The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Driver is hopeful for more Glen success
him to see how he had recovered.
By that time, the crowd had already cheered for gold — even before the first event started. And some athletes already wept for joy.
In a special ceremony to give due credit to athletes who initially finished behind medalists later caught for doping, the U.S. women’s 4x400-meter relay team finally got its gold for victory at the 2013 Moscow worlds.
The Russians initially won the race but were later disqualified for doping. The U.S. team was promoted from silver to gold with Britain and France also bumped up a notch.
Similar ceremonies were also held for other races from the 2009, 2011 and 2013 worlds.
“It is really important we get them into the right hands,” IAAF president Sebastian Coe said. “It is what we are celebrating tonight.”
Still, the ceremony was also tinged with melancholy, since the medalists got their rewards years late with many in retirement.
Francena McCorory of the United States wiped away tears when she was handed a bronze medal for the 400-meter race from 2011. She was also part of the relay team that was handed gold for the 2013 title.
“Even tonight, celebrations can never replace” the feelings of getting it at the championships themselves, Coe said. “It is the next best thing we can do.” WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. » Three years ago AJ Allmendinger didn’t want the second Sunday in August to end, so he lingered in victory lane at Watkins Glen International to soak in the atmosphere with his crew.
The victory on the road course stamped Allmendinger as a threat to win every time NASCAR’s Cup series visits the two twisting layouts on the schedule. With the playoffs looming, he’s 27th in points and needs a victory to qualify for the postseason as the series stops at The Glen, his best shot left to produce that needed result. If there’s any added pressure, he says he doesn’t feel it.
“No pressure, man. Honestly,” said Allmendinger, who drives the No. 47 Chevrolet for JTG Daugherty Racing. “I think the outside world tries to put pressure on it. All we can do is go out there and give it our best effort.
“The racetrack will always be special, obviously, being my first win, reliving those memories,” said Allmendinger, an expert road racer from his days in open-wheel racing. “But when it comes to pressure, it’s in every week. We’ll see how it plays out.”
That victory in 2014 came in Allmendinger’s 213rd Cup start, and he did it by winning a twolap duel at the end with Marcos Ambrose, who had emerged as the driver to beat at Watkins Glen. Ambrose had been dominant in NASCAR’s top two series at The Glen, winning two straight Cup races and four straight events in the second-tier series.
The previous year Allmendinger also won on the road courses at Elkhart Lake and MidOhio in NASCAR’s secondtier series, but success at the top level has been elusive. He finished fourth at Watkins Glen a year ago and never challenged winner Denny Hamlin . He qualified fifth but finished 35th at Sonoma in June and enters Sunday’s race at The Glen riding a 107-race winless streak.
“This year, we’ve been a little off on speed kind of everywhere we’ve been to,” said Allmendinger, who has one top-five finish and four top-10s in 21 starts this year. “We’re working hard to try to get better as a race team. We’ll see when we get there on Saturday what kind of speed we have in practice.
“It’s one of those things, you don’t really know until you get to the racetrack and you get to practice and qualifying where you stand on speed.”
Sunday’s I Love New York 355 at The Glen is the second straight Cup race with a condensed schedule. Teams won’t practice until Saturday and qualifying is Sunday at 12:05 p.m., three hours before the race.
“With the condensed practices, to unload well (is key),” Allmendinger said. “You don’t have that time to really work on your car. Each practice is 55 minutes long, and if you don’t unload very well, it’s one of those things that you kind of get behind real quick.”