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HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL
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News and Notes
Cancer won’t keep
Parsons out of booth
Benny Parsons vowed to keep work
ing during his treatment for lung cancer.
The former Nextel Cup Series cham
pion and current commentator for NBC
and TNT, started radiation and
chemotherapy last week to fight small
cell cancer in his left lung.
"I’m going to keep working,” he said.
“You have to keep pushing forward."
Parsons also will work to fulfilling a
lifelong dream of owning a vineyard. He
plans to move back to his childhood
home in North Carolina and grow
grapes. He hopes to get his first crop
into oak barrels later this year.
Parsons always has been considered
one of the most popular figures in the
sport Concern and well-wishes have
been so overwhelming, Performance
Racing Network has created a special
email address for fans. Anyone who’d
like to send Parsons a message can go to
bp@goprn.com.
Brickyard race gets
new date next season
Next year’s Allstate 400 at the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway will move
to July 29 to help usher in ESPN’s return
to the television broadcast team.
FOX and its cable partner FX will
broadcast the first 13 Nextel Cup Series
races; TNT will broadcast the next six;
ESPN takes over for six; then ABC will
wrap up the season by broadcasting the
final 11, including the entire Chase for
the Championship.
ESPN wanted to kick off its six-race
package with the Allstate 400.
To make it happen, NASCAR will
move the second Pocono Raceway race
after the stop at Indianapolis.
Weber to anchor TNT
broadcast team in 2007
Bill Weber has been hired to anchor
TNTs NASCAR coverage next year.
Weber currently provides the play
by-play for TNT and NBC, but
NASCAR’s new television package for
next year doesn’t include NBC since it’s
shifting its attention on Sunday's the the
National Football League.
Fox’s lineup of Mike Joy, Darrell
Waltrip and Larry Mcßeynolds will
remain the same. All that’s left is for
ABC and its cable partner ESPN to hire
its broadcast team.
BROWN
From page 1B
against Purdue.
One could also make a
case for a win on a last-min
ute scoring play, such as the
Michael Johnson touchdown
catch against Auburn in 2002
or Verron Haynes’ “hobnail
boot” catch in the checkered
end zone in Knoxville.
What I personally feel
makes a win truly the big
gest for a team in its history
is what that win gained. For
Georgia, how can it get any
bigger than the 1981 Sugar
Bowl against Notre Dame?
That capped off an undefeat
ed season and earned the
school a consensus national
championship.
It wasn’t a big comeback,
and there were no offensive
heroics beating the buzzer.
In fact, Georgia didn’t even
score in the second half. So it
wasn’t pretty by any stretch,
but then again how many of
those 11 victories were?
So that’s how I ended my
“biggest win” statement.
Steve did pretty good overall
in the contest even though
his 6-year-old daughter (my
niece, she’s the adorable
one) had to help him with
some of the answers.
If you’ve never been to
Cumberland, except for the
fact that there are motor
vehicles driven around by
the park service, it is as
primitive as can be. You
won’t find any trashcans,
for one thing.
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PHOTO COURTESY OF NASCAR
Robert Yates (left) talks with driver Elliott Sadler In the garage. Yates will lose Sadler and fellow driver Dale Jarrett at
the end of the season and fired its two Nextel Cup crew chiefs earlier this week, forcing one of NASCAR's most accom
plished organization’s to start over. Yates’ Nextel Cup teams have won Just four races since the end of SOO2.
Yates’ latest storied Cup team to fall on hard times
By Don Coble
Morris News Service
As recently as seven years ago, Robert
Yates Racing ruled the stock-car world.
The team hit rock-bottom this week with
the announcement that Tommy Baldwin
and Richard “Slugger” Labbe had been fired
as crew chiefs.
They join drivers Dale Jarrett and Elliott
Sadler and general manager Eddie d'Hondt
who have baled out of the once-dominant
race team in the past two months.
Yates’ fall from upper echelon has been
quick and decisive. It also mirrors the fate
of other dominating organizations in
NASCAR One minute a team is toasting a
championship, the next it’s fighting just to
finish races.
Petty Enterprises won seven champi
onships, the last in 1979. The team now has
only one victory in the last 10 years.
Wood Brothers Racing has three cham
pionship and a winless streak that dates
back five years.
Now it’s Yates’ turn. And the vicious
cycle includes starting over.
“We’re really evaluating and trying to
change our model with the way we do our
business,” Yates said. “I think Doug (Yates,
What you will find are
horses. These horses aren’t
in any stables, though. They
exist on their own just like
the deer and the turkeys.
Just be on the lookout for
them. As we are waiting on
the dock for the ferry, my
nephew alerts us to the sight
of a group of three horses
going at full gallop. They
looked like they were head
ing down the backstretch at
Churchill Downs, only there
weren’t any jockeys on. top.
My sources up in the north
part of Georgia say that
Tennessee Volunteer foot
ball fans still aren’t happy
about last year’s 5-6 record
and that Phil Fulmer, the
head coach, had better have
a big season.
Lately, you can turn on
any sports channel that
talks about college football
and hear the same thing.
This is my question for
the Volunteer faithful. Do
you have somebody in mind
right now, or are you waiting
for the next young hotshot
to emerge this season and go
after him?
Think about Urban Meyer.
There was no way he was
going to coach at Utah in
2005 after taking the Utes to
a Bowl Championship Series
game with an undefeated
record in 2004.
It was just a matter of who
wanted him and where he
wanted to go.
So Notre Dame fires
Tyrone Willingham and
Florida cans Ron Zook, not
all because of Meyer since
Spurrier was primed for
the owner's son) has learned some of the
changes. The template is not filled out.
We’re adjusting and we’ve made some room
for that change and hopefully we have that
coming to be in place, so we had to make
some vacancies so we could return and fill
those people with people we think are pro
fessionals in that business.”
Yates builds engines for many of the
Ford teams, including Roush Racing. Since
Jack Roush has won two of the last three
championships, power isn’t the problem.
Jarrett, who won the Nextel Cup Series
championship in 1999, said it’s because the
team lacks space-age technology.
Stock car racing now is more about engi
neers, not engine builders or car makers.
The best teams - Roush, Joe Gibbs Racing
and Hendrick Motorsports - have more
engineers on staff than mechanics.
‘Technology changes,” Jimmie Johnson
said. “You have to keep an open mind, and
you never stop learning."
Teams that change with the times or
work ahead of the curve are the. tdams
that win. Teams that operate with the cur
rent bag of suspension tricks already are
behind. And they don’t know it.
“Some teams have gone this way; some
a return to college. After
the Gators secured Meyers’
services, we learn the Irish
had a plan B in mind called
Charlie Weis.
Five years from now that
may go down as one of the
biggest offseasons in the col
lege game. It will be inter
esting to see after that time
span which school indeed
made the biggest hire.
Maybe we can already
take South Carolina out of
the running. I took a look
at a list of top quarterback
recruits for the high school
Class of 2007. At No. 4 is a
kid from Duncan, S.C. He’s
committed to Clemson.
But back to Tennessee.
There may still be a way to
salvage Fulmer’s tenure in
Knoxville.
In terms of proximity, a
top candidate the Vols might
consider is Bobby Petrino of
Louisville.
I know Petrino just signed
a big 10-year deal with the
Cardinals. All you have to do,
though, if you’re Tennessee
brass is talk to him; give him
a free plane ride; act like
he’s your man.
You see what that did for
Auburn’s program.
One more note on con
tracts. Richt now has eight
more years to figure out how
to be Auburn and Florida in
the same year every year.
Eight years. That’s how
long it took Mack Brown to
win a national championship
after leaving North Carolina
for Texas.
That’s how long it took
for him to figure out how to
beat Oklahoma.
SPORTS
MACON REGIONAL
fjr Help so(ve A Crime
Rewards of up to S I,OOO - Remain Anonymous!
Carlton Diontay Williams
Wanted for violation of probation from State
Court
LKA: 300 block of Ward Street,
WR
—
Terrell Williamson
H anted for failure to appear contempt of court driving with
out insurance, removing affixing license with intent to conceal,
driving without license, expired tag/registration
LKA: 200 block of Northlake Driu', WR
Vandy Keon Alderman
Wanted for failure to appear
I,KA: 1000 block of Liberia Road.
WR
v3Bif ;
Altaveus Devon Branch
Wanted for violation ofprobation State
Court (simple battery)
LKA: 100 block of Branch wine Court,
WR
IFYOU DON’T LIKE SEEING YOUR PICTURE ON THIS PAGE,
CALL CRIMESTOPPERS AND TURN YOURSELF IN!
teams have gone that way,” Kurt Busch
said. “I think there’s a few ways to skin the
same cat. Some teams have scienced it out
first and a lot of teams are playing catch-up.
Sometimes the setups expire. It’s just a mat
ter of keeping up with the change of times.
It goes in cycles all the time.”
Doug Yates said part of the rebuilding
process included the realization that what
helped Jarrett win the championship does
n’t work any more. Like a junkie, the first
step to recovery is admitting the problem.
“I do come from an engineering back
ground, and in the engine shop we’re basi
cally pretty much engineering driven,”
Doug Yates said. “That’s a term people
throw around. In the race shop, we had a lot
of success doing it the old-school way and I
think those days are gone. We all know that,
but we haven’t been able to transition from
the old to the new and that’s been part of
our problem.
Yates is ready to start the cycle over.
Jarrett said two months ago he will drive a
new Toyota Camry for Michael Waltrip next
year. Sadler last week got released from his
contract. He reportedly will drive for
Evernham Motorsports next year. D’Hondt,
Baldwin and Labbe all were fired. Baldwin
742-2330 • 1-877-68 CRIME
(27463)
Lemuai Fonzo Brown
Wanted for bench warrant from Superior
Court, violation of probation from State
Court
LKA: 200 block of South 2nd Street,
WR
Jennifer Lynne Wilson
Hunted for two bench warrants from Superior Court for
failure to appear
I.KA: 000 block of Chapel Ridge Drive.
Perry
ijjmM
Lisa Ann Bennett
Wanted for financial transaction card
fraud
LKA: 100 block of Dora Lane,
Bonaire
Ricky Lynn Branch Jr.
Wanted far DUI
I.KA: 2000 block of Collins Avenue,
Centerville
WHERE: Indianapolis Motor Speeßway
in Speedway, Ind.
WHEN: 2:30 p.m., Sunday
TRACK DIMENSIONS: 2.5-mile oval with
nine-degree banking in the comers.
BROADCAST: Television NBC;
Radio lndy Racing Network
LAST YEAR'S WINNER: Tony Stewart
TRACK RECORDS: Qualifying
186.293 mph (Casey Mears); Race
155.912 mph (Bobby Labonte)
COMPANION EVENTS: Friday Pole
qualifying (3:30 p.m., Speed), Truck
Series Power Stroke Diesel 200 at
O’Reilly Raceway Park (8 p.m.,
Speed); Saturday Busch Series
Kroger 200 at O’Reilly Raceway Park
(9 p.m., TNT).
RACE NOTE: Jeff Gordon would reach
two milestones with a win this week
end: He would tie for the most victo
ries at Indianapolis with five and
equal Dale Earnhardt’s 76 career
NASCAR wins.
worked with Sadler this year and now will
be the competition director at Bill Davis
Racing. Labbe has offers at Dale Earnhardt
Inc. or Red Bull Racing’s new Toyota team.
David Gilliland apparently is the first
step in Yates’ rebuilding program. Gilliland
turned a part-time ride in the Busch Series
into a stunning victory at the Kentucky
Speedway last month. Yates is expected to
put Gilliland in Sadler’s car next year. That
announcement should come this week at
the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Gilliland probably will bring his Busch
Series crew chief, Billy Willburn, with him
moves that prompted his Busch Series
team owned by Clay Andrews to. close its
doors on Monday. That still leaves driver
and crew chief vacancies with Jarrett’s old
team.
Robert Yates hopes to get everything in
place and up to speed as soon as pos
sible. He's spent nearly 40 years in the busi
ness, but only recently has he hated his
work.
“When I don’t want to go to the race
track, which is a rare occasion, it’s time to
change because I really haven't looked for
ward to going to the race track recently,” he
said.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 5 ♦
This Week’s Race
ML/
Terrance Lemont Brown
Wanted for failure to appear/contempt of court, driv
ing with suspended or revoked license, unlawful use
of driver s license or ID. weaving/failure to maintain
lane, giving false namelbirthdateladdress to officer
LKA: 900 block of Crestwood Terrace,
WR
=
David E. Young
Wanted for violation ofprobalionSlale Court
LKA: 1000 block of Booth Road,
WR
i - 1
Matthew William Berg
Wanted for violation of probation (for
failure lo report and to pay as instructed)
LKA: 100 block of Hickory Hill Lane,
WR
Lashawn Antwan Brown
Wanted for violation ofprobation from State Court
and Magistrate Court
LKA: 1300 block of Jackson Lane,
Perry
3B
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