Biffle holds off Edwards to win Las Vegas Nationwide race

Autoracing Betting Lines

02/28/2009 - Las Vegas, NV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Greg Biffle survived a crash-filled Sam's Town 300 and held off his Roush Fenway Racing teammate Carl Edwards in an overtime finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Saturday to end a 76-race winless streak in the Nationwide Series.

After leading 46 consecutive laps, Biffle ran out of fuel and coasted into the pits on lap 146. He fell one lap behind after his stop. Biffle, however, rebounded quickly and was back in front when his other Roush Fenway teammate David Ragan crashed while he held the lead during a round of green-flag stops on lap 169.

A wreck involving Mike Bliss and Denny Hamlin in the closing laps setup the green-white-checkered finish. Hamlin cut a tire, which slowed his progress. Bliss then slammed into the back of Hamlin, putting him into the wall.

On the final restart, Edwards moved ahead of Jason Leffler for second after Leffler ran out of fuel. Edwards then challenged Biffle for the lead, but could not make the winning pass during the final two laps.

"I ran out of gas on the restart going into turn one," Biffle said. "I think they said (Leffler) ran out of gas also. I just kept it on the bottom, and the fuel pressure came back. I tried to block Carl going down the back, but I couldn't do it. So I just stayed on the throttle on the outside and my car was just so good. I was able to pass him back."

Biffle, who led a race-high 86 laps, beat Edwards to the finish line by 0.391 seconds for his 19th career Nationwide victory, but his first since February 25, 2006 at California.

Despite a cut tire just before the 100-lap mark, which put him a lap down, Edwards moved back into winning contention in the late-stages. His second- place finish gave Roush Fenway a one-two finish at Las Vegas.

"I drove in there as deep as I thought was reasonable, and Jason Hedlesky, my spotter, was telling me, 'He's still there, he's still there,' and I'm thinking, 'he's got me'," Edwards said. "I wanted to keep my leg in it, but I thought I would wreck him. So I did the best I could."

Brian Vickers finished third, followed by Leffler and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Rookie drivers Michael McDowell, Brendan Gaughan, a Las Vegas native, Justin Allgaier and Scott Lagasse Jr. were sixth through ninth, respectively. Jeff Burton completed the top-10.

Edwards moved into the lead in the series championship standings. He now holds a 48-point advantage over Vickers after the first three races of the season.

The almost three-hour event featured 12 cautions for a track record 60 laps.

Two of this year's favorites to win the series title were involved in crashes that now have them behind in the early season point standings.

Kyle Busch made hard contact into the wall on lap 22. Busch dove beneath Kevin Harvick in an attempt to take the lead from him, but Busch lost control of his car as it skidded up the track and bounced off the wall.

"It was just a mistake on my part battling for the lead that early in the race," Busch said, "It was 100 percent my fault trying to race for the lead."

Busch ended up finishing 39th and dropped to fifth in points (-109).

Scott Speed's day at Las Vegas ended early when he rammed into Busch's car. Speed, in his first career Nationwide start, led the opening two laps before Harvick passed him for the top position. He won the pole earlier in the day, becoming the ninth driver in the series to qualify first in his debut.

The incident forced NASCAR to halt the race 10 minutes for track clean-up efforts.

Mike Bliss and Brad Keselowski made contact on the seventh lap. Bliss got turned sideways, while Keselowski suffered damage to the left front panel on his car.

Keselowski's troubles continued on lap 16 when he cut a tire and slammed into the wall. He returned 35 laps later and finished 27th.

"I don't know what I could have done differently," Keselowski said. "It's just the way these cars are. This is a great Chevrolet and it's tore up. We've had three great race cars this season and just can't seem to close the deal."

After finishing third in the Nationwide championship standings last year, Keselowski currently sits 22nd in points (-244).

The race was stopped for another 10 minutes on lap 92 to clean up the mess from Robert Richardson Jr.'s badly damaged car. D.J. Kennington bumped Richardson from behind, sending him into the wall. Rookie Michael Annett also was involved in the incident.

Just after the restart, Jeff Burton got loose coming out of turn four. Burton slid into the wall and collected Harvick's car in the process. Harvick suffered heavy damage to his car after running in the top-five during the first half of the race.

"(Burton) wasn't all that good, and he just got up there, and got himself in a bad spot and spun out," Harvick said. "Unfortunately we were the ones that hit him...We had a car capable of winning the race."

After lengthy repairs, Harvick returned to the track 54 laps down and settled for 29th-place finish.

Steve Wallace, David Green, Brandon Whitt and Stanton Barrett were also involved in the wreck.

The next Nationwide race is scheduled for Saturday, March 21 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Luckusurf Autoracing Betting News

<< Peverley leads Thrashers past Hurricanes
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rich Peverley's second goal of the game with 1:28 to play helped the Atlanta Thrashers rally for a 5-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes at Philips Arena. Atlanta was trailing by two goals in the thi

<< Williams rolls to second title in as many weeks
Acapulco, Mexico (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Venus Williams powered to her second championship in as many weeks as the top-seeded American blitzed second-seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta, 6-1, 6-2 to win the Mexican Open. One week ago Williams

<< Rockets waive G Head
Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Houston Rockets waived seldom-used shooting guard Luther Head on Saturday. The 6-foot-3 Head appeared in just 22 games this season after being sidelined since January 10 with a right foot injury.

<< Day of Mourning: Heat to retire 33
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - On Saturday the Miami Heat announced plans to retire center Alonzo Mourning's jersey, which will mark the first time in franchise history that the team has done something of the sort. During a halftime

<< Report: Thunder's Durant out 7-14 days with sprained ankle
Memphis, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant is reportedly going to miss seven to 14 days with a Grade Two right ankle sprain, according to a report in the Oklahoman. Durant suffered the injury during

Lee and Magic rally to down Sixers >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Courtney Lee scored 13 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter, helping Orlando erase a 10-point deficit heading into the final period to finish off a three-game season sweep of Philadelphia in a 106-100

Canadiens win fourth straight in toppling Sharks >>
Montreal, QC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jaroslav Halak made 45 saves and helped back the suddenly surging Montreal Canadiens to a 3-2 win against San Jose at the Bell Centre. Andrei Markov and Saku Koivu had a goal and an assist each while Jos

Rangers erupt for six goals, pound struggling Avs >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Scott Gomez posted a goal and two assists as the dormant New York offense, spurred by a four-goal first period, awakened to lead the Rangers to a 6-1 win over Colorado at Madison Square Garden. Nikolai Zher

Danis records another shutout as Isles top Sabres >>
Uniondale, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Yann Danis stopped 31 shots to secure his second consecutive home shutout and Sean Bergenheim scored twice as the New York Islanders beat the Buffalo Sabres, 2-0, at Nassau Coliseum. Jack Hillen, Kyle

Kubina's pair, including OT winner, sends Leafs over Sens >>
Ottawa, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Pavel Kubina scored twice, including the winner 33 seconds into overtime, as the Toronto Maple Leafs came back to edge the Ottawa Senators, 4-3, at Scotiabank Place. Kubina also netted the tying goal i

Sportsbook Betting Lines

Who Makes the Sportsbook Betting Lines?

Las Vegas Sports Consultants (LVSC) is the world’s premier oddsmaking company and the most respected authority on making the lines. Mike Seba is a Senior Oddsmaker at LVSC and has been making lines for the last six years. In our extended interview, Seba explained that there are 4-5 oddsmakers assigned to make lines for each of the major sports (pro & college football and basketball; MLB, NHL, boxing, golf). Each of these oddsmakers bring unique opinions, strengths and weaknesses to the process. Oddsmakers at LVSC are professional sports junkies who love what they do and would probably do it for nothing if you asked them, but they do get paid for it. By necessity their approach is very research-oriented and concise, since with millions of dollars at risk there is little margin for error.

“You either have a passion for it or you don’t,” Seba said.

“The #1 thing for us is to make a line for each game that creates good two-way action. We do this by drawing from past experiences and applying them to current situations. People think it’s much more complicated, but it’s not. “

What are the Football Betting Lines Trying to Accomplish?

There is a common misconception that point spreads represent the oddsmakers’ prediction of how many points the favorite will win by. That is not the case at all – their intent is NOT to evenly split the ATS result between the teams; rather, their goal is to attract equal betting action on both sides. Stated another way, they want to create a line that half the people find appealing to bet one way while the other half find it appealing to bet the other way (known as ‘dividing the action’).

Divided action means the sportsbook is guaranteed a profit on the game because of the fee charged to the bettor (called juice or vig – typically $11 bet to win $10).

How the Opening Line Is Made

The opening line is the first line created by the oddsmakers, which is then sent out to sportsbooks. Of course there is an entire method to the madness on how the opening line is created. Seba explained that it all starts with each oddsmaker creating a line on each game based upon their own personal approach. This usually includes having up-to-date power ratings on each team.

Power ratings are the oddsmaker’s value of each team and are used as a guide to calculate a "preliminary" pointspread on an upcoming game. The power ratings are adjusted after each game a team plays. Examples of non-game factors that would require an adjustment to a team's power rating are key player injuries and player trades.

Once a game’s power rating based pointspread is determined, the oddsmaker will make adjustments to that line after considering each team's most recent games played and previous games played against that opponent. Also, adjustments are made after reading each team’s local newspapers to get a sense of what the coaches & players are thinking going into the game.

Since the oddsmaker’s ultimate goal is equally dividing the sports betting action, public perception and sportsbook betting patterns must be taken into account. For example, the public might have heavy betting interest week after week on a popular college football betting team such as USC. If an oddsmaker comes up with a preliminary line of USC -7, then an adjustment up to -7.5 or -8 would be made in response to the public’s expected USC bias.

The last step in the line-making process for each oddsmaker is taking one final look to determine whether or not the line "feels right." This is where common sense and past experience with how games are bet enters into the picture.

A round-table discussion among the 4-5 oddsmakers involved in making the line for each sport is then conducted and a consensus line is decided upon by the Odds Director before it is released to the sportsbooks. Of the 4-5 oddsmakers, generally the 2 most respected opinions are weighed more heavily by the Odds Director before he decides on the final line.

Why Sports Betting Lines Change

Once the opening line is released by LVSC, the individual sportsbooks decide if they want to make any adjustments before offering it to the public. Reasons for such adjustments include:

Experts working for the individual books having a strong opinion on the game

Individual books having players who consistently bet with certain tendencies (such as an extreme bias toward favorites or toward a certain popular team like USC)

The purpose of these adjustments, like all line adjustments, is to more equally divide the betting action.

Once betting begins, sportsbooks can adjust the line at any time. In doing so they attempt to make more attractive the team that is getting less action. By moving the line, sportsbooks can influence how the public bets on a particular game.

For example, if the pointspread on a game is 7 and most of the money is coming in on the underdog (taking the +7), sportsbooks will then move the number down to 6 ½ to try and attract money on the favorite.

Moving the line is the oddsmaker's effort to balance betting action, and often times such moves can have a major impact on a bettor’s decision. Oddsmakers can also change the line depending on various event-related factors such as player injuries or weather. Obviously, if the line comes out a week ahead of the event (which is the case in football), there is much that could happen during the week leading up to the event that could affect the line. Oddsmakers have to determine if any changes are necessary and send out an "adjusted line."

“The main objective is that our clients get equal action on both sides,” Seba said. “We’re not trying to pick the team that covers the spread, we’re trying to make it a coin flip, a tough decision (for the bettor). If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job.”

To visit this internet sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your sports betting needs and World Series odds.