Kenseth wins Phoenix pole; Stewart, Edwards are 8th, 9th

Autoracing Betting Lines

11/12/2011 - Avondale, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Matt Kenseth won the pole for Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500, while Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards, the top-two drivers in Sprint Cup Series points, grabbed the eighth and ninth starting positions, respectively, in qualifying at Phoenix International Raceway.

Kenseth, the second-to-last driver to make his qualifying attempt in the 46- car field, turned a lap at 137.101 mph around the newly repaved and reconfigured one-mile track. The Roush Fenway Racing driver claimed his third pole of the season and the seventh of his Sprint Cup career.

"The car had a lot of grip, and I thought it was really good in [turns] three and four," Kenseth said. "These guys have done a great job. I'm certainly not known for being a good qualifier. My cars have been really fast. [Crew chief] Jimmy [Fennig] and this whole team have done a really good job giving me fast race cars this year."

A.J. Allmendinger earned the outside pole with his lap at 136.446 mph. It's the third front row appearance for Allmendinger in four races at Phoenix. His Richard Petty Motorsports teammate, Marcos Ambrose, qualified third.

Mark Martin and Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the top-five.

The new racing surface at Phoenix has made it very challenging for teams so far this weekend. In practices and qualifying, drivers have dealt with loose race cars, and track conditions have rapidly changed throughout the day.

"I hope it stays like it is right now to be honest," Stewart said. "I feel like we're better in this scenario than the other guys. It is a fine line, but at the same time, it makes the drivers do their job, and that's what I like."

Jamie McMurray took the sixth spot, followed by David Reutimann. Kasey Kahne qualified tenth.

Edwards enters the season's penultimate race with just a three-point lead over Stewart, who has won the last two races -- Martinsville and Phoenix. Edwards won last year's fall event at Phoenix.

Kevin Harvick will start 27th. Harvick is currently 33 points behind Edwards. Kenseth trails his Roush Fenway teammate by 38 points.

In his first race back since being suspended from last Sunday's event at Texas, Kyle Busch qualified 34th -- the worst among the 12-driver Chase for the Sprint Cup field. Busch will have to start from the rear of the field in the 312-lap race due to an engine change his team made during Friday's practice sessions.

The race is scheduled to start just after 3:00 p.m. (et).

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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

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