Sport

The ice rink on stilts sitting over second base at Coors Field acted like a time portal. Nolan Zajac zapped back to Winnipeg, Manitoba. Suddenly it was 1997 and he was a toddler, with tiny blades on his feet. “It’s taking me back right now,” the University of Denver senior said. “The first memory I have is learning how to skate, with my dad trying to hold me up, teaching…

  History was at hand — and properly documented — Sunday morning before the running of the 58th annual Daytona 500. The 2016 season-opener marked the formal beginning of the new owner Charter system, which NASCAR and team owners signed a nine-year agreement on before the start of the season. There are 36 Charters, and each Charter team is guaranteed entry into every points-paying race. The Charter system, a form of…

The spotlight Sunday will shine brightly on Chase Elliott, the 20-year-old legacy who will start on the pole for the Daytona 500. But don’t expect the unassuming Elliott to bask in the glory. You won’t see him soaking up the limelight and reveling in the moment. MORE: Daytona 500, 2016 picks | Dale Jr. a jerk | What Danica boyfriend said about her Elliott, the son of Hall of Famer…

RELATED: NASCAR specifies penalties for behavioral issues DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Matt Kenseth said he has seen NASCAR’s rule book updates, those referencing behavioral penalties and potential reactions from the sanctioning body that were announced Friday. His take? “Obviously, it would have been good to know that last season,” the Joe Gibbs Racing driver said Saturday prior to final practice for Sunday’s season-opening Daytona 500 (1 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at…

Less than 24 hours after being released from a Daytona Beach hospital where he underwent a precautionary evaluation following a brutal wreck in Friday night’s Camping World Truck Series race, Christopher Bell thanked NASCAR for the measures the sport has taken in recent years to improve driver safety. He also thanked Kyle Busch Motorsports and others for helping allow him to walk away from the terrifying wreck with only bruises. Bell,…

MORE: Full race results | Updated series standings DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The finish of Saturday’s Powershares QQQ 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Daytona International Speedway left winner Chase Elliott out of gas on the cool-down lap and runner-up Joey Logano pounding his steering wheel in frustration. But it was the high-speed chess game seconds before the first and second-place cars crossed the finish line that made all the difference. Fearing he wouldn’t…

RELATED: Elliott scores pole for ‘Great American Race’ DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The couple waited outside Chase Elliott‘s garage stall inside Daytona International Speedway Friday afternoon. For two hours they had held position; a pen and souvenir car in hand, ready to go. As Elliott finally appeared, and made his way through the garage toward his car, Debbie Tenges moved forward in the crowd to get the autograph. Her husband Timm looked over…

A top high school hockey official is unhappy about a referee who worked a state tournament semifinal game in which he had a family connection to one of the schools. Mark Arriola, one of four officials on the ice for Friday’s Class 1A semifinal game between Warroad and St. Paul United, is married to an employee at Visitation. The Mendota Heights private school is one of two schools with players…

RELATED: Full race results    A last-lap wreck in Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series opener sent Christopher Bell flipping down the track in his No. 4 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota and, eventually, to the hospital for precautionary measures.   Bell radioed that he was OK and climbed out of the truck under his own power following a wreck in which he was sent into the outside wall, got airborne and barrel-rolled down…

Kurt Busch, left, and Matt Kenseth, right, were both suspended by NASCAR in 2015 — Busch for domestic violence allegations and Kenseth for an on-track incident at Martinsville Speedway.(Photo: Peter Casey, USA TODAY Sports) DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR unveiled a series of behavioral guidelines Friday night to spell out punishment for infractions both on and off the track. The rules update concerns everything from domestic abuse to racial slurs to denigrating NASCAR…

Daniel Hemric sits in his truck Thursday during practice for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway.(Photo: Sean Gardner, Getty Images) DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The future of NASCAR is in very good hands based on a quick glance at the roster for the Camping World Truck Series this season. It’s been a long time since the sport has been awash with this many talented…

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — You walk through the door into the office and it feels as if you’re stepping back in time. The walls have wood panels, there’s a rotary phone sitting on the wood desk, a small RCA black-and-white television off to the side, a couch like the one your grandparents used to own — minus the plastic protector — and a large standing globe that is deceiving because…

2:34 PM ET print DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. swore his career was over. He was defeated and dejected and depressed, so he strangled a bottle of vodka and sank into the couch to swill and sulk. A couple of buddies tagged along, cracked some beers. But they weren’t saying much. In a moment like this, they didn’t really know what to say, anyway. The clocked ticked by,…

11:45 PM ET print DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Thursday night’s Can-Am Duel qualifying races, the Artists Formerly Known as the Duel 150s, were destined to be a letdown. NASCAR’s new charter ownership system, documents that are still fresh off the lawyer’s printer, meant that 36 of the 40 starting spots for Sunday’s Daytona 500 were already locked up. Pole qualifying had locked up two more slots on the grid. So,…

print Our experts weigh in on four of the biggest questions in NASCAR: Turn 1: Lots of chatter about the Sprint Unlimited being less exciting than in the past. Was it? And what, if anything, would you do to revamp it? Ricky Craven, ESPN NASCAR analyst: I don’t see how anyone can complain about the action, other than the car owners. With that said, from the drivers’ perspective, the race…

In the past few weeks, the Chinese Football Association Super League — the country’s premier professional soccer league — has been on a shopping spree. By the close of the January transfer window, the Chinese Super League had outspent England’s Premier League in the transfer market; the CSL made five of the six largest transfer signings in the 2015-16 window. The biggest splash came when the Jiangsu Suning shelled out…

NASCAR and Comcast (CMCSA), a second-year title sponsor, are going at full-speed to energize the XFINITY Series. Continue Reading Below Comcast’s XFINITY brand replaced Nationwide to headline NASCAR’s second-tier series. In its first NASCAR season, the cable TV provider focused on introducing itself to fans, said Matt Lederer, Comcast senior director of sports brand strategy. Now Comcast and NASCAR are teaming up to create a fresh look for the…

Rico Abreu crashed a Dale Earnhardt Jr. interview to snap a selfie with NASCAR’s most popular driver. His caption on Snapchat: “YES!!!!!! OMG Dale Earnhardt Jr.!!!!!” Abreu was a bustling burst of energy this week at Daytona 500 media day, crashing Q&As, and pulling up seats to chat up writers. On the red carpet, Abreu was a favorite — even as journalists had to take a knee to talk to…

Is NASCAR more fan-friendly to Christians than the National Football League? Yes, says a new study from a North Carolina organization. Raleigh-based Faith Driven Consumer publishes what it calls the Faith Equality Index, a scale of 0 to 100 that rates “how well brands acknowledge Faith Driven Consumers by welcoming, embracing, and celebrating them, and is the benchmark FDCs use to make consumer choices — €”through the lens of their…

The NASCAR season gets the green flag with Sunday’s Daytona 500. Here are a few predictions for what should be an extremely interesting season: Sprint Cup champion Dale Earnhardt Jr. was near the top of the standings for much of the 2015 season and might have advanced to the third round of the Chase but for an untimely caution that cost him a chance at winning at Talladega. He has…