For recap the first 87 laps in 24/02/2008 CLICK HERE.
The 24 Hours of Fontana, officially known as the Auto Club 500, was well worth the wait for Carl Edwards.
It took two days to get it done, but the skies cleared Monday and Edwards was the class of the field in his No. 99 Ford Fusion.
Edwards was almost four seconds ahead of second-place Jimmie Johnson when a caution flag froze the field on the final lap at the newly named Auto Club Speedway.
The race continued Monday in front of a sparse crowd estimated at 20,000. After spending five hours trying to dry the track Sunday night, NASCAR pulled the plug at 2 a.m. ET (11 p.m. at Fontana). The show resumed on Lap 88 of the 250-lap event.
Edwards was ninth when the race restarted Monday, but it didn’t take long to see his car was the best one on the track. Edwards had a three-second lead when a caution brought the leaders to the pits for the last time with 29 laps to go.
Johnson’s pit crew got him out first on the final stop while Edwards fell to fourth on the restart with 26 laps to go. But it was only a matter of time.
Edwards passed Jeff Gordon for second with 18 laps left and set his sights on Johnson. He caught Johnson with 15 laps remaining.
Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) stormed to victory on board the Ducati 1098 F08 in the opening race of the 2008 World Superbike Championship yesterday, a spectacular result for the team and a significant maiden win for the new F08 machine.
Bayliss then narrowly missed out on a podium place in race 2, finishing fourth just ahead of team-mate Fabrizio.
Young Michel Fabrizio made a determined start to his year and leaves Qatar with 18 championship points, accumulated from his tenth (race 1) and fifth (race 2) place finishes.
Bayliss, with 38 points, leads the World Superbike championship after round 1 here in Qatar.
Strepitosa partenza del Mondiale Superbike. Max Biaggi accarezza il sogno della prima vittoria ma non riesce a resistere allo scatenato Troy Bayliss vincitore all’ultima curva. Dominio della Ducati 1098 che era al debutto in campionato. Nella seconda manche però la Suzuki si è presa la rivincita con lo spagnolo Fonsi Nieto al primo successo in carriera. Biaggi ha concluso la giornata con il terzo posto. Bayliss, in crisi di gomme, è finito quarto mantenendo comunque il primo posto nel Mondiale con due punti su Biaggi e quattro su Nieto. Race 1:
After trying for nearly five hours to get the two-mile oval at Auto Club Speedway dry, NASCAR called it a day, postponing the completion of the Sprint Cup series Auto Club 500 until Monday at 10 a.m. local time.
The drivers had completed 87 of the scheduled 250 laps when a heavy downpour caused the third delay of the day.
Two-time reigning series champion Jimmie Johnson was out front when the rains came for the final time, with Travis Kvapil, Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle, Kasey Kahne and Jeff Gordon close behind.
Ryan Newman won the Daytona 500 Sunday, snapping a long winless streak. The AP’s Jason Bronis has coverage of the 50th running of the ‘Great American Race.
Ryan Newman got last-lap help from teammate Kurt Busch and charged to the front past Tony Stewart, giving team owner and racing legend Roger Penske a long-awaited victory at Daytona.
“Without Kurt, I never would have gotten there,” Newman said. “I got the push from heaven. He was a great teammate and chose to do the honorable thing. Tony blocked me hard, but when Kurt pushed me, we just struck together. It was awesome.”
Stewart was in front with half a lap to go when Newman moved outside on the backstretch in front of Busch. Newman timed it perfectly. He slipped in front of Busch just as Busch was getting a run in the draft.
East beat West in a stunner of an All-Star Game on Sunday night 134-128. But the really beautiful thing about the NBA these days: how good the rest of the season looks in light of those eye-popping trades.
Dopo la brutta sconfitta rimediata lo scorso anno a Las Vegas, l’Est si prende la rivincita e batte l’Ovest 134-128. Una partita iniziata in sordina, ma che ha preso fuoco nell’ultimo quarto e ha regalato, oltre alle solite giocate spettacolari, anche una pallacanestro intensa e appassionante nei minuti finali.
Creativity was clearly the focus of this year’s Sprite Slam Dunk competition, leading up to it and during the competition itself. Imitation would not be accepted. If you didn’t bring something new to the contest, you would be staring at five NBA legends green cards with nothing but 8s on them.
Howard brought the spice tonight. And it wasn’t just spicy. It was down right impressive. Howard dominated both rounds of the competition, scoring 50s on both of his first round dunks and receiving 78 percent of the fans’ votes in the finals.
The key to Howard’s victory may have been that his two best dunks (the two he showed us in his YouTube video) were not in the same round.
Toronto Raptors guard Jason Kapono defended his title in this year’s Foot Locker Three-Point Shootout with 25 points, tying the all-time record set in 1986 by Mark Price, as part of NBA All-Star Saturday Night at New Orleans Arena.
Kapono became the first back-to-back winner of the Foot Locker Three-Point Shootout since Peja Stojakovic won the 2002 and 2003 titles. Kapono entered the final round facing Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Daniel Gibson, who finished in second place with 17 points, and Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki, who took third with 14.
Stojakovic, of the hometown New Orleans Hornets, also competed Saturday night along with Richard Hamilton of the Detroit Pistons, two-time MVP Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns.
For his first run through the obstacle course of the PlayStation® Skills Challenge, Utah Jazz point guard Deron Williams said he was a little nervous. He shook off those jitters very quickly. After advancing to the final round, Williams put together a flawless performance - no missed shots, every pass through the hoops - and set a record time for the final round at NBA All-Star Saturday Night, winning another duel with perennial rival Chris Paul.
Not moving at full speed, Williams clocked 31.2 seconds in the first round. In the final round, he covered the course in 25.5 seconds, just one tick off the all-time mark set by Steve Nash in the first round in 2005. Paul, the All-Star point guard of the host New Orleans Hornets, posted a strong final-round time of 31.2.
A pair of Eastern Conference All-Star guards were eliminated in the first round. Jason Kidd of the New Jersey Nets clocked 39.7 seconds and two-time defending champion Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat lost his dribble and timed 53.9 seconds. Paul had the best first-round time at 29.9.
Tim Duncan and David Robinson are no strangers to winning with one another, so, with the added help of San Antonio Silver Stars sharpshooter Becky Hammon, it’s no wonder they won yet another crown. After an impressive run in the first round, Team San Antonio took care of business in the finals of the 2008 Haier Shooting Stars challenge against Team Chicago, as Duncan drained a half-court shot to give the Texas threesome a time of 35.8 seconds.
Tim Duncan and Team San Antonio took this year’s Shooting Stars title on Saturday.Deron Williams grabbed this year’s PlayStation Skills Challenge title in record time Saturday. Jason Kapono successfully defended his Three-Point Shootout title Saturday. He dunked. You decided, Dwight Howard beat Gerald Green in Sprite Slam Dunk contest.
