CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR is replacing the complicated scoring system it has used since 1975 with a simplified format for the 2011 season.
A race winner will receive 43 points under the new system, and the points will decrease down to one for the 43rd-place driver. There will be three bonus points for the winner, one bonus point for every driver who leads a lap, and one bonus point to the driver who leads the most laps. The maximum points available now will be 48.
“Now everyone will know, when a driver is down by 10 points, that he needs to pass 11 more cars to take the lead in the point standings,” chairman Brian France said Wednesday.
NASCAR also tweaked the eligibility requirements for the 12-driver Chase for the Sprint Cup championship field. The top 10 in points after the 26th race of the season will make the Chase field, while the final two spots will be “wild cards” designated for the highest race winners not already eligible. The wild cards will only go to drivers ranked inside the top 20 in points.
Muscle malady hits Hawkeyes
IOWA CITY, Iowa — The University of Iowa said 13 football players had to be hospitalized this week with a muscle disorder following grueling offseason workouts that left them with extreme soreness and discolored urine.
The players have rhabdomyolysis, a stress-induced syndrome that can damage cells and cause kidney damage and even failure in severe cases, school spokesman Tom Moore said two days after players were hospitalized at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
School officials said the players, whom they would not identify, were in stable condition and responding well to treatment, which includes bed rest and the administration of hydrating fluids. Moore said he did not know when the players would be discharged.
Contador facing one-year ban
MADRID — Spanish cycling officials want three-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador banned for one year for failing a 2010 Tour doping test. If banned, Contador would lose his third Tour title because of the positive clenbuterol result he blames on contaminated meat. The Spanish cyclist also would be ineligible to compete in this year’s Tour.
Contador has 10 days to challenge the one-year proposal by presenting new evidence or material, according to Spanish federation rules. After that, the four-person disciplinary committee will reconvene to decide Contador’s fate.
Footnotes.
Former Cy Young Award winner Bartolo Colon, out of the major leagues since 2009, agreed to a minor-league contract with the New York Yankees.
• A body pulled from the Mississippi River has been tentatively identified as Brian Reed, the 28-year-old brother of Baltimore Ravens safety Ed Reed who jumped into the river after an encounter with a sheriff’s deputy.
• Double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius lost to American Jerome Singleton in a 100-meter Paralympic race at the world championships in Christchurch, New Zealand — the South African’s first loss in seven years.
The Associated Press
