McMurray feeling little pressure on making the Chase

Autoracing Betting Lines

08/30/2010 - Charlotte, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With two races to go before the "Chase for the Sprint Cup" begins at New Hampshire, Daytona 500 champion and Brickyard 400 winner Jamie McMurray says he won't be disappointed if he doesn't qualify for the playoffs.

McMurray moved up to 13th in the point standings after finishing third last week at Bristol. He trails 12th-place Clint Bowyer by a distant 100 points, while Mark Martin is one marker behind McMurray in the 14th spot.

"It certainly is a better position to be in right now for us, because there only is one person we have to pass," McMurray said. "When you have three or four in between you, you have to hope all of them have something bad happen to all them.

"But [Bowyer] is running really well right now. I kind of put him in the same category as us. They are running really well, but they've had a lot of DNFs [Did Not Finish]. I think that team will perform fine, and we will just have to wait and see how it works out."

Despite winning the two most prestigious races of the season, it's been an inconsistent season for McMurray, who is in his first year as driver of the No.1 Chevrolet for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing.

McMurray didn't know who he would drive for in 2010 after his Roush Fenway Racing No.26 team folded tent at the end of the 2009 season. McMurray landed a ride with EGR in the No.1 car after Martin Truex Jr. moved over to Michael Waltrip Racing.

McMurray made an impressive debut with EGR by winning the season-opening Daytona 500, but after the series raced again in Daytona last month, McMurray sat 19th in points.

Since then, McMurray has scored four top-10 finishes, including his Indianapolis victory, in the last six races.

After the September 11 race at Richmond -- the 26th and final event in the Sprint Cup regular season -- the top-12 drivers in points will make up the field for the Chase -- the final 10 races that determine the champion.

So the pressure is on for several drivers in the next two races, particularly Martin, who finished second to champion and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson in the 2009 Chase, and Ryan Newman, who ended last season ninth in points. Newman is 118 points in back of Bowyer.

But the stress of making the Chase is not necessarily affecting McMurray as much as other drivers who are attempting to make the field.

While McMurray is content with winning more races this season, he's letting crew chief Kevin "Bono" Manion do the worrying about making the Chase.

"[Manion] certainly is worried about it," McMurray said. "I remember the stress that goes along with that, and I'm really fortunate this year that we were able to win those two big races, because if we don't make the Chase, it's not going to be devastating."

McMurray's chances of making the Chase are slim, but history shows that by no means is he out of the running.

In 2006, Kasey Kahne was 90 points behind the cutoff spot for the Chase with two races to go, but Kahne won at California and then finished third at Richmond to squeak into the playoffs by 16 points. The Chase field back then consisted of 10 drivers. NASCAR expanded it to 12 the following year.

Can McMurray better Kahne's feat from four years ago? That's going to greatly depend on how well Bowyer performs at Atlanta and Richmond.

"I love Atlanta and Richmond and run well there," Bowyer said. "With any luck at all, we'll be in this thing."

Bowyer certainly deserves to be in the Chase this year after his disappointing season in '09, but it would also make for a feel-good story if McMurray can rise up and qualify for the field.

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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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