Briscoe captures third straight Chicagoland pole

Autoracing Betting Lines

08/27/2010 - Joliet, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ryan Briscoe will start on the pole for an IZOD IndyCar Series race at Chicagoland Speedway for the third year in a row after winning Friday's qualifying for the PEAK AntiFreeze and Motor Oil Indy 300.

With IndyCar debuting its new two-lap oval qualifying format, Briscoe recorded an average speed of 216.346 m.p.h. around the 1.5-mile track for his third pole of the season and the 11th of his IndyCar career. All three of his poles this year have come on mile-and-a-half ovals -- Kansas, Texas and Chicagoland.

Earlier this week, IndyCar's sanctioning body, the Indy Racing League, announced that the qualifying format on ovals would change from the average speed of four timed laps to just two laps in determining the starting grid, beginning with this weekend's race at Chicagoland.

Briscoe is the defending race winner. He finished third at Chicagoland in 2008.

"I'm just hoping in the race I can be as competitive as we have been in the last two years, " Briscoe said. "It's always an exciting race. There's always a lot of good side-by-side, two-wide, three-wide action. We've got 29 cars this weekend, and it's a huge field. It's going to make it very busy for us out there.

Briscoe has one race win so far this year, which came at Texas.

Defending series champion Dario Franchitti will start on the outside pole after qualifying just 0.18 seconds behind Briscoe.

Briscoe gave Team Penske its 11th pole this season. His teammate, Will Power, the current points leader, has won a series season record eight poles so far. Power, who won last week's final road course race of the season in Sonoma, CA, qualified third.

"It's all about racing obviously on the ovals here," Power said. "Running in practice today, I felt as though we had a pretty good car, and now we just got to have a good, clean race tomorrow."

Power will share the second row with teammate Helio Castroneves, while Marco Andretti and Graham Rahal will roll off from row three.

Dan Wheldon qualified seventh, followed by Hideki Mutoh, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Takuma Sato.

Danica Patrick will start 12th.

Power holds a 59-point lead over Franchitti, while Franchitti's Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Scott Dixon, trails by 95 points. Dixon, who has finished second in the last four races at Chicagoland, qualified a disappointing 15th.

Saturday's 300-mile race from Chicagoland will start around 8:00 p.m. (et).

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Big Ten Conference odds

Teams that should be in: Michigan State, Indiana
Work left to do: Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Iowa

Behind the big two, the pecking order might be in a bit of flux. Has Michigan State passed Indiana after handling the Hoosiers in East Lansing? Where is Illinois in that mix? What looked like a four-big league last week could be morphing into five -- and even six is not unthinkable at this point if everything breaks right.

Should be in:

Michigan State [21-8 (8-6), RPI: 20, SOS: 15] The Spartans made it four-for-four on the homestand, a gigantic accomplishment that leaves them in extremely good shape. MSU is only 1-6 on the road and is at Michigan and at Wisconsin to close things out, meaning the date with the Wolverines on Tuesday looms very, very large. Beating Texas early will hold up well, as will the rout of Bradley and the win over BYU, but will 8-8 be enough? It very well could be, as the computer numbers are good, but why chance it?

Indiana [18-9 (8-6), RPI: 24, SOS: 32] Hmm ... good thing the last two are at Northwestern and home to Penn State, because IU might want to get both to feel completely safe after dropping its third in the last four, fading after halftime at Michigan State. Who knew the best nonconference win would be over Southern Illinois, which is a gift that keeps on giving for the Hoosiers. The win over Wisconsin also looks good on the mantel.

Work left to do:

Illinois [21-9 (9-6), RPI: 31, SOS: 25] A good performance at Penn State leaves the Illini in pretty good shape. Can they go to Iowa and take care of business to really look on their way? That's a huge game, as there is a possible cluster of teams that will end at 9-7. Illinois beat Bradley, but has lost to Xavier. A 9-7 mark and a semifinals trip in Chicago could be enough with the computer profile hanging in there, but it would be better not to mess around, clinching at least a tie for third.

Purdue [18-10 (7-7), RPI: 47, SOS: 28] Couldn't get it done at Iowa, but did win at Northwestern to put 9-7 squarely in sight. Where does that leave the Boilermakers, though? Even if they beat Minnesota and Northwestern at home, that won't help the computer numbers. Nonconference wins over Virginia, DePaul and Oklahoma are solid, but not spectacular. The Boilers very well might need an upset in the B10 quarters to have a legit claim.

Michigan [19-10 (7-7), RPI: 55, SOS: 53] Well, Michigan did what it needed to do, winning at Minnesota to take control of its fate. The Wolverines have Michigan State and an already-wrapped-up-the-league Ohio State at home to close, so the chances are there. Win both and we can talk. There is no marquee win yet in the profile, and the Wolverines were splattered in several games against name opponents. A mediocre computer profile fueled by a lack of road wins isn't helping, either.

Iowa [16-12 (8-6), RPI: 80, SOS: 64] For the sake of being complete, we'll add Iowa, this season's Stanford. It's plausible that the Hawkeyes could get to 10-6 (at Penn State, vs. Illinois left), but where does that leave them after a gruesome nonconference performance where the best win was over ... Toledo? Iowa State? Cornell?? If they get to 10-6, we can start to look at what they need to do in the B10 tourney, although my gut sense is that they would need to make the final and have knocked off Ohio State or Wisconsin on the way to have any real claim.

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Marlins could start season without No. 2 starter Johnson

JUPITER, Fla. -- The Foorida Marlins are preparing for the likelihood that right-hander
Josh Johnson won't be ready when the season starts April 2.

Grapefruit League action starts Wednesday, but Johnson, penciled in as the No. 2 starter, hasn't even thrown off a mound at full speed since September. He's experienced some soreness in his right forearm.

MySportsbook.com have the Marlins listed with baseball betting lines at +800 to win the NL East this season .

''You guys know the math. If he's not on the hill then he becomes an opening day roster issue,'' manager Fredi Gonzalez said Saturday. ''We're borderline now.''

Johnson, who finished 12-7 with a 3.10 ERA in 2007, was supposed to throw on flat ground Saturday. That was canceled when he woke up with pain.

He played catch on Wednesday with no pain but felt discomfort in a throwing session on Thursday. He's expected to try again Sunday.

''Like we always said from the very beginning, we're going to take it easy on him,'' Gonzalez said. ''He didn't feel right, so we shut him down. We're going to take it back to step one and see where we're at.''

Among the candidates to take Johnson's spot in the rotation are left-hander Chris George and right-handers Yusmeiro Petit and Jose Garcia.

Right-hander Sergio Mitre, who missed most of last season with arm and shoulder problems, also is behind.

With Johnson's status doubtful, Gonzalez said right-hander Ricky Nolasco will stay in the rotation and no longer will be considered a candidate for closer.

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