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Jimmie Johnson Joins Spurs, Sampras, Devils In Unknowingly Screwing His Sport

Johnson is the equivalent of the halfcourt Spurs, the serve-and-volley, rally-be-damned Sampras and the trapping, skating-in-open-ice-is-sin Devs. Style counts. And Jimmie Johnson doesn’t have any.

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Junior Feeling At Home With Gordon, Hendrick

Jeff Gordon had not yet supplanted Dale Earnhardt Sr. as NASCAR’s most dominant driver—but according to Dale Earnhardt Jr., his dad must have already known something. “I was running late models up at North Wilkesboro and he introduced me to Jeff, in 1994,” Junior remembered while he and other Chase participants met with the media in New York Wednesday. “And if my dad introduced me to somebody—he only did that probably 10 times in my life…he was a busy guy, thinking about his race cars, and what he was doing with his life—and for him to take a minute to introduce me to someone, it must have been really important.”

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Jeff Gordon NASCAR’s Change Candidate

Gordon knows one race can change everything.

“We need to get out from underneath that cloud and get more positive things surrounding us,” Gordon said. “And the only way we’re going to do that is to perform. Even if we come out of New Hampshire, just like Clint [Bowyer] last year, that was the whole story. ‘Oh, my gosh where did this guy come from?’ And that’s all anybody wanted to talk about. Things can turn around that fast. We recognize that. And the way our season had gone, that has to be our focus.”

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Gene Haas “In Good Standing” With NASCAR

Often lost in the circumstances involving the formation of Stewart-Haas Racing is the fact that one of those two namesakes currently resides in federal prison. But unlike Michael Vick--who may face further discipline from the National Football League following his release--Gene Haas will be welcomed back into NASCAR with open arms. Haas reported to prison in January to serve a two-year term after pleading guilty to one count of tax fraud. That followed a plea bargain resulting in the dismissal of several charges, which included reporting false race team expenses.

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NASCAR Dads Respond To Savage’s Autism Rant

On July 16, conservative radio commentator Michael Savage set off a firestorm when he said, “In 99 percent of the cases, [an autistic child is] a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out.” He added, “What do you mean they scream and they’re silent? They don’t have a father around to tell them, ‘Don’t act like a moron. You’ll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don’t sit there crying and screaming, you idiot.’”

Kempner knows that the racing community is clued in. But he is concerned that a guy like Savage, who lauds a Ph.D., is taken seriously by others.

“This isn’t an Imus-type thing,” Kempner explains, referring to Don Imus’ comments about the Rutgers women’s basketball team. “It shouldn’t be confused with the shock-jock kind of stuff Imus said. What Imus said was just sophomoric and stupid. It’s certainly hurtful to the African-American community, and I wouldn’t condone it in any way, shape or form. But it’s much different than not understanding a disability or a disease and commenting like you do. It’s like telling a kid that has cancer, you know, ‘Suck it up and get better, OK.’ That exactly what the parallel is to that. Unbelieveable.”