Danica-mania returns to Nationwide at New Hampshire

Autoracing Betting Lines

06/22/2010 - Loudon, NH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Series: NASCAR Nationwide. Date: Saturday, June 26. Race: New England 200. Site: New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Track: 1.058- mile oval. Start time: 3:30 p.m. (et). Laps: 200. Miles: 211.6. 2009 winner: Kyle Busch. Television: ESPN. Radio: Performance Racing Network (PRN)/SIRIUS NASCAR Radio.

She's back. After a four-month hiatus, Danica Patrick returns to the Nationwide Series this weekend at New Hampshire.

Of course, Patrick will be the center of attention at New Hampshire, as one of auto racing's most popular and widely marketable drivers is expected to make her fourth career Nationwide start. She is guaranteed a starting position in the 200-lap race since her No.7 JR Motorsports team currently sits 20th in owner points.

"I'm really looking forward to getting back to all the cool people that I've met, my friends and the team; they've been great," Patrick said. "I really like driving the cars. They're a lot of fun, and they are a different challenge than IndyCar, but I think some of things I learned over [in IndyCar], they have helped me over [in NASCAR]."

Patrick has spent the last four months focusing on her full-time IndyCar efforts. After struggling earlier in the IndyCar season, the 28-year-old driver has nicely rebounded with three straight top-10 finishes, including a second-place run earlier this month at Texas. She currently sits 11th in points.

This is an off-week for IndyCar before the series resumes on July 4 at the Watkins Glen, NY road course.

Before her foray into NASCAR, Patrick made her stock car racing debut with an impressive sixth-place finish in the February ARCA event at Daytona. One week later, she competed in the Nationwide season-opener at Daytona. Patrick finished 35th after being caught up in a multi-car pileup mid-way through the event.

At California, Patrick finished the 300-mile race without incident, but fell three laps behind with a 31st-place result. Her most recent Nationwide event came at Las Vegas, where she crashed early and wound up finishing 36th.

With its length at 1.058 miles, New Hampshire will become the shortest track that Patrick will run so far in her early stock car racing career.

No doubt, Patrick will have her hands full at New Hampshire.

"This will be the most sort of dramatic back and forth sort of stuff that I will be dealing with," Patrick said. "At the beginning of the season, it was a little bit more cut and dry. It was more NASCAR than IndyCar. Now, it's definitely going to be back and forth, but I have to say in the times that I have gone back and forth, I don't have any problem with it."

After New Hampshire, Patrick is scheduled to compete in nine more Nationwide races this season, with the next one on July 9 at Chicagoland.

Another big story at New Hampshire will be the possibility of a 24th different winner in as many Nationwide races here.

Last year, Kyle Busch made a late-race pass on his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Joey Logano for the lead, and then held it to become the 23rd different winner at New Hampshire.

Busch, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Jason Keller, Joe Nemechek and Kenny Wallace are those drivers on the 43-team preliminary entry list for the New England 200 that have won at New Hampshire in the past.

Could one of these drivers become the first repeat winner, or could someone like Logano or points leader Brad Keselowski keep the streak alive at New Hampshire?

We'll find out on Saturday.

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Sportsbooks to bet on football

Recently I had an email debate with an angry reader who said I did not understand "the science of oddsmaking", as he called it.

He said I was wrong for suggesting oddsmakers care about who wins or loses games.

"Oddsmakers only care about splitting the betting public 50/50 on both sides of the line and keeping the commission (a.k.a. juice)," he wrote.

He might have been right about not understanding "the science of oddsmaking". After all, I'm not an oddsmaker. That said, I stick to my assertion that oddsmakers (a.k.a. sportbooks) often do care about who wins games.

Granted, as a general rule, sportsbooks try to balance their action so that they're not exposed to big losses. However, there are times when this is difficult to pull off, regardless of how much a line has moved. There are also times when that general rule is ignored and a book pursues risk.

Generally speaking, it's safe to say the books in Vegas are risk-adverse. Unlike in the past when the wise guys ruled the town, Vegas is now corporate and the goal of most casinos is to make as much money as possible with as little risk as possible.

Thus, Vegas sportsbooks try everything in their power to balance the action. They're satisfied simply collecting the juice. But these profits are small, especially compared to the take from other casino games, namely slot machines.

Because the profits at Vegas sportsbooks are so small, you could argue that many casinos operate sportsbooks simply as a novelty to keep the tourists happy.

With a growing aversion to risk, it should come as no surprise that Vegas bookmakers have been panicking this NFL season.

Despite huge pointspreads, a disproportionate percentage of bettors are still laying their money on favorites like the Eagles, Colts, Pats and Vikings rather than the dogs (a common trend for the largely recreational bettors that visit Vegas).

And much to the dismay of the books, those favorites are finding ways to cover the thick chalk. In fact, prior to Week 7, the four teams listed above are a combined 16-2-2 (88 percent) against the spread. (The tables turned dramatically in Week 7, but more on that later.)

The result has been an early-season beating for the books, and a bonanza for bettors.

While Vegas increasingly hates risk, it's no longer a major player in the sports betting world. Most of the betting action now takes place offshore where sportsbooks are not as obsessed about balance. In fact, some books encourage exposure to risk because the rewards can be so much bigger.

Consider MySportsbook.com. On its website, the book has odds pages which actually display the amount of action it's getting on games. In other words, you can see how much action the book is taking on both sides of a pointspread, moneyline or over/under.

One look at these numbers and it's obvious MySportsbook.com does not balance every game. In fact, far from it.

Take last weekend's matchup between St. Louis and Miami. By game time on Sunday, 83 percent of the betting action at MySportsbook.com was on the Rams; only 17 percent was on Miami.

What's interesting is that MySportsbook.com opened the pointspread with Miami at +6 1/2. By game time, the spread had lowered to +5.

That goes contrary to the balancing theory. If MySportsbook.com had wanted to balance the action, it would have given Miami more points; instead, it took away 1 1/2. World Series odds are now up as well.

MySportsbook.com exposed itself to even more to risk, and rolled the dice on the underdog Dolphins. Why? I contacted a representative with the book to find out. His answer was simple.

"The line moved early based on 'smart money' from sharp players," said Jeff Gilroy, a spokesperson for the book. "We also knew from early in the week that we would need Miami, therefore (we dropped) the spread to encourage Rams money.

"At the end of the day, we liked the home team."

So the conclusion is this: MySportsbook.com respected the sharp action, and gambled that the sharp bettors had a better take on the game than the recreational bettors, who were hammering the visiting Rams.

In the end, the gamble paid off. Miami, desperate for a win in front of its home fans, pounded the overrated Rams, who are terrible on the road and even worse on grass. Final score: 31-14 Fish.

MySportsbook.com was also heavily exposed on numerous favorites in Week 7, including Philadelphia, Seattle and Denver. All three failed to cover.

The fact that sportsbooks are exposed to risk on certain games is really nothing new. The fact, that Sportsbook.com is willing to show the public where it's exposed is intriguing.

Armed with this type of information, bettors can make more educated wagers. They can get an idea where the sharp money is going and conversely where the public money is headed.

MySportsbook.com is opening up its cashbox, letting bettors look inside and challenging them to take their best shot at grabbing the cash.

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