Briscoe edges Franchitti for Texas pole

Autoracing Betting Lines

06/04/2010 - Fort Worth, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ryan Briscoe won Friday's qualifying for the Firestone 500k IZOD IndyCar Series race after beating Dario Franchitti by the slimmest of margins at Texas Motor Speedway.

Briscoe from Team Penske earned his second pole of the season with a four-lap average of 215.273 m.p.h. He was 0.0057 seconds quicker than Franchitti, the reigning Indianapolis 500 champion and last year's series champion.

"I get a point here, but I've got a few more to catch up actually for this championship," said Briscoe, who is currently seventh in IndyCar points. "We really got to take it just one race at a time."

Briscoe, who finished third in the 2009 point standings, claimed his 10th career IndyCar pole.

Last year at Texas, Briscoe dominated the race by leading 160 of 228 laps, but teammate Helio Castroneves beat Briscoe out of the pits during the final round of stops and took the lead for good with 53 laps remaining.

"We had two very fast cars, and [Helio] just got us in the last pit stop, and he was really quick at the end of the race," Briscoe added.

Castroneves, who qualified fifth, has not won since one year ago at Texas. The Brazilian is a three-time race winner here.

Franchitti from Target Chip Ganassi Racing will start on the outside pole.

"I'm actually a little surprised that we ran as quick as we did, because in practice, the qualifying setup wasn't anywhere close to that," Franchitti said. "I was doing my thing in the car, and I didn't know how exactly close we were to Briscoe's time, but I guess it was pretty close in the end."

Will Power, the current points leader and Briscoe's teammate, qualified third, while Ganassi's Scott Dixon took the fourth spot.

Alex Lloyd, Hideki Mutoh, Danica Patrick, Mario Moraes and Marco Andretti completed the top-10.

Tomas Scheckter, who is substituting for the injured Mike Conway in the No.24 Dreyer and Reinbold Racing car, qualified 18th.

Conway sustained back and leg injuries during a hard crash in the closing laps of the Indy 500. He underwent surgery earlier this week to repair fractures to his lower left leg. He also was fitted for a back brace, which he will wear for at least three months.

Ryan Hunter-Reay, who also was involved in the late-race incident at Indy, had surgery on his left thumb and was fitted with a carbon fiber splint this week. He qualified 24th in the 26-car field.

Saturday's 550-kilometer race at Texas is scheduled to start at 8:45 p.m. (et).

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Mayweather picked to beat De La Hoya
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA -- Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya and his rival Floyd Mayweather Jr. arrived at the MGM Grand here Wednesday amid the pomp and pandemonium befitting two of the biggest stars in the sport who are about to duke it out for the WBC super welterweight crown this Saturday (Sunday in Manila).

As of Wednesday, MySportsbook.com closed its book with Mayweather a favorite to defeat De La Hoya at -170 (a $100 bet wins $70), while De La Hoya is a +140 underdog (a $100 bet wins $140).

Mayweather arrived at about 11:30 a.m. on a big truck with his face and a big "World's Best Pound-for-Pound" sign scribbled across the vehicle. He was accompanied by his entourage made up of rappers and his training team.

A crowd of close to 3,000 eager fans packed the MGM Grand lobby, with their cameras in tow, all trying to vie for position to get a good angle at Mayweather, who is acknowledged as the world's best fighter pound-for-pound.

Eric Gomez, Golden Boy Promotions vice-president, described the fan turnout as "amazing" and swore he had never seen anything quite like this event.

"The crowd was fantastic. Everybody was just too eager to see the two fighters," said ALA manager Michael Aldeguer, who was among those who waited at the lobby together with his ward Rey "Boom Boom" Bautista and AJ Banal.

De La Hoya made his own grand entrance at the hotel lobby at around 12:30 p.m. accompanied by GBP chief executive officer Richard Schaefer and trainer Freddie Roach.

The same group of fans who trooped to see Mayweather also lingered around to get a close look at De La Hoya, who has been secretly working out at a Las Vegas gym for days after arriving from his main training camp in Puerto Rico.

The golden boy then took part in a closed-door afternoon workout with Bautista and Banal. The two, along with Aldeguer and wife Christine, as well as an HBO crew were the only ones allowed inside the gym.

De La Hoya and Mayweather take part in today's final press conference before the official weigh-in this Friday.

Ring Magazine, the acknowledged bible of boxing, reported in its June 2007 issue that 12 out of 20 boxing experts it interviewed have favored Mayweather to defeat De la Hoya, with only 8 favoring the latter.

But Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao said in a recent interview with The Freeman's Emmanuel Villaruel that De La Hoya will win by unanimous decision over Mayweather.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on boxing needs.