6B
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NASCAR
TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 2008
Robby Gordon's wreck lowers his standing
BY JENNA FRYER ASSOCIATED PRESS
NASCAR driver Robby Gordon drives his car during the NASCAR Sprint Cup series UAW-Dodge 400 auto race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday. An accident caused Gordon to finish 42nd, just one spot ahead of Tony Stewart, but unlike Stewart, the outcome sent Gordon plummeting in the points standings to 37th.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Most of the attention was on Tony Stewart when he limped away from a hard wreck at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
And as the two-time NASCAR champion explained how the hit left him with a tingling sensation in his legs, few people even noticed that Robby Gordon had just pulled his crippled race car into the garage.
For Gordon, the accident could be another blow to his reeling race team.
Neither driver was hurt, but the long-term effects aren't equal.
Their accidents were similar: Both drivers had a tire fail, causing their cars to slam hard into the wall.
The accident caused Gordon to finish 42nd on Sunday, just one spot ahead of Stewart. But unlike Stewart, the outcome sent Gordon plummeting in the points standings to 37th.
Now he needs a near-miracle to prevent a season that started with so much promise from imploding. NASCAR's last independent owner driver goes on an appeals committee on Wednesday desperately needing relief from a recent penalty that could destroy his race team.
His odds aren't good: In the 96 hearings held over the past eight years, The National Stock Car Racing Commission upheld 66 decisions. In two instances, the original penalty was increased.
The original penalty was reduced 20 times and the penalties were overturned just eight times — including a ruling on Monday that gives Gordon some hope. In a 2-1 decision, the three-member panel overturned penalties levied against Rusty Wallace racing that included a six-race suspension and $15,000 fine for crew chief Steve Darne
because of an infraction found on the Nationwide Series car of David Stremme.
Still, Gordon has a hard fight ahead over an un-approved front bumper on his brand new Dodge when he reported to the season-opening Daytona 500. The infraction cost him 100 points in the standings, while his crew chief was suspended six races and fined $100,000.
But Gordon insists the penalty hardly fits the crime.
"We're going to jail for a crime we didn't commit," he said.
The incident has marked a tough two months for Gordon, the stubbornly lovable lone wolf of NASCAR who insists on doing everything his very own way.
So when terrorist threats led.
to the January cancellation of the Dakar Rally, costing Robby Gordon Motorsports more than $4 million in personal losses, he had to scramble to get his race team on solid footing. It meant quickly putting an alliance together with Gillett Evernham Motorsports that required him to move from Ford to Dodge the week before teams reported to Daytona.
With just a few days to make the transition, his team scrambled to build him race cars and used whatever parts the manufacturer sent his way.
Gordon said the un-approved bumper came from Dodge, and with zero familiarity in the new equipment, the team had no way of knowing the part had yet to receive NASCAR's approval for competition.
NASCAR had little wiggle room on the issue. Since implementing a zero tolerance policy on modifications to the Car of Tomorrow, the sanctioning body has ruled with an iron fist on teams that run afoul of the inspectors.
"It was something that we didn't build, we don't fix, we didn't supply," he said. "It was a clerical error from the manufacturer and all we did was install it actually on the race car ... it's almost like you put yourself in a position that if someone steals your car and robs a bank, but because it was your car, you're going to jail."
That's the case Gordon will make Wednesday to a three-member panel that will hear his appeal.
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NFL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
New England Patriots wide receiver Randy Moss played against the New York Giants during the last Super Bowl. The Patriots re-signed Moss, a All-Pro receiver, to a three-year deal Monday that is worth $27 million.
BY JIMMY GOLEN ASSOCIATED PRESS
Patriots receiver stays loyal to team
The defending AFC champions re-signed the record-breaking receiver on Monday to a three-year deal worth $27 million, his agent said. The signing was confirmed by the team shortly after Moss posted a message to fans on his Web site.
BOSTON — Randy Moss is staying with the New England Patriots.
Moss' agent, Tim DiPiero, said the deal included guarantees of $15 million, including a $12 million signing bonus to the receiver who set an NFL record with 23 touchdown catches and helped the Patriots reach the Super Bowl in his first season with the team.
"I want to take time out to thank all of the fans for their support and for wishing me well in my return to New England," therealrandymoss. com quotes him as saying. "I'm ready to get back. We have some unfinished business to take care of."
Pairing Moss with NFL MVP Tom Brady, who broke the league record with 50 touchdown passes, the Patriots breezed through the regular season with a perfect 16-0 record. They improved to an unprecedented 18-0 before blowing a chance at the league's longest unbeaten season with a 17-14 Super Bowl loss to the New York Giants.
"Randy was serious about wanting to stay," DiPiero wrote in an e-mail. "Because of Randy's record-breaking year, the interest in him was very high. Randy took less than he could have to rejoin his teammates."
"What Randy did for our team last year was outstanding," Patriots coach Bill Belchick said in a statement. "He is one of our most consistent, competitive and team-oriented players and it is undoubtedly a relationship we are excited to continue."
A four-time All-Pro, Moss took a pay cut to get out of Oakland and come to New England last April in exchange for a fourth-round draft pick. In addition to his 23 touchdowns, he caught 98 passes for 1,493 yards and largely avoided the type of turmoil that characterized his previous NFL stops.
Moss, 31, has caught 774 passes for 12,193 yards in a 10-year career, and his 124 career receiving touchdowns are fourth in NFL history.
During seven years with Minnesota, where he made five Pro Bowls, he was fined $10,000 for pretending to pull down his pants and moon the Green Bay crowd during a Vikings playoff win, and drew criticism for leaving the field with 2 seconds left in a loss to Washington.
He also bumped a traffic control officer with his car in 2002, verbally abused corporate sponsors on a team bus in 2001 and squirted an official with a water bottle in 1999.
In Oakland, he openly campaigned to be traded to a winning team. With the Patriots, he avoided controversy until the playoffs, when a woman sought a restraining order against him, claiming that he committed "battery causing serious injury."
Moss denied the allegation and said the woman was trying to get money from him.
Also, Monday, the Patriots signed free agent receiver Sam Aiken.
The 27-year-old has played five seasons with the Buffalo Bills with 19 career receptions for 250 yards and 61 career special teams tackles.
"Competing against Sam many times over the years, we know first-hand what he brings to us," Belichick said.
NASCAR
LAS VEGAS — The celebration of Carl Edwards' second consecutive victory was short-lived: His winning Ford Fusion failed a postrace inspection at Las Vegas Motor Speedway that could lead to severe penalties for his team.
NASCAR officials discovered the lid was not on the oil tank box of his race-winning car and the parts are going back to North Carolina for further inspection.
BY JENNA FRYER ASSOCIATED PRESS
Infraction threatens Edward's stellar season
Just last month, five Nationwide Series crew chiefs were suspended for six races, finned $15,000 each and their drivers were docked 25 points apiece because their lids were simply loose.
Bob Osborne, crew chief for the No. 99 Ford, declined comment on NASCAR's discovery.
Edwards won for the second time in six days — he also won the rainpostponed event at California on Monday — and moved to the top of the points standings for the first time in his career.
But the infraction could spoil what's been a stellar start to the season for Edwards and that team.
He has a 21-point lead over Kyle Busch.
"We do this to win," Edwards said.
"Winning these races is the greatest.
To win in Vegas, Edwards had to overcome an early pit road penalty, escape NASCAR punishment on a second pit road mishap, then hold off a rusty Dale Earnhardt Jr. on a pair of late restarts Sunday.
For Edwards, it seemed like a return to his 2005 form, when he finished third in the series standings.
Winning a championship would be the ultimate. What we're trying to do is win the championship this year. That's our No. 1 goal."
It was the sixth victory for team owner Jack Roush in 11 races at Las Vegas, and it ended Jimmie Johnson's string of three straight wins in the desert.
"I think we are close to the form we were in 2005 when it seemed like a Roush Fenway car would win every week," Edwards said.
Edwards was penalized early in the race when one of his tires rolled away from the team during a pit stop.
He then caught a break when it happened a second time, escaping a penalty because NASCAR determined the tire broke free because a television cameraman shooting from inside the box interfered with the crew members.