Allmendinger claims first Sprint Cup pole at Phoenix

Autoracing Betting Lines

04/09/2010 - Avondale, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A.J. Allmendinger will start on the pole for the first time in his Sprint Cup Series career after winning Friday's qualifying for the Subway Fresh Fit 600 at Phoenix International Raceway.

Allmendinger, a former open-wheel competitor, turned in a blazing lap of 134.675 m.p.h. for his first pole in 87 starts. He also put the Richard Petty- owned No.43 car on the pole for the first time since John Andretti did it for Petty in November 1999 at Phoenix.

"To get a pole, it might be minor, but it's a small victory for us," Allmendinger said. "We've always struggled in qualifying, but to get our first pole and kind of get that monkey off our back, we get to see the green flag drop and go to the front."

Allmendinger's best Sprint Cup finish so far is third, which came in the 2009 Daytona 500.

Scott Speed will join Allmendinger on the front row after turning a lap of 134.373 m.p.h. Speed matched his best qualifying effort, with his first outside pole coming in November 2008 at Homestead.

"We knew looking at the data after practice that our car was pretty good," Speed said. "As a team, we did a good job this week, because [Phoenix] is one of those places where we only get two practices all weekend. We really have to maximize those as much as we can."

Sam Hornish Jr. qualified a career-best third, while Marcos Ambrose and Dale Earnhardt Jr. rounded out the top-five.

Joey Logano took the sixth starting spot, followed by Juan Pablo Montoya, Martin Truex Jr., Carl Edwards, who's making his 200th career Cup start, and Jeff Gordon.

Four-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson qualified 16th. Johnson has won four of the last five races at Phoenix. His Hendrick Motorsports teammate Mark Martin won here one year ago. Martin was 23rd in qualifying.

Denny Hamlin will start 26th. Hamlin returned to the track for the first time since he underwent surgery to repair the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee nine days ago. He expects to start the 375-lap race, but might hand over his car to relief driver Casey Mears in the early going.

"My goal is to know what I am going to do before lap 100," Hamlin said. "If I go past lap 100, there's no reason to decide and abort. I just need to tough it out at that point. We got to do it early, and I will know early what I've got. There's so much different stuff that were going to do tomorrow morning to help this thing. I don't know how much better I will feel tomorrow, but I know as of today, there's no way I can do it."

Hamlin and Mears shared driving in the No.11 Toyota during both practices on Friday. Hamlin topped the charts in the first practice with a lap of 131.120 m.p.h. He was 23rd quickest in the final session.

The 29-year-old Hamlin plans to have his stitches removed and his knee drained on Saturday morning.

David Stremme, Aric Almirola, Mike Bliss and Brandon Ash failed to qualify.

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

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In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

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