Phoneix International Speedway?; Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway

The first 100 laps of this race was very Daytona/Talladega like.

First 2 cautions were Phoenix like debri on lap 20 and Robby Gordon, #7 Dodge Speed Energy / Bashas', spun, he thought he was helped, on lap 34 which would count as the competition yellow NASCAR was going to have at lap 40 due to overnight rain.

Daytona 500 winner, Trevor Bayne #21 Motorcraft / Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Ford Focus, spun and the rear of his car hit the wall.

Kyle Busch, #18 Combos Toyota Camry, got into Carl Edwards, #99 Subway Ford Focus, on lap 59 which also caused damage to Jeff Gordon, #24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet (race winner), Kevin Harvick, #29 Jimmie John's Gourmet Sandwiches Chevrolet, and Mark Martin, #5 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet. Carl wasn't sure if Kyle got loose or if he intentionally hit him, Kyle apoligized for the incident saying he got loose. Only Carl was severely damaged, winded up finishing 28th 48 laps down.

On lap 67 would be considered 'the big one' at Daytona International Speedway or at Talladega Superspeedway. The wreck was caused by Matt Kenseth, #17 Crown Royal Ford Focus, getting into Brian Vickers, #83 Red Bull Racing Chevrolet. Vickers claimed Kenseth was racing him to hard and slammed into his door and Kenseth claimed Vikers gave him no room. This collected 13 cars; Clint Bowyer #33 Cheerios / Hamburger Helper Chevrolet, Jeff Burton #31 Caterpillar Chevrolet, Jamie McMurray #1 Bass Pro Shops/Trackers Chevrolet, David Reutimann #00 Best Western Toyota Camry, Casey Mears #13 GEICO Toyota Camry, Travis Kvapil #38 Long John Silver's Ford Focus, David Gilliand #34 Taco Bell Ford Focus, Bobby Labonte #47 Clorox Toyota Camry, Regan Smith #78 Furniture Row Companies Chevrolet, Andy Lally #71 Super Eco-Fuel Saver Chevrolet, and Robby Gordon (2nd incident). This wreck obvivously cause a red flag situation which lasted for 14 minutes and 4 seconds .

There wouldn't be another stop in action until David Ragan's, #6 UPS I Love Logistics Ford Focus, tire went down and slammed him hard into the wall on lap 127.

In the begining of the race Joey Logano's #20 Home Depot Toyota Camry engine was having issues which was that he lost a cyclinder in the engine, but on lap 218 his engine give up and blew which led to the second to last caution of the race.

The last caution was on lap 285 Andy Lally (was involved in the 'big one') for getting into the wall.


Jeff Gordon winded up passing Kyle Busch for the victory in Phoenix, after a 66-race winless streak.

Links:
Gordon ends 66-race winless drought at Phoenix- NASCAR.com: http://bit.ly/dZxmVb
Lap-by-Lap- NASCAR.com: http://bit.ly/eroPIC
Results- NASCAR.com: http://bit.ly/er6Jed
Early crashes at Phoenix leave many frustrated- NASCAR.com: http://bit.ly/h8odZ8
Jeff Gordon wins at Phoenix- ESPN.com: http://es.pn/gDAYNe

And the Cup drivers dominate again in the Nationwide series; Bashas' Supermarkets 200 at Phoenix International Raceway

Well the only story line of this race was that Kyle Busch, #18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry, lead all 200 laps and won the race. There were only 3 cautions for: debri, Brad Keslowski, #22 Discount Tire Dodge Challenger, tire blew and ran him into the wall, and Daytona 500 winner's, Trevor Bayne's, #16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford Mustang, tire also blew and he slammed into the wall. Kyle Busch dominated the whole race. The only time he was challenged was after the caution, caused by Trevor Bayne on lap 164, Carl Edwards was able to stick with Kyle for 15-20 laps but wasn't able to lead a lap.

Even with the NASCAR's new rules on point system, this race was dominated by Cup talent drivers. The top 5 had 4 drivers that score points in the Sprint Cup series; Kyle Busch (1), Carl Edwards #60 Ford Drive One Ford Mustang (2), Kevin Harvick #33 Rheem/Menards Chevrolet (3), and Ryan Newman #30 Dollar General Chevrolet (4). Someone twitted Joe Gibbs Racing's twitter account saying “@DWallaceJr6: @JoeGibbsRacing Kyle Busch is really showing what the nationwide program is all about!” Now I don't understand this one bit. Kyle is a favorite in the top series and he's by no means new to NASCAR while the Nationwide series is meant for up and coming drivers to show their talents on a national stage and try to win a ride in the Cup series. With drivers like Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, and Kevin Harvick racing pretty much every race and not allowing young drivers, like Colin Braun who is talented and has no ride in the nationwide series, to compete in a series meant for them is beyond me. They have already made their way through the ranks and they should allow others to do so too. People say it's good for the young drivers to compete with those drivers for experience and then it's makes them feel better when they win. I don't agree with this at all. I think there should be stricter rules, like you can only race in the nationwide or truck series your first 3 seasons in the Cup series and then no more. Now begins the talk of another Kyle Busch trifecta in Phoenix, he won the Friday night truck race as well.

Links:

Busch goes wire to wire for victory at Phoenix- NASCAR.com: http://bit.ly/hrcjM0

Lap-by-Lap- NASCAR.com: http://bit.ly/dSN1gM

Results- NASCAR.com: http://bit.ly/dXAV0n

Dallas a good host of the Super Bowl?

My schools' news had a brief segment on Super Bowl XLV, where they stated 3 facts that not everyone knew about the Super Bowl, which I did know.

1. Ice fell off Cowboys Stadium and hit 6 people.

2. Christina Aguilera messed up the Anthem.

3. Temporary seats weren't installed in time leaving fans without seats and were refunded 3 times the amount.

Then they went on to say that Dallas dropped the ball hosting the Super Bowl...First off how was Dallas suppose to know they'd have cold, snow, and ice in February. Secondly, Christina Aguilera's mess up was all on her. The temporary seating was their fault though and partly NFL (will explain later). So I don't think Dallas dropped the ball there were some bad coincidences but overall seemed like everyone that had seats had a good time, the game was great and Cowboys Stadium is a miraculous stadium. The NFL even stated that Dallas and Cowboys Stadium did an awesome job and they have a strong chance of rehosting the Super Bowl in years to come.

Dallas had unusally wintery weather days leading up to the Super Bowl that led to Dallas airports being shut down and roads therefore alot of inconveniences to fans trying to get in town for the 'big game'. On Friday, February 4, ice and snow slid off of the roof of Cowboys Stadium and fell onto 6 workers that were preparing the stadium for the game. 4 workers injuries were minor and the other 2 workers were more severely injured, 1 was hit in the shoulder and the other in the head. 1 of the workers is in critical condition and isn't expected to make it. (So keep his family in your thoughts.)

Gamblers were betting on all sorts of things during the Super Bowl, such as how long Christina Aguilera would take to sing the National Anthem and how long she'd hold the last note. (The over/under was 1 min 54 seconds and she took 1 min 53 seconds and 7 miliseconds.) The story line though of Christina Aguilera's performance was her messing up the National Anthem. She repeated the line "What so proudly we watched at the twilight's last gleaming." instead of singing "O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming."

1,250 fans entered Cowboys Stadium excited to see Super Bowl XLV to find out that the temporary seats that they paid to sit in for the game had not been installed or were deemed unsafe to sit in. 850 fans were relocated to similar or better seats and the 400 fans that weren't able to be relocated were given 3 times the cost of their ticket ($2,400) and tickets to next seasons Super Bowl in Indianapolis. "
The NFL tried to placate those 400 fans, taking them inside the stadium to watch the game on monitors in the North Field Club behind the Pittsburgh bench. They also had the option of viewing the game from standing-room platforms in each corner of the stadium. Those fans will still get the triple refund.
The fans "watched game in club w/free food, soft drinks + merchandise," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello tweeted. "The other 850 were re-located to seats in equal or better locations. NFL + Cowboys staff and families gave up seats." -ESPN (Link #3). The NFL knew about the temporary seats possibly causing a stir a week before the game and didn't give any statement to those fans with temporary seating tickets about the chance of not being allowed to sit in their seats. The NFL stands by their decision of not alerting the fans and get them riled up if they didn't have to.

Links:
Ice falls off Super Bowl stadium, injures workers- MSNBC.com: http://on.msnbc.com/h4l1eR
Christina Aguilera flubs Super Bowl national anthem- FOXSports.com: http://bit.ly/fUVoAy
Super Bowl XLV: 400 fans given boot from Super Bowl seats- ESPN.com: http://es.pn/gEFeBW (Link #3)
NFL knew last week temporary Super Bowl seats at Cowboys Stadium might be unusable- DallasNews.com: http://bit.ly/fXGc7z

Punches, Blood, and a Goose Egg; Penguins vs. Capitals

This was the first time the Capitals and the Penguins played each other since the Winter Classic at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennslyvania where the Capitals beat the Penguins 3 to 1. The Penguins had their star players Steven Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in this loss on January 1st.

The rematch was hosted at the Verizon Center in Washington D.C. The arena was 100% full to see their Capitals take on the Penguins. The Capitals scored first at the end of the 1st period, Brooks Laich backhanded shot into the Penguins' goal, guarded by Marc-Andre Fleury, with assistance from John Erskine and Mattieu Perreault (1-0 Caps). At the very end of the 1st period, Capitals' Mike Green was hit on the right side of his face by a puck shot by Brooks Orpik, not intentionally, there was blood getting on to the ice from his face. In the 2nd period the Capitals' were setting up for a goal when Penguins' Alex Goligoskip was battling with Capitals' Matt Hendricks and pushed him into the Penguins' goal tender while Mike Knuble had placed a puck into the Penguins' goal. The refrees called goal tender interference, which was a right call, but also called a penalty on Hendricks, which was not a right call the ref was definitely not fully paying attention. During the last seconds of the Penguins' power play Marcus Johansson, Capitals' rookie center, scored a shorthanded goal assisted by Jeff Schultz (2-0 Caps). Around 8 minutes into the 3rd period after a face off Penguins' Tim Wallace and Capitals' David Steckel, who was the one that hit Crosby that gave him his concussion unintentionally as well, got into it and both was penalized 5 minutes for fighting. 16 minutes in Matt Cooke of the Penguins tripped the Capitals' Alex Ovechkin which Ovechkin and his teammate Nicklas Backstrom didn't care for and double teamed Cooke while other teammates from both teams started to pile up until the refs broke it up seconds later. Cooke got the penalty for tripping and the Capitals weren't able to capitalize on the power play. The Penguins' left their goal empty, with around 2 minutes to go, to try to over power the Capitals and score a goal to make it a closer game but Hendricks was able to take the puck to the other end of the ice and passed it to Mike Knuble who made the empty net goal, Hendricks got the assist (3-0 Caps). The Capitals shutout the Crosby and Malkin-less Penguins.

There were 0 penalties in the 1st period, 4 in the 2nd period (3 by Penguins and 1 by the Capitals, bad call), 4 in the 3rd (2 by Penguins and 2 by Capitals; both were for fighting and tripping). Capitals had 1 goal in all 3 periods. Michal Neuvirth's 2nd shut out of the season.

First hockey post so sorry if it sucks...also new to hockey.

Links:
Recap- NHL.com: http://bit.ly/hc7XTd
Boxscore- ESPN.com: http://es.pn/e2JsrU

Marlins are America's Team of the MLB

The Marlins have sent their President David Samson, Assistant to the President and Hall of Famer Andre Dawson, Special Assistant to the President Jeff Conine, rookie outfielder Logan Morrison, recently signed veteran catcher John Buck, three mermaids, Senior Vice President of Marketing Sean Flynn, Marketing Superadvisor Boris Menier, and John Sulser who works with FS Florida to visit US troops stationed in Southwest Asia and Germany from February 3rd to the 11th. This is the Marlins second year of sending their personnel, current players, and Mermaids over seas to meet our troops.

The members of the group, so far only David Samson, have been posting on an MLBlog their experience. There is also the posts from last years trip mainly from John Baker, one of the Marlins catchers, that went on the inaugural trip.

NFL teams send out their cheerleaders on USO visits, singers have concerts for the soliders, and other celebrities visit the troops. The Marlins earn a whole new respect for doing this to me, I believe every single MLB team should use them as an example and do the same thing. The Marlins don't just send their groups to the main military bases but even to the small platoons that are more dangerous. From what I hear, and could assume, all the soldiers that get to meet them are thrilled and love to be able to talk about sports. I'm sure most of the men are glad to see the good looking Mermaids as well and get their mind off their exteremly dangerous jobs. I hope the members tell them how thankful we americans are for them and for what they do. I know I couldn't do anything in the military but I hope one day I will be able to support them many, many ways and maybe even take a USO trip one day.

If your on twitter, you can get updates and photos by following:
@LoMoMarlins
@FSMarlins
@Marlins
Link to the Marlins website for the trip: http://atmlb.com/heLu01
Link to the MLBlog: http://marlinsvisitthetroops.mlblogs.com/
Link to the FSMarlins site for the trip: http://foxsportsflorida.com/pages/marlins_troops_blog/