Busch brothers tops in qualifying at Las Vegas

Autoracing Betting Lines

02/27/2009 - Las Vegas, NV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kyle Busch won the pole at his hometrack, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, for the second year in a row, while his elder brother, Kurt Busch, posted the second best lap in Friday's qualifying for the Shelby 427.

Kyle Busch set a new track qualifying record with a lap of 29.033 seconds (185.995 m.p.h.). However, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver will have to start the Sprint Cup Series race from the rear of the field after an engine change prior to qualifying.

"We're just going to buy our time and race the 427 miles," Busch said. "All the guys on this team did an awesome job changing the engine today. We look forward to hopefully being able to do it on Sunday."

The pole victory was Busch's fifth in his Sprint Cup career.

Kurt Busch will now lead the 43-car field to the green flag after recording a lap of 29.078 seconds.

The last time brothers qualified on the front row for a Cup race occurred in April 2000 when Rusty Wallace won the pole and Kenny Wallace secured the outside pole at Martinsville Speedway.

Jimmie Johnson qualified third at Las Vegas, followed by David Reutimann and Marcos Ambrose.

Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne, Mark Martin, Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart completed the top-10.

Other drivers of note and their starting positions include: Carl Edwards (16th), Greg Biffle (24th), Jeff Gordon (28th), Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (31st) and Matt Kenseth (40th).

Jeremy Mayfield and Scott Riggs were among the eight drivers who failed to qualify. Both drivers raced their way into the Daytona 500 earlier this month. Other drivers missing the field were: Travis Kvapil, Dave Blaney, Mike Garvey, Sterling Marlin, Tony Raines and Dexter Bean.

After winning the Daytona 500 and the Auto Club 500 at California, Kenseth will attempt to become the first driver in NASCAR history to win the first three Cup races of the season. Kenseth currently holds an 81-point lead over Gordon in the series standings. He won back-to-back races at Las Vegas from 2003-04.

"I didn't think we would have won the first two races, so I haven't really thought about the third," Kenseth said. "Hopefully we can get our car to handle good this weekend and have a shot. The pit crew has been operating at an extremely high level, and so have all the guys getting the cars to handle and run - the engine guys and everything - so I feel like we have the tools to be competitive and we'll just try to be as competitive as we can and hopefully be somewhere in position at the end."

Roush Fenway Racing has been dominant at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, with the team's six victories best compared to Hendrick Motorsports' four wins since the series started racing there in 1998.

Gordon, who is coming off a second-place finish at California, is eager to snap his winless streak, which now stretches to 43 races. He won at Las Vegas in 2001, the same year he captured his fourth Cup championship.

Edwards won last year's event at Las Vegas.

The green flag for Sunday's race is scheduled to drop around 4:30 p.m. (et).

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Betting Football

NFL Football Betting Online

Is there such a thing as a trap game in the NFL?

I once asked that question to Pete Korner, who at the time was office manager and a senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants.

Korner almost ripped my head off. There is no such thing as a trap game, he loudly berated me. It’s a myth. The numbers are made using power ratings, he said.

There are trap games, though. They just might not be what you think. The perception is of a good team, say Philadelphia, laying a small number against New Orleans.

Using the highly-respected power ranking from The Gold Sheet, you’d find the Eagles with a power rating of 4 and the Saints at 8. When you factor the game being played in New Orleans, you could see why the line opened so short at less than a field goal.

For some, this makes it enticing to take the Eagles. That’s not a real trap game, though.

A real trap game, says professional gambler Dave Malinsky, is thinking you’re getting value betting a bad team, which brings us to the Oakland Raiders-Denver Broncos matchup.

The Raiders are +15 in this long-standing division rivalry. Denver is on a short week having dispatched Baltimore Monday. However, the Raiders haven’t covered the spread their last 10 games.

Many bettors don’t trust the Raiders to give a full effort. Few think much of Art Shell and his Oakland’s coaching staff.

So oddsmakers have to do something to make Oakland attractive if they hope to get equal action.

Now Malinsky is a value shopper. But he won’t touch the Raiders even getting more than two touchdowns.

“I try to eliminate the undisciplined, unfocused teams because they’re the ones most likely to suffer the bad beats,” he said.

Near the top of Malinsky’s list of stay-away teams is the Miami Dolphins, who have yet to cover a spread this season.

“Whatever you think of Nick Saban, you have to look at the penalties and turnovers,” Malinsky said.

It’s easy to point out the Dolphins failed to get the money this past week against New England because Olindo Mare missed a field goal and had another field goal blocked. But even though the Dolphins outgained the Patriots, 283-213, they committed eight penalties.

Bad teams not only cost themselves victories, but pointspread covers as well. The Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers are two more examples.

The Cardinals couldn’t have been in a better position this past Sunday, up 14-0 at home against a mediocre Kansas City Chiefs squad. But they couldn’t hold it. The Packers got a push against St. Louis, but also could have won losing by three when Brett Favre fumbled at the St. Louis 11-yard line with 44 seconds left.

“The Packers were in a position to beat Philadelphia, too,” Malinsky said. “But they couldn’t even cover double digits.

“These teams just make mistakes and it costs you … they always will look good from a value standpoint. They really will. But that’s the trap.”

Houston and Tennessee rank among the six-worst teams. Malinsky wouldn’t be afraid to take either of these teams, however, if the price were high enough.

The Texans are bad, Malinsky said, but they have some discipline. The Titans showed they could not only come up with an outstanding game plan, but execute it as well, losing by one to the Colts on the road as an 18 ?-point underdog this past Sunday.

“Jeff Fisher is a worker,” Malinsky said of the Titans coach. “I’m not sure how hard Art Shell wants to work when he gets out of bed.”

Fisher, though, could be out as Tennessee coach after this season. Is he still worth backing in the right spot, with the right price, as a lame duck coach?

“It’s in his nature to keep working hard and not worry about any possible lame duck status,” Malinsky said. “He’s coaching for his resume.”

Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines.