Enter your search terms Submit search form   Web www.targetyoursearch.info

Betting on NASCAR

Toni Edwards is one lady who knows her cars, as in NASCAR.

The Sam's Town Sports Book supervisor will have one eye peeled on veteran Ryan Newman and the other on rookie Denny Hamlin as she watches the rest of the field with both when NASCAR christens a new season at the Daytona 500 on Sunday.

Unlike other sports, the auto racing loop annually launches a new campaign with its biggest race of the season.

The 43 anointed drivers will make 200 trips around the 2 1/2-mile high-banked oval as they attempt to get a new year off on the right foot.

Daytona, like Talladega, is a restrictor plate track, meaning cars are equipped with plates that keep speeds under 200 mph.

"It's so exciting," Edwards enthused.

"There are new drivers, different crew chiefs, different sponsors. There's so much going on."

Daytona used to be NASCAR's big attraction as far as Nevada bet shops were concerned, but that was before Las Vegas became a regular stop on the auto racing circuit.

Now the Daimler-Chrysler 400 commands about twice as much action.

"It's in that neighborhood," Edwards said.

While there weren't snaking lines like books expect when NASCAR hits Vegas three weeks down the road (March 12), Daytona still was drawing a fair share of weekend wagering action.

According to Jake Kolleth, a supervisor at the Stardust, flagship property of the Boyd Group, including Sam's Town, the Friday night favorites were defending champion and three-time Daytona winner Jeff Gordon at 4/1; Dale Earnhardt Jr., the 2004 champ whose legendary father was killed on the final lap of the race five years ago, at 6/1; and Tony Stewart, the reigning Nextel Cup champion who has never won the Daytona, at 7/1.

All three were 9/2 at the Stratosphere Tower, with Jimmie Johnson at 8/1.

Jeff Burton is the polesitter, with Gordon and Elliott Sadler completing the front row; Earnhardt will come out of the No. 7 spot and Stewart from the No. 15.

Edwards long has adored Newman (20/1), who has just one Top 10 Daytona finish on his lengthy resume.

"I just love him and have since he grabbed eight poles in 11 races," she said.

Hamlin (35/1), who raced for the Joe Gibbs team at the tail end of the 2005 season, registering a trio of Top 10 finishes before landing a regular spot, won last weekend's exhibition Budweiser Shootout, also at Daytona.

The race was replete with considerable bump drafting (shoving), which has become Daytona's big issue this year.

"He's a young kid (25) with a lot of promise who has a very smart crew chief (Mike Ford)," Edwards said. "I'm impressed."

Edwards believes one reason Sam's Town doesn't lure more business for the Daytona is that the Boyd Group doesn't post driver matchups on the race.

"That's what the customers want," she said.

"They jump all over them when they see them. I'm going to talk to Jake about getting some up for the Las Vegas race."

Recomended reading:PROBABILITY GUIDE TO GAMBLING: The Mathematics of Dice, Slots, Roulette, Baccarat, Blackjack, Poker, Lottery and Sport Bets Over the past few decades, gamblers have begun taking mathematics into account more seriously than ever before. While probability theory is the only rigorous theory that can model the hazards of gambling, even in idealized conditions, numerical probabilities are viewed not only as purely theoretical information, but also as a decision-making criterion, especially in gambling. This book presents the mathematics underlying games of chance and provides a precise account of the odds associated with all gaming events. It begins by explaining in simple terms the meaning of the concept of probability for the layman and goes on to become an enlightening journey through the mathematics of chance, randomness and risk. It then continues with the basics of discrete probability (definitions, properties, theorems and calculus formulas), combinatorics and counting arguments for those interested in the supporting mathematics. These mathematic sections may be skipped by readers who do not have a minimal background in mathematics; these readers can skip directly to the "Guide to Numerical Results" to pick the odds and recommendations they need for the desired gaming situation. Doing so is possible due to the organization of that chapter, in which the results are listed at the end of each section, mostly in the form of tables. The chapter titled "The Mathematics of Games of Chance" presents these games not only as a good application field for probability theory, but also in terms of human actions where probability-based strategies can be tried to achieve favorable results. Through suggestive examples, the reader can see what experiments, events and probability fields mean in games of chance and why and how probability formulas can be applied there. The main portion of this work is a collection of probability results for each type of game. Each game's section is packed with formulas and tables. Each section also contains a description of the game, a classification of the gaming events and the applicable probability calculations. The primary goal of this work is to allow the reader to quickly find the odds for a specific gaming situation, in order to improve his or her betting/gaming decisions. Every type of gaming event is tabulated in a logical, consistent and comprehensive manner. The complete methodology and complete or partial calculations are shown to teach players how to calculate probability for any situation, for every stage of the game for any game. Here, readers can find the real odds, returned by precise mathematical formulas and not by partial simulations that most software uses. Collections of odds are presented, as well as strategic recommendations based on those odds, where necessary, for each type of gaming situation. The book contains much new and original material that has not been published previously and provides great coverage of probabilities for the following games of chance: Dice, Slots, Roulette, Baccarat, Blackjack, Five Card Draw Poker, Texas Hold'em Poker, Lottery and Sport Bets. No formal background in mathematics is necessary to read these sections, although familiarity with some probability and set theory notions is helpful. In most cases, readers will benefit from having some college math to follow the formulas here, but this is not a requirement because the numerical results are given as summaries and tables at the end of each section. Most of casino games are predisposed to probability-based decisions. This is why the approach is not an exclusively statistical one (like many other titles published on this subject), but analytical: every gaming event is taken as an individual applied probability problem to solve. A special chapter defines the probability-based strategy and mathematically shows why such strategy is theoretically optimal. The author is a recognized authority on casino mathematics.