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LAS VEGAS -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. Adidas Ultra Boost 2018 . knew he probably didnt have enough fuel to finish. Being in Vegas, he decided to gamble anyway. And when Earnhardts tank went bust on the final lap, Brad Keselowski was right there to clean up. Keselowski surged ahead when Earnhardt ran out of fuel, claiming a dramatic victory Sunday in the NASCAR race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Earnhardts Chevy sputtered and slowed out of the second turn, and Keselowski roared past him on the backstretch in his Penske Ford for the first weekend sweep in his career. Keselowski followed up Saturdays Nationwide Series victory with his first Las Vegas Cup win, doing it in exhilarating fashion against the friend and mentor who gave him his first big break in racing. "Thats what you live for as a driver, at least I do," Keselowski said. "Those moments where youre side by side, and you lay it all out on the racetrack and bring back the car with the tires smoking, engine smoking, and youre worn out inside because you gave it all you had. It was one of those races there at the end." Keselowski knew all about the fuel shortage faced by Earnhardt and Carl Edwards, who both made their final pit stops about 10 laps before him. So Keselowski decided to force the issue, getting around Edwards and pushing for the lead so Earnhardt would be forced to abandon his conservative, fuel-saving lines. "I felt like we could run him down," Keselowski said about the driver who put him in his first Nationwide ride. "He was going to have to burn fuel to keep me behind him. At that point, it was just a matter of whether a yellow (flag) came out or not, because it was just a ticking time bomb. It worked in our favour today." Earnhardt finished second and didnt regret it, secure in his overall position thanks to the new rules in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, which puts increased emphasis on wins. Still, Earnhardt and his Hendrick Motorsports ride were just a few ounces of fuel shy of earning their second victory in three races to start the season. When Earnhardt sat down for his post-race news conference in front of two cans of his sponsors energy drink, he picked up one can wistfully: "Thats all we needed, just 16 ounces." The Daytona 500 champion was disappointed, but not discouraged after his spectacular start to the NASCAR season. He also finished second last week at Phoenix. "We werent supposed to make it," Earnhardt said. "We were trying to save as much as we can and make it work, but we knew we were short. We wouldnt have finished second if we didnt have that strategy." Keselowski, the 2012 Sprint Cup champion, virtually assured himself of a spot in the Chase after missing it entirely last season. "Its just such a reliever for everyone on the team to get that win in early, and be able to enjoy the races and opportunities that we have instead of being stressed out about them," Keselowski said. "You know, I think if anything it actually lends itself to better racing." Earnhardt also praised NASCARs new Chase setup, which allowed him to take a fuel gamble in Vegas after winning already this season. Additional wins are worth bonus points in the Chase, while a second-place finish doesnt help his position much -- hence the motivation to go for broke on an empty tank. "I think the new format is definitely is showing it has tons of positives," Earnhardt said. "Its better as far as entertainment for our sport. It gives us freedom, and its nice to have that freedom to do the things that we did today, even though we knew our odds werent good. We really shouldnt have made it, and we didnt, but we got to try because of the new system." With his wife due to give birth at any minute, Paul Menard finished third in his Richard Childress Racing Chevy in front of Keselowskis teammate, pole-sitter Joey Logano. Edwards was fifth in a Roush Fenway Racing Ford, and Earnhardt teammate Jimmie Johnson came in sixth. The Las Vegas race is the first of 11 on 1.5-mile tracks, and NASCAR spent much of the off-season working on ways to improve the racing on these tracks with a new aerodynamics package and other improvements. The changes resulted in 23 drivers breaking the track speed record during qualifying, but the racing wasnt particularly thrilling until that final lap. Keselowski and Earnhardt are the only two drivers to finish in the top five in each of the seasons first three races, and they dueled down the stretch after Earnhardt passed him for the lead on a restart with 42 laps to go. Earnhardt had gone to the pits on the 211th lap and attempted to stick it out. Keselowski was in fine form after his third-place finish in Phoenix last week without crew chief Paul Wolfe, who had returned home for his childs birth. Keselowski also finished third at Daytona. Keselowski is the second driver to win both Vegas races in the same weekend, joining Jeff Burton in 2000. Cheap Ultra Boost China .com) - Former New York Mets general manager Omar Minaya is joining the Major League Baseball Players Association staff as a senior advisor to executive director Tony Clark. Cheap Ultra Boost .ca! Hi Kerry, Im sure youve received many emails wondering what your take is on the Spezza goal that looked like Neil blatantly kicked it in while standing directly in the middle of the crease where, you know, usually a goalie is to make a save but couldnt be due to Neil being there! Thanks! Jon - Westfield, MA Jon: Lets first ask Henrik Lundqvist what he thought of the scoring of the Sens second goal with . http://www.cheapultraboostshoes.com/ . Or how his team has defended Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. Or just about anything that has happened on the court in the first-round playoff series. Instead, Rivers and his players spent Saturday talking about how they would respond to an audio recording of a man identified as Clippers owner Donald Sterling telling his girlfriend not to bring black people to games.Alexandre Bilodeau captured Canadas first gold medal at the 2010 Olympics, while Charles Hamelin was the Canadian teams only multi gold medallist in Vancouver. Erik Guay narrowly missed the Olympic podium four years ago, but hes Canadas most decorated World Cup alpine skier. The next honour one of them could add to an already illustrious career is Canadas flag-bearer for the Sochi Olympics. On Thursday in Ottawa, the Canadian Olympic Committee will announce who will carry the Maple Leaf into the Sochi opening ceremonies, and Bilodeau, Hamelin and Guay, all leaders in their respective sports, are all strong candidates. "Just being among those, its a great honour for me because those are great athletes and there are many more athletes that deserve to carry the flag and deserve to be in the front row when it comes to Canada and to be role models," Bilodeau told The Canadian Press in Montreal on Wednesday. "It would be a tremendous honour to do that for my country and well see (Thursday), but its definitely something very special to be flag-bearer and whomever its going to be, were going to be proud." When asked if hed been tipped to be in Ottawa, Bilodeau laughed and said "I havent been contacted yet, so if its already decided, Im not the one." Bilodeau won moguls gold on the second day of the Games, and the image of the freestyle skier celebrating with his brother Frederic is one of the most enduring of Vancouver. Hamelin claimed two of Canadas record-setting 14 gold medals, but even more remarkable is the fact the short-track speedskater, whos also an eight-time world champion, won them within half an hour of each other, winning the 500 metres before returning to the track as part of the victorious 5,000-metre relay. Guay posted a pair of fifth-place finishes in Vancouver, in the downhill and super-G, missing a medal in super-G by just three hundredths of a second. In December, he won his 21st World Cup medal, breaking the Canadian record for podium performances held by Steve Podborski. Guay will be in Kitzbuehel, Austria, on Thursday, where hes racing in a World Cup. Canadas flag-bearer traditionally generates plenty of conversation, and this time is no different, with Canadian hockey stars Sidney Crosby and Hayley Wickenheiser garnering much support. Crosby, who created one of Vancouvers golden moments when he scored the winner in the final versus the U.S., isnt expected to be in Sochi for the opening ceremonies as his Pittsburgh Penguins have a game that night versus the New York Rangers. While Bruins defenceman Zdeno Chara is missing two of Bostons NHL games to carry the flag for Slovakia, when asked about the possibility of carrying Canadas flag, Crosby said last weekend "It hasnt been brought up (by the Canadian Olympic Committee). Cheap Ultra Boost Shoes. ." Wickenheiser, meanwhile, is Canadas biggest womens star and a pioneer of the game who will make her fifth Olympic appearance. According to Hockey Canada, the womens team will march in the Feb. 7 opening ceremonies, despite playing their opening game the following night versus Switzerland. Wickenheiser, however, was a participant in the 2010 opening ceremonies -- she read the athletes oath. Plus, womens hockey player Danielle Goyette carried the flag into the opening ceremonies in 2006 in Turin, Italy. Long-track speedskater Clara Hughes carried the flag in the 2010 opening ceremonies while figure skater Joannie Rochette, who captured bronze just days after the death of her mom, was chosen to carry it out. Other favourites for Sochi include figure skaters Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, who won Canadas first ice dance gold medal in Vancouver, and three-time world champion Patrick Chan. With the new team event starting the day before the opening ceremonies, however, Virtue and Moir have said they wont march. Two-time world champion Kaillie Humphries, who teamed up with Heather Moyse in Vancouver to win Canadas first ever womens bobsled medal, is another favourite. She and Moyse will be gunning for gold again in Sochi. And long-track speedskater Christine Nesbitt also won gold in Vancouver, and is a seven-time world champion and has won a whopping 39 World Cup titles. Theres a Facebook pace supporting skier Larisa Yurkiw for flag-bearer that has over 3,500 likes. Yurkiw missed the Vancouver Games after suffering a bad knee injury in 2009, and then was forced to go pounding on doors for financial support after she was cut from the national team program. Yurkiw bounced back to qualify for Canadas Sochi-bound team. Each sport nominates an athlete as a candidate for flag-bearer. But some athletes see the responsibility as a distraction. Diver Alexandre Despatie told reporters before the 2012 London Games that he would decline any offer to carry the flag. "Its a great distraction, although it is the greatest honour an athlete can receive," the two-time Olympic silver medallist said. Moguls skier Jean-Luc Brassard finished fourth at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, and blamed his disappointing performance on the fact hed carried the flag a day earlier. Among other recent flag-bearers named recently: Japan selected womens curler Ayumi Ogasawara, Italy chose two-time Olympic mens luge champion Armin Zoeggeler, and Spain will hand its flag to figure skater Javier Fernandez. ' ' '