Baseball Betting

Bowyer wins crash-filled Nationwide race at Daytona

Autoracing Betting Lines

07/03/2009 - Daytona Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Clint Bowyer held off Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards in a green-white-checkered finish to win Friday's Subway Jalapeno 250 and record his first victory at Daytona International Speedway.

Bowyer, the 2008 series champion, ran in front when a four-car accident occurred just before the leaders crossed the line for the final lap of the two-lap overtime finish. The Richard Childress Racing driver had the dominant car, as he started on the pole and led a race-high 48 laps.

"I can't begin to tell you what this place means to me, my family, everything you ever worked for to come to Daytona, let alone win a race here," Bowyer said. "This is the best place to come see a race, and people got their money worth tonight."

Bowyer led the way on the final restart and got a big push from Busch to help him fend off a challenge from Edwards on the second to last lap.

"Kyle gave me a good push there at the end, and luckily the caution came out, because who knows what would have happened on that last lap," Bowyer added.

Last year, Bowyer won the spring race at Bristol for his only victory during his championship season. The Richard Childress Racing driver is running a limited schedule in the series this year.

Busch moved ahead of Edwards just before the race-ending caution to take second. He increased his lead to 172 points over Edwards, who came in third.

"We're proud of that second-place effort, that was the best we had," Busch said. "Clint's car was better than ours today."

Joey Logano and Kasey Kahne rounded out the top-five.

Brad Keselowski, Brian Vickers, Justin Allgaier, David Ragan and Kevin Harvick finished sixth through 10th, respectively.

Kertus Davis was among several drivers who crashed in the closing laps, which set up the overtime finish. Davis' car erupted into flames while he tried to nurse it back to the pits after the incident. He quickly exited the car and suffered no injuries.

Kerry Earnhardt's car also engulfed in fire and smoke after he was involved in an incident with Chase Austin in the late-stages. Earnhardt was not hurt, but did suffer smoke inhalation.

"I hit (Jeff Green) and (Austin) both and then hit the wall and had a little bit of a fire, so I had a little inhalation of the fire and fumes," Earnhardt said.

Earlier in the race, Earnhardt and Donnie Neuenberger crashed after making contact on lap 10, forcing the first caution and then setting up a double-file restart. One month after the Sprint Cup Series began using the double-file restarts throughout each race, NASCAR instituted the new restart format for its second-tier division, beginning at Daytona.


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What Is the Point Spread?

What are Sports Betting Point Spreads?

In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.

Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).

If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).

Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.

How to Read Point Spreads

New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles

The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)

In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:

  • Philly wins the actual game by any amount of points
    OR
  • Philly loses the game by less than 7 points.
  • There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.

    The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:

    Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots

    Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.

    For Those Who Like to Consider Things Mathematically

    Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:

  • Subtracting the point spread from the favorite’s score (thus the minus sign before the number) and then compare to the underdog’s score
    OR
  • Adding the point spread to the underdog’s score (thus the plus sign before the number) and then compare to the favorite’s score

    Who Really “Won” the Super Bowl odds ?

    Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21

    The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.

    Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.

    Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).

    Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.

    And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.

To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.