Chicagoland to host first race in 2011 Chase

Autoracing Betting Lines

08/09/2010 - Joliet, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chicagoland Speedway will kick off the Chase for Sprint Cup championship in 2011. The speedway, located roughly 50 miles southwest of downtown Chicago, will hold its event on September 18.

Officials from the speedway and NASCAR, as well as drivers Kevin Harvick and David Reutimann, made the announcement from the 1.5-mile track on Monday.

"We could not be more excited," track president Craig Rust said. "I don't think there's a better location to kick off the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup than in Chicago."

Chicagoland has hosted a Sprint Cup Series race in July each year since 2001.

New Hampshire Motor Speedway has been the first race in the Chase since NASCAR began its 10-race playoff format in 2004. New Hampshire is expected to move to another date on the Chase schedule for next year. New Hampshire will publicly address its schedule for next season on Wednesday.

Chicagoland is the latest in anticipated major changes for the 2011 Sprint Cup schedule, which likely will be released within the next two weeks.

Last week, officials from Atlanta Motor Speedway announced that track will host only one Cup event, which will take place on Labor Day weekend. The loss of Atlanta's spring race paves the way for the long-awaited addition of Kentucky Speedway to the Cup schedule. Kentucky has scheduled a news conference for Tuesday.

More announcements are scheduled for this week, with Kansas Speedway expecting to announce it will have a second Cup date, starting next year. Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA reportedly is giving up their second season event, which is part of the Chase schedule, to make room for Kansas' additional date.

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Mayweather picked to beat De La Hoya
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA -- Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya and his rival Floyd Mayweather Jr. arrived at the MGM Grand here Wednesday amid the pomp and pandemonium befitting two of the biggest stars in the sport who are about to duke it out for the WBC super welterweight crown this Saturday (Sunday in Manila).

As of Wednesday, MySportsbook.com closed its book with Mayweather a favorite to defeat De La Hoya at -170 (a $100 bet wins $70), while De La Hoya is a +140 underdog (a $100 bet wins $140).

Mayweather arrived at about 11:30 a.m. on a big truck with his face and a big "World's Best Pound-for-Pound" sign scribbled across the vehicle. He was accompanied by his entourage made up of rappers and his training team.

A crowd of close to 3,000 eager fans packed the MGM Grand lobby, with their cameras in tow, all trying to vie for position to get a good angle at Mayweather, who is acknowledged as the world's best fighter pound-for-pound.

Eric Gomez, Golden Boy Promotions vice-president, described the fan turnout as "amazing" and swore he had never seen anything quite like this event.

"The crowd was fantastic. Everybody was just too eager to see the two fighters," said ALA manager Michael Aldeguer, who was among those who waited at the lobby together with his ward Rey "Boom Boom" Bautista and AJ Banal.

De La Hoya made his own grand entrance at the hotel lobby at around 12:30 p.m. accompanied by GBP chief executive officer Richard Schaefer and trainer Freddie Roach.

The same group of fans who trooped to see Mayweather also lingered around to get a close look at De La Hoya, who has been secretly working out at a Las Vegas gym for days after arriving from his main training camp in Puerto Rico.

The golden boy then took part in a closed-door afternoon workout with Bautista and Banal. The two, along with Aldeguer and wife Christine, as well as an HBO crew were the only ones allowed inside the gym.

De La Hoya and Mayweather take part in today's final press conference before the official weigh-in this Friday.

Ring Magazine, the acknowledged bible of boxing, reported in its June 2007 issue that 12 out of 20 boxing experts it interviewed have favored Mayweather to defeat De la Hoya, with only 8 favoring the latter.

But Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao said in a recent interview with The Freeman's Emmanuel Villaruel that De La Hoya will win by unanimous decision over Mayweather.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on boxing needs.