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It’s morning on a soccer field, somewhere in America. Two teams of 10-year-olds play a typical youth match, a constantly moving mass of arms and legs. There’s passing and shooting, goals and saves. It looks like soccer, except for one thing: There’s no heading. When the ball flies up into the air, the children control it with their chests, thighs, or feet, or they let it hit the ground. They…

The planned Guinness World Record attempt for the longest motorcycle jump May 7 at Talladega Superspeedway is canceled due to Monster Energy sponsored athlete Alex Harvill sustaining an foot injury during a practice jump, Monster Energy and Talladega officials announced Tuesday morning. Details about a future jump will follow.    Harvill was to attempt a world record for the longest ramp-to-ramp motorcycle jump before the start of the GEICO 500…

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4:00 PM ET Facebook Twitter Facebook Messenger Pinterest Email print comment BRISTOL, Tenn. — Daniel Hemric didn’t just earn his first top-5 of the season when he finished fifth Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway, the seventh race of the season. The Richard Childress Racing rookie also took home the extra $100,000 awarded as part of the Dash 4 Cash program, the best finisher among the four drivers who are eligible…

It was just last month when people were wondering what was wrong with Jimmie Johnson and his slow start to the season. How silly it was to worry. Johnson grabbed a rare victory at Bristol Motor Speedway on Monday, giving him consecutive wins for the 11th time in his storied career. It was just the second career win in Thunder Valley for Johnson, who considers it one of his most…

Four Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series teams will travel to Indianapolis Motor Speedway this week for a two-day Goodyear tire test at the legendary 2.5-mile facility.   Drivers scheduled to take part in the test, set for Tuesday and Wednesday, are Brad Keselowski (No. 2 Team Penske Ford), Denny Hamlin (No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota), David Ragan (No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford) and Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Hendrick…

BYRON TOWNSHIP, MI – Thomas Carlisle will soon be a familiar face at Michigan-based grocer SpartanNash’s stores. The Special Olympics Michigan athlete will be featured on cases of Spartan brand spring water starting in May. Carlisle was named the 2016-17 SpartanNash Healthy Athlete of the Year during opening ceremonies at the 2016 Special Olympics Michigan State Summer Games. More than 50,000, 24-pack cases of water will feature Carlisle’s image and will be…

One of the biggest of many questions surrounding the Golden Gopher hockey team following the 2016-17 season was: Who’s going to wear the captain’s “C” with the departure of two-year leader Justin Kloos? Now we know. Minnesota has named All-American Tyler Sheehy to lead the team for the 2017-18 campaign. The Gophers will go with three Alternate Captains: Leon Bristedt, Mike Szmatula and Ryan Lindgren. They replace outgoing alternates Jake…

Image via William Morrow/Fangraphs Functionally and historically, the sabermetric revolution in baseball is over. Analytics is not some outsider’s method of attacking institutional baseball; it’s how institutional baseball does business. Every single major-league team receives immense amounts of data from MLB about their players’ batting, pitching, and, notably, defense. Advertisement For some of us, the whole structure of the old trads-versus-quants argument doesn’t even apply. Because I’m relatively young, and…

RELATED: Race lineup | Monday schedule   When the skies clear and the green flag drops today (1 p.m. ET, FOX), Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers will face a different type of Bristol.   Pounded by rain over the past 24 hours, all of the rubber that accumulated onto the track, giving it grip, has been washed away. All of the resin-based VHT applied to the bottom of the…

CLOSE x Embed x Share President Xi Jinping said he hopes all sides will “refrain from taking any action that will aggravate tensions on the Peninsula.” Video provided by Newsy Newslook North Korea lost all three matches in the 2010 World Cup before returning home.(Photo: Luca Bruno, AP) War games, whether in the form of military strategizing or parading nuclear weaponry as a show of force, are not really games at…

April 24, 2017 • Watch Live: Mel Pearson Press Conference (Monday, 2 p.m. EDT) ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Mel Pearson has been named the University of Michigan’s head coach of ice hockey, as announced today (Monday, April 24) by Warde Manuel, the Donald R. Shepherd Director of Athletics. Pearson, who becomes the ninth head coach in program history, returns to Ann Arbor after previously serving 23 seasons as an assistant…

Playoff hockey is often stupid. I write that with great affection. Playoff hockey is a rush and a thrill and a jolt of adrenaline and a three-hour sugar high. But it’s also often stupid. The games are tight. The margins are tiny. Luck lurks everywhere. Happenstance tugs at every collar. And too often, the team that gets the better of the play still loses the game. That’s why I kind…

CLOSE x Embed x Share USA TODAY Sports’ Brant James tells you what to watch for at the Food City 500 in Bristol, including who’s got the best chance to come away victorious. USA TODAY Sports Kevin Harvick is among a group of drivers who had wins at this point in 2016.(Photo: Stephen R. Sylvanie, USA TODAY Sports) BRISTOL, Tenn. — Kyle Busch had two wins and entered the spring…

The prime minister of Canada is a hugger. Justin Trudeau and I had just wrapped up an hourlong interview in a high-ceiling sitting room across the street from Parliament. I thanked him for his time and was about to start collecting my stuff to walk out, when the PM took a step toward me, and offered an embrace. It was part bro-hug, part “the pleasure was all mine” gesture. I…

From colonial times to the present, Philadelphians have loved to play. From street corners to rec centers, country clubs to ball fields, and even in the stands, the city’s residents and teams are known for their passion. And this week in Philadelphia is a sports fan’s dream, with the conflux of the 2017 NFL Draft, the Penn Relays,…

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Brad Keselowski makes no excuses when it comes to asking how Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers will handle Bristol Motor Speedway in the Food City 500. “We’re supposed to be the best, so we’ll have to figure it out,” he said even before rain postponed the race from Sunday to Monday. The rain that swept into the area around the .526-mile short track late Saturday and…

Mike Ehrmann/GettyImages Sports are a great way to get in some exercise. And while burning calories isn’t the only measure of an exercise’s value, the number can tell you something about how hard you’re working your body. The important caveat here is that exercising on its own actually doesn’t do much to make you lose weight. Sports get your heart going, which can help you live longer. But if you want to…

MONDAY ON TV AUTOS 1 p.m. FOX-41 — NASCAR, Monster Energy Cup, Food City 500, at Bristol, Tenn. MLB BASEBALL 7 p.m. ESPN — Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh 10 p.m. MLB — Regional broadcast, L.A. Dodgers at San Francisco OR San Diego at Arizona (joined in progress) NBA BASKETBALL 7 p.m. NBA — NBA Playoffs, Eastern Conference, first round, Game 5, Milwaukee at Toronto 8 p.m. TNT — NBA Playoffs,…

CLOSE x Embed x Share USA TODAY Sports’ Brant James tells you what to watch for at the Food City 500 in Bristol, including who’s got the best chance to come away victorious. USA TODAY Sports Kevin Harvick is among a group of drivers who had wins at this point in 2016.(Photo: Stephen R. Sylvanie, USA TODAY Sports) BRISTOL, Tenn. — Kyle Busch had two wins and entered the spring…