Nascar

Several decades ago, sprint cars raced inside the Atlantic City Convention Hall. The noise reverberated off the walls, as the small, open-wheeled cars dashed around the short course lined with bales of hay and straw.These days, monster trucks and motorcycles perform inside civic arenas, including Baltimore's.But nowhere has anyone undertaken to build a super-speedway indoors and stage a Winston Cup stock-car race.At least, until now."The idea was motivated by a lot of beer," said Bob Brant, laughing.

The dream was stirred years ago for Travis Pastrana, nearly half a lifetime now for the Maryland-born motocross and X Games superstar who is about to turn 30 and is in the midst of trying his fourth extreme sport: NASCAR. The reality has come in the past month. As Pastrana has gone from being a rock star on a motorcycle to a rookie driver hoping to prove he belongs in the Nationwide Series - the equivalent of baseball's Triple-A for stock-car racing - the results have been encouraging but inconsistent.

Rob Kasper's "editorial" about Artscape (Editorial notebook: "Artscape, a grouch's view," July 17) was interesting. Wait until we have the upcoming proposed NASCAR races in the Inner Harbor area, with spectators expected to double along with the irritations to neighbors and people driving in or near the area. Richard L. Lelonek, Baltimore

I am a female sports fan. I go to games, watch them on TV, download the apps, read the stats, and buy the T-shirts. I recently heard about the launch of a new professional women's soccer league, and I started thinking about the sports to which I am attached. They are all professional male sports - plus men's college basketball - but I have never thought about why. I suspect it has to do with my age (51), which limited my exposure to girl's athletics - Title IX was just beginning to be implemented when I was in school - as well as my sports fan role model, my father.

Look at other rules Jim Peltz Los Angeles Times No race is 100 percent safe for fans, hence the legal fine print on the back of their tickets. But there also is no reason NASCAR cannot revisit its guidelines for restrictor-plate racing at Daytona and Talladega. Don't discard it — the crash that ushered in this type of racing, Bobby Allison's at Talladega in 1987, showed speeds needed to be capped. But there might be other rules or car adjustments that could reduce the risk.

Rules keep it clean Dave Fairbank Newport News Daily Press It probably lies somewhere between a Latter-day Saints church retreat and world-class cycling. Two guys pinched for selling weed, out of hundreds of pit jockeys and wrench-turners, isn't exactly cause for alarm. That said, in just about any population sample from the planet's wealthiest and most pharmacologically dependent society, there's going to be a notable number of recreational users.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Fox Sports Chairman David Hill isn't shy with words or opinions. He has offered both in bunches during the NASCAR media tour, sharing his perspective on what it will take to get NASCAR out of its doldrums. A few things come to mind: Ditch the homogenized Car of Tomorrow, make the focus on drivers and shorten race times. "The Car of Tomorrow became the biggest red herring in the history of this sport," Hill said. "It took the emphasis away from the heroes.

It's too soon to tell George Diaz Orlando Sentinel It's awfully tempting to jump on the Trevor Bayne bandwagon — restrictor plates in place, of course — and celebrate a new era in stock car racing. And that would be truly preposterous. You want to root for the kid and his team, the iconic Wood Brothers. It's easy to see why many media members broke protocol and cheered as Bayne's Ford crossed the finish line Sunday. But the morning-after reality is this: Bayne isn't even scheduled to run a full Sprint Cup season (although that could change)

Cosmetic surgery George Diaz Orlando Sentinel Give NASCAR kudos for constantly tweaking things here and there in hopes of improving the product. But this news is relatively uninspiring, like moving furniture around. Kentucky gets its first Sprint Cup date. A second race comes to Kansas. The Phoenix race is moving from April to February, a week after the Daytona 500. The biggest change? NASCAR will open the 2011 Chase for the Cup championship at Chicagoland Speedway.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick disclosed yesterday that he has a rare and life-threatening form of leukemia.Hendrick, 47, discovered he had the disease Nov. 18 -- two weeks before a 15-count federal indictment accused him of building a $2.2 billion car-dealing empire by bribing American Honda executives. He has pleaded not guilty.Hendrick, whose cars have won the past two NASCAR Winston Cup championships and 60 races since 1984, suffers from chronic myelogenous leukemia, a form of bone-marrow cancer.

Rebel Wilson shines, confuses and titillates while hosting last night's 2013 MTV Movie Awards as tax-paying procrastinators struggled to submit their returns on a temporarily floundering TurboTax online. In gun control news, a sadly ironic turn of events took place at the first 500 Sprint Cup race sponsored by the NRA as a NASCAR fan shot himself in the head after an apparent argument with a fellow racing fan.  Other trends this morning involve the first grandchild for George W. and Laura Bush, the strains of running the Boston Marathon and the release of the first full trailer for the second "Hunger Games" movie, "Catching Fire.

SATURDAY'S TELEVISION HIGHLIGHTS NASCAR N'wide Foxworthy's Grit Chips 300 ESPN22 ALMS 12 Hours of Sebring SPEED10:30 a.m. MLB exh. Texas vs. Cubs MLB4 Kansas City@Cubs WGN-A4 Houston@Washington MASN6 WBC 2nd Round, Pool 2: D Rep. vs. P. Rico MLB1 NBA Phoenix@Washington CSN7 Indiana@Philadelphia NBA7:30 Memphis@Utah NBA10 ...

SATURDAY'S HIGHLIGHTS NASCAR Nationwide Dollar General 200 ESPN24:30 MLB exh. Miami@Mets MLB1 M. bask. Maryland@Wake Forest 5, 54Noon Louisville@Syracuse 13, 9Noon Alabama@Florida ESPNNoon Butler@Virginia Commonwealth ESPN2Noon West Virginia@Kansas 13, 92 Notre Dame@Marquette ESPN, TCN2 Connecticut@Cincinnati MASN2 George Mason@Delaware...

Look at other rules Jim Peltz Los Angeles Times No race is 100 percent safe for fans, hence the legal fine print on the back of their tickets. But there also is no reason NASCAR cannot revisit its guidelines for restrictor-plate racing at Daytona and Talladega. Don't discard it — the crash that ushered in this type of racing, Bobby Allison's at Talladega in 1987, showed speeds needed to be capped. But there might be other rules or car adjustments that could reduce the risk.

There's not a chance George Diaz Orlando Sentinel Stop dreaming. Not going to happen. Winning the pole for the Daytona 500 is a nice bump for Danica Patrick on the NASCAR radar screen, but let's not get carried away with giddy expectations. Anybody from Fireball Roberts to Richard Petty can tell you that having a fast car at Daytona doesn't mean beans if you get caught up in those restrictor-plate bumper cars. Moving forward from Daytona, Patrick is surrounded by excellent personnel and equipment at Stewart-Hass Racing, but as a rookie with limited Cup experience, she's in for a bumpy ride as she deals with the grind of a 36-race season.

Tyler Hughes always liked to go fast. At age 3, he was powering a little go-kart around an asphalt track in a neighbor's backyard on the Eastern Shore. At 5 years old, he was whipping quarter-midget racecars around dirt tracks in Maryland and Delaware. At age 10, he was racing 600cc modified lite dwarf cars around Seaford, Del., picking up seven wins as the youngest rookie driver. Now, the 16-year-old from Cordova in Talbot County has been named NASCAR's 2012 Virginia Rookie of the Year in the Whelen All-American Series, a points championship for local NASCAR-sanctioned racetracks.

Marylanders and Delawareans in NASCAR:* EDDIE DICKERSON, Milford, Del. -- Crew chief for Rusty Wallace. Has worked for Darrell Waltrip, Cale Yarborough, Harry Gant, Terry Labonte and Buddy Arrington. Won mechanic-of-the-race honors when Wallace finished second at the First Union 400 in North Wilkesboro, N.C., on April 12.* ELMO LANGLEY, Landover -- Drives pace car for NASCAR and is inspector for NASCAR, helping inspect the top five finishers in each race. Beat Cale Yarborough in 1991 Legends Race at Charlotte.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Five years ago come Saturday, then-NASCAR czar Bill France Jr. issued a statement that thundered in its simple enormity: "NASCAR has lost its greatest driver ever." Dale Earnhardt had been killed in the last turn of the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. Suddenly NASCAR was, with blackest irony, the No. 1 story in American sports. NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw likened the sudden passing of the iconic figure to those of Elvis Presley and Princess Diana. The planned covers of national news magazines were scrapped and replaced with portrait photos of Earnhardt.

SATURDAY'S HIGHLIGHTS NASCAR Nationwide Ford EcoBoost 300 ESPN4:30 M. bask. George Washington@BU CSNP, TCN1 Coaches vs. Cancer: champ. TRUTV9:30 NBA Utah@Washington CSN7 Boxing Broner vs. DeMarco HBO10 C. foot. Indiana@Penn State BIGTENNoon Temple@Army CBSSNNoon Towson@New Hampshire CSNNoon Iowa@Michigan ESPNNoon Northwestern@Michigan State ESPN2Noon Florida State@Maryland ESPNU, 5Noon Yale@Harvard NBCSPNoon Virginia Tech@Boston College 1312:30 Lehigh@Lafayette MASN21 USC@UCLA 453 South Florida@Miami CSN, CSNP3 N.C. State@Clemson 2, 73:30 Wake Forest@Notre Dame 11, 43:30 Mississippi@LSU 13, 93:30 Texas State@Navy CBSSN3:30 Ohio State@Wisconsin ESPN23:30 Duke@Georgia Tech ESPNU3:30 Colorado State@Boise State NBCSP3:30 Oklahoma@West Virginia 45, 57 Tennessee@Vanderbilt ESPN27 Syracuse@Missouri ESPNU7 Iowa State@Kansas FCS7 Old Dominion@James Madison NBCSP7 Stanford@Oregon 2, 78 Kansas State@Baylor ESPN8 EPL Arsenal vs Tottenham FC ESPN27:30 a.m. W. Brom.

Glenelg High School is gearing up for its prom safe-driving events, which include a scheduled visit from NASCAR driver Kurt Busch. School officials said Busch will be a guest speaker at a schoolwide assembly April 23, the start of Glenelg's Prom Safety Week. It is one of several safety-related events that the school is offering throughout the year. Steve Willingham, Glenelg's student resource officer, said Busch is scheduled to talk about the importance of safe driving from his perspective as a professional driver and how speed is a factor in collisions, particularly those involving young people.