Dillon claims first truck win at Iowa

Autoracing Betting Lines

07/11/2010 - Newton, IA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rookie Austin Dillon became a first time winner in the Camping World Truck Series by taking Sunday's Lucas Oil 200 at Iowa Speedway.

Dillon, the grandson of NASCAR multi-team owner Richard Childress, put on a dominating performance by leading 187 of 205 laps. However, he had to hold off Johnny Sauter in a green-white-checkered finish to capture his first truck win in just 12 starts. Jason White blew a right-front tire in the closing laps, which setup the two-lap overtime finish.

"This truck was awesome," Dillon said. "By that last restart, I knew it wasn't going to be that easy. My grandpa [Richard Childress] kept telling me what line to choose, and I was saying, 'that's alright; we're going to win the race.' You got to have confidence, and that's what we had."

Dillon made his series debut last September in the inaugural race at Iowa.

Childress, the owner of Dillon's No.3 Chevrolet, arrived at the 0.875-mile track earlier in the day after Saturday night's Sprint Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway, which was won by David Reutimann. Dillon drives the same number made famous by Dale Earnhardt, who won six of his seven Cup titles with Childress.

"It really is special," Childress said. "Dale would be proud. I got pictures of Dale holding him in winners' circle, and he would be proud to see Austin do this."

At the age of 20 years, two months and 37 days, Dillon became the second youngest race winner in series history. Kyle Busch holds the record as the youngest driver to win a truck race at 20 years and 18 days.

"I just wanted to do it for the fans of this 3," Dillon said. "This 3 is a good number to run, and I'm glad I'm running it. I feel very fortunate. I want to win a lot, and hopefully this is the first one of many."

Dillon set a series record on Saturday when he became the first rookie to win three consecutive poles. He also started on the pole at Texas and Michigan prior to Iowa.

Sauter finished second, while Matt Crafton, Ken Schrader and James Buescher completed the top-five.

"When you get that close like we did a couple of weeks ago when we finished second at Texas, you just want to win them; nonetheless, it wasn't meant to be," Sauter said.

While Dillon took the checkered flag at Iowa, the top-four drivers in points -- Todd Bodine, Aric Almirola, Ron Hornaday Jr. and Timothy Peters -- had their share of problems on the track.

Despite finishing 17th, Bodine widened his lead to 88 points over Almirola, who won the last truck race in June at Michigan. Bodine was caught up in a multi-car incident which occurred just after a restart on lap 113. Donny Lia made contact with the wall and bumped into Brian Ickler, who then put newcomer Greg Pursley into a spin. During the incident, Hornaday Jr. got hit from behind and then rammed into Bodine. Hornaday, the four-time and defending series champion, suffered heavy damage to his truck and wound up finishing 24th.

"Somebody checked up there," Hornaday said. "I got to the outside, and somebody shot low, and they socked me in the front."

Almirola was running in fourth when he blew a tire and slammed into the wall on lap 75. Almirola's Billy Ballew Motorsports teammate Steve Wallace also cut a tire and hit the wall earlier in the race.

"These are the kind of days we're trying to avoid," said Almirola, who finished 28th. "We felt like we had a really good truck."

Peters suffered engine failure just past the half-way point and ended up finishing 27th.

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Big Ten Conference odds

Teams that should be in: Michigan State, Indiana
Work left to do: Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Iowa

Behind the big two, the pecking order might be in a bit of flux. Has Michigan State passed Indiana after handling the Hoosiers in East Lansing? Where is Illinois in that mix? What looked like a four-big league last week could be morphing into five -- and even six is not unthinkable at this point if everything breaks right.

Should be in:

Michigan State [21-8 (8-6), RPI: 20, SOS: 15] The Spartans made it four-for-four on the homestand, a gigantic accomplishment that leaves them in extremely good shape. MSU is only 1-6 on the road and is at Michigan and at Wisconsin to close things out, meaning the date with the Wolverines on Tuesday looms very, very large. Beating Texas early will hold up well, as will the rout of Bradley and the win over BYU, but will 8-8 be enough? It very well could be, as the computer numbers are good, but why chance it?

Indiana [18-9 (8-6), RPI: 24, SOS: 32] Hmm ... good thing the last two are at Northwestern and home to Penn State, because IU might want to get both to feel completely safe after dropping its third in the last four, fading after halftime at Michigan State. Who knew the best nonconference win would be over Southern Illinois, which is a gift that keeps on giving for the Hoosiers. The win over Wisconsin also looks good on the mantel.

Work left to do:

Illinois [21-9 (9-6), RPI: 31, SOS: 25] A good performance at Penn State leaves the Illini in pretty good shape. Can they go to Iowa and take care of business to really look on their way? That's a huge game, as there is a possible cluster of teams that will end at 9-7. Illinois beat Bradley, but has lost to Xavier. A 9-7 mark and a semifinals trip in Chicago could be enough with the computer profile hanging in there, but it would be better not to mess around, clinching at least a tie for third.

Purdue [18-10 (7-7), RPI: 47, SOS: 28] Couldn't get it done at Iowa, but did win at Northwestern to put 9-7 squarely in sight. Where does that leave the Boilermakers, though? Even if they beat Minnesota and Northwestern at home, that won't help the computer numbers. Nonconference wins over Virginia, DePaul and Oklahoma are solid, but not spectacular. The Boilers very well might need an upset in the B10 quarters to have a legit claim.

Michigan [19-10 (7-7), RPI: 55, SOS: 53] Well, Michigan did what it needed to do, winning at Minnesota to take control of its fate. The Wolverines have Michigan State and an already-wrapped-up-the-league Ohio State at home to close, so the chances are there. Win both and we can talk. There is no marquee win yet in the profile, and the Wolverines were splattered in several games against name opponents. A mediocre computer profile fueled by a lack of road wins isn't helping, either.

Iowa [16-12 (8-6), RPI: 80, SOS: 64] For the sake of being complete, we'll add Iowa, this season's Stanford. It's plausible that the Hawkeyes could get to 10-6 (at Penn State, vs. Illinois left), but where does that leave them after a gruesome nonconference performance where the best win was over ... Toledo? Iowa State? Cornell?? If they get to 10-6, we can start to look at what they need to do in the B10 tourney, although my gut sense is that they would need to make the final and have knocked off Ohio State or Wisconsin on the way to have any real claim.

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Marlins could start season without No. 2 starter Johnson

JUPITER, Fla. -- The Foorida Marlins are preparing for the likelihood that right-hander
Josh Johnson won't be ready when the season starts April 2.

Grapefruit League action starts Wednesday, but Johnson, penciled in as the No. 2 starter, hasn't even thrown off a mound at full speed since September. He's experienced some soreness in his right forearm.

MySportsbook.com have the Marlins listed with baseball betting lines at +800 to win the NL East this season .

''You guys know the math. If he's not on the hill then he becomes an opening day roster issue,'' manager Fredi Gonzalez said Saturday. ''We're borderline now.''

Johnson, who finished 12-7 with a 3.10 ERA in 2007, was supposed to throw on flat ground Saturday. That was canceled when he woke up with pain.

He played catch on Wednesday with no pain but felt discomfort in a throwing session on Thursday. He's expected to try again Sunday.

''Like we always said from the very beginning, we're going to take it easy on him,'' Gonzalez said. ''He didn't feel right, so we shut him down. We're going to take it back to step one and see where we're at.''

Among the candidates to take Johnson's spot in the rotation are left-hander Chris George and right-handers Yusmeiro Petit and Jose Garcia.

Right-hander Sergio Mitre, who missed most of last season with arm and shoulder problems, also is behind.

With Johnson's status doubtful, Gonzalez said right-hander Ricky Nolasco will stay in the rotation and no longer will be considered a candidate for closer.

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