Allmendinger claims first Sprint Cup pole at Phoenix

Autoracing Betting Lines

04/09/2010 - Avondale, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A.J. Allmendinger will start on the pole for the first time in his Sprint Cup Series career after winning Friday's qualifying for the Subway Fresh Fit 600 at Phoenix International Raceway.

Allmendinger, a former open-wheel competitor, turned in a blazing lap of 134.675 m.p.h. for his first pole in 87 starts. He also put the Richard Petty- owned No.43 car on the pole for the first time since John Andretti did it for Petty in November 1999 at Phoenix.

"To get a pole, it might be minor, but it's a small victory for us," Allmendinger said. "We've always struggled in qualifying, but to get our first pole and kind of get that monkey off our back, we get to see the green flag drop and go to the front."

Allmendinger's best Sprint Cup finish so far is third, which came in the 2009 Daytona 500.

Scott Speed will join Allmendinger on the front row after turning a lap of 134.373 m.p.h. Speed matched his best qualifying effort, with his first outside pole coming in November 2008 at Homestead.

"We knew looking at the data after practice that our car was pretty good," Speed said. "As a team, we did a good job this week, because [Phoenix] is one of those places where we only get two practices all weekend. We really have to maximize those as much as we can."

Sam Hornish Jr. qualified a career-best third, while Marcos Ambrose and Dale Earnhardt Jr. rounded out the top-five.

Joey Logano took the sixth starting spot, followed by Juan Pablo Montoya, Martin Truex Jr., Carl Edwards, who's making his 200th career Cup start, and Jeff Gordon.

Four-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson qualified 16th. Johnson has won four of the last five races at Phoenix. His Hendrick Motorsports teammate Mark Martin won here one year ago. Martin was 23rd in qualifying.

Denny Hamlin will start 26th. Hamlin returned to the track for the first time since he underwent surgery to repair the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee nine days ago. He expects to start the 375-lap race, but might hand over his car to relief driver Casey Mears in the early going.

"My goal is to know what I am going to do before lap 100," Hamlin said. "If I go past lap 100, there's no reason to decide and abort. I just need to tough it out at that point. We got to do it early, and I will know early what I've got. There's so much different stuff that were going to do tomorrow morning to help this thing. I don't know how much better I will feel tomorrow, but I know as of today, there's no way I can do it."

Hamlin and Mears shared driving in the No.11 Toyota during both practices on Friday. Hamlin topped the charts in the first practice with a lap of 131.120 m.p.h. He was 23rd quickest in the final session.

The 29-year-old Hamlin plans to have his stitches removed and his knee drained on Saturday morning.

David Stremme, Aric Almirola, Mike Bliss and Brandon Ash failed to qualify.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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