Auto Racing
NASCAR announces its new nominees for the next Hall
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Bill Elliott and Terry Labonte, a pair of Cup champions, are among the first-year eligible nominees for the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Drivers Buddy Baker and Mike Stefanik, and engine builder and team owner Robert Yates also were selected for nomination in their first year. The honorees were announced at Daytona International Speedway on Friday by a 22-person committee of representatives from all over NASCAR.
The ballot included only 20 nominees, down five from the first five classes. Five inductees will be elected for enshrinement by the NASCAR Hall of Fame voting panel, which includes a nationwide fan vote on NASCAR.com.
Results will be announced May 21.
Patrick steers her teammates to a 1-2-3 qualifying finish
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Danica Patrick cleared a path for her teammates in NASCAR’s new knockout qualifying that led to a Turner Scott Motorsports rout at Daytona International Speedway.
Dylan Kwasniewski won the pole for his Nationwide Series debut – the first rookie since Rusty Wallace in 1985 to win the pole at Daytona – by following Patrick and Kyle Larson through traffic in Friday’s qualifying session.
The 18-year-old topped the speed chart with a lap at 192.078 mph in the rain-shortened qualifying session. Larson qualified second with a lap at 192.074, and Patrick was third as Turner Scott’s cars went 1-2-3 for Saturday’s race.
College Basketball
Linson shoots the lights out, then turns the lights out
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – First Joshua Linson knocked out the lights, then he knocked out Winston-Salem State.
Linson finished what he started, breaking a 40-hour tie by hitting a go-ahead 3-pointer with 24 seconds left Friday to lead Johnson C. Smith to an 89-86 overtime win against the Rams in a bizarre game that took three days to complete.
The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association game was suspended Wednesday night when Linson’s full-court heave with 0.3 seconds remaining shattered two lights suspended from the ceiling about 20 feet above the court, leaving one dangling perilously from a wire.
The game, tied at 76, was suspended until Friday because of safety concerns.
College Football
Buffs’ new athletic director has high hopes for CU
BOULDER – University of Colorado athletic director Rick George unveiled a strategic plan Wednesday that includes a goal of having the Buffaloes’ football team compete in the Pac-12 championship game by 2017.
That is an ambitious aim for a team that went 4-8 last season under first-year head coach Mike MacIntyre, who took over a one-win team.
George announced that goal and others during a meeting of the Board of Regents’ intercollegiate athletic subcommittee. He also said Mortenson/Populous was chosen to design and build the $143-million athletic complex expansion project unveiled in December.
George said he wants the project to begin in April so it can be finished by August 2015. First, the department needs to raise about $20 million more in donations to go with the approximately $30 million already raised.
Soccer
Next up for MLS expansion? Atlanta? Anywhere, Texas?
NEW YORK – Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber said Atlanta, Minneapolis, Sacramento, San Diego and Texas sites are under consideration as expansion cites.
MLS will increase to 21 teams when New York City and Orlando, Fla., start play in 2015. A Miami team has been awarded to former Los Angeles Galaxy star David Beckham, but a date has not been set for that franchise to take the field.
The league said last July it plans to reach 24 teams by 2020.
Associated Press
