Auto Racing
Martinsville veterans run 1-2; rookie couple hits the wall
MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Denny Hamlin promised he would be a factor in Sunday’s NASCAR race at Martinsville Speedway, and he went out and proved it by leading a parade of drivers who smashed the track qualifying record.
Hamlin, who owns four victories at Martinsville, turned a lap at 99.595 mph around the 0.526-mile oval, the oldest and shortest in the Sprint Cup Series. It’s his 17th career pole, third at Martinsville and career-best fifth this season.
Johnson, a five-time champion for Hendrick Motorsports, will start the race with a four-point lead over Matt Kenseth in the championship, and he was surrounded by Kenseth and his teammates – Hamlin and Kyle Busch.
The top 10 in the starting grid features half of the top 10 in points with just four events to go. Busch and Kevin Harvick (starting 10th) are third, 26 back, and Jeff Gordon (ninth) is fifth, 34 back.
MARTINSVILLE, Va. – It was a rough opening practice at Martinsville Speedway for NASCAR’s most prolific rookies.
Danica Patrick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who are battling for Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year on the track and involved romantically off of the track, both ruined their primary cars.
Patrick, who drives for Stewart-Haas Racing, hit the wall on the 0.526-mile oval about 30 minutes into Friday’s practice. A short while later, Stenhouse hit the wall.
NBA
Rodman all quiet on Korea but has words for the Lakers
TOKYO – Dennis Rodman, the ex-NBA star and current buddy of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, isn’t saying when his next visit to Pyongyang will be, but he did make a prediction: The Lakers haven’t got a chance this season.
Rodman was in Tokyo on Friday to promote a Japanese cable network’s coverage of the NBA season. He refused to take any questions about his plans for more visits to North Korea, saying that’s a topic for another time.
He did say he was pretty sure of one thing: “We know that the Miami Heat, that’s the best team,” he said. “The Lakers, no chance.”
The season will open next week.
College Basketball
Women’s NCAA Tournament might add Divisions II and III
The NCAA women’s basketball committee is backing a move to play the Final Four two days earlier, starting next season.
The Final Four would go to a Friday-Sunday format instead of the Sunday-Tuesday configuration in place since 2003.
The committee also decided that the top 16 seeds should host the first two rounds. The move hopefully would bolster attendance in the first two rounds, which has become stagnant over the last few years.
The committee also decided to ask Division II and Division III for input on the idea of a combined championship that would take place on the same weekend as the 2016 Women’s Final Four in Indianapolis. Men’s basketball did it in Atlanta last season.
A lot of the ideas that the committee recommended come out of a paper submitted by Val Ackerman last spring to the NCAA. All the changes must be approved by the Division I championship panel.
World Cup Ski Racing
Slovenian Tina Maze is the 2012 Skieur d’Or
SOELDEN, Austria – Defending overall World Cup champion Tina Maze of Slovenia was voted skier of the year by journalists.
The international association of ski journalists chose the 30-year-old Maze for the Skieur d’Or - Serge Lang Trophy, its annual award named for the founder of Alpine skiing’s World Cup in the 1960s.
Maze earned her first overall title last season, winning 11 races and gathering a record point total of 2,414. She won the crystal globes for best super-G and giant slalom skier and added a gold medal in super-G at the world championships in Schladming, Austria.
Maze became the 14th female winner of the award and the first since American standout Lindsey Vonn in 2009.
Associated Press
