What's good for Dale Jr. is good for NASCAR
This just in: NASCAR now will run six races a year at Michigan International Speedway.
OK, I'm pulling your throttle leg a little on that one, but one could understand the desire for it. If Dale Earnhardt Jr. has an on-track happy place, Michigan is it.
He has two Sprint Cup victories since winning at Richmond in 2006, and both came on the 2-mile oval in the Irish Hills, including the one Sunday that ended his 143-race winless streak.
The endless questions of "Will Junior win again?" now are over, at least for a few weeks. More importantly, what's good for Dale Jr. is good for NASCAR.
Even through his long losing streak, Earnhardt continued to be the most popular driver in the sport by a wide margin. He has his critics, but Earnhardt is well-liked by the majority of fans and the majority of people in the Cup garage. They want him to do well.
"That's the way I feel about people," Earnhardt said Sunday after his victory. "I want to see good people do good things, and I want to see people who I think are good people have success and be happy."
Some of the first people to greet Earnhardt on pit road after the win were Jimmie Johnson's pit crew, including crew chief Chad Knaus, who reached into the car to shake Earnhardt's hand. Earnhardt's No. 88 Chevy team works in the same building at Johnson's No. 48 crew.
Greg Biffle, who ended his 49-race winless streak earlier this season at Texas, expressed how many drivers felt about watching Earnhardt go to Victory Lane on Father's Day.
"I am really excited for Junior," Biffle said. "What a great day for him to win on. There has been a lot of pressure on him and I am glad he won."
Finally winning is the icing on the cake this season for Earnhardt. He has been a contending driver all season, easily his best year since joining Hendrick Motorsports in 2008.
He's only four points behind Matt Kenseth for the top spot in the standings. Earnhardt also has a series best 12 top-10s in 15 races. If the Chase started today, Earnhardt would be tied for fifth in the standings, only three points behind the four drivers tied for first.
Things have continued to improve since Rick Hendrick paired Earnhardt with crew chief Steve Letarte last season. Earnhardt finished outside the top 20 in the standings in 2009 and 2010, but made the Chase last year in his first season with Letarte.
Earnhardt had come close to winning several times with Letarte, but now with the elusive victory out of the way, they can focus on contending for the title.
"It was pretty tough for a couple years," Earnhardt said. "Back when me and [former crew chief] Lance [McGrew] were trying to figure it out, we worked hard together. We didn't beat on each other too bad, but just couldn't get it figured out.
"It takes a unique combination. You can put the best people together and sometimes not get it to work. It takes a certain combination. We found one that works for me."
source : espn
luni, 18 iunie 2012
miercuri, 9 septembrie 2009
GOP Lawmaker's Graphic Sex-Bragging Caught On Tape
We've all seen those stories where a careless politician gets a little too candid when speaking into a hot mic. But this one's really in a whole different league.
[RELATED SLIDESHOW: TPM'S HISTORY OF THE SEX SCANDALOUS FALL OF THE MODERN CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT]
Michael Duvall is a conservative Republican state representative from Orange County, California. While waiting for the start of a legislative hearing in July, the 54-year-old married father of two and family values champion began describing, for the benefit of a colleague seated next to him, his ongoing affairs with two different women. In very graphic detail.
For instance:
She wears little eye-patch underwear. So, the other day she came here with her underwear, Thursday. And so, we had made love Wednesday--a lot! And so she'll, she's all, 'I am going up and down the stairs, and you're dripping out of me!' So messy!
Duvall's sophomoric braggadocio, of course, was picked up by the microphone in front of him, and wound up on a tape for the legislature's in-house TV station. From there it was sent to a local news station, KCAL, which ran this full report last night:
duminică, 16 august 2009
Berlin 2009 - Bolt smashes 100m world record
Jamaica's Usain Bolt shattered his own 100 metres world record to win the World Championship final in Berlin in a breathtaking 9.58 seconds.
The world's fastest man took a staggering 0.11 seconds off the 9.69 mark he set winning gold at the Beijing Olympics a year ago to the day, taking the event into a time zone undreamed of before his arrival on the scene.
American Tyson Gay, the 2007 world champion, ran the race of his life to finish second in 9.71, the third fastest time ever.
Jamaican Asafa Powell claimed bronze in 9.84.
In contrast to the Olympic final, when he was able to coast over the line, Bolt saved his celebrations until the race was actually finished.
He was pushed a little harder this time, though his victory on the blue track at the Olympic Stadium was never in doubt as he completed the set of major medals at the distance.
The 100 metres record usually comes down by one or two hundredths of a second at a time, making the bite Bolt took out of it on Sunday simply astonishing.
"I don't run for world records," a relaxed Bolt, 22, said. "The aim was just to come out here and execute because it was going to be a tough race."
"I got a pretty good start, I was there at 20 metres and that was it.," he said.
"I said anything could happen and it did. It was a big target but I got 9.58 and I am really happy with myself."
Bolt will now pocket $100,000 from the International Association of Athletics Federations for his world record but that is a mere fraction of what sponsors will now be ready to pay for him.
Bolt, who false-started in the semi-final, made a flying getaway in the final and was clear after only 20 metres.
He crossed the line with one eye on the clock before pounding his chest and blowing kisses to the crowd.
He hugged his friend Powell and completed a lap of honour roared on by some 70,000 cheering fans.
"Today was perfect. This gave me a lot of energy. Especially the crowd," Bolt said through the stadium microphone, immediately after the race. "I won't forget it."
Bolt, five days shy of his 23rd birthday, had pledged to wrestle the only major title still missing from his now perfect collection away from Gay, but had complained his preparation was plagued by rain and wind in the European meetings he ran.
He also had to undergo minor surgery to remove thorns from his foot in April, after stepping on them following a car crash.
"Now I plan to do even better in the future," threatened Bolt.
eurosport.com
sâmbătă, 15 august 2009
NASA Looks to Fly Commercial
NASA will spend $50 million of federal economic stimulus funds to seed development of commercial passenger spaceships; however, a presidential panel reviewing the U.S. space program says that may be just the beginning.
According to the recommendations of the U.S. Human Space Flight Plans committee, which delivered its preliminary findings to the White House on Friday, NASA should set aside $2.4 billion between 2011 and 2014 for rides to the International Space Station on commercial U.S. carriers.
"There are companies that would love to move forward with orbital launch service on their own, using only private funds, but it just wouldn't happen for many, many years," John Gedmark, executive director of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, a Washington, D.C.-based industry trade group, told Discovery News. "What the government funding would do is basically allow these companies to accelerate these efforts."
With the government as a base customer, commercial firms would be able to develop an array of new markets for orbital launch services, including tourism and scientific research, Gedmark added.
"When you have multiple companies doing this as part of their core business, you open the doors for all sorts of things that you can do in space," he said.
The agency has $50 million available for firms to flesh out plans to provide astronauts rides to and from space station, which orbits about 225 miles above Earth. Proposals are due by Sept. 22.
joi, 30 iulie 2009
luni, 27 iulie 2009
Eto'o arrives for Inter medical
Barcelona's Samuel Eto'o has arrived in Italy for a medical with Internazionale as the swap deal for Zlatan Ibrahimovic edges towards completion.
The Cameroon forward has said he is delighted to be joining the Serie A champions and has targeted winning the Champions League for his new side.
"I'm very happy to be at Inter," Eto'o told the club's website. "I'm here to work and win the Champions League."
Eto'o, who helped Barca to a Spanish league and Cup double and victory in the Champions League last season, is set to join Inter as part of a complicated deal that would see Ibrahimovic move in the opposite direction.
The Catalans will also loan Belarus midfielder Aleksandr Hleb to Inter and pay cash reported to be in the region of 50 million euros (£43m).
Inter manager Jose Mourinho had said his sadness at seeing his best player go was balanced by his excitement at Eto'o's arrival.
"Inter had to choose whether to say: 'We're not selling you' to Ibrahimovic, or get Eto'o plus Hleb free for a year, plus 50 million euros (£43.2m)," he said. "The fans are ready to love Eto'o.
"This seems an extraordinary deal to me, a 100m (£86.5m) euro deal, the deal of the summer. For me it's worth 100m (£86.5m) because Eto'o is not worth a euro less than Ibra'".
Reuters
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