Dein erstes Forum » or 1,000 yards. The mark is within reach with

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- Matt Crafton had the luxury of winning one NASCAR Truck Series championship just by starting the race and grabbed a second title by finishing in the back of the pack.Under the revamped Truck playoff system this season, Crafton just may have to win the race to win it all.Crafton, the 2013 and 2014 series champion, should be the favorite to win Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway in the first year of the Truck Chase format. The 40-year-old Crafton faces Johnny Sauter, Christopher Bell and Timothy Peters in the championship field. The first to finish out of the four contenders is the 2016 champion.Crafton, third in the standings last year, could have an edge because he won here last season, his first win on the 1.5-mile track. He has two wins this season and finished second and third in each of the last two Chase races.Crafton, in the No. 88 Toyota for ThorSport Racing, can join Jack Sprague for second on the career Truck series championship list with three. Ron Hornaday holds the series record with four titles.Crafton did not finish five races this season and likely wouldnt have competed for a championship under the old system.I wasnt a fan of (the Chase) at the start of 2016 when they said it, but now Im a big fan of it because Im getting to race for a championship, he said.Crafton and the other three championship drivers all caught a break when William Byron, who won six times and was the heavy championship favorite, blew an engine with 10 laps left at Phoenix and was eliminated.ThorSport Racing, owned by Duke and Rhonda Thorson, could use a championship as an emotional boost just months after a fire damaged much of the teams race shop in Sandusky, Ohio.The shop is not running at 100 percent. Its still not all there, Crafton said. I knew it was going to hurt us a little bit, but I didnt realize it was going to hurt it as bad as it did. It definitely put a damper on the way we ran because at that point we were just on a downward spiral.Yet, here are Crafton and ThorSport, resilient to the end.Crafton has remained content racing trucks as most of the rest of the field uses the series as the start of a methodical climb toward a Sprint Cup ride. He has one career Cup start, four in the second-tier Xfinity Series and 13 wins in 383 career Truck starts.Im very happy to finish my career out here, he said. I mean, yes, I would like to race the races in the Xfinity Series or run Cup races if I was on the right equipment. But if youre not going to be in the right equipment, youre not going to be able to contend to win. I really dont care to do it.He has the right equipment this year -- and the best accessory could be a championship trophy hoisted over his head.SAUTER FOR THE WINJoey Logano has paid attention to the Truck title race while pursuing his own NASCAR championship. His pick for series champ?Im a Johnny Sauter fan because hes awesome, Logano said.The 38-year-old Sauter had a career year driving the No. 21 Chevrolet for GMS Racing with three wins, 11 top-five finishes and a dominant run in the Chase. Sauter won back-to-back races in the No. 21 Chevrolet at Martinsville and Texas, and was runner-up last week at Phoenix. Sauter has three top fives, six top 10s and a 4.7 average finish over seven Chase races. He was second in the standings in 2011 and finished fourth in each of the past three years.Logano may think Sauter is the driver to beat. Sauter wont go that far.I dont ever consider myself the favorite, Sauter said. I feel really comfortable with where we are as an organization and as a team going into this race. But to say Im a favorite, that would not be doing ourselves a service.BELL TOLLS FOR TITLEBell, who has one win this season, drives the No. 4 Toyota for Kyle Busch Motorsports. Kyle Busch, the 2015 Cup champion, picked Bell to win the championship and but he may nail his prediction. The 21-year-old Bell shook off a slow start thanks to a pep talk from his championship owner.Bell recalled Busch telling him: Look, youve got great equipment. Youre a talented racecar driver. Everything will come together. You just got to stop trying to make it come together.Bell rebounded and reeled off top-10 finishes in seven of the last eight races.Do I consider myself the underdog? No, Bell said. Does everybody else? Probably. I think weve got everything it takes to be successful at Homestead. Our year has definitely not been the year that weve wanted. Weve only won one race. But were going to make it two after Friday.PETERED OUTPeters is the only championship driver without a win this season. Hes been steady with eight top-five finishes in the No. 17 Toyota for Red Horse Racing. The 36-year-old Peters has advanced this far with an underfunded team that has failed to sign a primary sponsor.Maybe tomorrow night we can cap off this big championship and attract the eyes of some sponsors and get it on our Tundra going forward in 2017, he said. Fake Flames Jerseys . -- PGA TOUR Canada member Steve Saunders took a three-stroke lead Saturday in the Web. Flames Jerseys 2021 .J. -- Pitcher Carl Pavano is retiring after 14 major league seasons. https://www.cheapflames.com/ . -- Team after team passed on Andre Ellington in the draft. Flames Jerseys 2020 . But what about the officials? Every sport has officials and they also have stories about hard work and sacrifice but their accomplishments are seldom recognized by anyone outside their inner circle. Calgary Flames Store . Shot outdoors against the stunning backdrop of Banff, Alta., the networks 30-minute original production airs tonight at 8pm et/5pm pt on TSN2. The four All-Star teams will play for $100,000 in prize money during TSNs annual skins game, airing live this weekend on TSN from The Fenlands Banff Recreation Centre. COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Both No. 10 Texas A&M and Mississippi will start backup quarterbacks on Saturday when they meet after Aggies starter Trevor Knight and Rebels starter Chad Kelly both suffered serious injuries last week.The Aggies will go with Jake Hubenak, who threw for 222 yards with two touchdowns and an interception after taking over after Knight injured his shoulder in a loss to Mississippi State on Saturday that knocked Texas A&M out of the College Football Playoff top four.For the most part Jake was effective in second half, coach Kevin Sumlin said. Eleven for 17 for a guy who had to go find his helmet to get in the game. Go run into a game like that, down two touchdowns on road, to give us an opportunity at the end of the game says a lot about him but also says a lot about communication between him and the offensive staff at that time. That will continue to get better.It will be the second career start for Hubenak , who got his first in A&Ms bowl game last season after both of the teams top quarterbacks transferred in December.The quarterback situation for Mississippi is a lot less clear with coach Hugh Freeze refusing to name a starter this week in the wake of Kellys season-ending knee injury.Freeze did say that freshman Jason Pellerin , who filled in for Kelly after he was injured, would get most of the snaps in practice this week.But he didnt rule out a variety of other options, including pulling the redshirt off highly touted recruit Shea Patterson or moving receiver Markell Pack or tight end Evan Engram to the position. Regardless of who gets the start, Freeze knows they wont be able to run the offense the same way they did with Kelly, who leads the SEC in yards passing a game.It would be crazy for us to expect to carry the whole playbook into this game, Freeze said.Some believe starting Patterson would be the right move, but to Freeze playing him wouldnt be an easy decision so late in the season.You have to look at the whole scenario for whats best for individuals and whats best for the team and how many games are left, and if you want his first start to be in front of 115,000 at A&M or the first game next year, Freeze said. You want to set a kid up for success, we obviously believe he is aa super talent, but those are all the kinds of things going on in your mind.ddddddddddddSome things to know about Mississippis game against Texas A&M:KIRKS WORKTexas A&M WR/PR Christian Kirk has returned three punts for touchdowns in the past two games to give the sophomore five in his career. Kirk returned two against New Mexico State two weeks ago and a third one last week at Mississippi State. If he returns one on Saturday he will become the third player in FBS history and first since 2013 to have a punt return touchdown in three straight games. Hes also one of Texas A&Ms top receivers with 61 receptions for 591 yards and seven touchdowns.BOWL STREAK IN JEOPARDYWith just four wins this season, the Rebels need to win two of their last three games to avoid ending a streak four straight bowl games. The last time they didnt qualify for a bowl game was in 2011, the year before Freeze took over.CHASING 1,000Texas A&Ms Trayveon Williams needs 196 yards rushing to become the first true freshman to rush for 1,000 yards. The mark is within reach with Williams averaging 89.33 yards a game. His best games came in consecutive weeks against Arkansas and Tennessee when he ran for 153 yards and a season-high 217.IN THE BACKFIELDThe Aggies are second in the nation with 83 tackles for losses. The group is led by defensive end Myles Garrett and Daeshon Hall who have 9 1/2 tackles for losses each. Claude George has 8 1/2 and three players have six each. Garrett leads the team with four sacks this season and needs two more to become the sixth player in SEC history with 30 career sacks.RUN DEFENSE WOESTexas A&M is focused on improving its run defense after allowing 365 yards rushing last week. It has been a problem all season and the Aggies are tied for 90th in the country, allowing 197.4 yards rushing a game.Doing what youre supposed to do and executing, that was an issue, Sumlin said. Why that is and what happened, we talked about it as a staff and as a team. That has been addressed schematically. Been addressed with our players ... were moving on.---More AP college football: www.collegefootball.ap.org ' ' '