Power leads Penske 1-2-3 sweep in W. Glen qualifying

Autoracing Betting Lines

07/03/2010 - Watkins Glen, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Team Penske dominated Saturday's qualifying for the IZOD IndyCar Series race at Watkins Glen International, with points leader Will Power grabbing the pole for the Camping World Grand Prix at The Glen.

Power rounded the 3.4-mile, 11-turn road course in one minute, 29.3164 seconds to give Penske its eighth consecutive IndyCar pole this season and its sixth straight pole at Watkins Glen.

"It's awesome to have the car on pole again," said Power, who claimed his fifth pole of the season and the seventh of his IndyCar career. "We're certainly racking them up, but we've got to get the race win."

Power kicked off the season by winning the first two street/road course races -- Brazil and St. Petersburg, FL. He currently holds a 12-point lead over Scott Dixon, who did not make the final "Fast Six" session and ended up qualifying seventh.

Helio Castroneves will start alongside Power on the front row after qualifying 0.14 seconds behind his teammate.

"Each one of us wants to win, but as [team owner] Roger [Penske] says in the end, the team wins," Castroneves said. "Whoever is up there, it benefits the team."

Castroneves won the first three poles at Watkins Glen from 2005-07.

Ryan Briscoe, who won the pole here in 2008 and '09, qualified third, while defending series champion Dario Franchitti took the fourth spot.

Rookie Takuma Sato and Justin Wilson, the defending race winner, will share the third row. Dixon and Marco Andretti will make up row four. Mario Moraes and Adam Carroll, a newcomer to the series, will roll off from the fifth row.

One week after competing in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at New Hampshire, Danica Patrick qualified a disappointing 21st in the 25 car field.

Sunday's IndyCar race at Watkins Glen is scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m. (et).

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Betting the NFL preseason

Rule No. 1 in the gamblers' handbook states, "Avoid sports betting on meaningless games."

When you're drowning in a sea of baseball monotony, however, things change. Even a hint of pro football betting can persuade the most disciplined bettor to break a few rules. 

The NFL preseason is around the corner, with a tempting Hall of Fame match kicking off on Sunday. But bettors must stay vigilant. Wagering on NFL exhibition games is an entirely different beast than the regular season. Most fans don't recognize the players on the field because starters get as much action in August as Warcraft fans get on Prom night.

The only certainty about the NFL this time of year is uncertainty – and yet there are some who say betting in August can be a gold mine.

“I actually feel the NFL preseason presents solid profit opportunities for sharp bettors and handicappers,” Sports Expert Steve Merril explains. “My experience has been that the sportsbooks fear the preseason, which is evident by lower limits and massive moves.”

The line moves are attributed to the limited knowledge available regarding playing-time distribution. One team’s top unit out on the field for one more series has an impact on the pointspread. Setting lines in the preseason often is a shot in the dark.

“We base the betting lines mostly on public perception,” Pete Korner, founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas, says. “It’s very tough to predict, almost a guessing game.”

The preseason is all about figuring out who’s in and for how long.

“It becomes a race between bettors and oddsmakers to find out how long the quarterbacks are going to stay in,” Korner admits. “If a sharp gets the information first, he could exploit an early line. I’m a full believer in moving the line in the preseason if the books find out something late in the week.”

Determining what each team’s motive is can help bettors handicap. To do this you must pay close attention to the philosophies head coaches employ in exhibition play.

“You need to know what a coach is trying to accomplish,” says Covers Expert Bryan Leonard. “Sometimes a new coach will want to instill a winning attitude. Others just want to make sure their starters don’t get hurt."

So how do you distinguish who’s playing scared and who’s playing for keeps?

“Head coaches on the hot seat or new coaches trying to implement a winning attitude usually try harder to win in the preseason,” Merril says.

Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel fits this criteria. He’s entering his third season as the sideline boss and has yet to lead the Browns to more than six wins.

Cleveland is an enticing bet as well because of the unresolved quarterback situation. General manager Phil Savage sacrificed the Browns’ first-round pick in next year’s draft for Brady Quinn, but the former Notre Dame quarterback hasn’t signed or reported to training camp yet.

Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson split time at QB last season and it looks like either player (or even Quinn) could be the opening-day starter.

“If a team has quarterback depth and the pecking order hasn’t been decided, it’s a big advantage,” Leonard says.

Even in the third week of the preseason when starters generally play the most, the final outcome of the game is in the hands of fringe players. A team's talent, all the way down to the last man on the roster, is something to consider.

The New England Patriots have long been considered one of the deeper teams in the NFL and coach Bill Belichick has said in the past he’s unafraid of stars getting hurt in games with nothing on the line. He shocked his colleagues in 2003 by playing some of his starters on special teams in the preseason.

“We want to have the team ready to play a tough, physical game and preparation has to go into that and I imagine a certain amount of injuries go with it,” Belichick told the Providence Journal in August 2003.

Bettors can only hope to find more teams that share the Pats' business-like approach to the preseason (New England is 17-9-3 against the spread since 2000) and take advantage of teams who detest the exhibition schedule.

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