Ambrose edges Villeneuve for Nationwide pole at Montreal

Autoracing Betting Lines

08/28/2010 - Montreal, Canada (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Marcos Ambrose outran Canadian Jacques Villeneuve in the closing minutes of qualifying to take the pole for Sunday's NAPA Auto Parts 200 Nationwide Series race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

Ambrose, who won the most recent road course race in the series three weeks ago at Watkins Glen, NY, set a new track qualifying record at the 2.710-mile, 14-turn course in Montreal with a lap of 1 minute, 40.458 seconds (97.079 m.p.h.) for his second pole of the season and the fourth of his Nationwide career.

"I just made the entire population of Canada really mad with one little Australian," Ambrose jokingly said. "It would have been a great story if Jacques would have been on the pole, but it's a great racetrack, and Jacques is a fierce competitor. I've been a hero of his, watching him do all of his [Formula One] and IndyCar stuff, so to be matched up with him on the front row tomorrow is really going to be exciting for us."

Ambrose has led the most laps in the first three races at Montreal, but victory has eluded him here.

Villeneuve and Ambrose ran in the eighth and final group in qualifying. Both drivers swapped the provisional pole position before Ambrose topped Villeneuve on his final lap.

"I just knew the second lap was not quick enough, and I needed to put a good one in," Villeneuve said. "I pushed a little too hard in the hairpin, and then lost a few tenths [of a second] there. It was close, but it was fun. This track is where you can lose a lot of time with the tiniest mistake."

The Montreal track is named after Villeneuve's late father.

Joey Logano qualified third, followed by Carl Edwards and Boris Said.

Jason Leffler, Paul Menard, Brad Keselowski, the current points leader, Max Papis and Brad Coleman completed the top-10.

Keselowski holds a 313-point lead over Edwards.

Stanton Barrett, Kevin O'Connell and Pierre Bourque failed to qualify.

The 200-mile race at Montreal is scheduled to start shortly after 2:30 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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