NASCAR penalizes three teams for Talladega infractions

Autoracing Betting Lines

10/25/2011 - Daytona Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - NASCAR handed down stiff penalties to three Sprint Cup Series teams for rules violations that were discovered during last Friday's opening day inspection at Talladega Superspeedway.

According to a news release from NASCAR on Tuesday, the Michael Waltrip Racing No.00 and No.56 teams and the JTG Daugherty Racing No.47 team were penalized for "unapproved modification to an approved windshield."

NASCAR confiscated the windshields from the cars of David Reutimann (No.00), Martin Truex Jr. (No.56) and Bobby Labonte (No.47). All three teams replaced the windshields on the cars before Friday's first practice session began.

Crew chiefs Rodney Childers (Reutimann), Frank Kerr (Labonte) and Chad Johnston (Truex) have each been fined $50,000 and suspended for the last four Sprint Cup races this season -- Martinsville, Texas, Phoenix and Homestead. Car chiefs Steve Channing (Reutimann), Raymond Fox (Labonte) and Anthony Lunders (Truex) also received the same suspension period.

Reutimann, Labonte and Truex were each penalized 25 driver points. Car Owners Rob Kauffman (No.00), Tad Geschickter (No.47), and Michael Waltrip (No.56) received a loss of 25 points as well.

Neither MWR nor JTG Daugherty plan to appeal.

"Michael Waltrip Racing is ultra-sensitive and very serious about working within the guidelines of NASCAR policy," the team said in statement. "We do not condone this type of activity and as such we will take appropriate internal corrective action immediately. We thank NASCAR for providing a fair and equitable platform for all of its competitors and respect its decisions; therefore, we will not appeal."

MWR announced that Bobby Kennedy, the team's executive vice president of race operations, will take over crew chief duties for the No.00. Mechanic Chris Hall will serve as the car chief.

For the No.56 team, Pat Tryson will step into the crew chief role this weekend at Martinsville. Allen Mincey, who is also a mechanic for MWR, will serve as car chief.

JTG Daugherty, which is affiliated with MWR, also revealed its personnel changes. Team chief race engineer Brian Burns has been named the interim crew chief for the No.47. Bob Bechstein will move into the car chief role.

"We are very disappointed in this entire situation, and we will not appeal NASCAR's ruling," JTG Daugherty Racing co-owner Brad Daugherty said in a statement. "We look forward to racing at Martinsville Speedway this weekend and getting ready for next season."

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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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