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03/11/2010 - Sao Paulo, Brazil (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The IndyCar Series -- with new title sponsor IZOD -- kicks off its 2010 season this weekend in Brazil, marking the first time the series competes in a South American country. With 17 races on the schedule, this year should feature another great tug of war among several drivers for the championship. The fight for the title has come down to the last lap of the season-finale the past four years, so don't be surprised if that's the case again on October 2 at Homestead.
WILL GANASSI'S REIGN CONTINUE?
Dario Franchitti capped off his return to IndyCar in 2009 with his second championship. Franchitti edged 2008 series champion and Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon by 11 points.
After winning his first title with Michael Andretti's team in 2007, Franchitti joined Ganassi and moved over to NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series competition the following year, but his efforts in stock car racing did not go as well as he expected.
His IndyCar comeback was nothing short of success with five victories for the '09 season.
"I think that the Indy car I jumped in was a good one, and Team Target puts really good cars out and that definitely made my job easier," Franchitti said. "I've been doing it for so long before that as opposed to when I went to stock cars which was learning something completely new. This was going back to learning something that was instinct for me. It was all I'd ever really done, so it was a lot easier, and I love driving those cars."
Franchitti and Dixon made Ganassi the head of the class last year with a combined 10 wins.
Dixon became the winningest driver in the series last August when he collected his 20th career victory at Mid-Ohio. Sam Hornish Jr. held the previous record with 19.
Hornish is the only driver with three series titles, but Franchitti and Dixon have the opportunity to match that record this year. Dixon won his first championship in 2003.
PENSKE POWER
Once again, Team Penske will be Ganassi's biggest threat in IndyCar. Penske will field three cars this season, adding Will Power to its stable of full- time drivers. The team has not been a three-car operation since 1994 when Al Unser Jr., Emerson Fittipaldi and Paul Tracy finished 1-2-3, respectively, in points. All three drivers combined for a record-setting 12 wins that year when IndyCar was sanctioned by CART.
Ryan Briscoe had a sensational season with Penske last year, winning three times and finishing just 12 points behind champion Franchitti. Despite missing the first race of the season due to his federal tax evasion trial, Helio Castroneves won two races, including the Indianapolis 500, and finished fourth in the standings. Power ran a limited schedule for Penske last year. After finishing third on the Toronto street circuit and winning on the Edmonton street/airport course, Power appeared to be one of the hottest drivers in the series until a horrifying wreck in practice at Sonoma, CA curtailed his season.
Penske has high expectations entering the Sao Paulo street circuit. Briscoe, Castroneves and Power have each claimed victories on temporary road courses over the last three seasons.
"It's been a long off-season, and I think we're all ready to get 2010 underway in Sao Paulo," Briscoe said. "Team Penske has worked really hard over the last few months, and we're prepared for what we hope will be a great season. We got off to a strong start in preseason testing, and now it's time to see what we can do when we see the green flag."
Penske recently unveiled the new look of the its cars during last month's open test at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, AL. All three Penske cars this year will feature a sleek black and white color scheme. This will be the first time since 1990 the team will not race its red and white livery.
OTHER COMPETITORS
After a disappointing season last year, Andretti made significant changes to his four-car stable. During the off-season, he took sole ownership of Andretti Green Racing and changed the name to Andretti Autosport.
Andretti also brought on board Tom Anderson as the team's senior vice president of racing operations. Anderson served as managing director of Chip Ganassi Racing from 1990-2000 and helped lead Ganassi to four consecutive CART titles from 1996-99.
After her three-race stint in NASCAR's second-tier series in February, Danica Patrick returns for another full season in IndyCar. Patrick recorded 10 top-10 finishes, including a third-place run in the Indy 500, en route to her career- best finish of fifth in points last year. Andretti had served as her race strategist, but Anderson moves into the role this season.
Patrick is expected to compete in 10 more Nationwide races this year, with her next event scheduled the last weekend in June at New Hampshire.
This year, Ryan Hunter-Reay joins Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti and Patrick at Andretti. Hunter-Reay currently is slated for a limited number of races, but Andretti is working on a full-time ride for him.
Kanaan, the 2004 series champion, is looking to rebound after his first winless season last year. He started the season with top-five finishes in the first three races but faltered from there. Kanaan hopes his winning ways return when he races in front of his home crowd this week.
"As a Brazilian getting ready to open the season in Brazil, it is hard to explain the excitement and the pressure that I'm feeling," Kanaan said.
Marco Andretti is a long-shot for the title, but could turn in some top-notch performances during the year.
Many seats were swapped during the off-season. Justin Wilson has found a new home with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. Last year, he gave Dale Coyne Racing it first win in 25 years of IndyCar competition. Milka Duno takes over Wilson's ride at Coyne, while Hideki Mutoh has left Andretti's organization and joined Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing. E.J. Viso is on board with KV Racing Technology after a two-year stint with HVM Racing.
NEWCOMERS
Takuma Sato, Mario Romancini, Ana Beatriz and Simona de Silvestro will make up this year's rookie class.
Sato, who competed in Formula One from 2002-08, makes his IndyCar debut in Brazil, driving for KVRT. Romancini landed a ride with Conquest Racing after graduating from the Firestone Indy Lights Series in '09.
The series will have four female competitors this year, with Beatriz from Brazil in a Dreyer & Reinbold car and de Silvestro from Switzerland driving for HVM.
INDYCAR'S NEW TOP BOSS
Randy Bernard, a longtime top executive at Professional Bull Riders, Inc., recently was named as the new chief executive officer of the Indy Racing League, which is the sanctioning body of the series.
Bernard headed PBR for the last 15 years. Under his leadership, attendance for stand-alone rodeo bull-riding events increased 12 percent and ratings with television partner VERSUS rose nearly 30 percent last year.
VERSUS will televise 12 IndyCar races this year.
"I truly believe I can make a difference with the Indy Racing League, and I see tremendous potential," Bernard said.
Bernard began his role with the IRL on March 1. His appointment came eight months after Tony George resigned as CEO of the governing body. George founded the IRL in 1996.
<< Schwartzel finds himself alone in front at Doral
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - South Africa's Charl Schwartzel posted a
brilliant, bogey-free, five-under 67 on Thursday to take the first-round lead
of the WGC-CA Championship.
Schwartzel braved tough, windy conditions at the TPC Bl
<< Raiders cut ties with DT Warren
Alameda, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Oakland Raiders released defensive tackle
Gerard Warren on Thursday.
The Raiders acquired Warren from the Broncos prior to the 2007 season, but the
6-foot-4, 330-pounder registered just 97 tackles and 10
<< Bears re-sign S Bullocks
Lake Forest, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Bears signed safety Josh
Bullocks to a one-year tender offer on Thursday.
The 40th pick by New Orleans in the 2005 draft, Bullocks has recorded 327
tackles, six interceptions, 28 p
<< Western Athletic Conference Tournament Recaps
Reno, NV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tai Wesley, one of three players to score 18
points for Utah State, collected 10 rebounds as the Aggies defeated Boise
State, 84-60, in the quarterfinals of the Western Athletic Conference
Tournam
Big buzz on Amen Corner: Woods reportedly to return at Masters >>
Orlando, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Masters truly will be a tradition unlike
any other this April, as several media outlets have reported that Tiger Woods
will make his highly anticipated return to competitive golf at the season's
first m
Report: Calhoun, Huskies close to contract extension >>
New Haven, CT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The University of Connecticut and men's head
basketball coach Jim Calhoun are reportedly close to a contract extension.
The New Haven Register, citing a source with knowledge of the situation,
stated T
Heat's Wright charged with DUI >>
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Miami Heat forward Dorell Wright has been charged
with driving under the influence and driving with a suspended license.
The Miami Herald reported Wright was arrested in South Beach and was stopped
early Thurs
Bulls' Rose leaves with sprained wrist >>
Orlando, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chicago Bulls All-Star point guard Derrick
Rose left Thursday's game against the Magic with a left wrist injury.
Rose was driving the lane in the first quarter and ran into Orlando center
Dwight Howard
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.
To visit this sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.
It's less than a month until the NHL hockey betting season opens at MySportsbook.com and preparations are underway for another battle in the race to hoist Lord Stanley's mug in 2007.
As cup crazy fans prepare to place their bets, one online sportsbook ,MySportsbook.com, is offering hockey betting lines on the 2007/2007 Stanley Cup , who will bring it home this upcoming season.
Despite a poor showing in last season's playoffs and the loss of Steve Yzerman to retirement, the Detroit Red Wings are early favourites at this online sportsbook with wagering odds of 6-1. The Wings will look to offensive powerhouse Pavel Datsyuk and newly appointed captain Nicklas Lidstrom to lead one of the league's most prominent franchises.
Always a threat are the Ottawa Senators, with newly acquired goaltender Martin Gerber from the Stanley Cup champion ,Carolina Hurricanes. The Sens are second best in the rankings at a 7-1 bet, and odds makers at this sportsbook are optimistic that the Ottawa squad will fare better than last season's Eastern Conference semi-final upset to the Buffalo Sabres.
Also worth noting are the defending Stanley Cup champs Carolina Hurricanes, a 10-1 bet to repeat. Behind the Canes are the New Jersey Devils, Calgary Flames, Buffalo Sabres, Philadelphia Flyers, and Anaheim Mighty Ducks all sit at 12-1. In the basement are the Washington Capitals, Chicago Blackhawks, and St. Louis Blues who all have 100-1 odds to win.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your hockey betting needs.
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