Patrick secures starting spot in Daytona 500

Autoracing Betting Lines

01/31/2012 - Kannapolis, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Danica Patrick will be guaranteed a starting position in the February 26 Daytona 500 due to a transfer of owner points from Tommy Baldwin Racing to Patrick's team, Stewart-Haas Racing.

SHR and TBR announced on Tuesday that both racing organizations have formed a collaborative partnership. TBR will field the No.10 GoDaddy Chevrolet for all 10 of Patrick's Sprint Cup Series races, including the season-opener at Daytona, in 2012.

TBR's No.36 car, which finished the 2011 season 33rd in owner points, will become the No.10 entry for this upcoming season. David Reutimann will drive the No.10 in the 26 races where Patrick is not scheduled to compete. Dave Blaney drove for TBR last year. Blaney will drive another entry for the team this season.

Reutimann, who had been with Michael Waltrip Racing the past five Sprint Cup seasons, will attempt to keep the No.10 car in the top-35 rankings in owner points to assure Patrick a starting spot in each of her remaining races throughout the season.

"Tommy Baldwin Racing has proven to be a very strong organization, and it's a good fit with Stewart-Haas Racing," Matt Borland, the vice president of competition for Stewart-Haas Racing, said in a team statement. "It's a Chevrolet team led by a racer who knows every inch of a racecar. That kind of technical expertise, along with a company mindset that is similar to ours, provides the ideal environment for Danica to learn and succeed."

TBR, which is owned by Tommy Baldwin, a veteran Sprint Cup crew chief, had been a single-car operation since its entrance into NASCAR's premier series in 2009. As a crew chief, Baldwin has won five Sprint Cup races, including the 2002 Daytona 500 with driver Ward Burton.

"We're very proud of what we've established at Tommy Baldwin Racing, and the opportunity to partner with Stewart-Haas Racing and aid in the development of Danica Patrick is a testament to all the hard work we've put in over the years," Baldwin said. "Danica will have a great teammate in Dave Blaney, who has been instrumental in getting our race team to where it is today. And with David Reutimann driving the No.10 car in the races where Danica is not, the team will remain in a strong and competitive position throughout the year."

As part of the alliance, Baldwin will work closely with Patrick's crew chief, Greg Zipadelli, who also serves as SHR's director of competition. Zipadelli most recently served as crew chief for Joe Gibbs Racing's No.20 team, with driver Joey Logano.

"Working with Tommy will be like old times," Zipadelli said. "We both grew up together and competed against each other in modifieds, and we did the same thing when we got to Sprint Cup. To finally be able to work with each other and help Danica Patrick make a successful transition from Indy cars to stock cars is a challenge we're both looking forward to."

Patrick left the IndyCar Series at the end of last season to compete in NASCAR full-time this year, running the entire 33-race schedule in the Nationwide Series and a partial one in Sprint Cup. She will drive the No.7 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports in Nationwide.

After next month's race at Daytona, Patrick will not compete in a Sprint Cup race until May 12 at Darlington. She is also slated to compete at Charlotte (May 27), Bristol (August 25), Atlanta (September 2), Chicagoland (Sept. 16), Dover (Sept. 30), Texas (November 4) and Phoenix (Nov. 11).

Last week, Patrick announced she will forgo this year's Indianapolis 500 to compete in the 600-mile race at Charlotte. Her tenth Sprint Cup event this season will be announced at a later date.

SHR is hopeful Patrick will run a full-time schedule in Sprint Cup next year.

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What Is the Point Spread?

What are Sports Betting Point Spreads?

In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.

Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).

If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).

Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.

How to Read Point Spreads

New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles

The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)

In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:

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