Jimmie Johnson takes on a new crew chief
Out of a playoff spot, seventime NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson is moving to another crew chief.
Hendrick Motorsports on Monday replaced Kevin Meendering with Cliff Daniels, who will be atop the pit box for Sunday’s roadcourse race at Watkins Glen International in New York.
Johnson won seven championships with crew chief Chad Knaus over 17 years before they split after last season. Meendering failed to steer Johnson into victory lane, and the former champ is 12 points out of the 16driver playoff field with five races left before the cutoff.
Johnson, 43, has 83 career wins but none since June 2017 at Dover and is mired in the longest losing streak of his career. He has just three topfive finishes this season. Tennis: In Monday action at the Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, sixthseeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain defeated Magda Linette of Poland 63, 63. Seventhseeded Maria Sakkari of Greece ousted Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia 61, 64. Also, Coco Vandeweghe beat Marie Bouzkova 62, 64. Venus Williams, winner of seven major singles titles in her career, is set to play Bethanie MattekSands at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Obituary: Loek van Mil, who pitched parts of six seasons in the Minnesota Twins’ system and was the tallest player in professional baseball history at 7foot1, has died at age 34.
A native of the Netherlands, van Mil got as far as TripleA Rochester with the Twins. He was also in the Indians’ and Reds’ systems and last played professionally in Australia.
The Royal Dutch Baseball and Softball Federation announced that he died “due to the consequences of a fatal accident.” In December. he suffered multiple head injuries during a hiking accident in Australia, according to MLB.com. He did returnein January to pitch in the Australian Baseball league.
The Twins traded van Mil, who at one time was on their 40man roster, to the Angels in 2010, then resigned him to pitch in 2015. Van Mil was hampered by arm trouble during his career in the Twins’ system. NHL: Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy has signed an eightyear, $76 million contract extension with the Tampa Bay Lightning. The team announced the deal — worth an average of $9.5 million per season — with the Vezina Trophy winner. College football: Running back Tavien Feaster is switching sides in the state’s biggest rivalry, leaving Clemson to join South Carolina for his final season. Feaster is a 511, 220pound senior who was part of Clemson’s national championship teams in 2016 and last season. College basketball: Guard Akira Levy has joined the Vanderbilt women’s team as a transfer from Missouri in a return to her home state. Levy tore a ligament in her right knee in February. Jurisprudence: World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame wrestler Jerry “The King” Lawler has filed a wrongfuldeath lawsuit against a Tennessee county where his son suffered a fatal injury while incarcerated.
Lawler is seeking compensatory and punitive damages “for the numerous failures of the county and its employees” that resulted in the death of former WWE competitor Brian Christopher Lawler.