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Earnhardt, who has won NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver award a record 14 consecutive years, tweeted what appeared to be his response to racing’s sudden involvement in a national debate around protests during the playing or singing of the national anthem at sporting events. Tweeted Junior: “All Americans R granted rights 2 peaceful protests … Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable-JFK.” PHOTOS: National anthem moments around NFL...

The right main landing gear had collapsed and the Earnhardts, along with their family dog and two pilots, kept moving past the runway, onto an area of open grass, through a chain-link fence and up an embankment, before finally coming to a fiery stop on the edge of Tennessee Highway 91. “[It’s] something you will never be able to forget,” Earnhardt Jr. said at a press conference ahead of the Daytona 500....

The award is voted on by a panel of 17 American motorsports journalists and covers all forms of racing. MORE: Harvick son celebrates | McMurray: NASCAR went too far with fines | Montoya to return Earnhardt is off to a fast start, winning NASCAR’s biggest race and scoring five top-five and six top-10 finishes in the first nine races. He is fifth in the Sprint Cup standings, 32 points behind leader Jeff Gordon....

Earnhardt was leading when the race was red-flagged because of rain and was declared the winner just after 11:40 p.m. ET. Kevin Harvick finished second, followed by Joey Logano, Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson. MORE: 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup winners The bigger story, though, was the four drivers who advanced to the championship race next week at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and the four who didn’t. Jeff Gordon, who finished sixth, was already in the championship race by virtue of his win two weeks ago at Martinsville....

In reply, India were also doing relatively well, with Virender Sehwag blasting his way to a century. Steyn, though, was doing everything in his power to keep the hosts in check. The fast bowler, before his spell in the 3rd session on Day 3, had accounted for Murali Vijay and Sachin Tendulkar. More impressively, he had done so in a manner plenty felt was not possible on a pitch that resembled more of the highway the stadium was built on than a traditional Indian track....

The Dallas Cowboys made it clear Friday they are only interested in who’s already on their roster. “We like our young guys,’’ Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett said in The Dallas Morning News. “We’re trying to develop those guys. We feel like they made progress.” There will be video footage available for teams that will not send someone for self-evaluation of Kaepernick. The video will be a backup plan for the Cowboys, who have Dak Prescott as its starting quarterback....

On a first down play, Prescott scrambled toward the first-down marker and was tackled after a 9-yard gain. Prescott immediately waved to his sideline that he needed help. The team training staff went to his side, and not long after, his team was near his side — on the field. A cart was brought out to field, and the team’s franchise player was taken into the bowels of AT&T Stadium....

Former Cy Young Award winner Keuchel entered free agency after a stint with the Atlanta Braves, who the left-hander joined in June and went 8-8 with a 3.75 ERA and 91 strikeouts over 19 starts. The two-time American League All-Star will receive $18m each season from 2020 until 2022, though the White Sox hold a $20m option for 2023 with a $1.5m buyout. “We viewed Dallas as one of the premier free agent pitchers available this winter and so are thrilled to add him to this team and to our starting rotation,” said White Sox senior vice president/general manager Rich Hahn....

So maybe it’s not exactly a coincidence that Lillard is doing the kinds of things that Kidd and Payton did when they were establishing themselves as future Hall of Famers. MORE: Best active NBA player of every age, 19 to 39 “With those three guys, I don’t know if it’s Oakland, but there is a similar thread that goes through them,” said Portland coach Terry Stotts, who coached Payton in Seattle when he worked for George Karl, and later won a title under Rick Carlisle in Dallas when Kidd played a prominent role in helping Dirk Nowitzki get his championship in 2011....

Dan Hooker and Dustin Poirier went to war last weekend at UFC on ESPN 12 in what is widely being regarded as one of the best fights of the year. Although Dan Hooker lost to Poirier at the end of the five rounds, his stock certainly didn’t fall one bit because of the thoroughly entertaining contest he was a part of. Tony Ferguson is on Dan Hooker’s radar Speaking to Submission Radio recently, Dan Hooker spoke about his plans for the future....

The afternoon games feature a pair of great pitchers, Zack Grienke and Jose Quintana, but also offer solid options German Marquez, who has nine or more strikeouts in his last three starts (all wins), and Michael Wacha, who goes against a struggling and strikeout-prone offense in Milwaukee. Wacha should continue his July dominance, holding a 1.86 ERA in his last six starts. The evening slate features decent value picks Collin McHugh, Parker Bridwell and Ty Blach....

If you want to be different and go against Scherzer tonight, you can dip down as far as No. 18 or so and still feel reasonably comfortable you can get a big performance. Under-the-radar guys like Jeff Hoffman, Sean Newcomb, Matt Strahm, Mike Clevinger, and Taijuan Walker all provide good value, and most have good matchups. Even dipping down further, guys like Mike Fiers (1.42 ERA in June) and Jhoulys Chacin (1....

READ MORE: Today’s SP rankings | Hitter matchups to exploit | Optimal DFS lineup The DFS MLB Playbook PRO comes with a full top 10 at each position every day, optimal lineups for each DFS site, deep stats and daily projections, suggested lineup “stacks,” hitting and pitching strategies, a live DFS scoreboard to track your players and much more. Check out today’s free DFS plays below, and check out FantasyAlarm....

Reminder: I’ll be conducting a Twitter question-and-answer session from 10 am-noon ET every Sunday morning. Join me if you have lineup questions and are looking for late-breaking info and possible roster moves up until kickoff. Follow me @MLoveDFS, and bookmark the Sporting News Fantasy DFS page. Last week’s perfect lineups didn’t have a QB-receiver stack for the first time all season, as value as QB trumped everything. However, there was an interesting set of teammates in the DraftKings lineup, and the difference between FanDuel and DraftKings is easy to spot with a couple of the different players....

Then again, that could mean Earnhardt spending even more time on the site, which he admits he has a bit of an addiction to. Earnhardt, who is in Las Vegas with girlfriend Amy Reimann, talked about his eBay addiction during the “NASCAR After the Lap” show Thursday. He was honored earlier in the day as NASCAR's most popular driver for the 11th time. MORE: Junior most popular | Photos: Junior, girlfriend in Las Vegas | Stewart plans to be ready for Daytona...

Nationwide will sponsor Earnhardt at Hendrick Motorsports for 12 races in 2015 and 13 races each in 2016 and 2017. As long as Earnhardt continues his relationship with The National Guard (an annual deal that is for 20 races this year) and PepsiCo (five races a year through 2015), Earnhardt would be fully sponsored. The three-year Nationwide deal coincides with the length of Earnhardt’s current contract with Hendrick. MORE: Earnhardt award | Dega picks: Earnhardt favored | Was Ambrose right?...

Meeting media members for the first time since going into injury rehab, NASCAR’s most popular driver offered answers to a range of questions. The most pressing of them involved his future. That future includes Sprint Cup racing. MORE: What Earnhardt said | Defining moments | 10 at The Glen No, Junior isn’t pushing his recover from concussion-like symptoms. He is following medical advice and, more importantly, being an active and cooperative patient....

They’ve played some good teams, and they’ve played some bad teams. Here’s where the question marks begin surfacing, though. They’ve beaten the bad teams and lost to the good teams. They’ve also lost to one bad team. The Cowboys have a 6-4 record, and only one team they’ve beaten seems to have a realistic shot at the playoffs, and none of those teams have a winning record. Of their four losses, three of them are making a strong playoff push....

The accidental loss occurred during a data migration from a police department network drive in early April, according to the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office. The news of the botched migration was only revealed this week. Authorities were able to recover 14 of the 22 terabytes initially lost, but 8 terabytes remain missing and are believed to be “unrecoverable.” Dallas County Criminal District Attorney John Creuzot said city officials became aware of the issue on April 5, and his office was only informed on August 6....