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09/04/2010 - Hampton, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Denny Hamlin earned his first pole of the season by topping Ryan Newman in Saturday's qualifying for the Emory Healthcare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Hamlin turned in a lap of 187.380 m.p.h. around the fast 1.54-mile oval for his eight career Sprint Cup Series pole, but his first since last October at Fontana, CA. He also gave Joe Gibbs Racing its 50th pole in the series.
"I was very optimistic, no matter what happened in qualifying, said Hamlin, who notched his first pole in 11 races at Atlanta. "I told myself, 'I knew I had a race-winning car come [Sunday] night.' So this is just a huge bonus for us, because I typically am very bad in qualifying. For us to be anywhere near the front is very uplifting for this team."
Hamlin, currently fifth in points, is tied with Jimmie Johnson for most victories in the series so far with five each. Johnson, the four-time defending series champion, presently sits ninth in points. Just two races remain in the regular season before the championship Chase begins later this month at New Hampshire.
Newman qualified 0.05 seconds behind Hamlin to capture the outside pole. Newman shares the record with Buddy Baker for most poles at Atlanta with seven each.
Kyle Busch captured the third spot, followed by Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart.
Martin Truex Jr., Johnson, Juan Pablo Montoya, David Ragan and Kasey Kahne completed the top-10. Kahne is the defending race winner. He also won the pole for the Nationwide race here earlier in the day.
Clint Bowyer, who currently holds the 12th and final spot for the Chase, qualified 14th. Jamie McMurray, who trails Bowyer by 100 points, will start 12th.
Points leader Kevin Harvick will roll off 29th.
Jason Leffler, Landon Cassill, Scott Riggs and Todd Bodine failed to qualify.
Sunday's 500-mile race at Atlanta is scheduled to start shortly after 7:30 p.m. (et).
<< L.A. escapes Chicago with dramatic draw
Bridgeview, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Omar Gonzalez scored in stoppage time and
the Los Angeles Galaxy escaped Toyota Park with a 1-1 draw against the 10-man
Chicago Fire on Saturday, despite a missed penalty from Landon Donovan and a
late go
<< Quality Road rebounds to win Woodward Stakes
Saratoga Springs, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Odds-on favorite Quality Road shook
loose at the head of stretch Saturday to win the $750,000 Woodward Stakes at
Saratoga Race Course. It was the colt's fourth win in five starts this year.
The c
<< Bengals chop 22, including WR Jones, K Rayner
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Wide receiver Matt Jones and kicker Dave
Rayner were among the players released by the Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday,
as the team reduced its roster to the 53-man NFL limit.
Jones, a former first-round pick
<< Snedeker joins Day in Deutsche Bank lead
Norton, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brandt Snedeker fired a seven-under 64 Saturday
to join Jason Day in the lead after 36 holes of the Deutsche Bank
Championship, the second of four FedExCup series playoff events.
Day, who shared the first-round
25th-ranked West Virginia opens by blanking Coastal Carolina >>
Morgantown, WV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Geno Smith completed 20-of-27 passes for a
career-high 216 yards and two touchdowns in his first collegiate start and
Noel Devine ran for 111 yards and a score to lead West Virginia to a 31-0
drubbin
Giants make cuts, QB Bomar among them >>
East Rutherford, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Quarterback Rhett Bomar was among the
players released by the New York Giants on Saturday, as the team reduced its
roster to the 53-player maximum.
Bomar, a fifth-round 2009 draft choice out of Sam Hous
Thome passes Big Mac on HR list as Twins rout Rangers >>
Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jim Thome hit two homers to pass Mark
McGwire for ninth place on the all-time home run list, and the Minnesota Twins
pummeled the Texas Rangers, 12-4, at Target Field.
Thome now has 584 career home
Vikings Release WR Walker, 19 others >>
Eden Prairie, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Veteran wide receiver Javon Walker was
among the players released by the Minnesota Vikings on Saturday, as the team
reduced its roster to the 53-player NFL maximum.
Walker, who was signed in August after a
My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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