Nationwide championship battle moves on to Phoenix

Autoracing Betting Lines

11/09/2011 - Avondale, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Series: NASCAR Nationwide. Date: Saturday, November 12. Race: Wypall 200. Site: Phoenix International Raceway. Track: one-mile oval. Start time: 3:30 p.m. (et). Laps: 200. Miles: 200. 2010 Winner: Carl Edwards. Television: ESPN 2. Radio: Motor Racing Network (MRN)/SIRIUS NASCAR Satellite.

With two races to go, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. holds a 17-point lead over Elliott Sadler. Stenhouse and Sadler are now the only drivers who remain in title contention in the Nationwide Series.

Stenhouse's sixth-place finish coupled with a ninth-place run for Sadler in last Saturday's race at Texas allowed Stenhouse to add two more points to his lead.

"That's good," Stenhouse said. "That's better than where we were when we came [to Texas], and that's really all we can ask for."

As is the case for the Sprint Cup Series, Nationwide teams face a lot of uncertainties this weekend at Phoenix, since the track has recently been repaved and reconfigured.

"It may be one of those races that changes the game in the championship standings, and our team is going to do everything we can to make the right adjustments throughout the weekend to have a solid finish before heading to Homestead," Sadler said.

While the fight for the driver's championship has turned out to be a good one, the battle for the owner's title is even better. Just two points separate Joe Gibbs Racing's No.18 team from Roush Fenway Racing's No.60 team.

Jack Roush, who is on the verge of winning his 300th NASCAR race, leads all team owners with nine Nationwide victories at Phoenix. Carl Edwards, driver of the No.60 Ford for Roush Fenway, has won the last three fall events here.

Edwards is one of four Sprint Cup regulars competing in this race. Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and Clint Bowyer are the others. Logano is driving the No.18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, which is normally occupied by Kyle Busch, who won at Phoenix in February.

NASCAR has lifted its parking directive against Busch, allowing him to participate in this weekend's races at Phoenix. He was not scheduled to compete in the Nationwide event here.

Last weekend, NASCAR suspended Busch from the Nationwide and Sprint Cup races at Texas after he intentionally wrecked Ron Hornaday Jr. in the Camping World Truck Series event there.

Forty-eight teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Wypall 200.

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.