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09/22/2011 - Loudon, NH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup. Date: Sunday, September 25. Race: Sylvania 300. Site: New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Track: 1.058-mile oval. Start time: 2:00 p.m. (et). Laps: 300. Miles: 317.4. 2010 Winner: Clint Bowyer. Television: ESPN. Radio: Performance Racing Network (PRN)/SIRIUS NASCAR Satellite.
After winning last Monday's rain-delayed race at Chicagoland Speedway, Tony Stewart has become more of a championship contender than a Chase pretender.
Stewart entered the Chase opener at Chicagoland in the ninth seed, and many had considered him as a long shot to win the title. But that's no longer the case for the two-time Sprint Cup Series champion, as he now holds the second spot in the rankings, just seven points behind leader Kevin Harvick.
Round two of the Chase is Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, which is one of Stewart's better racetracks on the schedule.
Stewart-Haas Racing had a perfect weekend at this one-mile track in July. Ryan Newman and Stewart qualified and finished 1-2, respectively, here.
Last year when the first Chase race was held at New Hampshire, Stewart was leading with two laps to go, but he ran out of fuel and coasted across the finish line in 24th.
"It was a tough way to start the Chase, that's for sure," he said. "I would've settled for second. If you know exactly how much gas you have, it would be different, but you never know. It's part of the sport, always has been. It's what makes it exciting when you never know until the last lap what's going to happen."
Stewart has recorded 15 top-10 finishes, including two victories, in 25 starts at New Hampshire.
Newman has also been impressive at this track, posting three wins and 13 top-10 finishes in 19 races. He has also claimed five poles here.
"New Hampshire has always been a good place for me," Newman said. "I'm not a hundred percent sure why. It's the place of my first win [September 2002]. This past July, we were able to qualify and finish 1-2 at Stewart-Haas. It's a fun race, and it's a very finesse racetrack. You can't overdrive the car there very much because it's so flat."
Newman sits seventh in the point standings (-14) after finishing eighth at Chicagoland.
Harvick's second-place run earlier this week allowed him to take sole position of first in points. He ended the regular season earlier this month by winning at Richmond.
"Obviously, the last three weeks have been really good for our team," he said. "We've just got to keep going."
Harvick won the 2006 Chase opener at New Hampshire. He finished fifth in both races here last season.
Several Chase drivers are hoping to rebound this weekend after disappointing finishes at Chicagoland. Jeff Gordon tumbled from third to 11th in the standings (-25) after his 24th-place run there.
"That is not how we wanted to start the Chase," Gordon said. "We battled hard throughout the event, and that's what we're going to do at New Hampshire and the other eight races."
Gordon is tied with Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch and Newman for second most wins at New Hampshire with three each. Jeff Burton, a non-title contender this year, holds the track record with four victories.
Denny Hamlin was the lowest finisher of the 12 Chase drivers at Chicagoland. His 31st-place run there has him now 41 points behind Harvick. Hamlin has finished second and third in the last two races at New Hampshire. He also finished second here in September 2009.
Forty-five teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Sylvania 300.
<< Ravens C Birk returns to practice, WR Evans out
Owings Mills, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Baltimore Ravens center Matt
Birk, who has been dealing with a knee issue, returned to practice on
Thursday, while wide receiver Lee Evans missed practice for a second straight
day.
<< Sporting, Philadelphia clash in search of postseason
Kansas City, KS (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Separated by just a single point in the
Eastern Conference standings, Sporting Kansas City and the Philadelphia Union
meet at Livestrong Sporting Park on Friday with major playoff implications.
The Co
<< Port wins record fourth Women's Mid-Am
Virginia Beach, VA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ellen Port made history on Thursday by
defeating Martha Leach to win her record fourth U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur
Championship.
Port defeated Leach, 2 & 1, at Bayville Golf Club to win the
<< Matthews, Woodson do not practice for Packers
Green Bay, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews
and cornerback Charles Woodson did not practice for the second straight day on
Thursday.
Matthews is sidelined with a quadriceps injury, while Woodson has been s
Calgary F Letourneau-Leblond suspended >>
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Calgary Flames forward Pierre-Luc
Letourneau-Leblond has been suspended four preseason games and one regular
season game by the NHL on Thursday.
The suspension stems from a hit from behind to
Rams RB Williams held out of practice >>
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - St. Louis Rams backup running back Carnell
"Cadillac" Williams did not participate in practice for the second straight
day due to a hamstring injury.
Williams, pressed into service with starter Steve
Broncos' Bailey misses practice again >>
Englewood, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Denver Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey
missed his second straight day of practice with a hamstring injury.
Bailey suffered the injury against the Oakland Raiders in Week 1.
The 33-year-old Bailey d
Bengals RB Benson suspended three games >>
Culver City, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cincinnati Bengals running back Cedric
Benson has been suspended for three games in the wake of offseason misconduct.
Benson served a 20-day jail sentence in Texas on a charge of misdemeanor
assa
Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.
As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.
The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.
Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).
But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.
Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.
Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2
New York Giants - 9 - 2
Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).
Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.
So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.
And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.
They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.
Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.
But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.
Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.
Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.
Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.
Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?
Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.
In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.
Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.
Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.
The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.
The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.
Visit MySportsbook.com for free sportsbook odds RSS feeds go to MySportsbook.com for all your betting football needs.
Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.
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