Dixon cruises to IndyCar victory
Scott Dixon dominated after taking the lead on a midrace caution and crossed the checkers under another yellow flag to win IndyCar’s first race at Phoenix International Raceway in 11 years Saturday night.
Dixon started ninth and took advantage of tire trouble for Team Penske’s top two drivers to move within range of the lead on the fast mile oval. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver moved past Tony Kanaan out of the pits and led the final 155 laps of IndyCar’s first oval race of the season.
The win was Dixon’s 39th of his career, tying him with Al Unser for fourth on IndyCar’s all-time list. Simon Pagenaud finished second and Will Power was third. oval in Martinsville, Va.
Busch, who was saving his last set of fresh tires for an opportune time inside the final 50 laps, never got one and won despite driving the last 115 laps on the same tires. Much of the rest of the field had tires that were at least 30 laps newer, and a few also got burned when they pitted for scrub tires expecting the same last full pit stop, but a series of late restarts helped Busch end his Martinsville drought.
Nemechek got second and Busch’s teammate, William Byron, was third.
Paige Decker of Eagle River, Wis., and her sister Claire finished 25th and 27th, respectively. It was Paige’s second career truck race and Claire’s first. Their cousin Natalie Decker did not qualify.
Sketchy officiating doomed Badgers
It was very obvious in the waning moments of the Wisconsin-Notre Dame NCAA Tournament game that the referees wanted the Irish to win.
I have never seen such a one-sided officiated game in my life. The nice move and dunk by Nigel Hayes was called a travel, the hack on Ethan Happ’s arm as he went up for a layup, the no-foul call on Demetrius Jackson when he hit Bronson Koenig when stealing the ball. The list goes on.
Don’t get me wrong, the Badgers had their opportunities and turned the ball over too many times, but it is hard to compete when the other team has eight people on the court against your five.
Mark Orozco South Milwaukee
Let UWM’s Braun do her job
I don’t understand all the negativity toward UWMilwaukee athletic director Amanda Braun.
Braun fired the basketball coach because she thinks the program can do better. Athletic directors do that all the time. It is her job to evaluate her staff. It’s not like Rob Jeter didn’t get a chance.
I am pleased that she wants the athletic program to be excellent. If she upset a booster in doing so, that is unfortunate, but boosters don’t run the program.
Marquette also decided that it would not accept a bid to anything other than the NCAA Tournament or NIT, and I heard no negative reaction to that. No one said anything about their seniors being denied a chance at the postseason.
Give Braun some time and space to do her job, and then see what you think. To me, she appears to be the first leader UWM has had in the athletic department in quite awhile.
Braun
Jeter, UWM players got a raw deal
I’m a sports-loving grandma who loves college basketball. I cheer for Wisconsin, Marquette and UW-Milwaukee, and I follow them on television, radio and the Journal Sentinel.
Around Christmas, while visiting my son’s family in the Twin Cities, my family gave me the perfect gift. All 10 of us attended the UWM-Minnesota men’s basketball game, and we saw the Panthers outplay and defeat another Big Ten team. We commented on how hard they played and the superb coaching.
The series of crushing events that came at the end of UWM’s season, directed at the team and their coach by athletic director Amanda Braun, have been frustrating and painful to follow. They did everything asked of them and more, fulfilling their roles as studentathletes.
I think the wrong person was asked to leave. Give Braun her walking papers and bring back Rob Jeter. Linda L. Kleinhans
Slinger
Jeter John Kissinger
Wauwatosa