04/15/2007 - Fort Worth, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jeff Burton made sure he didn't come up short this time, making a last lap pass for the win in Sunday's Samsung 500 Nextel Cup race at the Texas Motor Speedway. It was just three weeks ago in Bristol that Burton raced Kyle Busch clean and couldn't make the final pass for the win.
Not this time. The No.31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet driver crossed the finish line 0.411 seconds ahead of Matt Kenseth.
"That was a lot of fun," said Burton. "Matt Kenseth is one heck of a race car driver. We were quite a bit faster than he was and hopped up on the outside and made it really tough."
The victory was Burton's first of the season and 19th of his 'Cup' career.
With qualifying cancelled due to bad weather, points leader Jeff Gordon brought the 43-car field to the green flag for 334 laps of high-speed racing. But the drivers couldn't even complete one lap before they started spinning.
The accident began when David Ragan slid into the side of J.J. Yeley and sent him spinning down the track. The out-of-control cars then collected Ricky Rudd, Ryan Newman and Casey Mears to varying degrees.
Meanwhile, Gordon not only maintained the race lead, but increased it to 2.742 seconds after 25 laps. He still held the top spot through the first round of pit stops.
Again, Gordon pulled away from the field and after 75 laps the margin had ballooned to more than two seconds. His teammate Johnson began to close on him and by the time they hit lap 94, he was on Gordon's rear bumper.
But another round of pit stops and still Gordon would not yield. Through 125 laps Gordon had led 117 of them. Suddenly Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s No.8 Chevrolet came to life. He got around Johnson for second place and began to close on the leader.
"Junior" caught Gordon on lap 153 and three laps later cleanly passed under the points leader for the top spot. He quickly opened up a one-second lead on Gordon.
But following a round of green-flag pit stops, Gordon caught Earnhardt Jr. and the two battled side-by-side for the lead. "Junior" fought him off and Gordon settled in behind the No.8 Chevrolet.
As they closed in on 200 laps completed, Johnson neared Gordon's rear bumper for second place. Though teammates, the No.24 wouldn't let him past. It might have had something to do with their great battle at Martinsville two weeks ago, but Gordon wasn't giving an inch to his teammate.
It was a fun battle to watch, but it allowed fourth-place Burton to join the fray. Finally Johnson made the pass stick and dropped Gordon to third place on lap 206.
They made a caution flag round of pit stops and while Earnhardt Jr. and Johnson came out one-two, Gordon's crew was a little slower and he dropped to fifth place.
They got back to racing and Earnhardt Jr. just flew away from the field. With 100 laps to go, his lead over new second place runner Kurt Busch was 4.277 seconds. Johnson, who was second, was fading quickly and the crew thought it might be a faulty ignition box.
Tony Stewart brought out a caution flag after he and Juan Montoya got to racing side-by-side and the Colombian slid up into Stewart sending him in a spin.
On the restart, Kurt Busch was giving Earnhardt Jr. everything he could handle and on lap 249 he eased in front of "Junior."
With 82 laps to go Stewart was trying to get a lap back and as he came up on Busch he was going way too fast and couldn't negotiate the turn. Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch, who were just behind Stewart at the time, hit the brakes, but they couldn't avoid each other and both were seriously damaged.
With two of the strongest cars out of the race, Kurt Busch was in good shape as they reached the 260-lap mark. Behind him was Mark Martin, Kenseth, Gordon and Burton.
After slipping a bit in the middle of the race, Gordon once again was the fastest car on the track and began to move back up the charts. He passed Martin for third place and took a look at Kenseth for second place. He got past Kenseth easily and began to narrow the gap on Kurt Busch.
Busch's once three-second lead was down to less than a second as the field reached the 290-lap mark. With the inevitable about to happen, Kurt Busch made his final pit stop on lap 291 and on the very next lap the yellow came out for debris pinning the No.2 Dodge to the back of the lead lap in 14th place.
Gordon was in the lead with 30 laps to go and second-place Kenseth was slipping further back. He reported that he thought he had a tire going down. Gordon's lead was 1.5 seconds, but just as suddenly Kenseth stopped fading, it wasn't a bad tire. The margin held at that level then began to shrink. By lap 315 Kenseth had regained all his speed and caught up to Gordon. They were nose to tail with 18 laps to go. With Kenseth on the outside and Gordon on the inside they ran that way for a lap before Gordon had to yield to the No.17 Ford.
While the two leaders were fighting, Burton caught them and joined in on the fun. He got around Gordon with 13 laps to go and took aim at Kenseth. Gordon continued to drop, letting Martin take third place, but the primary battle was for the lead with 10 laps to go.
Kenseth was refusing to yield even though Burton seemed to have the faster car. Burton's car liked the bottom of the track while Kenseth was using the top side. There were three lengths between the two cars but Burton was closing again.
They were side-by-side with two laps to go, but Burton couldn't quite stick his nose in front of Kenseth. The drivers saw the white flag and Burton stuck it on the bottom determined to make the pass this time. He got just enough room as the accelerated out of turn two and the lead was his. Burton stayed in front of Kenseth on the final two turns and took the victory.
"I just drove it in there on the last lap and it stuck," said Burton. "I got far enough ahead of him to get clean air on the nose."
Martin, Gordon and Jamie McMurray completed the top-five. Gordon' fourth-place finish will enable the four-time series champion to keep the points lead, just eight ahead of Burton (1,136-1,128). Kenseth (1,011) is third overall, 125 points behind Gordon.
The next race in the series is set for Saturday night, April 21st at the Phoenix International Raceway.
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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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