sakura

Kansas City, KS (SportsNetwork. Derrick Nnadi Jersey .com) – Championship contender Kevin Harvick won his eighth pole of the season in the Sprint Cup Series, while defending series titleholder Jimmie Johnson struggled in Fridays qualifying for the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway. Harvick, in his first season as driver of the No. 4 Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing, grabbed the pole for Sundays 400-mile race at Kansas after posting a lap at 197.621 mph in the third and final round of knockout qualifying. He set a new track qualifying record at this 1.5-mile racetrack when he turned a lap at 197.773 mph during the second round. It was the 20th time this season that a new track qualifying record has been set in NASCARs premier series. Harvick has surpassed a previous track record six times in 2014 — Texas, Michigan, Indianapolis, Bristol and both Kansas races. One year ago when he drove for Richard Childress Racing, Harvick won the Chase race at Kansas after starting on the pole and leading the most laps with 138. When the series most recently competed here in May, the first night race at this track, he started on the pole and led the most laps with 119 but finished second to Jeff Gordon. For whatever reason, this fits everything that I have going on with my driving style, Harvick said. But in the end, its all about having fast cars. Last year, we had a fast car, and this year, we have had a fast car as well. So just have to thank everybody on my Budweiser (sponsor) team for staying focused, continuing to build better race cars and controlling all the things that we can control. Our cars are fast, we are qualifying well, our pit stops are good, cars are reliable and everything is good. We just need a little bit of good luck to go with it. Its just like I keep telling these guys – that stuff will all come full circle and hopefully it does it at the right time this year. Harvick has two wins in Sprint Cup this season but has not been to victory lane in the series since April 12 at Darlington (21 races ago). I just feel like with a little bit of good luck we can beat every car here, every week, at any style racetrack, he said. Everything is there. Its just a matter of having everything come together on the luck side. Well just keep plugging away. While Harvick claimed his 14th career pole in Cup, Johnson qualified 32nd, which matched his worst starting position in a race this season. Making his second lap in the first qualifying round, Johnsons car spun out in turn 2. He did not make contact with anything. Brian Vickers, who is not in the Chase, will start on the front row for the first time this season after qualifying second at 196.307 mph. Wow, that was a fun lap, Vickers said. Aric Almirola, who was eliminated from the Chase last weekend at Dover, qualified third, matching his best starting spot of the season. Joey Logano grabbed the fourth position, followed by Jeff Gordon, who leads all drivers with three victories at Kansas. Im happy with where we ended up, Gordon said. A top-five, you have to be happy with that starting position. Qualifying sixth through 12th were: Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne, Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards. Logano, Gordon, Keselowski, Busch, Earnhardt, Kahne and Edwards remain in the Chase. Kansas is the first of three races in round 2 of the playoffs, known as the Contender Round. The other Chase drivers and their starting positions are: Ryan Newman (17th), Denny Hamlin (25th) and Matt Kenseth (27th). All 43 drivers who attempted qualifying made the starting field for Sundays race. Joe Montana Jersey . The 21-year-old Wickham headed Sunderland into a 26th-minute lead –to add to the double he scored at Manchester City and his strike in last weekends win at Chelsea — and then sealed the win with a late header. Derrick Thomas Jersey . Left-handed reliever Boone Logan agreed to a $16.5 million, three-year contract on Friday, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press.LONDON, Ont. — Edgars Kulda and Luke Bertolucci each scored twice to lift the Edmonton Oil Kings to a 5-2 win over the London Knights at the Memorial Cup on Sunday. Playing their second game in as many nights, the Western Hockey League champions improved to 1-1 in the tournament. Reid Petryk also scored for the Oil Kings. Kulda had an assist for a three-point game. Alex Basso and Dakota Mermis scored Londons first goals of the tournament, but the host Knights remained winless after two games. London needs a win over the Ontario Hockey Leagues Guelph Storm in the final round-robin game Wednesday or the host team will be eliminated from Cup contention. Knights are 0-for-2 on penalty shots in the tournament. Edmontons Tristan Jarry stopped Ryan Rupert in the first period and made 38 saves overall in the win. London goalie Anthony Stolarz gave up three goals on 27 shots and was replaced after two periods by Jake Patterson, who made 11 saves. The Storm and Quebec Major Junior Hockey Leagues Val-dOr Foreurs meet Monday in a battle of 1-0 teams. The team with the best round-robin record gets a bye to Sundays final. The clubs finishing second and third meet in Fridays semifinal. A tie for third means a tiebreaker game Thursday. The Knights opened with a loss to Val-dOr despite outshooting the Foreurs 51-28. Edmonton fell 5-2 to the Storm on Saturday night. London was one of three OHL teams to score over 300 goals during the regular season. The Knights were eliminated by the Storm on April 11 in the second round of playoffs and are slow to recover theiir scoring touch. Harrison Butker Jersey. Rupert was hauled down on a breakaway late in the first period by Edmonton defenceman Ashton Sautner. Jarry squeezed his pads together to foil Ruperts five-hole attempt. Val-dOr goalie Antoine Bibeau stopped Londons Bo Horvat on a penalty shot in the third period in the tournament-opener. Bertolucci scored Edmontons first power-play goal of the tournament at 18:23 of the third period when Knights right-winger Michael McCarron was in the penalty box for punching Mitchel Moroz. London scored on a delayed penalty at 9:27 in the third to pull within two goals. Max Domi buzzed around the offensive zone with the puck to get an extra attacker on the ice before shooting. Mermis batted in the rebound in a goal-mouth scramble. Kulda collected his own rebound and banked the puck off a sprawling Stolarz at 18:04 of the second period for the Latvians second goal of the game. Basso pulled the Knights within a goal at 16:12. The defenceman had a clear shooting lane at Jarry, who got a piece of Bassos blast, but the puck bobbled over his glove and in. Kulda gave the visitors a 2-0 lead at 6:05 of the second period. The left-winger rushed the puck out of the neutral zone, cut left across the top of the faceoff circles and beat Stolarz with a wrist shot on the goalies stick side. The Knights killed off Edmontons two-man advantage in the first period, but Petryk struck at 9:42 just seconds after the second minor expired. Kulda teed the puck up for Petryk in the high slot and the overage forward beat Stolarz top shelf. ‚ ‚ ‚