Robbie Gordon getting a bad deal?

Should Dodge not be the one fined?

Robby Gordon, NASCAR’s last independent owner-driver, needs a near-miracle to prevent a season that started with so much promise from imploding.Gordon goes before an appeals committee on Wednesday desperately needing relief from a recent penalty that could destroy his race team.

His odds aren’t good: In the 96 hearings held over the past eight years, The National Stock Car Racing Commission upheld 66 decisions. In two instances, the original penalty was increased.

The original penalty was reduced 20 times and the penalties were overturned just eight times.

Gordon has a hard fight ahead over an un-approved front bumper on his brand new Dodge when he reported to the season-opening Daytona 500. The infraction cost him 100 points in the standings, while his crew chief was suspended six races and fined $100,000.

But Gordon insists the penalty hardly fits the crime.

“We’re going to jail for a crime we didn’t commit,” he’s steadfastly insisted.

The incident has marked a tough two months for Gordon, the stubbornly lovable lone wolf of NASCAR who insists on doing everything his very own way.

So when terrorist threats led to the January cancellation of the Dakar Rally, costing Robby Gordon Motorsports more than $4 million in personal losses, he had to scramble to get his race team on solid footing. It meant quickly putting an alliance together with Gillett Evernham Motorsports that required him to move from Ford to Dodge the week before teams reported to Daytona.

With just a few days to make the transition, his team scrambled to build him race cars and used whatever parts the manufacturer sent his way.

Gordon said the un-approved bumper came from Dodge, and with zero familiarity in the new equipment, the team had no way of knowing the part had yet to receive NASCAR’s approval for competition.

“It was an unfortunate series of human errors compounded by the very short timeframe RGM had to get their car changed to Dodge Chargers in time for the Daytona 500,” said Kipp Owen, director of SRT and Dodge Motorsports Engineering.

“Dodge has taken appropriate steps in the warehouse to make sure that prototype parts cannot be mistaken for approved parts in the future and hopes that the circumstances surrounding this error are taken into consideration.”

NASCAR had little wiggle room on the issue. Since implementing a zero tolerance policy on modifications to the Car of Tomorrow, the sanctioning body has ruled with an iron fist on teams that run afoul of the inspectors.

Add in an increased effort to sweep the culture of cheating out of the sport, and penalties have been brutal of late. Suspensions are lengthy and fines, which averaged about $200,000 a year over the past decade, totaled almost $1 million in 2007 alone.

So for NASCAR, Gordon’s infraction was a black and white issue. It doesn’t matter why or how the bumper got on his Dodge. It was illegal and the sanctioning body reacted accordingly.

Gordon doesn’t think every issue is always black or white.

“It was something that we didn’t build, we didn’t fix, we didn’t supply,” he said. “It was a clerical error from the manufacturer and all we did was install it actually on the race car … it’s almost like you put yourself in a position that if someone steals your car and robs a bank, but because it was your car, you’re going to jail.”

That’s the case Gordon will make on Wednesday to a three-member panel that will hear his appeal. It’s a tough process and teams very rarely prevail in getting penalties reduced, let alone overturned.

Although there is recent precedent – the panel last year threw out a $10,000 fine levied against a Hendrick Motorsports crew chief accused of modifying an intake manifold – Gordon has no way of knowing which way this is going to go.

If the panel gives him back his points, he’d jump all the way from 37th to 21st in the standings. If the deduction stands, then he heads into Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend below the all-important top 35 mark with just two events left to race his way back into a guaranteed spot in every race.

Gordon knows if he starts missing races, his days as a car owner could be numbered. He’s worked too hard and too long to see it all crumble this way, something even NASCAR privately admits.

But personal feelings can’t enter these proceedings, and that’s sobering when Gordon’s future is on the line.

“We don’t want to fight NASCAR,” Gordon said. “We want to participate in NASCAR, and we want to compete at this level. If this sticks, I don’t know what our plan will be. I’ll be honest with you.

“But there is . . . I think open wheel got back together, and I know I can drive one of those cars.”

Newman edges to win Daytona 500

Kurt Busch helps team mate win

Another thriller, another heartbreak at the Daytona 500. For the second straight year, The Great American Race came down to the last lap.
This time the drama rewarded Ryan Newman, who hadn’t won in 81 races over more than two years, and team owner Roger Penske, long the king at Indianapolis but never a winner at Daytona.
Newman waited while the big stars fell back one by one. Then, with only Tony Stewart ahead of him, Newman got a “push from heaven” from teammate Kurt Busch to take the lead on the final lap.”Kurt was the push from heaven that made it all happen,” Newman said. “Without a doubt, he could have easily gone three-wide and split us through the center and made one heck of a mess there. But he chose to be a teammate, and that was the most honorable thing that he could do.”Penske, the most successful owner in open-wheel history with 14 wins in the prestigious Indianapolis 500, now has a victory in NASCAR’s showcase event.

It only took him 24 years to get it.

And it came in the 50th running of the Daytona 500, in thrilling fashion, with a last-lap pass for the second consecutive year.

When the car owner finally made it to storied Victory Lane, he was met by Rick Hendrick, NASCAR’s most powerful owner.

“I talked to Rick earlier today, and I said, ‘You’ve been in the winner’s circle so many times, if we win will you give me your hat?’ He was the first one down here. So I thank him,” Penske said while wearing that very cap.

“We’ve been working here for many years. Certainly Kurt and the teamwork was just unbelievable. It’s a big day in our life and for our whole team.”

The Penske cars were quiet for 199 of the 200 laps, letting Joe Gibbs Racing stars Stewart and Kyle Busch race each other in a battle of Toyotas. With one lap to go, it appeared Stewart finally would get his first Daytona 500 win in his 10th try.

Running out front in the high line, he held off the two Penske cars as they circled the famed speedway. But as the Penske teammates closed in on him, Stewart didn’t feel safe running alone without any allies.

At the last second, he dropped low on the track to line up in front of Kyle Busch. The JGR teams had talked all week about the importance of teamwork, and Stewart thought he’d need Busch to make it to the checkered flag.

But the decision backfired in the blink of an eye.

Stewart couldn’t hook up with Kyle Busch fast enough, and the two Penske cars steamrolled past him on the top.

Newman pulled away for his first win since New Hampshire in September 2005, while Stewart had to settle for third.

“I don’t think there’s too many people that would take the white flag and like finishing third,” a dejected Stewart sighed. “We tried to win the Daytona 500. That’s all I can say. I just made the wrong decision on the backstretch.

“My intention was to get in front of Kyle and pull Kyle along with us. It’s hard to explain. It’s probably one of the most disappointing moments in my racing career.”

The disappointment was also evident on Greg Zipadelli, who starts his 10th season with Stewart in NASCAR’s longest active driver-crew chief pairing.

“We’ve worked all winter, we’ve worked the last 10 years, I’ve worked my whole life,” Zipadelli said. “It’s just the way that it is. There’s a lot of good people that haven’t won this race. I’m not going to get hung up on it. I’m going to work as hard as I can, and when it’s done, if we have our turn, we will.

“It won’t be because we didn’t work at it.”

The failure was a setback for Toyota, which seemed destined to win its first points race in NASCAR’s top series behind the strength of JGR.

“There’s no doubt the Gibbs guys feel dejected tonight,” Kurt Busch said.

The Gibbs organization joined Toyota this season, giving the manufacturer instant credibility after an embarrassing 2007 debut. Based on a strong month of testing and Denny Hamlin’s win in one of Thursday’s qualifying races, the JGR cars set the stage for an intense battle with powerful Hendrick Motorsports for the biggest prize in NASCAR.

But the Hendrick cars never challenged. Jeff Gordon dropped out with mechanical problems, Casey Mears and Jimmie Johnson both wrecked and, without any Hendrick help, Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn’t have the muscle to hold off the Gibbs entries.

It allowed Stewart and Kyle Busch to dominate the race, only to fade at the end. Busch, who led a race-high 86 laps, finished fourth, while Hamlin was 17th.

“Just frustrating to come home fourth, but that’s part of the Daytona 500,” said Kyle Busch, who joined Gibbs this season after Hendrick let him go to sign Earnhardt

“On the last lap, Stewart had a chance to go high to block (Newman) and (Busch), but they just had such a big run, I think he knew it was going to be a waste of time.”

The disappointment was a stark contrast to the euphoria in the Penske camp, which finished 1-2 in NASCAR’s Super Bowl and finally gave the storied car owner his first victory in a restrictor-plate race. Despite total domination in Indianapolis, Penske never could figure out how to win at Daytona.

He finally did it with teamwork – the same teamwork Gibbs and Hendrick preached all week – and a pair of drivers who share in each other’s success. It took years for Penske to build this and make his teams even. Once they were, Newman didn’t get along with Penske star Rusty Wallace.

But when Wallace retired after the 2005 season, Penske tabbed Busch, a former series champion, to replace him. He and Newman forged an instant working relationship that is finally paying dividends.

“I was very emotional crossing the line finishing second, because I know we did something very special for The Captain tonight,” said Busch, the runner-up, who was near tears when he visited Victory Lane.

The win was the first for Dodge at Daytona since Ward Burton’s win in 2001 and came hours after new chairman Bob Nardelli guaranteed the victory. Besides the win, Dodge drivers took six of the eight top spots.

Pledging his commitment to NASCAR despite sluggish car sales and just so-so on-track performance, Nardelli seemed certain he’d be in Victory Lane late Sunday night.

“A Dodge is going to win today. That’s why I’m here,” Nardelli boasted Sunday morning. “I told the pilots, ‘Make sure you get 12 hours of rest because we’re going to be here a while.’ I’m looking forward to being in that winner’s circle and having that champagne flowing.”

The victory earned Penske a $1 million bonus from Nardelli, who had promised the payout to any Dodge team that won the Daytona 500. Penske vowed to pump the money right back into his race team, and the car owner already was thinking about the rest of the season.

“Comparing it to the Indy 500, as Ryan knows, we’ve been open-wheel guys and coming down here has been tough,” Penske said. “This has got to go to the top of the charts here, this win. What I’m going to try to do this year is have them back-to-back, have one in May, too.

“That’s my real challenge right now.”

From Pats to Rats

With the Super Bowl on the line, look who had the perfection thing down pat: Eli Manning and the road-conquering New York Giants.

And what a beauty their 11th straight road victory was, a 17-14 Super Bowl win Sunday that shattered the New England Patriots’ unblemished season.
In one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history, Manning, New York’s unlikely Mr. Cool, hit Plaxico Burress on a 13-yard fade with 35 seconds left.
It was the Giants’ fourth consecutive postseason away win and the first time the Patriots tasted defeat in more than a year.”There’s something about this team,” Manning said. “The way we win games, and performed in the playoffs in the stretch. We had total confidence in ourselves.
The players believed in each other.”It was the most bitter of losses, too, because 12-point favorite New England (18-1) was one play from winning and getting the ultimate revenge for being penalized for illegally taping opponents’ defensive signals in the season opener against the New York Jets.
“I don’t rank them,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. “It’s disappointing.”The Giants had the perfect answer for the suddenly imperfect Patriots: a big, bad defense and the improbable comeback led by Manning.
Yes, Eli Manning, who outplayed league MVP Tom Brady and furthered the family legacy one year after older brother Peyton led Indianapolis to the title.”I talked to Peyton and he said, `Go in there, have some fun, you can do it.”‘It was how Eli and the Giants did it.

Brady Bunch perfect

Tom Brady was as giddy as the quarterback of an unbeaten and perhaps unbeatable team should be. Had Bill Belichick spotted him slapping the backs of his New England teammates, the dour coach might have scoffed.

After all, a perfect 16-0 regular season won’t mean much if the Patriots don’t win their next three games and another Super Bowl.

“We’ve been dealing with being undefeated all season,” Brady said Saturday night after the thrilling 38-35 victory over the New York Giants in a game worthy of the NFL’s championship showcase. “It was kind of a strange game. It really doesn’t mean much to either team, but it means a lot.”

When it came down to the crunch, Manning choked and Brady turned up the heat.

New England became the first NFL team since the 1972 Dolphins to win every game on the schedule, and that one was only 14-0. This victory required a Brady-engineered comeback from a 12-point deficit and smashed the Patriots’ league mark for consecutive victories.

“Going undefeated during the regular season is a remarkable achievement,” 1972 Dolphins coach Don Shula said. “I know firsthand how difficult it is to win every game, and just as we did in 1972, the Patriots have done a great job concentrating on each week’s opponent and not letting any other distractions interrupt that focus. If they go on to complete an undefeated season, I will be the first to congratulate Coach Belichick and the Patriot organization.”

Validation of the Patriots’ inexorable march through the season can only come by adding a Super Bowl championship. Do that, and there’ll be no challenge to their spot at the top.

“Hats off to us,” said record-setting receiver Randy Moss, who caught Brady’s 65-yard bomb for the go-ahead score that set two major records. “I know a lot of people didn’t think we were going to do it. A lot of people didn’t want us to do it.

Steriods Mitchell report drops bombshell

Roger Clemens turned out be Exhibit A in the long-awaited Mitchell Report, an All-Star roster linked to steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs that put a question mark – if not an asterisk – next to some of baseball’s biggest moments.
Barry Bonds, already under indictment on charges of lying to a federal grand jury about steroids, Miguel Tejada and Andy Pettitte also showed up Thursday in the game’s most infamous lineup since the Black Sox scandal.

The report culminated a 20-month investigation by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, hired by commissioner Bud Selig to examine the Steroids Era.

Seven MVPs showed up and in all, 80-some players were fingered, enough to put an All-Star at every position.

No one was hit harder than Clemens. The seven-time Cy Young Award winner was singled out in nearly nine pages, 82 references by name. Much of the information on Clemens came from former New York Yankees major league strength and conditioning coach Brian McNamee.

“The illegal use of performance-enhancing substances poses a serious threat to the integrity of the game,” the report said. “Widespread use by players of such substances unfairly disadvantages the honest athletes who refuse to use them and raises questions about the validity of baseball records.”

While the records will surely stand, several stars could pay the price in Cooperstown, much the way Mark McGwire was kept out of the Hall of Fame this year merely because of steroids suspicion.

“If there are problems, I wanted them revealed,” Selig said. “His report is a call to action, and I will act.”

Mitchell said the problems didn’t develop overnight and there was plenty of blame to go around.
“Everyone involved in baseball over the past two decades – commissioners, club officials, the players’ association and players – shares to some extent the responsibility for the Steroids Era,” Mitchell said. “There was a collective failure to recognize the problem as it emerged and to deal with it early on.”

Mitchell recommended that the drug-testing program be made independent, that a list of the substances players test positive for be listed periodically and that the timing of testing be more unpredictable.

Eric Gagne, Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi, Troy Glaus, Gary Matthews Jr., Paul Byrd, Jose Guillen, Brian Roberts, Paul Lo Duca and Rick Ankiel were among other current players named in the report – in fact, there’s an All-Star at every position. Some were linked to Human Growth Hormone, others to steroids.

Only Bonds was mentioned more than Clemens, 103 times, most of it recounting previous reports.

More than a dozen Yankees, past and present, were identified. Players were linked to doping in various ways – some were identified as users, some as buyers and some by media reports and other investigations.

“According to McNamee, from the time that McNamee injected Clemens with Winstrol through the end of the 1998 season, Clemens’ performance showed remarkable improvement,” the report said. “During this period of improved performance, Clemens told McNamee that the steroids ‘had a pretty good effect’ on him.”

McNamee also told investigators that “during the middle of the 2000 season, Clemens made it clear that he was ready to use steroids again. During the latter part of the regular season, McNamee injected Clemens in the buttocks four to six times with testosterone from a bottle labeled either Sustanon 250 or Deca-Durabolin.”

Former Mets clubhouse attendant Kirk Radomski also provided information as part of his plea agreement in a federal steroids case. Jose Canseco’s book “Juiced” also was cited.

Mitchell urged Selig to hold off on punishing players in the report “except in those cases where he determines that the conduct is so serious that discipline is necessary to maintain the integrity of the game.”

Selig said discipline will be determined in case by case basis, and actions will be taken “swiftly.”
“Former commissioner Fay Vincent told me that the problem of performance-enhancing substances may be the most serious challenge that baseball has faced since the 1919 Black Sox scandal,” Mitchell said in the 409-page report.

“The illegal use of anabolic steroids and similar substances, in Vincent’s view, is ‘cheating of the worst sort.’ He believes that it is imperative for Major League Baseball to ‘capture the moral high ground’ on the issue and, by words and deeds, make it clear that baseball will not tolerate the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs.”

Rafael Palmeiro, who tested positive for steroids, was among the former players named. So were Kevin Brown, Benito Santiago, Lenny Dykstra, Chuck Knoblauch, David Justice, Mo Vaughn and Todd Hundley.

Mike Stanton, Scott Schoeneweis, Ron Villone and Jerry Hairston Jr. were among the other current players identified.

“We identify some of the players who were caught up in this drive to gain a competitive advantage,” the report said. “Other investigations will no doubt turn up more names and fill in more details, but that is unlikely to significantly alter the description of baseball’s `steroids era’ as set forth in this report.”

“The illegal use in baseball of these substances also victimize the majority of players who don’t use them. We heard from many former players who believe it was grossly unfair that the users were gaining an advantage,” Mitchell said.

The report took issue with assertions that steroids were not banned before the 2002 collective bargaining agreement.

They had been covered, it said, since the 1971 drug policy prohibited using any prescription medication without a valid prescription, and were expressly included in the drug policy in 1991.

“Steroids have been listed as a prohibited substance under the Major League Baseball drug policy since then,” the report said, although no player was disciplined for them until the 2002 labor agreement provided for testing.

Mitchell is a director of the Boston Red Sox, and some questioned whether that created a conflict, especially because none of their players were in the report.

“Judge me by my work,” Mitchell said. “You will not find any evidence of bias, special treatment, for the Red Sox or anyone else. That had no effect on this investigation or this report, none whatsoever.”

Giambi, under threat of discipline from Selig, was the only current player known to have cooperated with the Mitchell investigation.

“The players’ union was largely uncooperative for reasons that I thought were largely understandable,” Mitchell said.

Marlins Trade Cabrera and Willis

The Detroit Tigers reached a preliminary agreement Tuesday to acquire All-Stars Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis from the Florida Marlins for a package of six players, an unexpected blockbuster trade that developed quickly at the winter meetings.
In a huge deal that took the spotlight away from Boston’s pursuit of Johan Santana, Florida gets lefty Andrew Miller, outfielder Cameron Maybin and four other prospects from the Tigers, a baseball official with knowledge of the talks said on condition of anonymity because the trade had not yet been finalized.
Willis was on vacation when he heard the news.
“I’m in Mexico right now with my family. I’m kind of busy,” he told the Associated Press.
The Marlins also receive catcher Mike Rabelo and right-handers Burke Badenhop, Eulogio De La Cruz and Dallas Trahern. The players involved must pass physicals for the deal to be completed.
“It’s very serious, but nothing is finalized yet because some issues need to get worked out,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland told the AP.
Florida didn’t even approach the Tigers until Tuesday morning. The Marlins told the Tigers they could have both stars for those six players, then Detroit called back about two hours later and agreed, the baseball official said.
“If it does happen, obviously they’re getting two very good players,” said Yankees manager Joe Girardi, who managed the Marlins in 2006. “Miguel Cabrera is one of the finest hitters in the game. He can do so many things with a bat, whether you want him to hit a home run for you, you want to hit and run, work the count, get on base. And Dontrelle Willis has been one of the premier lefties in the National League.”
Cabrera, an All-Star in each of the last four seasons, would join an imposing lineup that already includes Magglio Ordonez, Gary Sheffield, Ivan Rodriguez, Curtis Granderson and Placido Polanco. The Tigers also acquired shortstop Edgar Renteria, a five-time All-Star, in a trade with Atlanta this offseason.
Willis, the 2003 NL Rookie of the Year and a two-time All-Star, is coming off a down year in which he went 10-15 with a 5.17 ERA. He will be part of a solid rotation with Justin Verlander, Kenny Rogers and Jeremy Bonderman as Detroit tries to reach the World Series for the second time in three seasons.
Cabrera and Willis were the last players left from Florida’s 2003 championship team. Unable to secure a new ballpark, the Marlins keep shedding players when they are due to earn huge salaries. Cabrera made $7.4 million this year and Willis $6.45 million. Both were eligible for arbitration and likely to receive raises.
In return, the Marlins get a pair of highly rated prospects: Maybin was the 10th pick in the 2005 amateur draft and Miller was selected sixth overall the following year.
To make room, it appears Detroit would likely have to trade third baseman Brandon Inge or left fielder Marcus Thames. Cabrera played the outfield in 2004 and 2005.
The Los Angeles Angels had pursued Cabrera for weeks. The Marlins didn’t give the Angels one last chance.
“The deal they appear to have reached, they felt was a better fit for them,” Angels general manager Tony Reagins told a pool reporter.

Football Star Dies

MIAMI — Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor died early Tuesday, a day after he was shot at home by what police say was an intruder. He was 24.

Family friend Richard Sharpstein said Taylor’s father told him the news around 5:30 a.m.

“His father called and said he was with Christ and he cried and thanked me,” said Sharpstein, Taylor’s former lawyer. “It’s a tremendously sad and unnecessary event. He was a wonderful, humble, talented young man, and had a huge life in front of him. Obviously God had other plans.”

He said Taylor died early Tuesday at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, where he had been airlifted after the shooting early Monday.

Doctors had been encouraged late Monday when Taylor squeezed a nurse’s hand, according to Vinny Cerrato, the Redskins’ vice president of football operations. But Sharpstein said he was told Taylor never regained consciousness after being transported to the hospital and that he wasn’t sure how he had squeezed the nurse’s hand.

“Maybe he was trying to say goodbye or something,” Sharpstein said.

Taylor was shot early Monday in the upper leg, damaging an artery and causing significant blood loss.

“According to a preliminary investigation, it appears that the victim was shot inside the home by an intruder,” Miami-Dade County police said in a statement.

But police were still investigating the attack, which came just eight days after an intruder was reported at Taylor’s home. Officers were dispatched about 1:45 a.m. Monday after Taylor’s girlfriend called 911.

Sharpstein said Taylor’s girlfriend told him the couple was awakened by loud noises, and Taylor grabbed a machete he keeps in the bedroom for protection. Someone then broke through the bedroom door and fired two shots, one missing and one hitting Taylor, Sharpstein said. Taylor’s 1-year-old daughter, Jackie, was also in the house, but neither she nor Taylor’s girlfriend were injured.

Police found signs of forced entry, but have not determined if they were caused Monday, or the previous burglary.

The shooting happened in the pale yellow house he bought two years ago in the Miami suburb of Palmetto Bay. Eight days before the attack someone pried open a front window, rifled through drawers and left a kitchen knife on a bed at Taylor’s home, according to police.

“They’re really sifting through that incident and today’s incident,” Miami-Dade Detective Mario Rachid said, “to see if there’s any correlation.”

Jimmy Johnson Wins Nextel Series

Jimmie Johnson’s sixth season — and his second consecutive Cup title campaign — can be broken down into six six-race intervals, each (almost) as impressive as the one before it.

How dominant was Johnson down the stretch? Over the final six races, he out-pointed runner-up Jeff Gordon by 86 points — the largest margin among the top 25 drivers in Races 31-36 — en route to winning the title by 77 points.

“We’re in elite company winning two championships, winning back to back championships is something I’m very, very proud of,” Johnson said. “The good thing, I feel, is we’re just really hitting our stride. I think we have a lot of good years ahead of us, and we’ll be fighting for more championships and certainly winning more races as years go by.

“Hopefully we can be a three-time champion in the near future.”

Clearly Johnson was the best of the best in 2007. After crashing-out of the season opener at Daytona and posting a 39th-place finish. He bounced back to win three of five starts between California and Martinsville and for all intents and purposes the race to the Chase was on — despite Gordon’s points-leading performance through the first 26 races.

After winning at Martinsville, Johnson was third in points, 60 behind leader Gordon and Jeff Burton (-28). However, a 38th-place showing at Texas, the result of a crash and another DNF, did little to deter the No. 48 team; Johnson reeled off five consecutive top-10s and moved into second in points, 132 behind Gordon.

A 15th-place run at Dover in Race 13 ended Johnson’s run of top-10s and was a harbinger of things to come during the middle 12 races of the season. He was 42nd at Pocono and back-to-back DNFs at Chicago and Indianapolis dropped Johnson to ninth in points, 607 behind Gordon, with six races remaining until the Chase field was set.

And then there were the Car of Tomorrow infractions at Sonoma. NASCAR issued penalties and fines to the Nos. 24 and 48 after the cars were found to be in violation of rule book sections:

%u2022 12-4-A (actions detrimental to stock car racing);

%u2022 12-4-Q (car, car parts, components and/or equipment used do not conform to NASCAR rules);

%u2022 20-2.1E (parts or components of the car not previously approved by NASCAR that have been installed or modified to enhance aerodynamic performance will not be permitted);

%u2022 20-2H (fenders may not be cut or altered except for wheel or tire clearance which must be approved by the Series Director).
As a result, Gordon and Johnson were penalized 100 points and their crew chiefs, Steve Letarte and Chad Knaus, were fined $100,000, suspended for the next six races and placed on probation until the end of the year.

That proved to be a speed bump for the No. 48 juggernaut. After finishing 21st at Bristol in August, Johnson’s 10th finish outside the top-10 in 24 races, he flipped the switch for the stretch run.

With little fanfare before his entry to Cup and now with back-to-back championships, David Caraviello says Jimmie Johnson may be the sport’s most impressive discovery.

Complete story, click here
Estes: From the champ’s pit
Cross: Face of Nextel Cup era
Johnson was mired in sixth place exiting Thunder Valley but was solidly positioned to be one of the 12 drivers in the playoffs. He took solace in knowing that the Chase would give him an opportunity to race for the title.

“I’m optimistic what the future has for us,” Johnson said before California. “I feel that my team’s matured, I’ve matured as a driver, and we should be in this position for many years to come — in the position of fighting for a championship — and that’s all can you ask for.”

Johnson won at California and Richmond and entered the Chase with momentum on his side — and the points lead, thanks to a change in the Chase system that rewards drivers with 10 bonus points for each victory during the first 26 races.

Johnson entered Richmond sixth in points, 420 behind Gordon — but he left the Cap City 20 points ahead, based on six victories compared to Gordon’s four. And as one of only two drivers who had made the Chase in each of the past four seasons, Johnson was geared for another title drive.

“The pressure and intensity really ramps up in the final 10 [races],” Johnson said. “Your whole season, everything that you’ve done, was to get in position to race in those 10 races, to make the Chase.

“The one thing that I’ve learned is you look at it on paper and you think, ‘Ten races, that’s a short period of time.’ But when you’re living it day-to-day, that’s a long 10 races. It’s two, three months of racing. So it’s long, and you’ve got to set a pace that you can maintain and keep. And I think that’s something that the 48’s good at doing.”

During the 10-race Chase, Johnson finished 14th twice (Dover and Charlotte) but also strung together four consecutive wins. After finishing sixth at Loudon to open the playoffs, Johnson was tied with Gordon for the points lead. Gordon took the lead after Dover and had built up a 68-point bulge after Charlotte.

It proved to be short-lived. Johnson began his win streak at Martinsville and eventually wrestled the points lead from Gordon after Texas, Johnson’s third victory during the streak. After winning at Phoenix the following week, the penultimate race in the Chase, Johnson had an 86-point advantage and Gordon conceded in Victory Lane. “It’s over,” the four-time Cup champion admitted with Homestead on the horizon.

“I don’t want to act like it’s our championship yet,” Johnson said after Phoenix. “We have a nice margin in the points right now. But 400 miles, that’s my goal. I have to run 400 more miles, and we’ll get nuts after that.”

Needing to finish 18th or better in the finale, Johnson big-picture raced and never mounted a serious challenge to winner Matt Kenseth (all the while keeping Gordon within sight and at arm’s length) and settled for a seventh-place finish — and a second consecutive Cup championship.

“We outscored and earned more points [6,723] than any other year. Jeff, being in second, earned more points [6,646] than any other champion in the Chase,” Johnson said. “So we really had to go out and race for this thing and fight for it.

“That’s why we kept that perspective, and tried to keep ourselves in line and not let our minds get ahead of ourselves. We needed to go out there and get the job done.

“I feel last year we were very proud of what we did, and this year we’re even more proud of what we’ve done to be back-to-back.”

Barry Bonds Indicted

SAN FRANCISCO (Nov. 15) – The home run king wasn’t home free after all. Bonds, baseball’s home run king, was indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice Thursday and could go to prison instead of the Hall of Fame for telling a federal grand jury he did not knowingly use performance-enhancing drugs.

The indictment came just three months after the San Francisco Giants star broke Hank Aaron’s career home run record, and it culminated a four-year investigation into steroid use by elite athletes.
But for all the speculation and accusations that clouded his pursuit of Aaron, Bonds was never identified by Major League Baseball as testing positive for steroids, and personal trainer Greg Anderson spent most of the last year in jail for refusing to testify against his longtime friend.

Then came the indictment – four counts of perjury, one of obstruction of justice; a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison – and Bonds’ lawyers seemed caught off guard.

The 10-page report mainly consists of excerpts from Bonds’ December 2003 testimony before a grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, or BALCO. It cites 19 occasions in which Bonds allegedly lied under oath.

“I’m surprised,” said one of his lawyers, John Burris, “but there’s been an effort to get Barry for a long time. I’m curious what evidence they have now they didn’t have before.”

Burris said he didn’t know of the indictment before being alerted by The Associated Press. He said he would call Bonds to notify him.

Anderson was ordered released from prison shortly after the indictment was handed up, but his attorney, Mark Geragos, said the trainer didn’t cooperate with the grand jury.

“This indictment came out of left field,” Geragos said. “Frankly, I’m aghast. It looks like the government misled me and Greg as well, saying this case couldn’t go forward without him.”

Bonds is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Dec. 7.

Defense attorney Mike Rains said he spoke briefly with Bonds but did not describe his reaction. At an evening news conference, he read a statement accusing federal prosecutors of “unethical misconduct” and declined to take questions.

“Every American should worry about a Justice Department that doesn’t know if waterboarding is torture and can’t tell the difference between prosecution on the one hand and persecution on the other,” Rains said.

In August, when the 43-year-old Bonds became the career home run leader, he flatly rejected any suggestion that the milestone was stained by steroids.

“This record is not tainted at all. At all. Period,” Bonds said.

But while San Franciscans cheered his every swing and fans elsewhere scorned every homer, a grand jury quietly worked behind closed doors to put the finishing touches on its report.

“During the criminal investigation, evidence was obtained including positive tests for the presence of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing substances for Bonds and other athletes,” the indictment said.

Bonds is by far the highest-profile figure caught up in the steroids probe, which also ensnared track star Marion Jones. She pleaded guilty in October to lying to federal investigators about using steroids and faces up to six months in prison.

The Giants, the players’ union and even the White House called it a sad day for baseball.

“This is a very sad day. For many years, Barry Bonds was an important member of our team and is one of the most talented baseball players of his era. These are serious charges. Now that the judicial process has begun, we look forward to this matter being resolved in a court of law,” the Giants said.

Ricky Williams Reinstated

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has decided to reinstate Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams after a suspension that lasted 18 months because of Williams’ violation of the league’s substance abuse policy

The Dolphins have been notified of the commissioner’s decision. It is unknown if the team will welcome him back but it is expected they will have a two-week roster exemption to make that decision.

Williams met last week with league administrators who had raised concerns even though doctors at a Boston-area treament center where Williams spent a good portion of four months were very supportive for his reinstatement, sources said.

The administrators of the substance abuse policy were satisfied with Williams’ response to their concerns, sources said, clearing the path for Goodell to reinstate him.

Williams also had written Goodell a personal letter of appeal that accompanied the medical data regarding his treatment since he had a positive test in April, which extended his one-year suspension.