11/07/2008 - Avondale, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jimmie Johnson continued his winning ways at the Phoenix International Raceway by capturing the pole for Sunday's Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500. The No.48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver and two-time defending series champion turned in a fast lap at the one-mile track in 26.721 seconds (134.725 m.p.h.).
The pole victory was Johnson's sixth of the season and the 19th of his Sprint Cup career.
Johnson has won the last two races at Phoenix, and is looking to become the first driver to win three in a row there.
"I think track position here is important," Johnson said. "This is really a sprint race with 300 laps, and keeping track position is very important. We had a fast car, but lost some track position due to fuel strategy in the spring race, and had to take a chance on going the distance in fuel to get the race won. Hopefully we can keep the track position all night long this time."
Johnson currently holds a 106-point lead over Carl Edwards with two races remaining in the "Chase for the Sprint Cup" championship. Edwards qualified 15th.
Starting alongside Johnson will be Jamie McMurray, who posted the second fast time of 26.741 seconds.
"We unload good and we were good in race trim earlier," McMurray said. "The car drove really good, but I just fought the grip, and I can't believe how bad the sun was in turn one. I way over drove that corner."
McMurray finished a season-best third last weekend at Texas.
Kurt Busch (26.760) and David Reutimann (26.763) will start on the second row.
The remainder of the "Chase" field will start in the following order: Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (fifth), Jeff Gordon (seventh), Denny Hamlin (eighth), Kyle Busch (14th), Kevin Harvick (19th), Jeff Burton (24th), Clint Bowyer (28th), Tony Stewart (29th), Greg Biffle (31st) and Matt Kenseth (34th).
Joe Nemechek was the only driver who did not qualify.
Last Sunday, Edwards became the first driver to score three Cup victories at Texas, and it also marked the fourth consecutive time the fall race winner at Atlanta also won the following week at Texas. Edwards began the streak in 2005, with Tony Stewart doing it in 2006 and Johnson accomplishing it last year.
An Edwards comeback is within the realm of possibility as he heads to Phoenix with a lot of momentum.
In 1992, Alan Kulwicki trailed leader Bill Elliott by 85 points with two races remaining, but Kulwicki's fourth-place finish compared to a 31st-place run for Elliott at Phoenix allowed Kulwicki to take a 10-point lead into the season- finale at Atlanta. He finished the year with the same point-margin over Elliott, making it one of the closest championship battles in the sport's history.
Edwards has yet to win at Phoenix but finished fourth twice. He finished 42nd there one year ago.
Meanwhile, Johnson could possibly clinch his record-tying third-consecutive Cup championship one race early, but doing so at Phoenix would be difficult.
Johnson would have to gain 90 points on Edwards and 52 on third-place Greg Biffle for a 196-point lead in order to clinch at Phoenix.
If Johnson heads to Homestead with a 162-point advantage, he would just simply need to start the season-finale to capture the championship.
Johnson will win the title if he finishes seventh or better in the last two races, regardless of any other driver's performance.
The green flag is scheduled to drop Sunday around 3:45 p.m. (et).
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In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.
Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).
If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).
Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.
New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)
In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
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