Can Stenhouse build on his points lead at Kansas?

Autoracing Betting Lines

10/05/2011 - Kansas City, KS (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Series: NASCAR Nationwide. Date: Saturday, October 8. Race: Kansas Lottery 300. Site: Kansas Speedway. Track: 1.5-mile oval. Start time: 3:30 p.m. (et). Laps: 200. Miles: 300. 2010 Winner: Joey Logano. Television: ESPN 2. Radio: Motor Racing Network (MRN)/SIRIUS NASCAR Satellite.

Following his fifth-place finish last Saturday at Dover, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is in command in the Nationwide Series championship points battle. Stenhouse holds a 22-point lead over Elliott Sadler with just five races to go.

The series now heads to Kansas Speedway, a track that became a turning point for Stenhouse during his rookie season last year. Stenhouse struggled for a majority of the season but a sixth-place finish at Kansas began his surge towards the rookie-of-the-year title.

Stenhouse has been atop the point standings since the July race in Indianapolis. Sadler moved to within five points of Stenhouse after the August event at Bristol, but the Roush Fenway Racing driver has put a distance between himself and Sadler since then.

"I'm really looking forward to Kansas," said Stenhouse, who turned 24 years old on October 2. "We got to do the Goodyear tire test there earlier this year, which will hopefully benefit us. Last year, that was one of the good races we really had heading down the homestretch."

While Stenhouse is contending for the driver's title, Roush Fenway's No.60 team is in a tight battle with Joe Gibbs Racing's No.18 team for the owner's championship. Carl Edwards won at Dover and moved the No.60 to within 13 points of the No.18.

Edwards, from nearby Columbia, MO, has 36 career Nationwide wins but has yet to score a victory at Kansas. He did win a Truck Series race at his home track in 2004.

"[Kansas] is not far from my hometown, and I will have several of my family and friends there," Edwards said. "It's a track I really want to win at. Our team has been on a roll, and we are coming off a strong win at Dover. I love the mile and a half speedways."

Edwards is scheduled to compete in each of the last five races. Kyle Busch has run 19 races in the No.18 car but is not entered in this event. Busch is slated for three more events this season -- Charlotte, Texas and Homestead.

Joey Logano, who has won the last two Nationwide races at Kansas, is back in the No.18 this week.

Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Paul Menard, Brian Vickers, Edwards and Logano are those Sprint Cup Series regulars competing in this race.

Earlier this week, Turner Motorsports announced that Vickers is replacing Reed Sorenson in the No.32 car for Kansas and Charlotte. Sorenson, who is presently third in Nationwide points (-27), has been released by the team.

"We are continuing to evaluate our racing program as we look to the 2012 season," team owner Steve Turner said in a statement. "Brian Vickers is a proven winner at NASCAR's highest level, in addition to being a driver at Turner Motorsports over the last four seasons. He has worked with [crew chief] Trent Owens in the past, which will allow us to immediately focus on the task at hand."

Turner Motorsports will announce its driver for Texas, Phoenix and Homestead at a later date.

Fifty teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Kansas Lottery 300.

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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.