Briscoe edges Franchitti for Texas pole

Autoracing Betting Lines

06/04/2010 - Fort Worth, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ryan Briscoe won Friday's qualifying for the Firestone 500k IZOD IndyCar Series race after beating Dario Franchitti by the slimmest of margins at Texas Motor Speedway.

Briscoe from Team Penske earned his second pole of the season with a four-lap average of 215.273 m.p.h. He was 0.0057 seconds quicker than Franchitti, the reigning Indianapolis 500 champion and last year's series champion.

"I get a point here, but I've got a few more to catch up actually for this championship," said Briscoe, who is currently seventh in IndyCar points. "We really got to take it just one race at a time."

Briscoe, who finished third in the 2009 point standings, claimed his 10th career IndyCar pole.

Last year at Texas, Briscoe dominated the race by leading 160 of 228 laps, but teammate Helio Castroneves beat Briscoe out of the pits during the final round of stops and took the lead for good with 53 laps remaining.

"We had two very fast cars, and [Helio] just got us in the last pit stop, and he was really quick at the end of the race," Briscoe added.

Castroneves, who qualified fifth, has not won since one year ago at Texas. The Brazilian is a three-time race winner here.

Franchitti from Target Chip Ganassi Racing will start on the outside pole.

"I'm actually a little surprised that we ran as quick as we did, because in practice, the qualifying setup wasn't anywhere close to that," Franchitti said. "I was doing my thing in the car, and I didn't know how exactly close we were to Briscoe's time, but I guess it was pretty close in the end."

Will Power, the current points leader and Briscoe's teammate, qualified third, while Ganassi's Scott Dixon took the fourth spot.

Alex Lloyd, Hideki Mutoh, Danica Patrick, Mario Moraes and Marco Andretti completed the top-10.

Tomas Scheckter, who is substituting for the injured Mike Conway in the No.24 Dreyer and Reinbold Racing car, qualified 18th.

Conway sustained back and leg injuries during a hard crash in the closing laps of the Indy 500. He underwent surgery earlier this week to repair fractures to his lower left leg. He also was fitted for a back brace, which he will wear for at least three months.

Ryan Hunter-Reay, who also was involved in the late-race incident at Indy, had surgery on his left thumb and was fitted with a carbon fiber splint this week. He qualified 24th in the 26-car field.

Saturday's 550-kilometer race at Texas is scheduled to start at 8:45 p.m. (et).

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Barry Bonds Watch: Giants Slugger Says He'll Be Back

With only 21 home runs standing between him and Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds is indeed planning on coming back for more in 2007. At least, that's what his agent told the Los Angeles Times.

"Barry's going to play in 2007," Jeff Borris of Beverly Hills Sports Council told the Times on Tuesday. "I've had many discussions with Barry and he's going to play. My intentions are to see to it he's in a big-league uniform next season. Those are my marching orders."

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American Idol odds : Blake Lewis the Early Standout

An important American Idol betting lines recap from February 20 Guys episode. The 12 men came out flat overall with Blake Lewis appearing to have the early edge after the first hour and a half.

Rudy - was quite good singing "Free Ride" to start off.  Randy was not impressed though.  Paula thought he started off fantastic.  "Never had anyone stop off so lively" said Paula but Simon (who does not like Rudy) does not feel he has a distinct voice and was not impressed either. 

Brandon was a little pitchy according to Randy and Paula agreed.  Simon said he was a good singer but the song was "too safe" and he needs to make an impact.  He was listed at +1200 odds or $1200 paid out on a $100 bet should he win the competition. 

Big favorite Sundance came in with a flat version of "Knights in White Satin" and the judges let him have it, including Paula.  Randy claimed the song was out of pitch throughout.

Korean American - and a Jenny Woo favorite - Paul Kim was up next.  Another pitchy flat one but Randy said he still liked his potential.  Kim at +3000 odds was said to have sung a "third rate version of that (George Michael) song" according to Simon Cowell.  He sang "Careless Whisper".

22 year old Chris Richardson was up next.  He was listed with +1100 odds coming in.  He got the best response from the judges though Simon did not believe the vocal was that great. 

Nick was boring and pitchy.  Simon didn't think he was that bad though and predicted he would be back next week.  Nick Pedro was a big +3000 dog coming into this competition. 

Beat boxer Blake Lewis was listed with early +1000 odds or $1000 payout on a $100 bet if he were to become the next American Idol winner odds .  These of course were the early odds.  He was considered original for picking an "odd song".  He did not beat box and the judges felt it was the best vocal of the night. 

Sanjaya came in as the second biggest favorite after Chris Sligh but his performance Tuesday night was not very good. 

Chris Sleigh was the early favorite at +450 odds.  Great voice and a great sense of humor.  He's a real standout.  Randy felt it was on point but maybe ahead of the chorus a little bit.  Simon Cowell said he felt like he was in some "sort of weird student gig". 

Jared Cotter followed.  He was listed with +2000 odds early on to win the competition.  The judges felt he needs to take more risks but looked good. 

22-year old AJ Talbado, who has tried out for American Idol five times, was up next.  "Kind of a theme park performance" said Simon.  Though the judges felt he performed okay.  Simon did feel AJ might be better than he originally thought.

Phil - this season's military favorite - came into this competition with +1200 odds to win the competition.  He was the last to perform.  He was certainly strong enough to get through this stage of the competition and perhaps the best one after a shaky start. 

Tomorrow night, the ladies perform and I sure hope they do a better job than the boys.  Check out all the American Idol betting odds here.

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