3 | 0 | 2 |
| Pac-10 Betting Odds | 5 | 1 | 5 |
| SEC Betting Odds | 4 | 0 | 3 |
| MVC Betting Odds | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| MWC Betting Odds | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| TOTAL | 28 | 5 | 25 |
As always, I've tried to be as inclusive as possible while only including teams that would have a reasonable chance of at least being discussed if this were Selection Sunday. If your team's not on here, there's probably a good reason (or three) -- start with the RPI and SOS numbers and work your way down.
(Please remember, per selection committee criteria, that records displayed are Division I only. Next update: Feb. 28)
If you have a legitimate grievance, or just like talking bubble, send an e-mail. Polite ones with fact-based arguments have a much better chance of receiving a response. I apologize in advance if I can't get back to all of you.
Atlantic Coast Conference
Work left to do: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech
The ACC moves to six locks as BC, Va Tech and Virginia all got their 10th ACC wins, which should be more than enough this season, and Maryland rallied past North Carolina to get the final piece the Terps needed. After that? It could end there unless FSU, Ga Tech or Clemson picks things up in a hurry.
Work left to do:
Clemson [19-9 (5-9), RPI: 41, SOS: 42] The Tigers are closer to locking up the collapse of the year award (in a good battle with OK State) than they are to grabbing an at-large. Clemson's been very competitive, but there's no really positive way you can spin nine losses in 11 games. They now cannot get to .500 in ACC play and still must head to Virginia Tech in the season finale (after hosting Miami). Unless the Tigers win both and/or do some serious work in the ACC tourney, they very well could be left out. There are no great nonconference wins, but ODU, App State, Miss. State, South Carolina and Georgia are all respectable W's.
Florida State [18-11 (6-9), RPI: 48, SOS: 14] The Noles got thrashed at Maryland to run their losing streak to five, but then pounded NC State at home to set the table for what likely is an elimination game at Miami. You can at least make a case for the Seminoles at 7-9 in ACC play (and some work in the ACC tourney), but 6-10 is not going to cut it. Wins at Duke and over Florida will resonate, but the computer numbers remain questionable. Beyond Florida, FSU thrashed bubble buddy Providence, but there's not a ton beyond those two games that will help. They didn't show well in big-time opportunities against Pitt and Wisconsin (before the Florida win).
Georgia Tech [18-10 (6-8), RPI: 51, SOS: 46] The Jackets beat Wake on Wednesday but couldn't get it done at UVa on Saturday, which could be a crucial loss with UNC and BC (both at home) remaining and 8-8 almost a certain need for at-large consideration. A nonconference win over Memphis helps, but the RPI and SOS are not at-large quality right now; if you combine those with a sub-.500 ACC mark, that could spell NIT for GT.
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