Patrick has much more to learn in NASCAR before her return

Autoracing Betting Lines

03/01/2010 - Las Vegas, NV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Danica-mania in NASCAR is over...for the time being, anyway.

The Nationwide Series received more attention than ever during the month of February due to the hype surrounding Danica Patrick's foray into stock car racing. Now, it's back to the same ole humdrum for NASCAR's second-tier series until Patrick returns in four months at New Hampshire.

Without question, Patrick's first three Nationwide races have been a learning curve, but there's plenty more for the 27-year-old to study during her stock car crash course.

Following a stellar performance in the February 6 ARCA race at Daytona, Patrick made her Nationwide debut one week earlier than expected. She finished 35th in the series' season-opener after getting caught up in a 12-car wreck just past the halfway point.

At California, Patrick finished the 300-mile race without incident, but fell three laps behind with a 31st-place result.

Patrick's run last Saturday at Las Vegas came to an end early when she made contact with Michael McDowell and then crashed into the wall on lap 85. Patrick sustained heavy damage to the front end of her car, as she retired with a 36th-place finish.

One thing Patrick has earned in her early stock car career so far is respect from her fellow competitors, particularly Las Vegas Nationwide race winner Kevin Harvick.

"Kevin Harvick was great actually," Patrick said. "Leading the race, he's telling me to go up high with him, so that was cool. I was able to run up high, and feel that line out, because he was giving me the finger out the window. That's really cool to see that, because the guy is leading the race and he's taking time to help me out."

Let's make sure we clarify the finger. Harvick did not display his middle finger as an inappropriate gesture towards her, but raised his left index finger to point her in the right direction on the track.

"I'll give anyone help if they ask," Harvick said after the race. "She's been very receptive on what she needs to do, and she's been very open on asking questions. I don't have any problem helping."

Patrick has a busy IndyCar schedule coming up, beginning with the March 14 inaugural race on the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil. But Patrick won't be out of pocket with her JR Motorsports team during her Nationwide absence.

"We've put a lot of effort into these first three stock car races, but my ultimate goal is still to win the [Indianapolis] 500 and the IndyCar championship; that's the primary focus," she said. "It doesn't mean I'll lose touch with my team at JR Motorsports while I'm back in the IndyCar Series. I'll still stay in contact with [crew chief] Tony [Eury Jr.] and keep up with the guys as they get things prepared for my return in June."

In fact, additional stock car tests with JRM could be on her docket before she returns to Nationwide competition.

"I don't think that plan is completely set yet," Patrick said. "We have quite a few months to think about it, but with New Hampshire the first one that I have coming back to the season in June, I'm sure we'll try and replicate that track a little bit and try to go somewhere similar.

"I wouldn't mind if we tested all the time. I think the more I can drive the car the better."

Perhaps further testing should be in the cards for her.

Last week, Patrick spent time in both open-wheel and stock cars. She participated in an IndyCar pre-season open test at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, AL before heading to Las Vegas. Patrick said the transition from one car to another was "circumstantial," but admitted her getting back into a stock car was an unpleasant experience at first.

"We lowered the steering wheel, and we brought it towards me, and we're trying to get it look more like the other drivers have it," she said. "I went out there, and I was freaking out, because it felt like I was driving on top of the car. I couldn't see the steering wheel, and I felt so uncomfortable."

Hopefully, that won't be the same problem when she arrives at New Hampshire.

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2007 online football betting Preview

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.

2007 College Football Betting Preview

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.

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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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