Fast Break
Auto racing
Truex, Martin out front at Daytona
Martin Truex Jr. suffered through an uncertain winter, unsure if his revamped race team could take him to the top.
Mark Martin also endured a long offseason, anxious to join NASCAR’s premier program.
Their waits proved worth it Sunday when the former teammates took the top two starting spots for the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona Beach, Fla.
Truex (shown above), now driving for the organization born from the merger between sponsor-strapped Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Chip Ganassi Racing, earned the pole for Sunday’s showcase event. With a lap of 188.001 mph in a Chevrolet, he showed Earnhardt Ganassi Racing will go on – perhaps stronger than the individual teams ever were.
Martin earned his highest-qualifying position in his 25th Daytona 500 start.
Only the top two spots were secured under the complicated qualifying process for the marquee race, and the rest of the field will be set by a pair of 150-mile races Thursday.
BASEBALL
Schilling: Release all the names
A day after Alex Rodriguez was linked to steroids, another All-Star offered this suggestion: Make public the entire list of players who failed drug tests.
“I’d be all for the 104 positives being named, and the game moving on if that is at all possible,” former Boston ace Curt Schilling wrote on his blog.
“In my opinion, if you don’t do that, then the other 600-700 players are going to be guilty by association, forever,” he wrote. “It appears that not only was it 104, but three of the greatest of our, or any, generation appear to be on top of this list.”
Rodriguez joined Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens on an ever-growing list of stars tainted by the Steroids Era scandal. Sports Illustrated reported Saturday the Yankees slugger tested positive for two steroids in 2003.
Rodriguez, the players’ union and Major League Baseball were mum Sunday.
“Alex has been out of the country. I expect him back later today and want to confer with my client before saying anything,” agent Scott Boras said Sunday.