Busch brothers tops in qualifying at Las Vegas

Autoracing Betting Lines

02/27/2009 - Las Vegas, NV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kyle Busch won the pole at his hometrack, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, for the second year in a row, while his elder brother, Kurt Busch, posted the second best lap in Friday's qualifying for the Shelby 427.

Kyle Busch set a new track qualifying record with a lap of 29.033 seconds (185.995 m.p.h.). However, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver will have to start the Sprint Cup Series race from the rear of the field after an engine change prior to qualifying.

"We're just going to buy our time and race the 427 miles," Busch said. "All the guys on this team did an awesome job changing the engine today. We look forward to hopefully being able to do it on Sunday."

The pole victory was Busch's fifth in his Sprint Cup career.

Kurt Busch will now lead the 43-car field to the green flag after recording a lap of 29.078 seconds.

The last time brothers qualified on the front row for a Cup race occurred in April 2000 when Rusty Wallace won the pole and Kenny Wallace secured the outside pole at Martinsville Speedway.

Jimmie Johnson qualified third at Las Vegas, followed by David Reutimann and Marcos Ambrose.

Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne, Mark Martin, Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart completed the top-10.

Other drivers of note and their starting positions include: Carl Edwards (16th), Greg Biffle (24th), Jeff Gordon (28th), Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (31st) and Matt Kenseth (40th).

Jeremy Mayfield and Scott Riggs were among the eight drivers who failed to qualify. Both drivers raced their way into the Daytona 500 earlier this month. Other drivers missing the field were: Travis Kvapil, Dave Blaney, Mike Garvey, Sterling Marlin, Tony Raines and Dexter Bean.

After winning the Daytona 500 and the Auto Club 500 at California, Kenseth will attempt to become the first driver in NASCAR history to win the first three Cup races of the season. Kenseth currently holds an 81-point lead over Gordon in the series standings. He won back-to-back races at Las Vegas from 2003-04.

"I didn't think we would have won the first two races, so I haven't really thought about the third," Kenseth said. "Hopefully we can get our car to handle good this weekend and have a shot. The pit crew has been operating at an extremely high level, and so have all the guys getting the cars to handle and run - the engine guys and everything - so I feel like we have the tools to be competitive and we'll just try to be as competitive as we can and hopefully be somewhere in position at the end."

Roush Fenway Racing has been dominant at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, with the team's six victories best compared to Hendrick Motorsports' four wins since the series started racing there in 1998.

Gordon, who is coming off a second-place finish at California, is eager to snap his winless streak, which now stretches to 43 races. He won at Las Vegas in 2001, the same year he captured his fourth Cup championship.

Edwards won last year's event at Las Vegas.

The green flag for Sunday's race is scheduled to drop around 4:30 p.m. (et).

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Football Betting

NFL Football Betting Online

The San Francisco 49ers (5-11 SU, 5-10-1 ATS in 2007; 1-1 SU & ATS in pre-season) found some offensive life last week, and they will try to build some momentum on Thursday night as they travel to the Windy City to take on the Chicago Bears (7-9 SU & ATS in 2007; 0-2 SU, 0-1-1 ATS in pre-season) in an NFL matchup that is set to get underway at 8 PM ET at Soldier Field (natural turf) in Chicago.

Thursday, August 21

NFL betting odds: CHICAGO -3 (-120), Total 37

NOTABLE STAT: San Francisco was last in points, last in total offense in 2007
KEY NFL BETTING TREND: SF has lost its last seven SU on pre-season road

In the BetUS NFL pre-season football betting odds, the Bears are listed as a three-point favorite (laying -120), with the total posted at 37 points.

Here are some NFL football betting trends as they relate to this matchup (reflecting numbers going into the 2008 season):

* SF has lost 11 of its last 14 games SU
* SF has covered three of its last 11 games
* SF has lost six of its last seven road games SU
* SF has covered one of its last seven road games
* CHI has covered five of its last eight games
* CHI has played five of its last seven games OVER the total
* CHI has covered four of its last 13 home games
* SF has lost its last seven pre-season road games SU
* CHI has covered two of its last seven home pre-season games

Well, I guess we should congratulate the Bears on making their quarterback choice for the season's opening game, as they have designated Kyle Orton the starter against Indianapolis. The Bears obviously have lost patience with Rex Grossman, and what they do with him at this point is anybody's guess. But suffice it to say that there isn't a quarterback competition anymore, at least in training camp.

Meanwhile, the quarterback competition may also be settled in San Francisco, where the Niners bounced back from a lackluster 18-6 loss to the Raiders, in which they turned the ball over four times, to execute a 34-6 rout of the Packers last Saturday. However, coach Mike Nolan has stopped short of saying that, insisting that the job is still open. But J.T. O'Sullivan, the longshot of the trio of Niner signal-callers who opened camp, will start his third straight pre-season game here. Against Green Bay, O'Sullivan was only 8-for-17, and was intercepted, but he also threw for 9.1 yards an attempt, which included a 59-yard TD pass to Josh Morgan. The others struggled.

Some offensive cohesion is badly needed, in light of the Niners' dismal 2007 campaign, in which they were dead last in the NFL in scoring, with just 13.7 points a game. And O'Sullivan is the guy who is most familiar with offensive coordinator Mike Martz's exacting system, because he learned it last year in Detroit. O'Sullivan will go at least the entire first half and may even last longer. He'll be relieved by Alex Smith, with Shawn Hill doing the mop-up work. Three receivers who were out last week - Bryant Johnson, Ashley Lelie and Arnaz Battle - will miss this game too.

That may hurt a little here, especially since the Bears will be using a lot of their defensive starters. And it's the defense that has been keeping the Bears in games thus far. In fact, the defense and special teams were responsible for the first 19 points Chicago scored against Seattle last time out, as the offense really struggled with Grossman at the controls. But maybe the first-team offense has a chance to settle a little bit as it works more with Orton at the helm.

Certainly we have concerns about the Bears' offensive line, but we like the scenario for them here, especially if O'Sullivan doesn't make some bis plays. The Niners may have nowhere else to turn right now, and they have lost seven straight road games in the pre-season. Let's take Chicago, the three-point favorite in the NFL football betting odds.

CHICAGO -3 (-120) **
(Graded on a scale of 1-4 stars)

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