Betting tips for NASCAR

The biggest and best sporting event of the week is Sunday's Daytona 500 in Daytona Beach, Fla. Plenty of race and proposition wagering is available for the NASCAR fan and handicapper.

In recent years, Dale Earnhardt Inc. has dominated on superspeedways where cars are slowed by restrictor plates. But last season Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon split the four races at Daytona and Talladega. Without knowing the results of yesterday's Twin 150s, the prediction is for the winner to be defending champion and favorite, Earnhardt Jr.

Rather than betting on someone to win a race, it is easier just to bet a driver to beat one other driver. After the starting grid is finalized, match-ups will be set. Look to the board and sheets for your straight bets and two-teamers. On three or more team wagers, the board almost always gives better odds than the parlay card.

In one other note, Charter Cable continues to advertise a free preview on channels 815-821. If this is no joke, fans can ride along in seven different race cars and listen to live audio.

Odds are also available as to who will win the 2005 Nextel Cup Points Championship. When 10 races remain, the top 10 or so drivers will be separated by five-point increments and asked to compete in NASCAR's version of a playoff.

Although a driver's odds can go down over the course of a season, the advice here is to hold off on championship wagers until at least one of the final 10 races is completed. Last year Kurt Busch never looked like a champion before the 10-race deciding stretch. Busch took over the points lead, was still bettable, and held on for his first NASCAR title.

If you have a good idea as to how many times certain drivers will win this season, more propositions can be put to use. You can bet on the over/under number of 2005 wins for some drivers, or pick one driver against one driver for total wins on the year.

Of course NASCAR wouldn't be NASCAR without some sort of controversy to start the season, and this year the debate is over whether it is appropriate or not that hard liquor companies can now sponsor cars. The American Medical Association opposes all liquor advertisements, and many connected with NASCAR feel the policy goes against family values.

But alcohol is legal for those of us over the age of 20, and beer has long been a sponsor of numerous sporting events. Where are the family values in allowing Viagra to support a NASCAR team? A little alcohol or Viagra can help create families, and that can't be all bad.

• The National Basketball Association's All-Star Game is being played Sunday night at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colo. It has already been an eventful season in the NBA, but for all the wrong reasons. From Minnesota's Latrell Sprewell saying that $7 million a year is not enough to feed his family, to Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant's ongoing saga, to the horrible basketbrawl between Indiana players and Detroit fans, we all should be wishing that the great sport of hockey was in midseason and that the year in the NBA had been canceled.

As for the All-Star Game itself, those odds should come out today. Last year the West won 136-132. In 2003 the West won 155-145 in double-overtime in a game that was tied at 120 in regulation. In 2002 the West won 135-120. Maybe with Miami's Shaquille O'Neal now in the Eastern Conference, the East could get the victory this time, so the prediction is to bet on the Over and cross your fingers.