Andanh.com

The only three ways Saturday goes better for Wichita State: • LSU is retroactively stripped of all College World Series titles. • Ehimen Orukpe throws out the first pitch.

• Bill Parcells is named Shocker football coach.

Beyond those stars aligning, Saturday unfolded like a dream. The 22nd-ranked Shockers run-ruled Bradley 21-5 in seven innings of get-your-head-right baseball at Eck Stadium.

The win wrapped up WSU's 19th Missouri Valley Conference title and its first back-to-back titles since 1999-2000. Missouri State's 10-5 loss at Northern Iowa means the Shockers are undisputed champions and secure the N 1 seed in the MVC Tournament this week at home. MSU, which won the first two games of its series to keep pace with WSU, finishes one game back for the No. 2 seed.

"It was definitely something we needed," WSU designated hitter Clinton McKeever said. "It was a perfect way to end the regular season and get some momentum going into the postseason."

The standout made them stand up.

As Jamie Bruce climbed to the top of the medal stand for the final time as a individual, the crowd gave the Wichita Trinity senior a standing ovation. It's one Bruce certainly deserved, yet still caught her off guard.

"That was pretty exciting, but I was very surprised about that," Bruce said. "I wasn't expecting that. I'm definitely going to miss this."

It was a sentimental and sensational farewell for Bruce, who finished her career as one of the state's greats Saturday at the high school swimming and diving championships. For the fourth straight year, Bruce captured state titles in the 200-yard individual medley and 100-yard breaststroke, giving her eight individual golds in her career.

Only two other swimmers in state history have won as many -- Jamie's older sister, Caroline (2001-04), and Manhattan's Amy Oberhelman (1991-94).

Not once but twice, jockey Kent Desormeaux sneaked a peak to see if anyone was gaining on Big Brown.

"I looked between my legs, under my arms, and they were eight (lengths) behind me," Desormeaux said. "I stopped pushing. I said, 'That's enough."'

His big bay colt ran away with the Preakness on Saturday and now is pointed squarely down the path toward the Triple Crown.

The 3-year-old with the perfect record heads for the Belmont Stakes in three weeks as the fourth horse this decade to try for the triple, a sweep last accomplished by Affirmed in 1978. The last to try was Smarty Jones in 2004.

"Wow is all I can say," Steve Cauthen, who rode Affirmed, said by telephone from Kentucky. "He looks pretty special. It was like a cakewalk for him. The important thing to me is he keeps passing all the tests."

The Boston Celtics can drive by the statue of Red Auerbach on their way to work today, pick up some lunch at Faneuil Hall and then warm up under the 16 NBA championship banners their predecessors helped hang from the rafters.

They're back home again, and that's been the surest sign of success for them so far in this year's playoffs.

"We're right where we want to be: We've got an opportunity to advance to the Eastern Conference finals," forward Paul Pierce said Saturday after the Celtics held a short walkthrough followed by a long series of semi-friendly games of one-on-one.

"This is the reason we got the best record in the NBA for," Pierce said. "We've got to play one more great game in order to advance."

The Celtics will host Cleveland in the decisive game of their best-of-seven series today at the new Boston Garden, where the green team has yet to lose in the postseason.

If good hitting goes in cycles, then Wichita State can consider itself on an upswing in more ways than one. Three days after it happened, the Shockers can call a scoreless effort against Oral Roberts a distant memory. Shortstop Dusty Coleman turned a mistake into the first step toward a history-making evening, hitting for the cycle in WSU's 9-3 win over Bradley Friday night at Eck Stadium. Coleman's cycle was the Shockers' first since Doug Mirabelli did it in 1992.

The Shockers have responded to the season's low-point, a 12-0 loss on Wednesday, by posting 19 runs in the first two games against Bradley. Coleman led the charge Friday, driving in five runs and collecting extra-base hits in WSU's three-run sixth and eighth innings.

"It felt good to get some runners across home plate and boost our confidence to be playing well going into the conference tournament," Coleman said.

WSU enters today's regular-season finale needing a win to clinch at least a tie with Missouri State for the Missouri Valley Conference championship and the No. 1 seed in next week's conference tourney. A win and an MSU loss to Northern Iowa would give the Shockers the outright title.

Friday's game, and Coleman's performance, could have turned out much different if Coleman could have appeased coach Gene Stephenson by laying down a sacrifice bunt following Clinton McKeever's single in the bottom of the second inning.

Regardless of the outcome of an investigation into allegations that Kansas forward Darrell Arthur's high school grades were improperly changed, a KU official doesn't see it impacting the Jayhawks or Arthur.

Associate athletic director Jim Marchiony noted Friday that the NCAA's Eligibility Center cleared Arthur's transcript from Dallas South Oak Cliff High prior to him enrolling at KU in 2006.

"I can't see this affecting Kansas or Darrell Arthur," Marchiony said. "The school sent his transcript to the clearinghouse, and they approved it."

After helping the Jayhawks win the national title this past season, Arthur declared for the upcoming NBA Draft and isn't expected to return to KU.

Dallas TV station WFAA reported Thursday night that Arthur had grades changed in September 2005 and should not have been eligible to play on South Oak Cliff's state championship team during his senior year.

Thursday's Results

Evansville at Southern Illinois, ppd., rain

Missouri State 12, Northern Iowa 2

Illinois State at Indiana State, ppd., rain

A blustery day at Busch Stadium made the ballpark seem a whole lot smaller. In the end, the wind was blowing the St. Louis Cardinals' way.

Ryan Ludwick got plenty of carry on his game-winning drive off Dan Wheeler in the 10th inning of the St. Louis Cardinals' 9-8 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday.

"I'm sitting on slider, he threw it and I hit it kind of straight up in the air," Ludwick said. "But I knew the wind was blowing out pretty good, and I got lucky.

"It got out of the ballpark and thank goodness, it's a 'W."'

Center fielder B.J. Upton may have jammed his shoulder at the wall, grabbing it after coming down empty, but manager Joe Maddon said he was OK.

Enter the usual suspects. The Houston Astros have joined the St. Louis Cardinals as surprise guests near the top of the National League Central.

Credit goes to Lance Berkman and a thunderous lineup, which will be challenged to overcome mediocre pitching if the Astros are to show staying power.

While teams such as Tampa Bay and Florida have gotten more headlines, the Astros entered the weekend having gone 18-6 since April 20. They had moved from six games below .500 to six above, averaging 5.9 runs per game during the turnaround.

This was the style of winning that first-year general manager Ed Wade envisioned when he added Miguel Tejada to a lineup that already included Carlos Lee and Berkman. But who could have pictured the way Berkman has hit?

Entering the weekend, the 32-year-old first baseman was second in the majors with a .391 average and leading the majors in home runs (15), doubles (16) and slugging percentage. He had driven in 43 runs, more than anyone except Texas' Josh Hamilton (44).

Filling a roster for an independent league team, especially one in its first season, incorporates a number of methods.

There is some luck involved. If Dustan Mohr wasn't a friend and former teammate of Kevin Hooper, the Wingnuts likely wouldn't be the employer of Mohr, who spent much of the previous seven seasons in the major leagues.

Word of mouth is another important aspect. Especially so for the Wingnuts, whose manager, Kash Beauchamp, is a veteran of independent baseball and a favorite of many players at that level.

"I took a massive pay cut to come here because of Kash Beauchamp, and it's worth every penny," Wichita closer Byron Embry said.

But one method that has worked especially well for the Wingnuts is finding players in tryout camps. The team held two in Wichita in addition to the league-wide camp in Fort Worth during the offseason.

Billy Munoz, Brandon Carter and Paul Bartolucci each drove in two runs Saturday to lead the Grand Prairie AirHogs to a 7-2 victory over the Wingnuts in Grand Prairie, Texas.

The AirHogs (2-6) roughed up Wichita starter Demetri White for seven runs, ending his night with one out in the third. Grand Prairie scored four runs on four hits in the second inning and added three runs in the third.

Michael Thompson hit a solo home run for the Wingnuts, his second of the season. Chris Colton drove in the other run for Wichita, which finished with six hits.

The teams play the finale of the three-game series at 7:05 p.m. today.

The Wichita Wingnuts won their second straight road game Friday, knocking off the Grand Prairie (Texas) Airhogs 4-2 on Friday night.

Gustavo Mata allowed two runs in 6 1/3 innings to pick up the victory for the Wingnuts. Aaron Jenkins pitched the rest of the seventh and all of the eighth while Byron Embry pitched a scoreless ninth to record the save.

Brenan Herrera had two hits and an RBI for Wichita, Michael Thompson extended his hitting streak to nine games and Kevin Hooper added an RBI in the ninth.

The Winguts play today and Sunday at Grand Prairie before rertuing to Wichita on Monday for a four-game homestand against the Fort Worth Cats.

Wichita State's men's track team has a 12 ½-point lead over Northern Iowa heading into the final day of the Missouri Valley Conference track and field championships in Carbondale, Ill.

Though the Shockers had no individual champions Saturday, they got a second-place finish from senior DePaul Brewer in the shot put and second from freshman Josh Crawford in the long jump.

WSU hopes to get points today from sophomore Justin Smith, who qualified for today's 100 and 200 finals after Saturday's preliminaries. Teammates Luther Wilson and Cooper Hanning qualified in the 400 hurdles.

The WSU women are in the fourth place heading into the final day, trailing UNI, Southern Illinois and Illinois State.

Senior Mica Land, from Andover, won the 3,000 steeplechase in a time of 10:19.31 that was more than 12 seconds better than second place.

Saturday's box score

New look

Fans no longer need a decoder ring to decipher the MVC baseball tournament. The new bracket, still with six teams, is easier to follow this season.

The tournament starts Wednesday at Eck Stadium, and two changes are important. The top two seeds receive byes and don't play until Thursday. There are three games Wednesday, with the first two losers playing an elimination game that night.

Thursday, the top seed plays the lowest seeded winning team. The second seed gets the highest-seeded winner.

Wichita State pitcher Max Hutson is already prepared for the inevitable teasing next season. When you're a fifth-year senior, nicknames like "Gramps" are a guarantee.

"I'm going to be playing with guys that were born in 1990," he said. "It will be eye-opening, I think. It will be neat to be the old guy that can maybe guide the young guys along."

Hutson, who turns 23 in August, is sitting out this season to rehab July surgery on the ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow. He blew it out in the fourth inning of his first start for the summer-league Waterloo (Iowa) Bucks in late June in Battle Creek, Mich.

"Worst baseball pain I've ever felt," he said.

As the Shockers enter the final weeks of their season, Hutson is making big steps in his recovery. He threw his first bullpen session Tuesday and a second Thursday.

Wichita State's Kyle Becker and Erica Evans won the men's and women's javelin events Friday at the Missouri Valley Conference track and field meet in Carbondale, Ill.

Both athletes were defending MVC champions.

Becker, a senior from Derby, had a winning throw of 222 feet, 1 inch -- 15 inches better than second-place Marcin Kazubowski of Northern Iowa. WSU freshman Brett Trudo finished third, and five Shockers finishes among the top eight.

Evans' winning throw of 144-2 put her three feet ahead of her nearest competitor.

Northern Iowa's Matt Clark took the first-day lead in the decathlon with 4,082 point. Wichita State's Krzysztof Slupkowski, Justin Taylor and Chris Dickman were with 300 points of the leader, as was UNI's Raven Cepeda.

Wichita State fell 13 strokes short in its bid to reach the NCAA Men's Golf Championships on Saturday, tying for 19th in the 27-team Central Regional at Columbus, Ohio.

Wake Forest won the 54-hole tournament with a score of 879, two shots ahead of Big 12 champion Oklahoma State. The Shockers, who shot 312 in the final round, ended at 914.

Senior Ryan Spears tied for 20th individually to lead the Shockers. Spears carded a 77 on Saturday and finished at 11-over-par 224 on Ohio State's par-71 Scarlet Course.

Sophomores Connor McHenry and Dustin Garza tied for 52nd at 227. Junior Zac Potter (236) tied for 119th and junior Ty Sanders (242) tied for 130th.

The top 10 teams earned berths in the NCAA national tournament, scheduled for May 28-31 in West Lafayette, Ind. Joining Wake Forest and O-State were Illinois, Florida, Louisville, Alabama, Texas A&M, Kent State, Penn State and Indiana.

Charles Howell III shot a 5-under 67 on Saturday to take a one-stroke lead over Kenny Perry into the final round of the AT&T Classic at Duluth, Ga.

An Augusta native seeking his third PGA Tour victory and first since the 2007 Nissan Open, Howell had a 13-under 203 total at TPC Sugarloaf.

Perry shot a 69. David Toms (69), Ryan Palmer (70) and second-round leader Jonathan Byrd (73) were two strokes back at 11 under.

With storms expected this afternoon, the players will tee off in threesomes, starting on both the first and 10th holes. Howell, Perry and Toms are set for 9:15 a.m. on No. 1.

"It will be different," Howell said. "It's not the normal twosomes later in the day. From what I understand, it's going to be quite windy. This golf course is really tough in the wind. There's a lot of risk-reward out here. A lot of it."

As part of a $350 million package, athletic upgrades are intended to put the district on par with suburbs

Every so often before tennis practice begins at Southeast High School, a maintenance worker saws off the steel rebar that pushes through the court's surface. "It's from when the concrete was poured in the 1950s," Southeast athletic director Mark Lamb said. "It's one of the reasons we don't host any meets." Such disrepair is common for the Wichita school district's athletic facilities.

The school board plans to ask voters by Nov. 4 to pass a proposed $350 million bond issue -- one that, if passed, would fix many of those problems at the high schools and middle schools.

About 23 percent of the money is slated for athletics. Voters will have to decide whether they consider playing fields and physical education facilities a luxury, or a necessity to keep pace with suburban schools.

"If we want to compete for all the people who move into south-central Kansas, it would be a huge asset to upgrade facilities," said Winston Brooks, Wichita's outgoing superintendent, who will lead the Albuquerque school district starting in July. "It improves property values and pride in the community."

Less than a year ago, Michael Foxworthy was ready to drop out of South High School.

He didn't see any reason to continue going to classes. He wondered why he was wasting his time.

"I just didn't care anymore," he said.

But he will graduate Tuesday. He wants to study fire science and engineering in college. He hopes to become a firefighter.

Foxworthy, a wrestler, said the only reason he stayed in school was for sports.

Most voice mail greetings are generic in explaining why someone's not answering the phone. Not Diandra Milliner's. Hers is dead on.

Milliner, 15, won the USA Gymnastics all-around regional championship at Wichita State on April 18. Today, the Maize freshman competes in the national championships in Kissimmee, Fla.

"It's really exciting. I just love to compete, especially against the top competition," Milliner said.

"I've practiced really hard to get to this point. You have to if you want to do well."

It's not hard to understand why her cell phone's voice mail says she's busy at practice. Milliner has been on a roll since the calendar hit 2008.

As Wichita pursues a proposed $350 million bond issue to be put before voters by November, one of the cases the district has made is that its athletic facilities don't measure up to those at suburban schools.

Northwest High School's gymnasium and South High's Carpenter Stadium were two of the crown jewels of the district's 1974 bond issue, providing seating for more spectators than similar structures in the area.

Each is more than 30 years old now, and Carpenter Stadium is showing its age, with cracks in the concrete base of the north bleachers.

Meanwhile, Goddard's gymnasium is set below ground and seats 2,000, with room for more. The auxiliary gym is adjacent to the main gym and elevated. Its bleachers can be turned around to face the main gym, adding 750 seats.

Rose Hill recently built a new gym, even though its previous gym was built in 1995. Andover is opening a new gym, replacing one that was built in 1981.

At Hummer Sports Complex, Topeka

Team scores -- BV Northwest 226, Lawrence Free State 208, Olathe Northwest 200, BV North 195, SM East 171, St. Thomas Aquinas 163 ½, Wichita Trinity 135, Wichita North 115 ½, Derby 114, SM West 109, Olathe East 94.5, SM Northwest 77, Wichita Northwest 62, Lawrence 51, Wichita Heights 47, Topeka West 40, Hutchinson 40, Manhattan 32, Newton 31, Wichita Southeast 25, Bishop Miege 23 ½, Olathe South 23, El Dorado 21, BV West 20, Maize 18, Winfield 15, Parsons 14, Wichita Independent 12, Blue Valley 12, Wichita East 8, Salina Central 7, Campus 4, Seaman 4, Andover Central 3, Kapaun Mount Carmel 3, Emporia 1.

Individual results

200 medley relay

Finals -- 1. Lawrence Free State (Molly Albrecht, Reilly Moore, Chloe Portela, Morgan Flannigan), 1:47.40 (record; old: 1:48.49; Trinity Academy, 2004); 2. Olathe Northwest, 1:49.43; 3. BV North, 1:50.25; 4. Wichita Trinity (Kelsey Allen, Jamie Bruce, Rebecca Swank, Jennica Lee), 1:51.25; 5. Wichita North (Elizabeth Strother, Kelsey Kraemer, Juliann Vignatelli, McKenzie Strother), 1:51.65; 6. Derby (Paige Thoman, Rose Mayo, Lisa Lunkenheimer, Stephanie Payne), 1:52.08; 7. SM East, 1:52.45; 8. SM West, 1:54.24. Consolation -- 9. Olathe East, 1:54.42; 10. Wichita Heights (Bailey Beins, Jama Glenn, Lauren Stucky, Tatjana Bruederer), 1:55.77; 11. Lawrence, 1:56.03; 12. Hutchinson (Chelsea Morey, Jordan Bever, Sarah Hooker, Becca Page), 1:56.07; 13. Wichita Northwest (Jill McPherron, Nikki Daniels, Kara Aaby, Amanda Atkins), 1:56.32; 14. BV Northwest, 1:56.75; 15. Bishop Miege, 1:58.52; 16. BV West, 2:00.73.

Track and Field

Regional Team Scores

Boys

Class 6A

Maize--Dodge City 136, Maize 111, Goddard 85, Garden City 85, W. Northwest 83, Campus 48, Wichita North 8, Wichita South 1.

Baseball

Class 6A

At Hummer Sports Complex, Topeka

Friday--Lawrence (11-10) vs. Lawrence Free State (19-2) 11 a.m.; Blue Valley (16-6) vs. Wichita North (18-4), 1:30 p.m.; Shawnee Mission South (11-9) vs. Goddard (19-3), 4; Shawnee Mission West (15-6) vs. Maize (19-3), 6:30.

Saturday--Blue Valley-W. North winner vs. Lawrence-Lawrence Free State winner, 10 a.m.; SM West-Maize winner vs. SM South-Goddard winner, 12:30 p.m.; third place, 3; championship, 5:30.

CLASS 6A

Regional sites: Maize (M), Olathe North (O), SM North (S), Topeka (T)

Boys

100

CLASS 5A

Regional sites: Emporia State (E), KC Washington (K), Newton (N), Shawnee Mill Valley (S)

Boys

100

CLASS 4A

Regional sites: Colby (B), Coffeyville (F), Ottawa (O), Wamego (W)

Boys

100

CLASS 3A

Regional sites: Baxter Springs (B), Lakin (L), Marion (M), Rock Creek (R)

Boys

100

CLASS 2A

Regional sites: Hill City (H), Pleasanton (L), Pretty Prairie (P), Washington (W)

Boys

100

CLASS 1A

Regional sites: Hays (H), Madison (M), Rock Hills (R), South Gray (S)

Boys

100

When Katie Porter gets mad, the Goddard senior has found a productive way of taking out her anger.

For the past two years Porter's frustrations have helped rewrite the Goddard record books in the long and triple jumps. Porter broke her own long jump record Friday night at the Class 6A track regional at Maize, winning the event by eight inches with a jump of 18 feet.

"I just warmed up good," Porter said. "I got really mad before I jump. I just get really mad before I jump."

Porter won the triple jump event with a leap of 36-3 ¼ and also qualified for the state meet in the 1600 relay. Porter played a large role in helping the Lions finish second as a team, nine points behind winner Dodge City.

"She's just gone above and beyond my expectations," Goddard coach Brian Wetta said. "I think (Porter's long jump mark) will be there for a long time. Just a fantastic jump. She pours her heart and soul into everything she does for this team."

It's not an impossible challenge that awaits Nikki Daniels today at the girls state swimming and diving championships.

It just seems that way.

"Oh my god, it will be awfully difficult," Northwest's Daniels said of the prospect of trying to knock off Wichita Trinity's Jamie Bruce in today's 100-yard breaststroke finals at the Capitol Federal Natatorium.

"She got in the 1:03s today! I'll have to cut a lot of time to get down there."

But Daniels, a freshman, isn't going to totally rule herself out. After all, in Friday's preliminaries she did something that had eluded her all year long. Daniels hit an All-American time in winning her heat in 1 minute, 5.36 seconds -- .02 seconds under the required mark.

Bishop Carroll's girls track team had its eyes on a Class 5A regional championship Friday, but came up short.

Carroll had a shot at the team title entering the final event, the 1600-meter relay. The Eagles came into the event with the best time -- but Emporia cut seven seconds off its fastest time, winning the race and the regional title.

Emporia took the team title with 128 points -- Carroll was second with 125. Kapaun Mount Carmel finished third with 93 points.

"I knew Emporia was a good team, but we came out and had a good meet," said Carroll coach Ran Nielsen. "We had a good meet last week and we really picked it up where we left off today."

He said five Carroll athletes had personal bests on Friday -- Desiree Wilson improved four inches in the high jump and won the regional by clearing 5-2.

Baseball

Class 6A

May 23-24

At Hummer Sports Complex, Topeka

Friday--Lawrence (11-10) vs. Lawrence Free State (19-2) 11 a.m.; Blue Valley (16-6) vs. Wichita North (18-4), 1:30 p.m.; Shawnee Mission South (11-9) vs. Goddard (19-3), 4; Shawnee Mission West (15-6) vs. Maize (19-3), 6:30.

State meet

Friday's preliminary results

200 medley relay

Final -- 1. Lawrence Free State, 1:49.08; 2. BV North, 1:50.35; 3. Olathe Northwest, 1:50.37; 4. Wichita Trinity, 1:50.84; 5. Wichita North, 1:51.86; 6. SM East, 1:52.10; 7. SM West, 1:52.87; 8. Derby, 1:53.28.

Consolation -- 9. Olathe East, 1:54.77; 10. Wichita Northwest, 1:55.49; 11. Wichita Heights, 1:55.76; 12. Hutchinson, 1:56.09; 13. BV Northwest, 1:56.22; 14. Bishop Miege, 1:57.92; 15. Lawrence, 1:58.24; 16. BV West, 1:59.93.

The results are in from a busy Friday night around the state. Each of the 24 sites are accounted for and posted to the right. To look at all the qualifiers in each event per class click on those links. Athletes are listed in order of qualifying times, marks and distances in each event. The state track and field meet starts Friday at Wichita State's Cessna Stadium.

Kasey Kahne technically wasn't eligible to run the All-Star race. He didn't let that stop him from stealing the $1 million prize.

Kahne earned his berth in Saturday night's show not through accomplishment on the track, but in a popularity contest that permitted one driver voted on by the fans to compete in the main event.

It gave Kahne a chance to run in the 100-lap shootout, which was intermittently dominated by Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

With a gamble on the final pit stop, Kahne put the field in his rearview mirror to become the first driver ever voted in by the fans to win, and just the third driver in All-Star history to advance from the preliminary race and claim the final trophy at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

"I thank them so much. I can't believe it. The car was mediocre in the open and the fans voted me in," said Kahne, who finished fifth in the Sprint Showdown.

For Graham Rahal, driving in the Indianapolis 500 has been an almost lifelong ambition.

The son of 1986 Indy winner and IRL IndyCar Series team owner Bobby Rahal has been coming to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway since he was a small child, and he has visualized himself in a car on the famed 2 ½-mile oval many, many times.

If finally happened this year, thanks to the unification of the two American open-wheel series, and the 19-year-old Rahal has taken full advantage.

He was among 22 drivers who qualified Saturday, filling the 33-car field for the May 25 race.

"I really wanted to race here last year," said Rahal, who drove in the now-defunct Champ Car World Series in 2007 for eight-time champion Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing. "Last year, I was here with Carl (Haas) and Mike (Lanigan), up in Mike's suite. I was trying to convince them to run a car with my dad this year.

After slamming into the wall at about 185 miles an hour at Texas Motor Speedway in April, in a trajectory eerily similar to the wreck that killed Dale Earnhardt in 2001, rookie Michael McDowell's No. 00 Toyota barrel-rolled over and over down the track.

But McDowell never lost consciousness.

"I knew the whole time I was all right," McDowell said Thursday in a telephone interview. Indeed, after crashing during qualifying, he drove in the Sprint Cup race on April 6 and finished 33rd.

That is how far NASCAR has come in protecting drivers during violent wrecks -- from safer cars and equipment to Steel and Foam Energy Reduction (SAFER) barriers, also known as soft walls. But as Jeff Gordon showed in a crash at Las Vegas in March, NASCAR and the racetracks where it competes apparently have not gone far enough.

Seven years after the death of Earnhardt, the sport's seven-time champion, who died in a crash on the final lap of the Daytona 500, safety remains a work in progress. Lowe's Motor Speedway, for example, recently completed 340 feet of Safer barriers along its backstretch in advance of Saturday's All-Star Race and the Coca-Cola 600 next Sunday. Track officials are looking at improving other areas at Lowe's as well. The barriers, which cost $300 to $350 per foot, absorb energy in a crash.

Kyle Busch needed an inch, and big brother wouldn't give it to him.

The result?

Two cars in the wall and a family feud that lasted the rest of the year.

That wreck in the final segment of last year's All-Star race nearly destroyed the relationship between Kurt and Kyle Busch. They hardly spoke to each other for almost seven months.

They put aside their differences at a Christmas gathering that started with an edge but ended with the brothers teaming to win the championship round of "Pictionary."