Briscoe nips Wilson for pole at Mid-Ohio

Autoracing Betting Lines

08/08/2009 - Lexington, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ryan Briscoe held off a fierce challenge from Justin Wilson in the "Fast Six" final qualifying segment to capture the pole for Sunday's Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Briscoe, the current IndyCar Series points leader and last weekend's winner at Kentucky, threw down the fastest lap at 121.905 m.p.h. (one minute, 6.6814 seconds) in his No.6 Team Penske car. His lap was .03 seconds faster than Wilson from Dale Coyne Racing. Both drivers ran on the softer Firestone "red" tires.

"I was able to do the same thing at Edmonton, but really didn't get enough out of those sticker set (of tires)," Briscoe said. "But here, I was determined to squeeze all of the juice I could out of those tires, and I didn't realize that Wilson also had the new set of tires."

Briscoe recorded his third pole of the season and the seventh of his IndyCar career. He also set a new qualifying record at the 2.258-mile, 13-turn road course, eclipsing his teammate Helio Castroneves' 2007 record here.

Wilson's lap at 121.870 m.p.h. secured him the outside pole, while Scott Dixon, who was quickest in the first two qualifying rounds, ended up third in the final session.Graham Rahal will share the second row with Dixon.

"It's disappointing to miss it by that much," Wilson said. "We got a chance here starting second on the grid."

Castroneves and Dario Franchitti will occupy row three. Castroneves had won the pole for the first two races at Mid-Ohio.

"The car was handling very difficult and pushing quite hard," Castroneves said.

Ryan Hunter-Reay and Tony Kanaan will start from the fourth row, and E.J. Viso and Paul Tracy will roll off from row five. Tracy is filling in for Mario Moraes in the No.5 KV Racing Technology car this weekend while Moraes remains in Brazil after the passing of his father, Mario Ermirio de Moraes, earlier this week.

Andretti Green Racing teammates Hideki Mutoh and Danica Patrick will line up on row six.

Sunday's race is scheduled to start around 1:45 p.m. (et).

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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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