Remember this?
I got the idea to do a prop bet forecast before Super Bowl XLIV. I figured it was a neat idea that made light of the paranoia that is sports betting. I personally have never (nor will I ever) make bets on sporting events. The people who set point spreads think they are smarter than they really are, and their intention is not to predict the outcome of a game, it's to make sure the house get equal action on both the underdog and the favorite. It is an understatement to call it an inexact science. Prop bets, on the other hand, are goofy, fun things that are crap shoots from the get go. When you place a prop bet, you expect full well that you will NOT see that money again....unless of course you get dumb lucky.
Like I did today.
Apparenlty, I am the master of the prop bet in more ways that I imagined. After nailing the national anthem time in 2010 (I was a good 6 seconds off this year...how am I supposed to know Christina was going to mess up the lyrics?), I gave the prop bets in the Super Bowl another shot. You can see for yourself how successful I was, but apparently I am the master of making the prop bet...in of all things NASCAR.
I placed a grand total of $2 on 6 prop bets today on the Daytona 500 today. I hit on 4 of them bringing home a whopping total of $4!!! This does not include the $5 lost on the random draw of drivers to win the race. I was looking good on that for a while until Denny Hamlin wrecked in the last 5 laps. This is not to say that I am all of a sudden a fan of NASCAR, far from it. Like I said above, I just got dumb lucky.
This does give me another idea for a post. The physics that goes into auto racing (and superspeedway racing in particular) is quite fascinating. I feel like a breakdown of the "draft" as they call it is in order. Is it a good idea? Does it enhance or take away from the race itself? What keeps drivers safe during accidents? Don't worry, blogosphere, I'm not going down the road of stock car fandom. Besides, it's just a dudes driving fast and turning left. In Caputo's Corner, we do not discriminate against any form of science. I am a science teacher after all, right? The science behind auto racing is actually one of the big draws of the sport, and that will be the subject of a post later this week.
I keep telling you, you are a master prop-book.
ReplyDeleteI've always kinda though NASCAR was a phenomenally contradictory sport. On one hand, it involves at least a small handful of intelligent, scientifically-adept engineering-minded people on each team. They need to understand mechanical engineering to set up and tweak their engines and the physics of racing that go into masterfully running a race (managing fuel consumption, drafting, etc.) On the other hand, nobody on any team I've ever seen looks like they understand any of that stuff, and certainly only a minute portion of the fan-base probably does, if that. This could be a classic "don't judge a book by it's cover" situation, but I just don't think Jethro and Billy Joe understand the drag coefficient of [insert scientific mumbo jumbo].
ReplyDeleteSo in short, yeah, that'd be an interesting post.
@Kent...the science behind auto racing really is quite interesting, especially in the areas you mentioned. Of course, not being a fan of the sport, I'd probably have to do a little research into some of the technical things associated with NASCAR before I can make an intelligent analysis of the subject, but somebody like Dustin is more than welcome to swoop in here and give his two cents :-).
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