Hornaday narrows points gap in Truck Series with Texas win

Autoracing Betting Lines

11/01/2008 - Fort Worth, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ron Hornaday, Jr. overcame a one-lap deficit to win Friday night's Chevy Silverado 350K Craftsman Truck Series race at the Texas Motor Speedway. The No.33 Chevrolet driver and defending series champion led the final 40 laps and finished just under a second ahead of Kyle Busch.

Hornaday recorded a season-sweep at Texas as he won here in June. It was his sixth victory of the season and the 39th of his career.

With the victory, Hornaday is just six points behind leader Johnny Benson, making it the closest margin in the series with two races to go. Only Phoenix and Homestead remain on the schedule.

"I'm pretty good at Phoenix, and Johnny's pretty good there too," Hornaday said. "We're going to go down there and see what happens."

Benson was never a factor throughout the race, but rallied as he passed Todd Bodine and Colin Braun in the final laps to score a third-place finish and retain the points lead.

"It was tough," Benson said. "Those guys were just starting to slow down, and the adjustments that we made were just good."

Bodine and Braun rounded out the top-five.

Pole sitter Rick Crawford led the field to the green flag, but Busch immediately moved to the front as he passed Cale Gale for second and then dove underneath Crawford and grabbed the top spot.

On the second lap, Gale spun and slammed into the wall, taking several other drivers with him. Crawford, Jon Wood, TJ Bell and Ryan Lawler were also involved in the incident. Crawford suffered minor damage to his right-front fender and had to pit several times during the caution, while Gale, Wood, Bell and Lawler were all forced out of competition.

When the race resumed on Lap 11, Hornaday worked his way to the front as he passed Travis Kvapil for the second spot. But Max Papis, in his first-ever Truck Series start, temporarily interrupted Hornaday's efforts as Papis made contact with the wall for the second caution on Lap 16.

Hornaday finally caught Busch on Lap 53 when Busch got caught in lap traffic and Hornaday moved underneath him to take the lead for the first time.

But Hornaday gave up the lead five laps later when he pitted for the first time. During Hornaday's stop, Jack Smith cut a left-front tire and hit the inside wall on the backstretch.

The caution put Hornaday a lap behind in 16th.

However, David Starr and Chad McCumbee made contact and crashed on Lap 65, allowing Hornaday to get back on the lead lap. By Lap 93, he was back in the top-five just before Donny Lia spun in the infield grass and came to a rest on pit road for the fifth and final caution.

Kvapil won the battle off of pit road and led the field for the restart on Lap 98. Busch restarted third and passed Erik Darnell for second, but could catch Kvapil for the lead.

Hornaday was back in command for the final time when he caught Kvapil and then moved around him on Lap 107. Busch then stole the second spot from Kvapil the following lap.

Hornaday grabbed the lead for the final when he drove around Kvapil. Busch then caught Kvapil for the second spot. Kvapil faded in the closing laps and ended up finishing seventh.

The next race is scheduled for Friday, November 7, at the Phoenix International Raceway.

Wwweircom Autoracing Betting News

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Football Betting

NFL Football Betting Online

The San Francisco 49ers (5-11 SU, 5-10-1 ATS in 2007; 1-1 SU & ATS in pre-season) found some offensive life last week, and they will try to build some momentum on Thursday night as they travel to the Windy City to take on the Chicago Bears (7-9 SU & ATS in 2007; 0-2 SU, 0-1-1 ATS in pre-season) in an NFL matchup that is set to get underway at 8 PM ET at Soldier Field (natural turf) in Chicago.

Thursday, August 21

NFL betting odds: CHICAGO -3 (-120), Total 37

NOTABLE STAT: San Francisco was last in points, last in total offense in 2007
KEY NFL BETTING TREND: SF has lost its last seven SU on pre-season road

In the BetUS NFL pre-season football betting odds, the Bears are listed as a three-point favorite (laying -120), with the total posted at 37 points.

Here are some NFL football betting trends as they relate to this matchup (reflecting numbers going into the 2008 season):

* SF has lost 11 of its last 14 games SU
* SF has covered three of its last 11 games
* SF has lost six of its last seven road games SU
* SF has covered one of its last seven road games
* CHI has covered five of its last eight games
* CHI has played five of its last seven games OVER the total
* CHI has covered four of its last 13 home games
* SF has lost its last seven pre-season road games SU
* CHI has covered two of its last seven home pre-season games

Well, I guess we should congratulate the Bears on making their quarterback choice for the season's opening game, as they have designated Kyle Orton the starter against Indianapolis. The Bears obviously have lost patience with Rex Grossman, and what they do with him at this point is anybody's guess. But suffice it to say that there isn't a quarterback competition anymore, at least in training camp.

Meanwhile, the quarterback competition may also be settled in San Francisco, where the Niners bounced back from a lackluster 18-6 loss to the Raiders, in which they turned the ball over four times, to execute a 34-6 rout of the Packers last Saturday. However, coach Mike Nolan has stopped short of saying that, insisting that the job is still open. But J.T. O'Sullivan, the longshot of the trio of Niner signal-callers who opened camp, will start his third straight pre-season game here. Against Green Bay, O'Sullivan was only 8-for-17, and was intercepted, but he also threw for 9.1 yards an attempt, which included a 59-yard TD pass to Josh Morgan. The others struggled.

Some offensive cohesion is badly needed, in light of the Niners' dismal 2007 campaign, in which they were dead last in the NFL in scoring, with just 13.7 points a game. And O'Sullivan is the guy who is most familiar with offensive coordinator Mike Martz's exacting system, because he learned it last year in Detroit. O'Sullivan will go at least the entire first half and may even last longer. He'll be relieved by Alex Smith, with Shawn Hill doing the mop-up work. Three receivers who were out last week - Bryant Johnson, Ashley Lelie and Arnaz Battle - will miss this game too.

That may hurt a little here, especially since the Bears will be using a lot of their defensive starters. And it's the defense that has been keeping the Bears in games thus far. In fact, the defense and special teams were responsible for the first 19 points Chicago scored against Seattle last time out, as the offense really struggled with Grossman at the controls. But maybe the first-team offense has a chance to settle a little bit as it works more with Orton at the helm.

Certainly we have concerns about the Bears' offensive line, but we like the scenario for them here, especially if O'Sullivan doesn't make some bis plays. The Niners may have nowhere else to turn right now, and they have lost seven straight road games in the pre-season. Let's take Chicago, the three-point favorite in the NFL football betting odds.

CHICAGO -3 (-120) **
(Graded on a scale of 1-4 stars)

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