Stewart tops in qualifying at Pocono

Autoracing Betting Lines

07/30/2010 - Long Pond, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tony Stewart claimed the pole for Sunday's Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 after posting the quickest lap in qualifying at Pocono Raceway.

Stewart, a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, turned a lap of 171.393 m.p.h. around the 2.5-mile triangular track for his second pole of the season and the 14th of his Cup career. His first pole at Pocono came in July 2000.

Last night, Stewart competed in the All-Star Circuit of Champions sprint car event in Fargo, ND. He arrived at Pocono in the early hours of Friday morning.

"I was really, really upset because I crashed by myself into a marker tire in the inside while running second," Stewart said of last night's race in Fargo. "The last thing [World of Outlaws sprint car champion] Donny Schatz told me before I left was to take it out on those guys tomorrow, so I guess we took it out on the stopwatch today, so I'm really proud of that."

Schatz, who drives for Stewart, won the sprint car race.

Stewart won the Pocono 500 (June race) in 2003 and '09. The driver and owner of the No.14 Chevrolet has yet to win a Cup race so far this season.

Juan Pablo Montoya grabbed the outside pole with his qualifying lap of 171.096 m.p.h. Montoya won the pole for last weekend's Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He led the most laps at Indy before crashing with less than 15 laps to go and ending up 32nd.

"Last week was a rough week for the team, but to rebound at a place where we don't run that well, it's nice," Montoya said.

Denny Hamlin, who has won the last two races at Pocono, took the third starting spot, followed by Jeff Gordon, a four-time race winner here, and Ryan Newman.

"We knew the cloud cover was going to help us out," Hamlin said. "We had good speed all day, but we just haven't had a great handling race car and it showed. We were all over the race track there. I'm very happy with the time, and we will start near the front, and that is a good starting spot for Sunday."

Jimmie Johnson, the four-time defending series champion, A.J. Allmendinger, Jeff Burton, Jamie McMurray, the Brickyard 400 winner, and Mark Martin completed the top-10.

Points leader Kevin Harvick will start 14th. Harvick currently holds a 184- point advantage over Gordon.

David Stremme and Max Papis failed to qualify.

The 500-mile race at Pocono is scheduled to start shortly after 1:00 p.m. (et).

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American Idol odds : Blake Lewis the Early Standout

An important American Idol betting lines recap from February 20 Guys episode. The 12 men came out flat overall with Blake Lewis appearing to have the early edge after the first hour and a half.

Rudy - was quite good singing "Free Ride" to start off.  Randy was not impressed though.  Paula thought he started off fantastic.  "Never had anyone stop off so lively" said Paula but Simon (who does not like Rudy) does not feel he has a distinct voice and was not impressed either. 

Brandon was a little pitchy according to Randy and Paula agreed.  Simon said he was a good singer but the song was "too safe" and he needs to make an impact.  He was listed at +1200 odds or $1200 paid out on a $100 bet should he win the competition. 

Big favorite Sundance came in with a flat version of "Knights in White Satin" and the judges let him have it, including Paula.  Randy claimed the song was out of pitch throughout.

Korean American - and a Jenny Woo favorite - Paul Kim was up next.  Another pitchy flat one but Randy said he still liked his potential.  Kim at +3000 odds was said to have sung a "third rate version of that (George Michael) song" according to Simon Cowell.  He sang "Careless Whisper".

22 year old Chris Richardson was up next.  He was listed with +1100 odds coming in.  He got the best response from the judges though Simon did not believe the vocal was that great. 

Nick was boring and pitchy.  Simon didn't think he was that bad though and predicted he would be back next week.  Nick Pedro was a big +3000 dog coming into this competition. 

Beat boxer Blake Lewis was listed with early +1000 odds or $1000 payout on a $100 bet if he were to become the next American Idol winner odds .  These of course were the early odds.  He was considered original for picking an "odd song".  He did not beat box and the judges felt it was the best vocal of the night. 

Sanjaya came in as the second biggest favorite after Chris Sligh but his performance Tuesday night was not very good. 

Chris Sleigh was the early favorite at +450 odds.  Great voice and a great sense of humor.  He's a real standout.  Randy felt it was on point but maybe ahead of the chorus a little bit.  Simon Cowell said he felt like he was in some "sort of weird student gig". 

Jared Cotter followed.  He was listed with +2000 odds early on to win the competition.  The judges felt he needs to take more risks but looked good. 

22-year old AJ Talbado, who has tried out for American Idol five times, was up next.  "Kind of a theme park performance" said Simon.  Though the judges felt he performed okay.  Simon did feel AJ might be better than he originally thought.

Phil - this season's military favorite - came into this competition with +1200 odds to win the competition.  He was the last to perform.  He was certainly strong enough to get through this stage of the competition and perhaps the best one after a shaky start. 

Tomorrow night, the ladies perform and I sure hope they do a better job than the boys.  Check out all the American Idol betting odds here.

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