Each team threatened in the third, but neithe

Kansas City, KS (SportsNetwork.com) - Championship contender Kevin Harvick won his eighth pole of the season in the Sprint Cup Series, while defending series titleholder Jimmie Johnson struggled in Fridays qualifying for the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway. Harvick, in his first season as driver of the No. 4 Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing, grabbed the pole for Sundays 400-mile race at Kansas after posting a lap at 197.621 mph in the third and final round of knockout qualifying. He set a new track qualifying record at this 1.5-mile racetrack when he turned a lap at 197.773 mph during the second round. It was the 20th time this season that a new track qualifying record has been set in NASCARs premier series. Harvick has surpassed a previous track record six times in 2014 -- Texas, Michigan, Indianapolis, Bristol and both Kansas races. One year ago when he drove for Richard Childress Racing, Harvick won the Chase race at Kansas after starting on the pole and leading the most laps with 138. When the series most recently competed here in May, the first night race at this track, he started on the pole and led the most laps with 119 but finished second to Jeff Gordon. For whatever reason, this fits everything that I have going on with my driving style, Harvick said. But in the end, its all about having fast cars. Last year, we had a fast car, and this year, we have had a fast car as well. So just have to thank everybody on my Budweiser (sponsor) team for staying focused, continuing to build better race cars and controlling all the things that we can control. Our cars are fast, we are qualifying well, our pit stops are good, cars are reliable and everything is good. We just need a little bit of good luck to go with it. Its just like I keep telling these guys - that stuff will all come full circle and hopefully it does it at the right time this year. Harvick has two wins in Sprint Cup this season but has not been to victory lane in the series since April 12 at Darlington (21 races ago). I just feel like with a little bit of good luck we can beat every car here, every week, at any style racetrack, he said. Everything is there. Its just a matter of having everything come together on the luck side. Well just keep plugging away. While Harvick claimed his 14th career pole in Cup, Johnson qualified 32nd, which matched his worst starting position in a race this season. Making his second lap in the first qualifying round, Johnsons car spun out in turn 2. He did not make contact with anything. Brian Vickers, who is not in the Chase, will start on the front row for the first time this season after qualifying second at 196.307 mph. Wow, that was a fun lap, Vickers said. Aric Almirola, who was eliminated from the Chase last weekend at Dover, qualified third, matching his best starting spot of the season. Joey Logano grabbed the fourth position, followed by Jeff Gordon, who leads all drivers with three victories at Kansas. Im happy with where we ended up, Gordon said. A top-five, you have to be happy with that starting position. Qualifying sixth through 12th were: Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne, Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards. Logano, Gordon, Keselowski, Busch, Earnhardt, Kahne and Edwards remain in the Chase. Kansas is the first of three races in round 2 of the playoffs, known as the Contender Round. The other Chase drivers and their starting positions are: Ryan Newman (17th), Denny Hamlin (25th) and Matt Kenseth (27th). All 43 drivers who attempted qualifying made the starting field for Sundays race. Air Max 98 Pas Cher Femme . Adam Lind provided the power and rookie starter Marcus Stroman had the best start of his young career as the Blue Jays dumped the Yankees 8-3 at Rogers Centre. Stroman, making his fifth start for Toronto, allowed one earned run and three hits over a career-high eight innings. Vapormax Plus Pas Cher Homme .ca. Kerry, In the closing minutes of the second period of Game 4 between Pittsburgh and Columbus there were the remnants of two broken sticks behind the Pittsburgh net. http://www.airmaxpaschere.fr/ . -- Another baseball tradition is about to largely disappear: a manager, with a crazed look in his eyes, charging the field and getting into a face-to-face shouting match with an umpire. Site Air Max Pas Cher . Toronto dropped a 7-2 decision to the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday afternoon, with only a pair of late runs preventing a second straight shutout loss. Josh Willingham belted a two-run homer in the first inning and Kendrys Morales hit a bases-clearing double in the seventh as the Twins took the rubber game of the three-game series. Air Max 180 Homme . The American secured his first back-to-back ATP match wins since June to leave Tsonga relying on his performance at next weeks Paris Masters to clinch one of the final three places for the season-ending event in London. Tsonga would have moved up one spot to No. 6 with a win over Querrey at the City of Arts and Sciences, but his serve deserted him in the second set as the 116th-ranked American broke twice to reach the quarter-finals.Pittsburgh, PA (SportsNetwork.com) - Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane both scored during the shootout to lift the Chicago Blackhawks to a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday. After David Perrons backhander rang off the post, Toews froze Marc-Andre Fleury and shot the puck under his pads for the first goal in the skills competition. Corey Crawford made pad stop in tight on Sidney Crosby and Kane stickhandled his way up the middle and ended the game with a shot stick side. Marian Hossa tallied a goal and an assist, David Runblad also scored and Crawford made 33 saves for the Blackhawks, who halted a two-game skid heading into the All-Star break. I think we played smart tonight, said Toews. Its a good road win. Zach Sill scored his first NHL goal, Steve Downie lit the lamp and Fleury stopped 24 shots for the Penguins, who have lost four straight. We havent played our best lately, Penguins head coach Mike Johnston said. I dont like the shootout and dont know many people who do, but its a tough way to finish a game. Pittsburgh was playing without two of its top players as defenseman Kris Letang and forward Evgeni Malkin missed the game with undisclosed injuries sustained in Mondays loss to the Flyers. Letang left the game after taking a hard hit from Philadelphia forward Zac Rinaldo into the boards during the first period and Malkin did not play late in the loss. Trailing 2-0, Sill got Pittsburgh within one after taking Andrew Ebbots backhanded pass from down low and sending a quick wrister over the glove of Crawford 5:21 into the second.dddddddddddd The Penguins crashed the net after Crawford gave up a rebound in front and Downie was there to jam it past the goal line for a tied game with 7:38 left in the middle stanza. Crosby had a chance to put the Penguins ahead with 46 seconds left in the second, but his shot first went off Crawford and then the post. Each team threatened in the third, but neither team was able to score, sending the game into overtime. In the extra session, Marian Hossa deked around a diving defender and past Fleurys poke check, but lost control of the puck in tight. Kane exploded down the right wing and whipped a backhander on net, but Fleury stopped it in the waning seconds. The Blackhawks struck first as Hossa skated across the blue line with the puck and dished it over to Rundblad, who ripped a shot past Fleury just 6:54 into the game. After Perron went off for holding, Hossas wrister from the right circle beat Fleurys blocker for a power-play goal and a 2-0 lead at 2:41 of the second period. Game Notes The Blackhawks improved to 21-6-0 when scoring first this season ... Penguins defenseman Simon Despres was also out of the lineup due to an illness ... Chicago has not won a game in regulation in Pittsburgh since a 5-2 victory on Feb. 22, 1997, a string of 11 games ... The two teams will meet again on Feb. 15 in Chicago. ' ' '