Sport

Although it’s NASCAR’s first of just two weekends off this season, it’s also only April, so we’re nowhere near the end — or even the halfway point — of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule. But the first races of 2017 have not disappointed. Through seven races, there have been six winners, young standouts, surprising veteran victors, a new grandfather clock owner and a headline-grabbing fight. Within the extensive…

As NHL playoff hockey returns to Toronto for the first time since 2013, a local boy whose family couldn’t afford to attend many games when he was younger will be in the building. Ditching the Maple Leafs jerseys of his youth, Tom Wilson will try to beat his hometown team as his Washington Capitals attempt to rebound from a double-overtime loss that evened the first-round series at a game apiece….

What with inquiries, allegations, leaks, Jiffy bags and a sense of crisis after crisis, the months after Rio have not been a typical post‑Olympic period for British Cycling, and the world championships during the past week were not typical fare either, in spite of a haul of five medals. These included a gold for Elinor Barker on Sunday in the points race, the second after Katie Archibald’s triumph earlier in…

While many NASCAR drivers are taking advantage of a rare off weekend by hitting the beach or relaxing at home, a select few chose a different route. While Kyle Larson picked up a victory at Placerville Speedway in Placerville, California, Kyle Busch competed in the Easter Bunny 150 — an annual super late model race at Hickory Motor Speedway in Hickory, North Carolina. Kasey Kahne was also busy…

Seven races into this Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, one thing is certain. Stage points and stage wins are so meaningful under NASCAR’s new race format that drivers are starting to ramp up the intensity when it comes time to put the pedal to the metal and go for them. You saw it on the short track at Martinsville, when Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. tangled at the…

For the first time in decades, the powerhouse that is women’s soccer in the United States finds itself at a crossroads. On the one hand: three World Cup trophies and four Olympic gold medals, the most hardware for any women’s national team. On the other: a jarring trend of America’s most accomplished and marketable star players being lured away to play professionally in the relative luxury of Europe. This year,…

The first modern Olympic Games started in Athens on May 25, 1896 under the old calendar, which is April 6 of today, thus marking the 121st Anniversary of the modern Olympics. The last successful tournament was in London in 2012. Today, the Olympics is in crisis and requires a major rethink to ensure a stellar future. Unlike the Football World Cups or Euro championships, which are multi-billion businesses sustained by…

A recent Under-16 hockey game in Czech Republic took an ugly, ugly turn when a wild brawl broke out toward the end of the contest. The donnybrook not only involved several players from both teams …. but one of the game’s on-ice officials as well. The incident came during the annual Easter Cup — an annual international tournament held in the spring — and saw HC Brest and Liba Academy 11 Kosice go at it during the bronze medal…

4:00 PM ET Facebook Twitter Facebook Messenger Pinterest Email print comment CHICAGO — Patrick Kane was still eight years short of being born when the “Miracle on Ice” U.S. Olympic hockey team shook the world, while Marcus Kruger was just 3 years old for one of the greatest moments in Sweden’s Olympic history. But the Blackhawks teammates say much of their hockey upbringing was based on the two events. “That…

The Derby della Madonnina (or Milan Derby, if you prefer not saying fun words) is back on the menu this Saturday. Inter and A.C. Milan’s rivalry dates back all the way to the early 1900s, and while both sides haven’t been the powerhouses of years ago there’s still plenty of drama. Inter, with goal-scoring threat Mauro Icardi, are just two points back of their crosstown rivals. A win would see…

NASCAR’s premier series entitlement sponsor Monster Energy was awarded brand of the year and recognized as a luminary honoree at the sixth annual 2017 Cynopsis Sports Media Awards on Thursday morning in New York City.   NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Global Sales and Marketing Officer Steve Phelps presented Monster Energy with the Gem Award, which honors the brand of the year. Monster Energy Senior Vice President of Marketing…

Dana Vollmer describes what it’s like to continue swimming competitively while six months pregnant by saying, “It feels like I have a bowling ball hanging from my stomach.” As a five-time Olympic gold medalist, there is very little Dana Vollmer hasn’t been able to overcome in the water. In her world-record 100-meter butterfly victory at the 2012 London Olympics, she lost her swim cap. In Rio last August, she won…

Oh, Nashville. Your inferiority complex is starting to get the best of you. As if Jay Cutler moving back there wasn’t bad enough, Nashville now has to endure another close encounter of the Chicago kind: a playoff series with the Blackhawks. The cover of Thursday’s Tennessean, the city’s fine newspaper, features a photo illustration of a saber-tooth cat with a mouthful of feathers – four feathers, to be exact, in a…

BUY TICKETS: See the races at Bristol All these seasons (16), all these Monster Energy NASCAR Cup win trophies (81) and all those Hall of Fame-ready championships (seven) later, the perpetually good-natured Jimmie Johnson can still smile when people wonder if his success train has derailed. Even a bit. His victory Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway – now giving him a winner’s cowboy hat for every day of the week…

So here was your flint-eyed columnist on Monday morning, still festering in his dressing gown like Michael Douglas’ Professor Grady Tripp in Wonder Boys, tears rolling down his cheeks as Sergio Garcia sank that putt that let the plug out of 19 years of frustration. Garcia’s joy could melt the meanest heart. To empathise with his transcendent ecstasy had the quality of a religious epiphany. And omigod, on Seve Ballesteros’ 60th birthday…

At the Monster Energy All-Star race on May 20th at Charlotte Motor Speedway, NASCAR will introduce a bold new element: a second Goodyear tire compound for teams to use during the race.  Goodyear will bring its standard tire set – known as “Prime” — for teams, along with a softer tire combination known as the “Option” set. The Prime tires will carry traditional yellow Goodyear logos, the Option tires…

The 2017 Monster Energy Cup Series season has brought on a bunch of changes to NASCAR. Seven races into the year, stage racing has provided a whole new mixture of hard racing and strategy that will increase in intensity as the season progresses. NASCAR’s youth movement has also been hard to ignore, as Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott continue to scorch the veteran drivers of the sport. On top of…

BERLIN –  German prosecutors said Thursday that a 26-year-old Iraqi detained following an attack on a top soccer club is suspected of membership in the Islamic State group, but so far there is no evidence he was involved in the explosions that injured a Borussia Dortmund player and a police officer. The hunt for the bomber was continuing. Federal prosecutors said the Iraqi — identified only as Abdul…

RELATED: Read more Inside Groove READ UP ON All-STAR NEWS: RELEASE | FAQs | Upping the ante   NASCAR revealed Tuesday a revamped format for the 2017 All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Part of this update includes tire strategy, with different colored lettering to identify the varied rubber.   Each team will be granted one set of softer “option” tires to use, which provide more grip and thus, speed. The…

NASCAR issued penalties Wednesday to the Roush Fenway Racing No. 17 team for post-race infractions after last weekend’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. drove the No. 17 Ford to a 14th-place finish in last Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500, but NASCAR officials found one of the car’s 20 lug nuts was improperly installed in a post-race check. Wednesday, RFR crew chief Brian…