U.S./Canada hockey game ten times better than race

For the most part, the Sprint Cup race at Auto Club Speedway was a dull one. A race where you'd just grab your pillow and doze off for a nap. Despite a poor finish in last week's Daytona 500, Jimmie Johnson captured his 48th career Sprint Cup win to match that of his car number.

Usually, I write about racing here and my thoughts about it. But as someone that lives in the United States and is a big hockey fan like myself, what happened in Fontana doesn't matter now, and this is one of those times where I'm not going to talk about motorsports. Just minutes ago, the U.S. hockey team upset Canada on their home ice in Vancouver with a 5-3 victory at Canada Hockey Place. Chris Drury scored what turned out to be the game-winning goal late in the second period and Jamie Langenbrunner scored what turned out to be the fatal blow to Canada's hopes. To me, this matches Team USA's upset of the Soviet Union in 1980 at Lake Placid.

Coming into the game tonight, Canada entered as the odds-on favorite to win the gold medal. After what just transpired against the Americans, it won't be a cake walk for them anymore. Now the Canadians have to win four games just to get to the gold medal game. The Americans are going to be in for a tough haul, too. There's still some great teams left like Russia, Finland, Slovakia, and defending gold medal winner Sweden.

And speaking of the Swedes, they're taking on Finland later tonight once the shock of Team USA's upset of Canada begins to wear off.

NASCAR redeems themselves with a Daytona 500 for the ages

The 2010 Daytona 500 is one that won't soon be forgotten. Despite two red flags to repair a pothole in turns one and two (caused in part because of the heavy rain storm from Friday), the race really showed how NASCAR loosened the screws on the drivers and let them police themselves on the track. It was also the first time NASCAR had to use its multiple attempts at a green-white-checkered to ensure the race would finish under green conditions. That rule was instituted just prior to the Gatorade Duel races on Thursdays. For the fans that were at the race themselves, they certainly got their money's worth today.

Let's start with the racing. First off, it was a good, safe race where NASCAR allowed the drivers to police themselves, which is the way it should be. Plenty of double-file, and sometimes three-wide racing. The race also had something that was missing at Talladega last November: bump-drafting.

There wasn't a real big one. The biggest wreck of the day only collected six cars, but it did knock two of Roger Penske's cars (Brad Keselowski and Sam Hornish, Jr.) out of contention on the eighth lap of the run.

On the final GWC restart of the race, Jamie McMurray had the lead and had to hold off a big horde of drivers. On the last lap, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who one day earlier had a wild ride during the Nationwide race, surged from nowhere with half a lap left and almost had a shot at passing McMurray coming to the checkered flag. But McMurray, from Joplin, Missouri, was just a little too strong and held on for his fourth Sprint Cup victory, and his third on a superspeedway (McMurray won at Talladega last November, in a race where NASCAR overly policed the racing to the point where the drivers and fans were less than happy with NASCAR's handling of things).

As a whole, NASCAR did a great job in putting on a great show. I bet that ticket sales for the next superspeedway race at Talladega this coming spring could pick up quite well after today's race at Daytona. By that point, the Sprint Cup car will once again have the traditional rear spoiler back on the car (NASCAR is dumping the awkward-looking rear wing from the Sprint Cup car sometime in late March).

Tony Stewart wins Drive4COPD 300, Earnhardt Jr. takes wild ride

For the fifth time in his career, Tony Stewart won the NASCAR Nationwide Series Drive4COPD 300 at Daytona, after starting the race near the back of the pack. Stewart held off a late challenge by Justin Allgaier and a horde of other strong contenders. Some of those contenders were caught up in a couple of major crashes.

On lap 68, twelve cars, including Danica Patrick, were caught up in a big crash heading into the tri-oval. It began when Josh Wise was tagged by Colin Braun, and chaos ensued from there. Also involved in the accident was Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Johnny Sauter, Jason Leffler, Brian Scott, Robert Richardson, Jr. and Stanton Barrett.

Later on, another huge wreck took place on the backstretch, and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. got the worst of it. Carl Edwards nudged Brad Keselowski, who in turn nudged Earnhardt, and sent his #88 Chevrolet up onto his roof in a wild ride. The crash also collected Brendan Gaughan, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Tony Raines, Kyle Busch, Joe Nemechek, and Greg Biffle. Everybody walked away from the crash, while some were able to fight their way back into contention.

Daytona 500 practice and Nationwide Series qualifying scrubbed due to rain, Truck series race still could go on schedule

Torrential rains have pounded the Daytona International Speedway, which has resulted in the cancellation of Daytona 500 practice and NASCAR Nationwide Series qualifying. The grid for tomorrow's Nationwide Series race will be set by 2009 owner's points, meaning defending series champion Kyle Busch will lead the field to the green flag with Carl Edwards starting right alongside. Indycar driver Danica Patrick will start the race in 15th.

As for the Camping World Truck Series race, the possibility of that race getting underway tonight looks decent, as the rain is expected to dissipate around the time the race would start at 8 pm ET. Jason White won his first career Truck Series pole last night with a speed at 177.525 mph; he will drive a Ford F-150. Sprint Cup driver Elliott Sadler will start alongside driving a Chevrolet Silverado. Following White and Sadler will be Austin Dillon (grandson of longtime NASCAR owner Richard Childress), Ricky Carmichael (motorcross legend continuing to make transition to stock cars), Ron Hornaday (four-time Truck series champion), and Tayler Malsam (young hotshot from the Seattle area).

Johnson, Kahne win Duels at Daytona

The Daytona 500 field is set, as four-time defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne won their respective Gatorade Duel at Daytona races. But it wasn't easy for either of them, as they had to nose out their finishes coming to the stripe.

How Johnson won his race was courtesy of a gutsy call from crew chief Chad Knaus, as he didn't pit during the final caution of race #1, while everyone else did. And it was a call that paid off. After the final restart, Johnson held off 2007 Daytona 500 winner Kevin Harvick in a side-by-side battle to the flag, winning by inches. Daytona 500 polesitter Mark Martin peeled out of the lead pack coming to the white flag in an effort to avoid potential trouble on the last lap. Getting the transfer spots in race #1 were Max Papis--who did not pit under the final caution along with Johnson--and Michael McDowell.

In race two, Kasey Kahne was locked in a side-by-side battle with Tony Stewart on the last lap, and just like in the first race, Kahne edged Stewart at the finish line. Scott Speed and Mike Bliss finished in the transfer spots, which put them both into the Daytona 500. With Speed's 14th place finish, two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip gets into the race by falling back on his qualifying speed, despite crashing out of his duel race earlier. Waltrip will start 43rd in a backup car.

Welcome To My Blog

The point of this blog is simple: to write about anything and everything about the world of motorsports. Anything ranging from NASCAR, IRL, Formula One, drag racing, and other forms of motorsport. On occasion, I'll even blog about random stuff from the world of sports, as I have quite the passion for that as well. Although I won't be on here all the time, I will try to be active enough and update this thing as much as possible, so let's get started. Happy reading everybody!