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Mears still makes the Daytona 500

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Casey Mears spun on pit road, got briefly stuck in the infield grass and missed a last-lap crash by mere inches. After all that, he finished eighth a qualifying race Thursday night for the Daytona 500, good enough to get him into “The Great American Race.” Mears choked back tears three separate times after squeezing into the 41-car field as the highest-finishing “open” car in the first of two 150-mile qualifying races. “I was worried when we got stuck. I was worried about going two laps down,” Mears said. “Actually got on the radio and asked ...

Puck drops with NHL players

MILAN (AP) — Martin Fehervary was still catching his breath. Fresh off the ice from playing in the first men’s hockey game at the Milan Cortina Olympics, the defenseman from Slovakia knew he wasn’t in North America anymore. “The pace of the game was really fast,” Fehervary said. “I felt like it was even faster than in the NHL.” The return of the best players in the world to the Olympics got off to a frantic, fast-paced start Wednesday when Slovakia upset Finland in the first of 30 games in the tournament that will conclude with the gold medal final on Feb. 22. The NHL ...

Busch grabs Daytona 500 pole

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Kyle Busch won the pole for NASCAR’s season-opening Daytona 500 to give the driver with the longest active losing streak in “The Great American Race” a shot at the victory that has escaped him his entire career. Busch is 0-for-20 in the Daytona 500 and hasn’t started in the top five since 2016, when he still drove for Joe Gibbs Racing. He started fourth and finished third that year, then was a career-best second to then-teammate Denny Hamlin in 2019. “Kyle, we’ve got to get him this 500,” said team owner Richard Childress. No driver has ...

No tickets left for Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — William Byron will try to win his third straight Daytona 500 on Sunday in front of a sellout crowd. Daytona International Speedway announced Wednesday that all reserved grandstand seats have been purchased for the 68th running of “The Great American Race.” Though grandstand tickets and camping are sold out for Sunday’s marquee event, limited upgrades and premium packages are still available. More than 100,000 fans are expected to pack Daytona. Byron won last year’s event in overtime after race leader Denny Hamlin got spun on the final lap, ...

SPORTS BRIEFING

Final Watson lawsuits dismissed HOUSTON (AP) — The final two of nearly 30 civil lawsuits that Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson had faced from women accusing him of sexual misconduct have been dismissed, according to court records. The dismissal of these two lawsuits clears Watson of legal problems he had been facing since 2021 after 27 women came forward and accused him in court filings in Texas of exposing himself, touching them with his genitals or kissing them against their will, mostly during massage appointments. Some of the women alleged Watson, 30, forced them ...