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10/29/2011 - Martinsville, VA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Virginia-native Denny Hamlin became a first-time race winner in the Camping World Truck Series by taking Saturday's Kroger 200 at Martinsville Speedway.
Hamlin, a Sprint Cup Series regular, dove underneath points leader Austin Dillon and Ron Hornaday Jr. during a three-wide pass for the lead just after a restart with 14 laps remaining. His first win came in his 12th truck start.
He drove the No.18 Toyota for Kyle Busch Motorsports. Hamlin and Busch are teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing.
"I can't say enough for everyone here at KBM and for Kyle letting me drive this truck," Hamlin said. "It really means a lot to me to get my first truck victory."
Hamlin became the 23rd different driver to win a race in each of NASCAR's three national touring series. He has four Sprint Cup victories at this 0.526- mile track.
"I just gave it everything I had during the last 50 laps; it was the hardest 50 laps I've ever driven at Martinsville," he said.
Hornaday finished second, while Dillon took the third spot. Johnny Sauter and rookie Joey Coulter rounded out the top-five.
Kevin Harvick, Cale Gale, Timothy Peters, Brendan Gaughan and James Buescher finished sixth through 10th, respectively.
With two races remaining, Dillon holds an 11-point lead over Buescher. Hornaday and Sauter are both 15 points behind.
"It was wild," Dillon said. "There were a lot of wrecks, and there weren't that many cautions thrown...I really had fun today. We finished third, and it was good for us in points."
Hornaday has finished either first or second in the last four races, as he continues his surge towards a record-extending fifth championship in the series.
"It was a great day," he said. "Stupid me, I started the race and forgot to turn the blowers on for about 30 laps, and I lost my pedal. Luckily, the yellow came out, and it came back a little bit."
The 200-lap race at Martinsville featured nine cautions for 50 laps. One of the cautions involved Germain Racing teammates Todd Bodine and Max Papis. Bodine got into the back of Papis and turned him around. Both drivers tangled again on pit road shortly after their incident.
"I can deal with things on the racetrack, but when you put a pit crew in danger on pit road for absolutely no reason, especially with a teammate, I just can't stand that," Bodine said. "I used to be that guy out there changing the tires. I did that for many years. That's a dangerous place enough without having a driver doing dumb things like that."
Bodine finished 11th, while Papis settled for 18th. There was no altercation between the two after the race had concluded.
The series will run at Texas on Friday and then conclude its season on November 19 at Homestead.
<< Oilers D Sutton suspended, hearing scheduled for Monday
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Edmonton Oilers defenseman Andy Sutton has
been suspended by the National Hockey League for at least one game, with an
in-person hearing scheduled for Monday.
The NHL made the announcement on Saturd
<< Oregon stars Thomas, James return
Eugene, OR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Oregon quarterback Darron Thomas and running
back LaMichael James, who had been dealing with injuries in recent weeks,
returned to the field Saturday against Washington State.
Neither played last Satu
<< Kokrak survives for Nationwide Tour Championship lead
Charleston, SC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jason Kokrak posted a three-over 75 in windy
difficult conditions Saturday, but it was enough to stay atop the leaderboard
after the third round of the season-ending Nationwide Tour Championship.
Kokrak, a
<< Juve downs Inter at the San Siro
Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Claudio Marchisio's fourth goal of the season
lifted Juventus to a 2-1 win over Inter Milan at the San Siro on Saturday, as
the Turin side remained unbeaten and atop the Serie A standings.
Mirko Vucinic also
Riders dominate Hamilton >>
Regina, SK (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chris Milo connected on three field goals and
Neal Hughes scored the lone touchdown of the game as Saskatchewan downed
Hamilton, 19-3, at Mosaic Stadium.
Brandon West totaled 96 yards on 19 carries and
PSG downs Caen to run unbeaten streak to 11 >>
Paris, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nene scored his fifth and six goals of the
season, while Javier Pastore also bagged his sixth, as PSG moved its unbeaten
run in Ligue 1 to 11 matches with a 4-2 win over Caen on Saturday at the Parc
des Pri
Sens win 5th straight with shootout win over Rangers >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Milan Michalek scored the game-winning goal in
the first round of the shootout, lifitng the Ottawa Senators to a 5-4 win
over the New York Rangers from Madison Square Garden.
Michalek drifted in on goal s
In the FCS Huddle: App State trips No. 1 Georgia Southern >>
Boone, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - No. 1 no more.
Again.
For the second straight year on Saturday, the FCS' No. 1-ranked team lost on
the road in the bitter Appalachian State-Georgia Southern rivalry, and this
time it was the Mountaineers who e
My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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