Sport

The results are in. Almost half of the 10,000 visitors to our poll yesterday voted that it’s the ‘right call’ by NASCAR to limit Premier Series drivers from competing in the XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series. We had a feeling this would be the response after fans have been frustrated by Sprint Cup regulars, *cough* Kyle Busch, from dominating in the XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series. Following up the 48 percent…

Night races compound the problem. Majors said he once lost his car in the Rolex 24 sports-car race at Daytona. Joey Meier, Brad Keselowski‘s spotter, walks around the garage every Friday morning to verify what sponsor each driver’s car has, including his own, and he does that in part because of what happened during a NASCAR XFINITY Series practice years ago.   As cars hit the track, Meier waited and waited and waited…

DOHA Competitors at a world cycling competition in Qatar this month may have enjoyed the hospitality but they also struggled in a swirl of heat, wind, dust and humidity. If the presence of such top cyclists as Peter Sagan and Marc Cavendish for the UCI Road World Championships fed the Gulf state’s ambitions of becoming an international sporting capital, the event also highlighted some of the strains the country could…

Here at FiveThirtyEight, we tend to think statistics can add to our understanding of sports. (What a surprise!) From the more mature sabermetric movements of baseball and basketball to growing ones in soccer and hockey, evidence-based examination has led to new thoughts and ideas about the games we love. But there can also be a dark side to analytics. Among other potential pitfalls, interpreting the numbers incorrectly can lead to…

Each Wednesday SB Nation’s NASCAR reporter Jordan Bianchi answers your questions about the latest news and happenings within the sport. If you have a mailbag question email jordanmbianchi@gmail.com. I’m glad NASCAR finally realized Cup drivers were ruining the Xfinity Series, this is a long overdue rule. But why only a 10-race limit, why not restrict Cup drivers even more and turn the Xfinity Series into a true developmental series…

A mistrial has been declared in the case against three men accused of attacking NASCAR driver Mike Wallace and his daughter outside the PNC Pavilion concert venue in Charlotte, North Carolina, this summer. According to WSOC television in Charlotte, as first reported via the Twitter account of reporter Mark Becker, Judge Ronald Chapman ruled for the mistrial because he believed there was merit to the argument from defense attorneys that…

BOSTON –  Harvard University has condemned a sexually explicit document that members of the 2012 men’s soccer team called their “scouting report” of the women’s soccer team. In the nine-page document, which was uncovered this week by The Harvard Crimson student newspaper, a member of the men’s team rated the physical attractiveness of new recruits on the women’s team, and also included their photos and lewd comments about many…

NASCAR issued its weekly post-race penalty and warning report following last Sunday’s Chase for the Sprint Cup elimination race at Talladega Superspeedway — and the big news was that there was no news involving the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team of driver Martin Truex Jr. Truex had said he did not think it was “a big issue” that his car twice flunked Laser Inspection Station scrutiny and had a…

In a move designed to hopefully promote driver development, NASCAR announced on Wednesday that it will limit the number of events a Premier Series driver can enter in the XFINITY Series and the Camping World Truck Series, beginning next season. In a release, NASCAR said that it hopes this will “put an even brighter spotlight on the next generation of stars and bolster the identity of all three of its…

Comcast’s profit rose 12 percent in the July-September quarter thanks to the Olympics and the first third-quarter gains in video subscribers in a decade. NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke has said that the company made over $250 million in Rio as ad sales rose, even though Olympics ratings fell 16 percent in prime time on NBC from the London Olympics. Ratings were down 9 percent if viewers watching on NBCUniversal’s cable…

The company, led by CEO Steve Burke, posts a lower film profit, but lauds the success of ‘Secret Life of Pets,’ as parent Comcast adds 32,000 video subscribers for its best third quarter in a decade. Cable giant Comcast on Wednesday reported its third-quarter financials, including profit figures for its entertainment arm NBCUniversal, whose results were driven by the Summer Olympics in Rio. Kicking off earnings season for big…

(Paulo Whitaker/Reuters) Routine heading of a soccer ball can cause damage to brain structure and function, according to a new study from the United Kingdom that is the first to detect direct neurological changes by impacts too minor to cause a concussion. The research, published this week in EBioMedicine, studied brain changes among amateur players, ages 19 to 25, who headed machine-projected soccer balls at speeds modeling a typical practice….

But Mr MacLean denies all blame, saying that Mr Ahmed rode down the ‘wrong part of the track’ and then, on a second attempt, ‘made exactly the same error’. “I am 100 per cent sure he made the same mistake twice,” he told the court. “I was surprised at the time. It has been on my mind for four-and-a-half years and I am absolutely positive it happened.” Tim Horlock QC…

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t understand, especially on the heels of what we saw Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, as to why NASCAR is switching the dates of the Kansas Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway races in the Chase in 2017. Next year, it will be Kansas that is an elimination race, and not Talladega. From what I’ve picked up from the grapevine is that it was switched…

The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. Heading a football may look effortless but many scientists have suspected it might actually harm the player’s brain. There could be real consequences—we know that brain injury is linked to an increased risk of dementia, for example. However, it has proven surprisingly difficult to find out the true impact of football heading, partly…

x Embed x Share Court Jeske talks about the future of pro soccer in Nashville. Joey Garrison Court Jeske(Photo: Chris Trotman, Getty Images) Nashville Soccer Club, the city’s new United Soccer League franchise, has hired the team’s first chief executive officer, a key front office decision as the organization prepares to begin play in 2018.    Court Jeske, who previously worked as vice president of international business for Soccer United Marketing, the commercial…

RIO DE JANEIRO –  In soccer-crazed Brazil, the game is proving central to the sport of electoral politics in one major city amid growing disgust with career politicians. The mayoral runoff in Belo Horizonte, the country’s sixth largest city, features two candidates associated with the first division Atletico Mineiro club based there, one as a former player and the other as its ex-chairman. Retired goalkeeper Joao Leite, who…

Unless you’re a Portland State University superfan, there’s a good chance you missed the best soccer goal of the weekend. It came off the foot of PSU player Breanne Chilton-Eddy, who sniped an awesome long shot into the top corner of the net from about 20 yards out. The sick strike was delivered in sudden death overtime and gave PSU a 2-1 comeback win over Weber State, so it was as clutch…

A soccer coach in Texas was arrested after he was accused of sexually abused eight of his players — boys between 10 and 15. Police say more players are likely to come forward. Marcos Ramos, an undocumented immigrant living in Corsicana, Texas, is also is wanted in his native Guatemala for sexually assaulting children, police said. He faces three counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and five counts…

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – In soccer-crazed Brazil, the game is proving central to the sport of electoral politics in one major city amid growing disgust with career politicians. The mayoral runoff in Belo Horizonte, the country’s sixth largest city, features two candidates associated with the first division Atletico Mineiro club based there, one as a former player and the other as its ex-chairman. Retired goalkeeper Joao Leite, who got…