I Dig Sports
BAYTOWN, Texas – Last year, Houston Raceway Park powered by Pennzoil was the site of one of Brittany Force’s most triumphant moments in her standout career, as the 2017 Top Fuel world champ returned from a season-opening crash in Pomona to win in Houston just two months later.
It was a special moment for Force and she will look to add another in her 10,000-horsepower Advance Auto Parts Dragster at this weekend’s 32nd annual Mopar Express Lane NHRA SpringNationals presented by Pennzoil. After racing to a runner-up finish on Sunday in Vegas, Force has momentum heading into the back-to-back NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series race weekend, and she is thrilled to again try to take advantage in Houston.
“I’m excited to get to the back-to-back races,” said Force, who has eight career wins. “For me as a driver it puts me at ease. You haven’t been out of the seat too long and you jump right back into it, back into your routine, so I’m excited to get to Houston. Houston is a special place for me. We won there last year so I’m ready to get there. We really turned things around and stepped things up in Vegas so we should be looking good if we get some good qualifying passes in. I want to go out there on race day and win.”
Force (Top Fuel) and J.R. Todd (Funny Car) were last year’s winners of the event, which will include live finals coverage on FOX starting at 3 p.m. (ET) on Sunday. It marks the NHRA’s season debut on FOX and is the fifth of 24 races this year.
For Force, things have come together quickly with a new team and after the result in Vegas, the former world champion may be ahead of schedule as she competes for a second world title.
The John Force Racing Top Fuel team added crew chiefs David Grubnic and Mac Savage into the mix in 2019, and the potential has already been obvious. After a slow start to the season, Force came alive in Gainesville, qualifying No. 1 with a 3.680-second pass at 326.32 mph and picking up her first round win of the year. She qualified third last weekend in the four-wide racing event in Vegas, winning her first two quads to advance to the final round. She went 3.810 seconds, falling to Mike Salinas, but the team accomplished a great deal as it moves into position for its first win of 2019.
“Coming into this season we’ve had big changes with a new team, new crew chiefs David Grubnic and Mac Savage and a new group of guys,” said Force, who jumped to eighth in points. “It takes a while until you figure out your routine and you find your stride and I’m very happy for this team.”
Force hopes the strong weekend carries into Houston, but the Top Fuel class is loaded with talent. She beat Terry McMillen in the finals last year, and Force will also have to deal with the likes of Salinas, defending world champ Steve Torrence, points leader Doug Kalitta, Leah Pritchett, Clay Millican, three-time world champ Antron Brown and Gainesville winner Richie Crampton. But she hopes to capitalize on the way the team is racing right now, eyeing a jump in the points standings. She sits just a round out of fourth and is pleased her team is being rewarded for its hard work.
“We really hit it hard (in Vegas) and it really showed,” Force said. “We were running consistently in the 70s, awesome all weekend and we came out and ended up runner-up. I’m very happy. Big moves for all of us as a team all around and I’m very happy with how we ended (last) weekend. We’re obviously looking for a win but we’ll have to chase it down (this) weekend in Houston.”
WATERBURY, Vt. – The American-Canadian Tour events at both Maine’s Oxford Plains Speedway and Thunder Road Speedbowl have been postponed due to poor ground conditions and leftover snow from the past winter.
The Oxford 150 has been rescheduled for Sunday, April 28 at 1:30 p.m. while the Community Bank N.A. 150 has been moved to Sunday, May 5 at 1:30 p.m.
With less than a week remaining before the originally-scheduled opening date, Oxford Plains Speedway reports that they still have three inches of snow on the ground. More snow and rain are in the forecast for later in the week, which are expected to exacerbate the already-wet conditions.
This led to the decision to postpone the event – which will also feature the Pro All Stars Series (PASS) Super Late Models, PASS Modifieds, Honey Badger Street Stock Series, and North East Mini Stock Tour – to Sunday, April 28. The open practice day has also been rescheduled for Saturday, April 27. The full schedule of events for both days will be announced at a later date.
The combination of ground conditions and scheduling has also resulted in the postponement of the Community Bank N.A. 150 at Thunder Road, which has been facing problems with snow in its own right. It has been moved back one week to Sunday, May 5. The event was originally scheduled for April 28, the same date the Oxford 150 will now be held.
“It’s been a long winter in northern New England – long enough that we’ll have to wait a little to start racing here,” ACT managing partner Cris Mchaud said. “Simply put, neither facility is in condition for racing right now because of all the snow we’ve gotten. Given the conditions we’re facing, we agreed it was in everyone’s best interests to pull the plug early on both events so everyone has time to make new plans.”
USADA suspends Dillashaw 2 years for EPO use
The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has suspended former UFC champion TJ Dillashaw for two years, for testing positive for recombinant human erythropoietin (EPO) prior to a flyweight title fight against Henry Cejudo on Jan. 19 in New York.
USADA officials announced the suspension, which Dillashaw did not contest, on Tuesday. The news comes less than one month after Dillashaw willingly relinquished his bantamweight championship, which the UFC would have almost certainly stripped him of based on Tuesday's announcement.
"We all know the pressures to win at all levels of all sport are real and intense," said USADA CEO Travis T. Tygart in a released statement. "It is exactly why strong anti-doping efforts are necessary to protect clean athletes' rights, health and safety and to ensure that those who do succumb to these pressures and decide to break the rules will be held accountable in a real and meaningful way, as in this case."
The two-year suspension is the maximum sanction for a non-specified substance under the UFC's anti-doping program. It is dated retroactively to Jan. 18, 2019, the day the test was submitted. EPO is a peptide hormone used to stimulate red blood cell production. It is typically administered via intravenous injection.
Dillashaw is the second UFC fighter to test positive for EPO since the UFC and USADA partnered in 2015. Lightweight Gleison Tibau was also suspended for two years for EPO.
"I'm quite familiar with EPO from my days investigating professional cycling teams," UFC vice president of athlete health and performance Jeff Novitzky told ESPN. "It's a very effective substance. It's not a substance you find in contaminated supplements, it's injectable only. You have to know what you're doing when it enters your system.
"On a scale of seriousness in anti-doping, it's up near the top."
Dillashaw suffered a first-round knockout loss to Cejudo in the flyweight title fight, which was historic in that Dillashaw was attempting to become the first active champion to drop down in weight to capture a second belt.
His team did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) issued Dillashaw its own one-year suspension for the failed drug test. Dillashaw will serve the suspensions concurrently, meaning he will be re-eligible to compete in January 2021.
Dillashaw, 33, is ranked the No. 10 pound-for-pound fighter in the world by ESPN. He is a two-time UFC bantamweight champion.
In 2017, Cody Garbrandt, one of Dillashaw's former teammates in Sacramento, accused Dillashaw of using performance-enhancing drugs in the buildup to a bantamweight title fight in New York. Dillashaw refuted Garbrandt's claims and went to knock him out twice in November 2017 and August 2018.
Murray & Peers lose in first match together since 2015
Top seeds Jamie Murray and John Peers - playing together for the first time in more than three years - were knocked out of the Grand Prix Hassan II in Marrakech in the first round.
Britain's Murray and Australian Peers were beaten 7-6 (7-3) 6-7 (7-9) 10-6 by Denmark's Frederik Nielsen and the Netherlands' Matwe Middelkoop.
Murray and Peers split after reaching the ATP World Tour Finals in 2015.
Elsewhere, Germany's Alexander Zverev reached the singles second round.
The top seed beat Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin 6-4 6-4 and will play Spain's Jaume Munar next.
NAPLES, Maine – With three inches of snow on the ground and with more snow and rain in the forecast, officials with the Pro All Stars Series and Oxford Plains Speedway felt it best to postpone this weekend’s PASS/ACT doubleheader to April 27-28.
There will be practice for all divisions on Saturday, April 27, along with the Oxford Plains Speedway regular season opener set to begin at 4 p.m.
On Sunday, April 28, racing will begin at 1:30 p.m. featuring the Honey Badger Bar & Grill 150 for the PASS Super Late Models.
The ACT Late Models will also be racing for 150 laps, along with the PASS Modifieds, North East Mini Stock Tour, and Street Stocks.
JT tries different approach to Masters prep ... Bahamas with family
AUGUSTA, Ga. – Justin Thomas has already collected a major championship, but he knows that he’s otherwise underperformed in the big events. Here at the Masters, the major he wants to win as much as any, the results just haven’t been what he’s expected.
In three attempts at Augusta National, Thomas’ best finish was a tie for 17th last year. But that was with a final-round 73, when others near the top of the leaderboard were making birdies in droves.
“I’ve had a hard time at this event every year because I love this golf course so much and I feel like it fits my game so well,” Thomas said Tuesday at the Masters. “I really feel like I should have a great chance to win and I think that gets in my own way sometimes, or at least it has the past couple years.”
Rather than preparing the same way as the past three years, Thomas took a different approach this time around. No more grinding back home on the practice range. No more six-hour days burning in the hot sun. Instead of working hard on his game and trying to maintain that form all the way through the end of the Masters, Thomas decided to get away and chill.
“I just went on a little vacation with my parents down in the Bahamas to get my mind in a good place, and my dad and I would just go play golf like we did when I was eight, nine years old,” Thomas said. “Just having fun, going fishing, hang by the pool, do whatever just to try to get relaxed.”
Thomas, ranked No. 5 in the Official World Golf Ranking, won the 2017 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow; but in 13 majors as a professional, he has only three top-10 finishes to go along with missed two cuts. His three finishes at the Masters are T-39, T-22 and T-17.
Thomas and his father, Mike, have dissected his major performances and narrowed in on the Masters, in particular. The two feel like Thomas has played too conservatively at Augusta National. When Thomas has, say, an 8-iron in his hand, he’s trying to figure out where he can miss instead of trying to knock the ball stiff, just as he does at every other tournament during the year.
“You obviously have to pick your spots and understand when it’s smart and when you have to play conservative, or when you can play aggressive vs. conservative,” Thomas said. “But as a whole, I think that we’ve figured out that I may be over-respecting the golf course, at least with the last couple of years.”
Tiger recalls two times he 'needed' to win at Augusta
AUGUSTA, Ga. – Tiger Woods really wants to win again, but he doesn’t need to win. He doesn’t need to win here at the Masters, or anywhere else for that matter. Woods’ 14 majors and 80 PGA Tour victories could be etched in history books forever and his place in the game would be solidified.
But, believe it or not, there were times in Woods’ career where he felt like he absolutely “needed” to win. The two that immediately came to mind were both here at Augusta National.
“One, don’t blow the lead I had in ’97, because of what happened the previous year,” Woods said Tuesday at the Masters regarding his march to a first green jacket. His reference to the year before was to when Greg Norman began the final round with a six-shot lead and lost to Nick Faldo by five.
“I didn’t want to lose a nine-shot lead, so I was able to win that one,” Woods said with a smirk.
The other time Woods felt like he needed to win was here in 2001, when he entered the Masters already in possession of three consecutive majors. Of course, he defeated David Duval by two shots to win his second green jacket and capture the Tiger Slam by winning four straight majors.
“I mean, that’s nine months of just getting asked the same question,” Woods said, “and to pull it off like that one, yeah, I needed to win that one to get all four.”
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