Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL * Green Flag 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. CLE4TI wm, BUT I POtJ't TMIUK Wl i| 707\~V Mow |T 13 [TOGEATIM6 & A REAL IX. ✓” — || -f 6ROG&J J~7 g aWG WUE W A HI p ( move TrtE CAI?P / W’CXTT UUI.E«> TMEI7E ) T S l" 'J BACK A^ p FO?trt im*ftJ6 t> s Yates Racing bottoms out fikfrfa, ’’ it'* s, ", ' * C " ' „ Sjfv* : r® 9 j§f Bp rr^L B H 4,£HW &0F& • Jfllß |g >. i 111 % mSL mm |M p gSI ||fl "01 § v*/* *v $ ' ra ■ Jr f 3 H I® A jAk 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 [00036492