NASCAR fines Kurt Busch $50,000 after Darlington (The Associated Press)
NASCAR fines Kurt Busch $50,000 after Darlington (The Associated Press)
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) Kurt Busch was fined $50,000 by NASCAR on Tuesday for reckless driving on pit road at Darlington and a post-race altercation with Ryan Newman’s crew members. Busch was also placed on probation through July 25 for his actions Saturday night, which began when a flat tire caused him to wreck with six laps remaining in the race. He headed to pit road for repairs, and as he left, he did a burnout through Newman’s pit box. There were crew members over the wall and on pit road at the time, and they complained they could have been injured by Busch’s actions. Busch also ran into Newman’s car on pit road after the race, and several of Newman’s crew members confronted Busch. NASCAR also placed Newman crew chief Tony Gibson on probation through June 27 for failing to control his team, and crew member Andrew Rueger was fined $5,000 and placed on probation for failing to comply with a directive from a NASCAR official. Busch’s motorhome driver, Craig Strickler, was fined $5,000 and placed on probation through the end of the year for interfering with a member of Fox’s broadcast team. It’s just the latest dust-up for Busch, who was fined $50,000 by NASCAR last November for making an obscene gesture and being verbally abusive to a TV reporter during the season finale. Busch parted ways with Penske Racing soon after, and said he’s seeing a sports psychologist to help him better deal with adversity. But Newman insisted Saturday night not much has changed with Busch, and attributed his actions to a ”chemical imbalance.” ”It’s easy to see and it’s easy to say that Kurt blew a fuse again,” Newman told SI.com after the race. ”I’m not sure why he did it and tried to run over our guys and NASCAR officials. And nobody is.” Busch contended he accidentally ran into Newman’s car while taking his helmet off after the race, but Newman didn’t believe the explanation. ”Circumstances I think are that he lied and was so frustrated that he doesn’t know how to deal with his anger,” Newman said. Busch, the 2004 NASCAR champion, is driving for underfunded Phoenix Racing this season. He promised to make this year more fun, and said he took the job with James Finch’s team with an eye on proving he should return to a top-level team in 2013. Newman, meanwhile, is in the final year of his contract with Stewart-Haas Racing. Although team owner Tony Stewart indicated Tuesday he’d like to sign Newman to an extension, in theory, both Busch and Newman could be angling for the same seats right now. Busch and Newman were teammates for three seasons at Penske Racing, and Busch pushed Newman to the win in the 2008 Daytona 500.
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LA Kings roll home with impressive playoff lead (Yahoo! Sports)
LA Kings roll home with impressive playoff lead (Yahoo! Sports)
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) Jeff Carter realizes how smooth the Los Angeles Kings’ 6-1 run through the postseason must look from the outside. The power forward knows most people don’t realize how the Western Conference’s eighth seeds had to grind, scratch and scrape just to get a chance to look so good. ”The last month of the regular season, we were playing playoff hockey,” Carter said Tuesday after the Kings returned from consecutive victories in St. Louis to open their second-round series. ”We had to fight just to get in, and once you get in, anything can happen with how close the teams are,” he added. ”An eight seed doesn’t really mean anything once you’re in. Anything can happen. That month before the playoffs started has helped us. We just kept rolling the way we’ve been playing. It’s good.” And it keeps getting better heading into Game 3 on Thursday night. The West’s lowest seeds are in a commanding position after winning twice in St. Louis with gritty road efforts that left the hard-nosed Blues criticizing their own work ethic and defense. For a franchise with no Stanley Cup championships and just one playoff series victory in the previous 18 years, the Kings are adapting splendidly to the high stakes and physical style of the NHL postseason. After blowing out top-seeded Vancouver in the opening round, they’ve largely dominated the West’s top two teams. Yet the Kings know it’s not nearly as simple as it looked in Vancouver and St. Louis. Anze Kopitar believes there’s no chance of overconfidence against the powerful Blues when they return to Staples Center, where Los Angeles has lost six of its last seven postseason games. ”We’re definitely feeling good right now,” said Kopitar, whose deflating short-handed goal in Game 2 was set up by captain Dustin Brown’s hustle. ”Getting into that building (where) they’ve had so much success and winning both games puts us in a great spot, but it’s not over yet. They have a great team. They can turn it around pretty quick.” After replacing coach Terry Murray with Darryl Sutter at midseason, Los Angeles finished the regular season with a 9-2-3 push, earning a playoff spot right before its 81st game. Sutter might be the overseer of this playoff run, but the crusty veteran coach insists he’s ”just along for the ride” in this postseason surge, claiming the Kings figured it out for themselves from midseason onward. ”It made us a stronger team,” Kopitar said of Murray’s departure and their season-long offensive struggles. ”Mental toughness is a big part of 82 games plus the postseason. We’ve gone through a lot of stuff this season, and at the end of the day, it matters what the guys in the locker room think.” The Kings took control of Game 2 with an utterly dominant first period, starting with Mike Richards’ alert rebound goal just 31 seconds in. Kopitar then scored Los Angeles’ fourth short-handed goal of the playoffs, and the Kings added two late goals to take a four-goal lead that flat-lined the playoff emotion in St. Louis’ long-suffering crowd. ”It was embarrassing, the work ethic we had as a team, I think,” Blues forward T.J. Oshie said. ”For our team defense to be that poor, it’s embarrassing. … There were a lot of guys running around. Everyone’s working hard, but they’re not working hard and using their head at the same time. We’ve got to work hard but work smart.” The Blues didn’t practice Tuesday, taking a day for physical healing and mental resets before boarding a flight to the West Coast. While Los Angeles started the season terribly and finally got itself together, St. Louis was remarkably consistent after coach Ken Hitchcock replaced Davis Payne 13 games in, unexpectedly rising atop the conference standings for a long stretch. But the downside of that success could be a lack of late-season urgency. St. Louis was the first team to clinch a playoff spot and the first to clinch its division, although it didn’t hurt the Blues in their first-round elimination of dangerous San Jose. The Blues don’t blame their weak efforts against Los Angeles on the regular season, but they also realize they can learn a few things from the Kings’ desperate approach to the first two games. ”They don’t stop coming,” Blues captain David Backes said. ”They earned their two wins, and it’s kind of disappointing that we didn’t have more digging in and solidarity as a group to push them back and see what they are made of. We’ve got other levels we can get to, to hopefully make them earn it more.”
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Lynx draft Notre Dame’s Devereaux Peters (The Associated Press)
Lynx draft Notre Dame’s Devereaux Peters (The Associated Press)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) The defending champion Minnesota Lynx didn’t have much room on their roster for rookies, so this year’s WNBA draft served a future purpose. Looking ahead for a potential replacement for 41-year-old center Taj McWilliams-Franklin, the Lynx picked Notre Dame’s Devereaux Peters with the third overall selection on Monday. They took five other players, but only two of them will even be at training camp. For the first time in their 14 seasons, the Lynx didn’t need the draft. They’ve already got a title contender assembled, and they’re hoping Peters can be a valuable piece. The 6-foot-2, two-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year, who helped the Fighting Irish reach the last two NCAA championship games, finished her college career as only the second player in program history with at least 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 150 blocks and 150 steals. The Lynx acquired the selection before last season in a trade with the Washington Mystics for center Nicky Anosike. ”Although I believe Taj might play until she’s 50, there’s probably a more than likelihood that in a couple years, if not a year from now, we might have to replace her,” head coach Cheryl Reeve said. Peters, on a conference call with reporters, said her selection was ”just pure shock” because of how loaded the Lynx are. With McWilliams-Franklin, Rebekkah Brunson, Maya Moore, Seimone Augustus and Lindsay Whalen in the lineup, moving from biggest to smallest, the starting five is set. Candice Wiggins leads the list of reserves, with recent acquisition Erin Thorn and Monica Wright in the backcourt and Amber Harris and Jessica Adair in the post. After two ACL injuries earlier in her career, Peters played the last two seasons without any problems. She’s a strong rebounder and defender who’s used to playing a supporting role on a star-studded Notre Dame team. She’ll need to improve her jump shooting and cut down on her foul-prone play in the WNBA. ”I think I’ve made a big improvement,” Peters said. Reeve joked that Peters was as happy as any player to join the league this year, because ”she gets six fouls.” The Lynx also drafted Damiris Dantas of Brazil with the final choice of the first round, 12th overall. They then picked mid-major stars Julie Wojta of Wisconsin-Green Bay and Kayla Standish of Gonzaga before grabbing guard Nika Baric of Slovenia in the second round, with the 18th, 19th and 20th selections. In the third round, No. 31 overall, they took oft-injured USC point guard Jacki Gemelos. Wojta and Standish will be long shots to make the team, but the two forwards could challenge Wright or Harris for time. WNBA rosters are limited to 11 players. ”We’ve seen it before that you think you’re set, but you come in find out that someone is better and they’ll have that opportunity to prove that they can beat somebody out on our roster,” Lynx executive vice president Roger Griffith said. ”If that happens, we’ll all be stronger for it.” Said Reeve: ”I certainly won’t be drawing a depth chart for them. I think that’s rather disappointing. I won’t go that route. I want them to come in and be confident and be competitive.” Gemelos has torn the ACL in both of her knees twice each, most recently in December, so she won’t play this season. But the Lynx will hold her rights as long as she’s still recovering. The same goes for Dantas and Baric, who are both 19. They’re playing internationally – Baric is a teammate of Augustus in a Russian league – and won’t start their WNBA careers for some time. Dantus might not turn pro until after the Summer Olympics – in 2016. ”That’s not a timeline that scares us either,” Griffith said. — Follow Dave Campbell on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/DaveCampbellAP
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Stamkos scores 2, including OT winner for TB (Yahoo! Sports)
Stamkos scores 2, including OT winner for TB (Yahoo! Sports)
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)—Steven Stamkos has been the Tampa Bay Lightning’s go-to guy all season long. When a goal was needed in overtime for the second straight night, the NHL leader put one in. Stamkos scored two goals—giving him an NHL-best 47—including the winner 2:41 into overtime as the Lightning beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 on Saturday night. Teddy Purcell extended his career-best point streak to nine games with a power-play goal in the third, and added an assist on Stamkos’ game-winner. Tim Wallace netted the first goal of his career, and Mathieu Garon had 25 saves in the win. “That was a big character win for our team,” Stamkos said. “We got some breaks with a 5-on-3 when we were able to tie it, and in overtime. Finally, we were able to take advantage of some power plays. We may have not played our best game, but we found a way to win, and that’s what matters.” Tampa Bay won in overtime for the second straight night after beating the New York Rangers at home on Friday. “These guys are doing the impossible, so no matter how we do it doesn’t make a difference,” Lightning coach Guy Boucher said. “We find ways, and we’ll take it.” Anthony Stewart had two goals in his first multipoint game for Carolina, and Jussi Jokinen also scored for the Hurricanes. Carolina captain Eric Staal, who had two assists, extended his NHL-best point streak to 11 games and his assist streak to 10. Staal matched the marks he and Cory Stillman share for the club’s longest scoring streaks since the team relocated from Hartford in 1997. Cam Ward, playing in his 400th NHL game, stopped 19 shots in the loss. The winning goal was scored while Brandon Sutter was in the penalty box following a roughing call at 1:05. Sutter and Stamkos got tangled up on a rush before Sutter collided with Garon. “We played start to finish a playoff-style game,” Hurricanes coach Kirk Muller said. “Our guys are competing and playing at a high level. I’m really happy with the performance. Stamkos has got the ability to score, and I thought we limited him really well here. He’s a world-class player and he can capitalize on it.” Wallace gave Tampa Bay the lead at 5:58 with his first goal in 58 games. Wallace was in his third game with Tampa Bay after being claimed off waivers from the New York Islanders. Stewart scored the tying goal from Staal at 5:23 of the second, and goals from Jokinen and Stewart made it 3-1 before Stamkos scored on a rush at 18:00. Purcell connected to tie it during a 5-on-3 power play at 7:24 of the third. NOTES: It was the 100th game between the teams. … The Hurricanes went 2-1-3 on their six-game homestand. . RW Chad LaRose played in his first game for Carolina after missing seven because of an undisclosed upper body injury. . D Mike Commodore, playing his second game for the Lightning, was a member of Carolina’s 2006 Stanley Cup championship team. … Jokinen played with the Lightning from 2007-09. … Carolina RW Tuomo Ruutu (eighth game, upper body) and RW Patrick Dwyer (third game, lower body) sat out. … Tampa Bay D Victor Hedman (upper body) missed his fourth game.
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Lynx sign free agent shooting guard Erin Thorn (AP)
Lynx sign free agent shooting guard Erin Thorn (AP)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)—The Minnesota Lynx have signed free agent shooting guard Erin Thorn, formerly of the Chicago Sky. The deal was announced Monday. The 5-foot-9 Thorn shot nearly 40 percent from 3-point range last season as a reserve for the Sky. She appeared in all 34 games and averaged 5.4 points, 2.4 assists and 1.7 rebounds in 16.8 minutes. Thorn was drafted by the New York Liberty in the second round in 2003. This will be her 10th year in the WNBA. The defending champion Lynx open the 2012 season at home against the Phoenix Mercury on May 20.
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Orozco adds Winter Cup title to resume (AP)
Orozco adds Winter Cup title to resume (AP)
LAS VEGAS (AP)—The former Olympic champion is one and done. Paul Hamm struggled big-time Thursday in his first gymnastics meet in four years—a day that started poorly and got even worse after he left the gym. Hours after his below-par performance at the Winter Cup Challenge, a second round of gymnasts took to the floor and knocked Hamm to a tie for 48th place in the standings, denying him one of the 42 spots for Saturday’s finals. An unfathomable result for the man who used to be known as the world’s best gymnast, but is now simply another guy with a dream of making the London Olympics—and a lot of work in front of him to get there. “This has been one of my weaker performances of my career,” Hamm said. “It’s disappointing for sure. I’m not happy. I just have to be constructive here. It’s all I can really do.” The 2004 all-around Olympic champion fell off the pommel horse early, landed hard on the floor exercise late and mixed in more wobbles and bobbles than he usually throws out there in a year. Performing in four of six events, the 29-year-old from Wisconsin scored higher than 13.9 on only one of them—a frustrating day for an athlete not used to giving performances like this in public. “He came up to me and said, `Man, I don’t feel like myself today,”’ said Jonathan Horton, another past national champion, who has been training with Hamm for the last three weeks. Granted, this event is viewed by almost everyone in gymnastics as a warm-up for the more important stuff to come on the road to London. And Hamm has only been training for eight months since tearing up his right shoulder—injuries that have ended many a career in this sport. Still, after a day that fell well below his own lowered expectations, the man who used to define excellence found himself in spots that were once unthinkable. Not only did he miss the final 42, he now must wait to see if he’ll earn one of three wildcard spots on the 15-man national team to be named at the end of the weekend. Not making that team won’t eliminate him from contention for the Olympics, but it would deprive him of some funding opportunities and chances to compete for the U.S. in international events. Hamm said he would continue to train either way. “Paul, whether he makes the national team or doesn’t make the national team, he’s a big-picture guy,” said four-time national champion John Roethlisberger, who is on the men’s program committee. “I’m not going to say it doesn’t matter. But this is a step on the road. Tomorrow, for him, he’s going to go back in the gym. Maybe there will be a little more fire in his belly, but there’s fire in his belly already.” Save his high-flying vault—where he scored a 15.4 for his roundoff into a front flip with a full twist—this was not a pretty day. He opened the meet on the pommel horse and was the last competitor in the gym to go during the first rotation. The judges, slow on the draw, held him up for more than a minute, and when Hamm finally did get the green light, he grabbed onto the pommels for five, six, seven seconds, then jumped onto the horse and back into the world of competitive gymnastics. Less than 10 seconds later, though, he slipped and was back on the ground. “Pommel horse and parallel bars, I goofed up a skill early in the routines and that just kind of set me off on a bad path for the rest of it,” Hamm said. Leading after the first day was Chris Brooks, an alternate from the team that finished third at last year’s world championships. Next were John Orozco and reigning national champion Danell Leyva, both members of the bronze-medal team that has potential, Hamm says, to do even better this year in London. Horton worked on only one event, the pommel horse, and struggled to a score of 12.25. He’s overcoming a broken left foot and is scheduled to get the pins out next Tuesday. “It wasn’t a great routine today, but people saw my upgrades,” Horton said. “People with a trained eye see I’m swinging better pommel horse. The national coordinator and the national coaches see what I’m doing in training and I’m not behind at all.” Of course, training and competition are two different animals, and Hamm was the first to admit that. “Today, I just felt more fatigued than I usually would in competition,” he said. “Then on top of it, there’s the nervousness and all the other elements that might throw you off. It was enough to get you off track.” Hamm scored 13.9 on floor (good for ninth on the event), 13.05 on pommel horse (12th) and 13.4 on bars (17th). Through all the struggles, however, he did show glimmers of the kind of gymnast he can be—the kind of gymnast he has been inside the training gym for the last few months, if reports from his camp, along with his video Facebook posts, are to be believed. His flairs on the floor were as big and exciting as anyone’s, legs kicking high above his shoulders and bringing audible gasps from every corner of the small arena. And there are still the precise lines of his handstands, the explosiveness of his leaps, the businesslike attitude of everything he does, that bring back memories of the champion he once was—and hopes to be again. On this day, though, it was hard not to think back to four years ago. Back then, Hamm was returning from a lengthy break, hoping to defend his Olympic title. The quest began at the same meet, in the same city, in the same gym. He won that meet by a whopping 7.25 points. After the first day—a day in which he looked every bit the champion—Hamm was asked to grade himself. He gave himself an `A-minus.’ Same question, four years later: “Definitely in the `D’ range today,” he said. “I’m not happy. I’m frustrated. Today’s been very frustrating to me.”
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