Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting
09/03/2010 - Sparta, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ed Carpenter earned his first pole in the IZOD IndyCar Series after edging points leader Will Power in Friday's qualifying for the Kentucky Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway.
Carpenter, making just his third IndyCar start in the No.20 car for Panther/Vision Racing this season, posted a two-lap average of 217.933 m.p.h. around the 1.5-mile oval for his first career pole in his 102nd start. He also became the 10th different pole sitter in 11 races at Kentucky.
"The way I kind of look at it, I'm trying to keep my career going during every minute I'm in the car," Carpenter said. "I have to do the best that I can and get the most out of it. I'm just having a lot of fun right now. The Panther team is doing a great job, in addition with the Vision Racing part of it. It's just a lot of fun."
Last year, Carpenter finished a career-best second at Kentucky. Ryan Briscoe from Team Penske nipped Carpenter at the finish line by only 0.0162 seconds, making it the seventh closest finish in series' history at the time.
Power captured the outside pole with a lap of 217.829 m.p.h. The Penske driver's two-lap total time was just 0.0234 seconds behind Carpenter. Last week at Chicagoland Speedway, Power finished a season-worst 16th after experiencing a fueling issue during a late-race pit stop and then ran out of gas while contending for the lead in the closing laps.
Carpenter's teammate, Dan Wheldon, will share the second row with Scott Dixon from Chip Ganassi Racing.
Hideki Mutoh qualified fifth, followed by Bertrand Baguette, and Mario Moraes.
Penske teammates Helio Castroneves and Briscoe, who won the pole at Chicagoland, took the eighth and ninth starting positions, respectively.
Tomas Scheckter, driving an entry for Conquest Racing, completed the top-10.
Dario Franchitti, who led the way in practice earlier in the day, qualified a disappointing 11th. The Ganassi driver and defending series champion trails Power by 23 points with three races to go.
All four drivers from Andretti Autosport struggled in qualifying. Marco Andretti qualified 15th, while Danica Patrick placed 17th. Tony Kanaan nearly crashed during his qualifying effort and wound up 26th. Ryan Hunter-Reay will start last in the 27-car field after he spun around and backed into the wall during his run.
Saturday's 300-mile race from Kentucky will start around 8:45 p.m. (et).
<< Red Bulls hope to end RSL's home streak
Sandy, UT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Red Bull New York travels to take on Real Salt
Lake at Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday night in Major League Soccer action.
Both teams are in second place in their respective conference tables, with RSL
holding
<< Fresno State hosts Cincinnati in season opener
When Fresno State visited Cincinnati last season, the Bulldogs outgained the Bearcats, controlled the ball for nearly 44 minutes and still ended up on the losing side of a 28-20 game that still rankles coach Pat Hill.While Fresno State controlled th
<< Hurricane Earl forces Boston-Chicago postponement
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Friday's contest between the Chicago White Sox
and Boston Red Sox was rained out.
The threat of Hurricane Earl heading toward Boston forced officials to make
the early postponement and reschedule the con
<< D.C. United, Columbus clash again in league play
Washington, D.C. (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - D.C. United interim coach Ben Olsen called
Wednesday's loss to the Columbus Crew in the U.S. Open Cup semifinals "cruel,"
but now the struggling squad will try to bounce back in Major League Soccer on
Saturda
Eagles trade for OL Wells, cut 10; Abiamiri to PUP >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia Eagles have traded for
Arizona Cardinals offensive lineman Reggie Wells, the team announced Friday.
The 29-year-old Wells, who was acquired in exchange for an undisclosed 2011
draft
L.A. wants better effort against Chicago >>
Bridgeview, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Landon Donovan and manager Bruce Arena both
agreed after last week's loss to the Kansas City Wizards that the Los Angeles
Galaxy were "outcompeted."
Davy Arnaud had a goal and an assist to lead K.C. to a 2
SEC, Nashville agree to multi-year deal to host hoops tournament >>
Birmingham, AL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Southeastern Conference and the
Nashville Sports Council agreed to play the SEC men's basketball tournament at
Bridgestone Arena in 2015, 2016 and 2019.
The event will now be held at the arena
Rapids not taking Chivas for granted >>
Commerce City, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Colorado Rapids will continue their
playoff push on Saturday when they host Western Conference cellar-dwellars,
Chivas USA at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.
Colorado enters the weekend in fifth p
NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.
No. 1 always seems to fit USC.
Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.
Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.
Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."
Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.
"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."
The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.
"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.
"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"
USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.
"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."
While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.
As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.
But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.
Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.
The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.
The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.
The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.
No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.
Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.
Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.
The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.
South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.
The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.
Get free Sports Betting lines RSS feeds from top rated online sportsbook MySportsbook.com
Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting