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10/20/2007 - Martinsville, VA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mike Skinner held off three-time series champion Jack Sprague over the final 60 laps and captured Saturday's Kroger 200 Craftsman Truck Series race at the Martinsville Speedway. The No.5 Toyota crossed the finish line two lengths ahead of Sprague.
The victory was Skinner's fifth of the season and 24th of his truck career.
"For us to get the sweep at Martinsville is pretty awesome," said Skinner.
Sprague brought the 36-truck field to the green flag for 200 laps of short track racing. Sprague quickly built his lead to five lengths after just 10 laps. By lap 24 the margin was up to 1.118 seconds and still climbing, at least until the first caution flag.
Sprague elected to pit on the first caution flag and came out third behind two drivers who didn't come in for fuel. Terry Cook and Scott Lynch took the restart in first and second, respectively.
However, Lynch got spun just a couple of laps later and Sprague was up to second place. They restarted on lap 41 and Sprague took a quick look to the inside, but got back into line behind Cook.
On lap 53, points leader Ron Hornaday Jr. was knocked towards the inside wall, but he managed to save it and only lose a couple of positions. Meanwhile, Skinner was moving towards the front passing Travis Kvapil for third place.
Johnny Benson and Regan Smith brought out the fourth caution flag of the afternoon to slow the race on lap 64.
Cook, who apparently was not planning on making any stops, was still the leader as the field passed the 100-lap mark.
Just past that point, Sprague began to pressure Cook. And Skinner was right behind Sprague and beginning to pressure the second-place car. But just as it was getting interesting, Dario Franchitti was spun by Dennis Setzer to bring out a caution flag.
They restarted on lap 116 and Cook, Sprague and Skinner got a great jump on the field. Sprague got underneath Cook on lap 120 and when they got back to the stripe in was Sprague back in the lead, but seconds earlier another caution flag had come out negating the pass.
On lap 136 Skinner slipped underneath Sprague for second place just as Sprague was knocking Cook out of the way to take the lead. Cook fell all the way to fifth.
"When Jack and Terry got together...it opened the door for me," said Skinner.
With 60 laps to go it was Skinner, Sprague, Rick Crawford and Matt Crafton. The restart came with 44 laps to go and off went Skinner, at least until Jacques Villeneuve was sent into the wall, hard, by Clint Bowyer and Jason Leffler to bring out another yellow flag. More caution flags slowed the race, one involving Kyle Busch and Cook.
Finally with about 30 laps to go we got to see some green flag laps. Five laps anyway, before Travis Dassow spun. It took a while to clean the track of oil and the race restarted with 10 laps remaining. Just three laps later, the red flag came after a multi-truck crash on the frontstretch.
The green flag dropped for the final time with three laps to go. Skinner held off Sprague, but Hornaday Jr. made another patented great restart and jumped from fourth to third as they saw the white flag.
Skinner maintained his lead on Sprague, but the big battle was between Crafton and Hornaday Jr. The No.33 Chevy took the outside line, kept his foot on the pedal and grabbed third place on the final lap.
Skinner's win gives him an 11-point lead over Hornaday Jr. (3,383 - 3,372) heading to next Saturday's race at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.
<< Nuggets suspend Smith for three games
Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Denver Nuggets have suspended guard J.R.
Smith for the first three games of the regular season for conduct detrimental
to the team, the club announced Saturday.
"I take full responsibility for my actio
<< Roma, Napoli play to thrilling 4-4 draw
Rome, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Napoli's Marcelo Zalayeta capped a great day
with a goal in the 84th minute Saturday to end a thrilling 4-4 draw with Roma
in the highest scoring match in Serie A this season.
Ezequiel Lavezzi opened the s
<< McCoy, No. 19 Longhorns down Baylor
Waco, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Colt McCoy completed 25-of-34 passes for 293 yards
with a touchdown as 19th-ranked Texas defeated Baylor 31-10 in a Big 12
matchup at Floyd Casey Stadium.
Vondrell McGee ran for 57 yards and a score, wh
<< Wilson finds Hall all day as Crimson Tide blitz Vols
Tuscaloosa, AL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - D.J. Hall caught a school-record 13 passes
for 185 yards and two touchdowns, as the Alabama Crimson Tide knocked off the
20th-ranked Tennessee Volunteers, 41-17, in a Southeastern Conference matchup
at Brya
Kite and O'Meara share lead at Oak Hills >>
San Antonio, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tom Kite and Mark O'Meara are tied for the
lead after Saturday's second round of the AT&T Championship at Oak Hills.
Kite fired a six-under 65 in round two, while O'Meara, the overnight leader,
only man
Kessel's shootout tally sends Bruins over Rangers >>
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Phil Kessel scored the lone goal of the shootout
to lift the Boston Bruins to a 1-0 victory over the New York Rangers at TD
Banknorth Garden.
With Manny Fernandez stopping all three Rangers in the shootou
Top-ranked Buckeyes hold off Spartans >>
Columbus, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chris Wells rushed for a career-high 221 yards
and a touchdown as Ohio State began its reign as the top-ranked team in the
country with a 24-17 win over Michigan State.
Todd Boeckman completed 15-of-23 pas
Mountaineers smash Mississippi State >>
Morgantown, WV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Patrick White threw for a pair of touchdowns
and ran for another score as ninth-ranked West Virginia beat Mississippi
State, 38-13, in an interconference tilt at Milan Puskar Stadium.
White finished w
Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.
As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.
The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.
Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).
But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.
Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.
Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2
New York Giants - 9 - 2
Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).
Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.
So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.
And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.
They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.
Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.
But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.
Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.
Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.
Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.
Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?
Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.
In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.
Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.
Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.
The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.
The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.
Visit MySportsbook.com for free sportsbook odds RSS feeds go to MySportsbook.com for all your betting football needs.
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