CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR on Monday suspended Kurt Busch one week for verbally abusing a media member. NASCAR suspends Kurt Busch 1 weekend ADVERTISING CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR on Monday suspended Kurt Busch one week for verbally abusing a media
NASCAR suspends
Kurt Busch 1 weekend
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR on Monday suspended Kurt Busch one week for verbally abusing a media member.
NASCAR said Busch’s behavior after Saturday’s Nationwide Series race at Dover was in violation of the probation he was placed on after an incident last month at Darlington. Busch was fined $50,000 by NASCAR and placed on probation through July 25 for reckless driving on pit road, and a post-race altercation with Ryan Newman’s crew members.
That probation has now been extended through the end of the year.
Busch’s latest penalty stems from a confrontation with a Sporting News reporter after Saturday’s race. Contact on the track with Justin Allgaier led to a discussion on pit road after the race, and Busch was asked if being on probation impacted the way he raced Allgaier.
“It refrains me from not beating the (expletive) out of you right now because you ask me stupid questions. But since I’m on probation, I suppose that’s improper to say as well,” Busch replied.
The exchange was captured on video.
Astros take SS Carlos
Correa with No. 1 draft pick
SECAUCUS, N.J. — Carlos Correa was all smiles when he heard his name announced, knowing he had made hometown history at the baseball draft.
The Houston Astros selected the 17-year-old slugging shortstop with the No. 1 pick Monday night, making him the first player from Puerto Rico to lead off the draft.
“This means a lot,” Correa said from the draft site at MLB Network studios. “We’ve got a lot of good players there.”
Correa, however, is the only one to be drafted first from an island that has produced its share of baseball royalty: Roberto Clemente, Ivan Rodriguez, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, Juan Gonzalez, Bernie Williams. Some of those players signed as free agents — catcher Ramon Castro had been the highest-drafted player out of Puerto Rico, going No. 17 to Houston in 1994.
“I feel so excited to be the No. 1 pick,” said Correa, who was congratulated by Delgado on Twitter. “I’ve worked so hard to be here.”
It was the first time Houston had the top pick in the draft since 1992, when the Astros selected Phil Nevin — passing on a young shortstop named Derek Jeter, who went five spots later to the Yankees.
Jury selection to
begin in Sandusky trial
BELLEFONTE, Pa. — Picking 12 people to decide Jerry Sandusky’s fate in the child-molestation case that brought down coach Joe Paterno and scandalized Penn State could prove a monumental task in a county where practically everyone went to the university, works there, knows someone there or is a fan of the football team.
Jury selection is set to begin Tuesday in the case against Sandusky, the 68-year-old former assistant Penn State football coach accused of sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years. The proceedings will take place in Bellefonte, about 10 miles from State College, home of the university.
The prosecution and defense will have to find jurors who say under oath they can be impartial — potentially a tall order given the extraordinarily heavy news coverage of the scandal, the area’s strong connections to Penn State, and the wide reach of the youth charity Sandusky ran.
Whether those Penn State ties work to the advantage of the defense or the prosecution remains to be seen.
Prosecutors, though, were so concerned that they asked Judge John Cleland to bring in prospective jurors from another county.
Rep. Issa won’t have
to testify in Clemens trial
WASHINGTON — The judge in the Roger Clemens perjury trial ruled Monday that defense lawyers can’t call Rep. Darrell Issa as a witness.
Issa is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the panel that Clemens allegedly lied to in 2008 when he denied taking performance-enhancing drugs.
Issa, a California Republican, wasn’t chairman at the time, and he had criticized the committee for holding the hearing on drugs in baseball. Defense lawyers hoped his testimony would help call into question the hearing’s legitimacy, and sent a subpoena to the committee to try to compel his appearance as a witness.
Sooners beat Alabama 4-1
in Game 1 of WCWS finals
OKLAHOMA CITY — Jessica Shults got to the Women’s College World Series once before. An illness kept her from being the power-hitting, run-producing menace Oklahoma knows her to be.
Given a second chance, Shults is showing how much damage she can do.
Shults drove in two runs, Keilani Ricketts struck out 12 in a five-hitter, and the Sooners beat Alabama 4-1 on Monday night in Game 1 of the Women’s College World Series finals.
By wire sources
