AVONDALE, Ariz. [url=http://www.nmdnorgesalg.com/lite-racer-sko-norge.html]Adidas Neo Lite Racer Norge[/url] . -- Matt Kenseth had one of those rare seasons in which everything seemed to go right every time he got behind the wheel of his car. Until the one day he couldnt afford for anything to go wro

AVONDALE, Ariz. Adidas Neo Lite Racer Norge . -- Matt Kenseth had one of those rare seasons in which everything seemed to go right every time he got behind the wheel of his car. Until the one day he couldnt afford for anything to go wrong. Kenseth had one of his poorest performances of the season Sunday, finishing 23rd at Phoenix International Raceway to allow Jimmie Johnson to seize control of the championship race. Johnson, who started the day up seven points in the standings, finished third behind Kevin Harvick and Kasey Kahne to pad his lead to 28 points. The five-time champion goes to next Sundays season finale at Homestead needing to finish 23rd or better to win the title. Kenseth, who won his only championship 10 years ago, gave what sounded like a concession speech following his disappointing day. "Of course Im disappointed -- we go there basically without a shot to win," Kenseth said. "On the other hand, I couldnt be happier and more proud of my team and, man, this has been the best year of my racing career. We hoped to go down to Homestead and race for it on performance. On the other hand, Im extremely happy and really, really proud of my team. "Theres not a car out here Id rather be driving. Weve had just an amazing, incredible season and weve still got one week left. So Im really thankful for them putting me in a car and everybody who has given me this opportunity." Johnson, who had a mechanical failure in last years season finale and finished 36th, wasnt ready to claim the title following his workmanlike performance at Phoenix. "Were heading into Homestead in the position we want to be in," Johnson said. "Ill have to go down there and run 400 miles. Its far from over. Youve got to finish that race. Although we have a nice cushion, we still have to go down there and take care of business." Harvick won at Phoenix for the second consecutive year, capitalizing when Carl Edwards ran out of gas coming to the white flag. But all eyes were on Kenseth, who struggled mightily for the first time in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship and for one of the few times this season. Kenseth had only finished lower than 23rd four times this entire season, and three were related to either engine failure or a crash. But his car was off from the very start, and he struggled to even tell crew chief Jason Ratcliff what adjustments to make on a Toyota he described at one point as "just not drivable." "I dont even know what to tell you to fix, to be honest," Kenseth radioed. "I am so aero tight. So aero tight." Figuring track position and clean air was the only fix, Ratcliff opted for a strategy of having Kenseth do the opposite of other drivers: If they pitted, Kenseth did not, and vice versa. It worked as Kenseth cracked the top 10, but then backfired badly on a pit stop at the worst possible time. Moments after contact between Johnson and Carl Edwards knocked Johnson out of the groove and forced him to save his Chevrolet from wrecking, a caution was called for Josh Wises spin. The Joe Gibbs Racing crew botched the pit stop, changing strategy mid-stop, and Kenseth compounded the problem by running over his air hose. His car had to be backed up before it could be serviced. It dropped him to 30th, two laps down, and he restarted behind Johnson at the one opportunity hed had to make up some ground. "I called left sides trying to get some track position, and I looked up and there werent many cars coming down pit road, so I thought we might as well put four on it," Ratcliff said. "But when I called four, those guys had left-side tires in their hands and half of them went over the wall and had to come back to get the right-side tires. Its just a mess. "I let the guys down. They do a great job on pit road and I made them look bad with the mix-up." Johnson, stressed over the incident with Edwards, knew when he saw Kenseth behind him after the caution that he was in great shape. "I was starting to get worried at that point in time, but seemed shortly thereafter we left pit road and (Kenseth) was behind me again ... I felt like I knew I could manage things and it was about trying to get points again," Johnson said. So off in the waning laps, Kenseths frustration could be heard over the radio when he couldnt pass Bobby Labonte and David Gilliland. "Man, this is bad," Kenseth said. "I cant believe I cant even pass these two cars." Although he wasnt great all weekend, Kenseth said he never saw Sundays performance coming. "Honestly, it was the first day like that, that weve had all season long," Kenseth said. "That just, gosh, that speaks volumes about my team, we havent had a day like that all year where weve been far enough where we couldnt stay on the lead lap. It was an unfortunate, disappointing day, but man, we did the best we could do. We just were off." After seven wins this season, Kenseths first driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, Ratcliff did not believe the team choked. "Everybodys going to say, Oh, the pressure got to them, "he said. "Just poor execution on a track thats so hard to pass. Youre trying to make up for something that happened earlier and it just snowballs on you. The car wasnt responding to changes. Wed make another change and it wouldnt help it, so wed put that back and make another change and I dont know if that was better or worse, so I was like Just quit working on the thing, its not responding. "We were just trying to make something out of nothing." Harvick, meanwhile, picked up his fourth win of the season when Edwards ran out of gas headed to the white flag. Harvick sailed by right before the last lap to grab another memorable moment in a career with Richard Childress Racing that will end next week after 13 seasons. The victory also put Harvick in the title race -- albeit as a long shot, 34 points behind Johnson. "Were talking about locking him in the port-a-potty, so that should sum it up," Harvick joked. "Those guys are good at what they do and theyre good at every track." Tubular Shadow Sko . The best round belonged to Pat Perez. Tiger Woods didnt come close to claiming either Thursday in the Farmers Insurance Open, where the seven-time champion failed to break par in the opening round for first time in his career. Adidas Ultra Boost Norge . "This is my city," the Toronto native said upon his arrival Wednesday night. And the 35-year-old former league MVP says he is hoping to making 2014 a memorable year. http://www.nmdnorgesalg.com/ .C. -- Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe is resigning after 13 seasons at the school.While the results of this season are obviously disappointing for the Vancouver Canucks -- disappointing enough to cost GM Mike Gillis his job -- this isnt necessarily a team in a terrible position. In fact, with a few improvements, this could very well be a decent team over the next few seasons. I will go into more detail when digging into the Canucks Off-Season Game Plan, which will be coming earlier this year since they are part of the non-playoff contingent, there are some reasons to think this is a favourable situation for President of Hockey Operations Trevor Linden and whomever he selects to be the new general manager. This isnt to say everything is just fine, but there are teams in far worse situations than the Canucks. A look at some of the positives: Despite this season going off the rails, the Canucks ranked ninth in Fenwick Close, a measure of puck possession. Among the top dozen teams in that metric, only the Canucks and New Jersey Devils (who are an impossibly terrible 0-11 in shootouts) are not in playoff position. So why is that a positive? The Canucks arent going to the postseason, in large part, because theyve been terribly unlucky around the net. Their 7.2% even-strength shooting percentage is ranked 25th in the league this year after it was middle of the pack -- 15th (8.0%) and 14th (7.8%) -- in the previous two seasons. Its very difficult for a team to stray too far from the average over a longer period of time and while this doesnt mean the Canucks can just assume that they will score more next season, its pretty easy to forecast better luck for this group. As low as the team shooting percentage is at 5-on-5, having the likes of Alexandre Burrows, Chris Higgins, Ryan Kesler and both Sedins, their big minute forwards, all under 8.0% makes it likely that there will be some recovery towards more typical production, particularly because the Canucks top forwards still had strong seasons in terms of puck possession and as long as they are controlling play, the odds are in their favour that more pucks will end up in the oppositions net. Add a bona fide scorer to the mix and the odds of recovery would be even better. The Canucks have a solid group of defencemen. The top four of Dan Hamhuis, Kevin Bieksa, Alexander Edler and Jason Garrison is more than capable of anchoring a playoff team. Garrisons possession numbers took a dive this year but, on the whole, this group isnt a primary issue. Even better, they have relatively economical options Chris Tanev and Ryan Stanton to round out the top six. Tanev is also a viable candidate to move into the top four if one of those named above is convinced to waive a no-trade clause in order to upgrade elsewhere. There was a lot of talk around the trade deadline about Edler being available and, while it must be with the understanding that Edler was the unluckiest of Canucks blueliners this past season in terms of percentages going awry, he would be a top pair defenceman for quite a few teams and, since those arent made available often, he ought to bring a significant return. Also, as I noted on Twitter, the Canucks were on a 106-point pace through the first half of the season, but as January rolled around, they had some overlaapping injuries. Ultra Boost Norge. At some point, it was either Edler, Burrows, Roberto Luongo and/or Henrik Sedin missing time and they didnt have the depth to make up for those absences. That lack of depth brings us to some of the concerns that the new management will need to address. One, their core is older. Among the top six forwards in average ice time, 28-year-old Mike Santorelli, an unrestricted free agent coming off shoulder surgery, is the only one that wont be 30 by the time next season starts. On defence, Edler (27) and Tanev (24) are younger, but Garrison turns 30 in November and Bieksa and Hamhuis are already beyond. This doesnt mean that the moment a player hits 30, that they cease to have value, but age makes professional athletes a declining asset at a certain point and, by age 30, the vast majority are declining assets and most of Vancouvers core is in that neighbourhood now. Their goaltending situation, not-so-long-ago enviably deep, is decidedly suspect. 26-year-old Eddie Lack has had an okay rookie season, though if he had played well in January (1-5-2, 2.95 GAA, .908 SV%), that might have prevented, or at least slowed, the teams fade from contention and then his first couple weeks following the Luongo trade (.882 SV% in 8 GP) were a little rough as well but, on the whole, Lack has given the Canucks more than they had any right to expect from him coming into the season. Lack has played well enough to have a shot at competing for the starting job next year, with a veteran added to the mix to provide stability. There are free agents ranging in experience (Ryan Miller, Jaroslav Halak, Jonas Hiller, Brian Elliott, Ray Emery, Thomas Greiss) or a trade option like James Reimer that could upgrade the position from its suddenly subpar standing and an above-average possession team with stable goaltending is most of the way towards the playoffs. There is also the matter of Ryan Kesler reportedly asking out of Vancouver prior to the trade deadline. If that holds true, then there would be at least one blockbuster move to take care of this summer, but Kesler recently indicated that he intends to return to Vancouver next season. Even if they are capable of returning to the playoffs in short order, and thats possible, the Canucks need to beef up their young talent throughout the organization so that, even if the Canucks arent necessarily Cup-bound in the next couple years, that they have enough to be competitive as the core moves on. Young roster wingers Nicklas Jensen and Zack Kassian still have some potential to explore but may not ultimately be top-six performers. Bo Horvat and Brendan Gaunce, first rounders the past two seasons, could provide solid two-way play when they are deemed ready to play, but the Canucks need more. These are the challenges that come with the job for anyone running a hockey team and, given the Canucks above-average core, they have some easier issues to deal with than some other non-playoff clubs that dont have that foundation in place. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. ' ' '