Danica revived after quiet offseason

PHOENIX - Danica Patrick is planning to spend Super Bowl Sunday at home in Arizona, away from the hustle and bustle, not to mention the cold weather.

Sporting a Pittsburgh Steelers hat ? Bears fans can never pull for the Packers, ever ? she'll be surrounded by snacks and drinks, watching the game and those over-the-top commercials like everyone else.

Unlike everyone else, though, she'll see a familiar face on the screen looking back at her, one that makes her a little uncomfortable.

"I'm usually terribly embarrassed," Patrick said of her famously racy Super Bowl ads. "It's weird watching yourself on television a little bit."

Patrick is more comfortable with the ads now than she was before ? and the same could be said for her NASCAR career as she heads into her second season.

The first woman to win an IndyCar race, she was an established icon on the open-wheel circuit when, a year ago, she decided to give stock cars a try on a part-time basis.

Unfamiliar with the heavier, bulkier cars in the Nationwide circuit, Patrick went through a sometimes-difficult rookie season filled with back-of-the-pack finishes. Insisting she wasn't stretched too thin trying to run in two circuits, she kept plugging away in the Nationwide series, gaining comfort and confidence with each race.

Even though her average finish in 13 races was 28th, she closed strong, qualifying 14th before being wrecked with what appeared to be a Top-15 car in California and ending the season with a 19th at Homestead.

With Daytona, the first of her four opening Nationwide races, just a couple of weeks away, Patrick is ready to hit the gas again.

"I feel a lot more comfortable," she said. "I'm continuing to understand the limits of the car. I still have a lot to learn, it's still pretty new. I've got about a third of a season under my belt, but definitely better off than I was last year, so I'm looking forward to it."

Typically busy, even when she's not racing, Patrick had a relatively quiet offseason.

She shot three new commercials for GoDaddy.com with fitness guru Jillian Michaels and a new company spokesperson (a secret until Sunday), and helped an organization that raises awareness for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease reach its goal of getting 1 million people screened.

Other than that, Patrick didn't do a whole lot, using the time to relax and gear up for second two-circuit season.

"It's been a nice offseason," said Patrick, who's grandmother suffered from emphysema, one form of COPD. "I had a lot of months off last year from racing, but I was extremely busy. This year, I've had a lot of time off from racing, but I'm a lot more relaxed, I've had a lot more time to recover from the long season."

Now, it's time to hit the gas.

Patrick has a recent test session in stock cars and heads to media day at Daytona in about a week. After that, she'll race in the Nationwide opener on Daytona's new surface on Feb. 19, followed by stock races in Phoenix, Las Vegas and Bristol, where she'll get her first taste of short-track stock car racing.

After that, it's back to IndyCar, starting with the season-opener at St. Petersburg on March 27, followed by a few more Nationwide races that she'll announce later in the year.

The goal, on both circuits, is pretty simple: keep moving up the pack.

"In IndyCar, I want to win some races. I came close a few times last year and I'd like to change a couple of those second-place finishes into wins," said Patrick, who was 10th in the 2010 IndyCar standings. "In NASCAR, I just want to keep building on where we were last year."

Refreshed and relaxed, she's off to a good start.

___

Online:

www.DRIVE4COPD.com


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Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/41432544/ns/sports-motor_sports/

Willi Bertsch Wilf Billington Takeishi Araoka

FanHouse TV: The Cold, Hard Facts About Super Bowl XLV

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For the most part, football fans, the media and the players themselves have gotten used to some pretty nice climates over the past 44 Super Bowls. This week, it has been quite the contrary, with ice, snow and generally awful conditions in Dallas. FanHouse TV's David Whitley goes on location in search of the cold truth about Super Bowl weather.

 

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Source: http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2011/02/04/fanhouse-tv-the-cold-hard-facts-about-super-bowl-xlv/

Karel Bojer Karel Abrahám Juup Bosman

Cavaliers Tie NBA Losing Record at 23

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- The Cleveland Cavaliers matched the longest single-season losing streak in NBA history, dropping their 23rd straight with a 112-105 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night.

The Cavaliers tied the 1995-96 Grizzlies, then in Vancouver, and the 1997-98 Denver Nuggets. They can equal their own overall mark for futility with a loss in Saturday night's game at home against the Portland Trail Blazers.

Cleveland lost 24 straight games over the 1981-82 and 1982-83 seasons.

Zach Randolph had 29 points and 13 rebounds, Rudy Gay added 26 points and 11 boards, and the Grizzlies won their season-best fifth straight.

Mike Conley added 21 points and eight assists for Memphis, while Sam Young finished with 19 points, matching his season best.

J.J. Hickson matched his career high with 31 points and grabbed 15 rebounds. Ramon Sessions finished with 20 points, and Antawn Jamison scored 19 for Cleveland, which hasn't won since a Dec. 18 overtime victory over the New York Knicks.

Cleveland gave Memphis all it could handle through the first three quarters, but the Grizzlies put together 13 straight points to open the fourth en route to their eighth win in nine games.

The victory, coupled with Portland's 100-87 loss to Indiana, moved the Grizzlies into the eighth playoff spot in the Western Conference by a half-game.

 

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Source: http://nba.fanhouse.com/2011/02/04/cavaliers-tie-nba-losing-record-at-23/

Norman Black Norick Abe Nobuatsu Aoki

Barcelona, more crucial than ever

The magnificent Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona, which hosted the Olympic Games in 1992, is once again the setting for a battle. This time, the fight will be between the participants of the second event in the FIM Indoor Enduro World Championship, which will be Sunday 6th February. It is the 12th edition of the Indoor Enduro in Barcelona and the longest established in this new speciality.

The competition started in Genoa, Italy, and the position of the Finnish rider, Mika Ahola (HM-Honda), gives him a certain advantage over the rest of his rivals as the championship is somewhat shorter than initially programmed. Precisely for this reason, the other two riders who joined the winner of the first event on the podium, the Swedish rider Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberf) and the favourite and current champion Tadeusz Blazusiak (KTM), will be looking to reduce the six and eight points of advantage that Ahola holds in the general classification after his win in the PalaFiera in Genoa.

The Italian rider Thomas Oldrati (KTM) cannot be dismissed either, having performed very well to a home crowd, and is only one point behind Blazusiak. Oldrati is also one of the few who has managed to win a final heat in the Palau Sant Jordi. The name of Iván Cervantes (Gas Gas) must also be added to this list of names. The Catalan rider from Cambrils was not able to participate in Genoa due to a back injury, which he has now recovered from. He has few chances of the title, but this will in no way prevent him from wanting to win before his public.

Other riders to watch out for in this second FIM Indoor Enduro event are the champions David Knight (KTM) ? winner of the FIM Indoor Enduro World Cup 2008, and Juha Salminen (Husqvarna), the runner-up Christophe Nambotin (Gas Gas) and Cristóbal Guerrero (KTM), and, in addition, the fifth and sixth classified in the provisional, Graham Jarvis (Husaberg) and Alfredo Gómez (Husaberg),

The Indoor Enduro will be sharing the event, as in Genoa, with the Indoor Enduro X-trial. In this case it will be the third event in the 2011 SPEA FIM X-Trial World Indoor Championship, with Toni Bou leading. This weekend, the Palau Sant Jordi will see a total of 54 world titles in different disciplines meeting under the same roof.

The event will start at 17.30 on Sunday 6th February. The doors of the Palau Sant Jordi will open at 16.30. The next event in the FIM Indoor Enduro World Championship, the third and last in the competition, will be held in Lisbon (Portugal), on Saturday 5th March in the Restelo Stadium in the Portuguese capital.


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Source: http://www.fim-live.com//en/media/news/news-detail/article/1296667927-barcelona-more-crucial-than-ever/

Albert Beirle Artie Bell Carlos Bellon

Shane O'Brien Cools Jets in Nashville

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VANCOUVER -- Shane O'Brien can still be counted on for a good quote, but not necessarily a good time.

"It's a different Shane O'Brien," he said. "I'm waiting for the offseason to explore Nashville a little bit more."

He made the comments as the Predators visited Vancouver for his first game against the Canucks since they traded him at the start of this season. You could say the affable 27-year-old Port Hope, Ont., native, who developed a reputation for partying during two seasons as a Canuck, is trying to be a stay-at-home defenseman off the ice as well as on.

 

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Source: http://nhl.fanhouse.com/2011/01/27/shane-obrien-cools-jets-in-nashville/

Fernando Aranda Takeishi Araoka