Martin, Ginn reach deal on development drivers

Martin, Ginn reach deal on development drivers

By Team ReleaseFebruary 9, 200704:27 PM EST

MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- Ginn Racing has contracted Mark Martin Performance to oversee the company's driver development program, which includes Ricky Carmichael, Matt Martin (Mark's son) and Matt Bowers. All three are Florida residents -- Carmichael (27, Tallahassee), Martin (15, Daytona Beach) and Bowers (15, Mount Dora).
Martin will work with the development drivers while they compete in the Late Model and Super Model divisions at Florida racetracks. Once the drivers graduate from Martin's tutelage, they will join Ginn Racing's North Carolina-based development program that will include the ARCA Re/Max Series and the Craftsman Truck Series.
"I don't believe you can ask for anyone better than Mark to oversee the development program and mentor the young drivers," said Jay Frye, Ginn Racing's CEO and general manager. "Having Mark in this capacity will only enhance our development program and the future of Ginn Racing."
Martin, who drives the No. 01 U.S. Army Chevrolet for Ginn Racing, said, "I love to compete and I love to teach. And I have the best of both worlds with Ginn Racing. I look forward to this role and know that it's going to be a lot of fun instructing a group of young drivers who share a passion for racing."

Former Braves star Burdette dies

Former Braves star Burdette dies

Right-hander threw three complete games in 1957 World Series
By Mark Bowman / MLB.com

02/06/2007 8:54 PM ET

Former Braves 1957 World Series hero Lou Burdette passed away Tuesday morning at his home in Winter Garden, Fla., after a lengthy battle with lung cancer. He was 80.
"Our thoughts and prayers go out to Lou's family, friends and many admirers," Braves Executive Vice President and General Manager John Schuerholz said in a statement. "Lou was a true gentleman and one of the greatest pitchers in Braves' history. We will miss him."

The man born as Selva Lewis Burdette in Nitro, W. Va., put together a solid, 18-year Major League career, the majority of which was played in a Braves uniform.

In 2001, Burdette, who also served as the Atlanta pitching coach in 1972 and 1973, was inducted into the Braves Hall of Fame. When he came to Atlanta to celebrate the honor, he was reunited with former Milwaukee Braves teammates Warren Spahn and Hank Aaron, who had previously been inducted.

Even with a career characterized by consistency, Burdette is likely most remembered for a four-day span during the 1957 World Series. After earning a win in Game 2 of the Series against the Yankees, Burdette came out in Game 5 and threw a complete-game shutout.

With Spahn too sick to take the mound in Game 7, Burdette filled in on two days' rest and proceeded to throw a Series-clinching, complete-game shutout, giving the Braves their only championship while in Milwaukee. Burdette took home the World Series MVP trophy along with his championship ring.

His impressive run made him the first pitcher in 37 years to earn three complete-game victories in a World Series. The previous pitcher to toss two shutouts in the same Fall Classic was Christy Mathewson, who accomplished the feat in 1905.

"I've always admired him," Burdette's former Milwaukee Braves teammate Gene Conley said. "I've told people that him not being in the Hall of Fame doesn't mean he's not better than some of the other pitchers that are in there."

Conley played with Burdette in Milwaukee from 1954-58. The two former Braves pitchers remained friends over the past few years while living in the same area of central Florida.

"He was tough," Conley said. "I'm sorry to hear of this. This is going to bother me for a while."

Burdette was nicknamed "Fidgety Lou" for his pre-pitch gyrations and seemingly nervous habits on the mound. But whatever the reason for his unusual antics on the field, Burdette finished his 18-year career with some very impressive numbers.

The right-hander amassed 203 career wins, 179 of which came in a Braves uniform. Burdette made his Major League debut in 1950, but it wasn't until 1954 that he was thrust into the starting rotation for an entire season.

Burdette posted double-digit wins in all but one season from 1953-64. During one period in that span, Burdette had six straight seasons with 17 or more wins. He led the National League in 1959, when he won a career-high 21 games.

"Lou had ice water in his veins," said Conley, who was a teammate of Burdette's from 1952-58. "Nothing bothered him, on or off the mound. He was a chatterbox out there ... He would talk to himself, to the batter, the umpire, and sometimes even to the ball."

Burdette's catcher during the 1957 World Series was Del Crandall, who joined his former batterymate in the Braves Hall of Fame in 2003. Crandall took time to call the Burdette family Tuesday afternoon to offer his condolences.

"I think Lew Burdette had the ability that not a whole lot of people have in the fact that he had fun while pitching and could still be very serious at the same time," Crandall said. "He was just able to refocus so quickly and you don't find too many guys like that."

Crandall will always have fond memories of Game 7 of the 1957 World Series. He homered to account for the final run in the 5-0 win over the Yankees. But more importantly, he had he chance to be behind the plate for each of the three masterful games Burdette pitched in that Series.

"It was just unreal," Crandall said of the 1957 World Series. "They just didn't have too many good swings at him. His control was outstanding. He and [Sandy] Koufax were guys who pitched with confidence. I think that had an effect on opponents who could sense that confidence."

The two-time All-Star used the impeccable control he had with his slider and sinker to post a 3.66 career ERA. Burdette led the league in strikeouts for three consecutive years at one point and finished his career with 158 complete games.

"I'd move the ball in and out. I always tried to keep it down," Burdette said in an interview with Sports Collectors Digest in 1998. "I was always being accused of throwing at the hitters. Early Wynn always said that he was the meanest pitcher in the American League, and I was the meanest in the National League."

After being traded by Milwaukee to St. Louis in 1963, Burdette continued an impressive career that concluded with the Angels in 1969. And while Burdette's retirement softened the spitball debate, the questions circling just how his name should be spelled remained.

Most remember Burdette for the pitch that he claims he never threw. Myriad coaches and players argued that Burdette benefited from an illegal spitball, though no one could ever prove that Burdette was indeed wetting up the ball.

Burdette responded to the allegations by actually using them to his advantage.

"I wouldn't know how to throw a spitter even if I wanted to," Burdette once said to answer his critics. "But if the hitters have that in their minds that I'm throwing one, then all it does is give them something else to think about."

Lew or Lou? That has been the question that even the man himself never gave a finite answer for. His name appeared both ways in publications, though more frequently the choice was Lew.

But the indifference Burdette showed with the spelling of his name was simply another reflection of the way the man lived his life. He ignored the questions and the criticisms. The one thing he knew for sure was that he was a pitcher -- and a good one at that.

He just left the talking to everyone else.

Burdette's family said Tuesday that "Lou" was the spelling of choice and would be placed that way on his gravesite.

Burdette is survived by his wife, Mary Ann, and their three children. A memorial service will be held on Feb. 24 in Orlando. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that any contributions be sent to the "Lou Burdette Foundation," which will support the care-giving needs of loved ones suffering from life threatening diseases.

Those wishing to make a donation can send it to: The Lou Burdette Foundation, Community Foundation of South Lake County, PO Box 121543, Clermont, FL 34712-1543.


Mark Bowman is a reporter for MLB.com. Jenifer Langosch contributed to this report. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Singer-Actress Barbara McNair Dies at 72

Singer-Actress Barbara McNair Dies at 72

By JACOB ADELMAN, Associated Press Writer

6 hours ago

LOS ANGELES - Barbara McNair, the pioneering black singer-actress who hosted her own TV variety show and starred with Sidney Poitier in the early 1970s, has died. She was 72. McNair died Sunday in Los Angeles after a battle with throat cancer, her sister, Jacqueline Gaither, said.

"She was very family oriented," Gaither said. "She was more than just a star or a famous personality. She was a person of her own."

Gaining fame in the 1960s as a nightclub singer, McNair graduated to film and television as opportunities were opening up for black women late in the decade. She made her Hollywood acting debut in 1968 in the film, "If He Hollers, Let Him Go."

She later starred with Elvis Presley in his 1969 film "Change of Habit" and as Poitier's wife in the 1970 film "They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!"

She found movie acting "a more rewarding kind of work than singing," she told The Washington Post in 1969. "When I'm working in a club, I must go from one song to another rapidly and I don't have much time to express myself emotionally. In a movie, you can concentrate on one scene at a time."

She hosted television's "The Barbara McNair Show," a syndicated musical and comedy program, from 1969 to 1972.

As a singer, one of her biggest hits was "You Could Never Love Him." She started out as a jazz singer but later branched out, adding show tunes and the Beatles' "Yesterday" to her repertoire.

On Broadway, McNair replaced Diahann Carroll in Richard Rodgers' "No Strings" in 1963, and 10 years later co-starred with Hal Linden in a revival of "The Pajama Game."

Gaither said her sister seemed headed for a career in show business from the time she was a girl in Racine, Wis.

"She sang from the time she was five years old in churches and then at school," Gaither told the Racine Journal Times. "We always encouraged her."

McNair went to the University of California, Los Angeles, before moving to New York City to pursue her dream of becoming an entertainer.

An engagement in 1957 at the Village Vanguard earned her notices that would lead to her Broadway debut in the short-lived 1958 musical "The Body Beautiful."

Reviewing a nightclub appearance in late 1965, a New York Times writer commented that the "strikingly beautiful" McNair "does not have to depend on looks alone. She is a highly knowledgeable performer who projects an aura of beauty, a warm personality and an appealing sense of fun."

As she gained notice in Hollywood in the late 1960s, she told the Post that a steamy 1968 photo spread she did for Playboy "helped my career immensely."

Also around that time, she joined a Bob Hope tour to entertain servicemen in Vietnam, saying she was thrilled to later meet men who had seen her there. "I don't believe in war for any reason," she told the Post. "I went over there to see what war was like and to comfort the men and I was appalled."

Her career was hampered in 1972, when she was accused of drug possession along with her then-husband, Rick Manzie, after she signed for a package delivered to her dressing room. She was later cleared; Manzie was shot to death in 1976.

"You can spend all this time building something and it can be destroyed in a minute," she told the Post in 1979.

But she still made TV appearances into the 1980s on such shows as "The Jeffersons" and "The Redd Foxx Show." Her sister said she sang professionally until the middle of last year, when the spreading cancer hurt her ability to perform.

Along with Gaither, McNair is survived by her fourth husband, Charles Blecka.

"She had a great resume," Blecka said. "She could have ended up conceited, but nothing ended up that way. She had a special quality that was infectious, that everybody loved."

(Rewrites throughout to correct that 'Body Beautiful' was a musical sted play, add detail on Broadway career, later TV work, quote from husband, minor recasting.)

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Astronaut charged with kidnap attempt

Astronaut charged with kidnap attempt

By MIKE SCHNEIDER, Associated Press Writer
32 minutes ago

An astronaut drove 900 miles and donned a disguise to confront a woman she believed was her rival for the affections of a space shuttle pilot, police said. She was arrested Monday and charged with attempted kidnapping and other counts.

U.S. Navy Capt. Lisa Nowak, 43, who flew last July on a shuttle mission to the international space station, was also charged with attempted vehicle burglary with battery, destruction of evidence and battery. She was denied bail.

Police said Nowak drove from her home in Houston to the Orlando International Airport to confront Colleen Shipman.

Nowak believed Shipman was romantically involved with Navy Cmdr. William Oefelein, a pilot during space shuttle Discovery's trip to the space station last December, police said.

Nowak told police that her relationship with Oefelein was "more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship," according to an arrest affidavit. Police officers recovered a love letter to Oefelein in her car.

NASA spokesman James Hartsfield in Houston said that, as of Monday, Nowak's status with the astronaut corps remained unchanged.

"What will happen beyond that, I will not speculate," he said.

Hartsfield said he couldn't recall the last time an astronaut was arrested and said there were no rules against fraternizing among astronauts.

When she found out that Shipman was flying to Orlando from Houston, Nowak decided to confront her, according to the arrest affidavit. Nowak raced from Houston to Orlando wearing diapers so she wouldn't have to stop to urinate, authorities said.

Astronauts wear diapers during launch and re-entry.

Dressed in a wig and a trench coat, Nowak boarded an airport bus that Shipman took to her car in an airport parking lot. Shipman told police she noticed someone following her, hurried inside the car and locked the doors, according to the arrest affidavit.

Nowak rapped on the window, tried to open the car door and asked for a ride. Shipman refused but rolled down the car window a few inches when Nowak started crying. Nowak then sprayed a chemical into Shipman's car, the affidavit said.

Shipman drove to the parking lot booth, and the police were called.

During a check of the parking lot, an officer followed Nowak and watched her throw away a bag containing the wig and BB gun. They also found a steel mallet, a 4-inch folding knife, rubber tubing, $600 and garbage bags inside a bag Nowak was carrying when she was arrested, authorities said.

Inside Nowak's vehicle, which was parked at a nearby motel, authorities uncovered a pepper spray package, an unused BB-gun cartridge, latex gloves and e-mails between Shipman and Oefelein. They also found a letter "that indicated how much Mrs. Nowak loved Mr. Oefelein," an opened package for a buck knife, Shipman's home address and hand written directions to the address, the arrest affidavit said.

Police said Nowak told them that she only wanted to scare Shipman into talking to her about her relationship with Oefelein and didn't want to harm her physically.

"If you were just going to talk to someone, I don't know that you would need a wig, a trench coat, an air cartridge BB gun and pepper spray," said Sgt. Barbara Jones, a spokeswoman for the Orlando Police Department. "It's just really a very sad case. ... Now she ends up finding herself on the other side of the law with some very serious charges."

If convicted of attempted kidnapping, Nowak could face a maximum of life in prison.

It was not immediately known whether Nowak had an attorney.

Oefelein and Shipman did not immediately return phone messages Monday night.

According to NASA's official biography, Nowak is married with three children. During her 13-day mission in July she operated the robotic arm during three spacewalks.

Oefelein is unmarried. He piloted the space shuttle Discovery in December. He has two children, according to a NASA biography.

Nowak and Oefelein were both first-time fliers during their shuttle missions last year. They trained together but never flew together.

___

Associated Press writers Kelli Kennedy and Jessica Gresko in Miami contributed to this report.



Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

AP Interview: Sanford's 2nd term to have slimmer agenda

Source: http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/16394215.htm

JIM DAVENPORT
Associated Press
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Gov. Mark Sanford has his second term agenda slimmed down enough to fit on a business card as he heads into a busy couple of weeks with his second inauguration and the Legislature returning to Columbia.

Sanford says he ran for second term because "we wanted to get more done on restructuring, on tax reform, on improving the business soil conditions, and DUI and worker's comp - a lot of different things."

But many of Sanford's ideas boil down to the same theme - keeping the state operating within its financial means.

Sanford will have other things keeping him busy the rest of this month, like deciding who stays and goes in his 14-member Cabinet. The past few weeks, the governor has been tied up preparing his executive budget. And now the emphasis is on Wednesday's inaugural and his fifth State-of-the-State address the next week.

The governor said he has no regrets about a first term where he earned national notice for toting squirming piglets to the doors outside the House's chamber to protest rapid-fire budget veto overrides.

Sanford said he had worked for months with leaders in the House to repay an unconstitutional deficit and his vetoes would have freed up cash to do that. But House leadership didn't go along and that isn't remembered or reported, Sanford said.

"One, there was an eight-month lead-up to it. Two, there was a constitutional issue at the core of what was going on and three was it worked," said Sanford, who noted he warned then-House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, that he would have no choice other using "some colorful way" to bring attention to the issue.

A few days after the pig episode, the Senate addressed the deficit, Sanford said.

"Had not that level of attention been brought to that matter, it would not have been dealt with," Sanford said.

The constant stories written about how the governor and General Assembly are at odds undermines his ability to use the office as a bully pulpit, Sanford said.

"What you can't have is every time we play the last card - which is going out to the people - then it's immediately cast as, 'Oops. The guy can't get along," Sanford said.

That can "substantially curtail the strength of the executive branch in any debate. Period," Sanford said.

This week, Republican House Speaker Bobby Harrell took offense when Sanford pointed out in his $6.5 billion budget this week that legislators hadn't kept a promise to keep spending in check last year.

The reaction to a phrase in a 350-plus page document made a "mountain out of mole hill," Sanford said.

Anyone may be able to find some offense in the budget, he said. "Give me a break."

The governor said he also has heard people mentioning him as a 2008 presidential candidate.

"It's been flattering and incredibly kind of these different folks," he said. "No doubt, the conservative base of the party is still looking for somebody."

Sanford said while says he'll continue to talk to people making pitches, "I have no intention of running for president or vice president or anything else."

One thing Sanford does know as he gets ready for four more years as governor is his life won't be getting back to normal. "I don't know that normalcy goes with this particular chapter of life we're in," he said.

But Sanford says his sons do like a few things, like on Wednesday, "they get yanked out of school because Daddy's getting sworn in as a governor again" and they get to spend some time with cousins, the governor said.


Joyce Comments: No need to be coy Governor Sanford -- jump in the presidential race! You are the dark horse the primary needs that the country and the Republican party are looking for.

NASCAR puts limit on past champ provisional

NASCAR puts limit on past champ provisional

Official Release
January 31, 2007
03:01 PM EST (20:01 GMT)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- NASCAR announced Wednesday an update to the past champion's provisional rule in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for 2007.

Beginning this season, a past champion's provisional may be used by an eligible driver a maximum of six times over the course of the season. In addition, a team with a past champion eligible driver may only use this provisional a maximum of six times during a season.

Previously, there was no limit on usage of the past champion's provisional over the course of the 36-race season. The provisional gives the eligible driver the 43rd and final starting position in the race field.

"As NASCAR seeks to place more emphasis on competition, we have decided the time is right to limit the number of provisionals allowed," said NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton.

"We believe this revision brings the provisional policy in line with the continued growth of the sport."

Mark Sanford: The Right Man for 2008?

Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/12/mark_sanford_the_right_man_for.html

By Joel Mowbray

With the implosion of George Allen, movement conservatives no longer have a candidate in the presidential mix that looks and acts like one of them. Even though the field contains several heavy hitters, such as John McCain and Rudy Giuliani, the GOP grassroots has no one that is a natural fit.

If a small but growing number of conservatives have their way, however, a candidate that could truly excite the base might enter the fray: my old boss and current South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford.

On paper, a Sanford candidacy seems Quixotic. Entering the White House derby at this point would actually be late in the game, he's little-known outside South Carolina and Washington, D.C., and his main foil the past four years has been the GOP-dominated legislature.

But if Republican primary voters decide that the 2008 standard-bearer needs to bring the party back to its Reagan roots, Sanford could be the dark horse to watch. The recently re-elected governor could capture conservatives' imagination with his unrelenting adherence to core principles. Unlike most GOP governors who either pushed their state parties to the left or simply acquiesced to tax or spending increases passed by legislatures of either party, Sanford has battled profligate Republicans at every turn.

When the state House overrode all but one of his 106 spending line-item vetoes in 2004, Gov. Sanford stormed the Capitol the next morning with a piglet under each arm. Red-faced Republicans squealed, but voters loved the bold move. Realizing they couldn't be quite as wasteful as their counterparts, the Senate sustained seven of the vetoes--but still overrode 99.

Sanford has been rankling fellow Republicans long before arriving in Columbia. As Congressman from 1995-2001, GOP leadership knew that he was beyond their control. In 1999, he and then-Rep. Tom Coburn (R-OK) used parliamentary procedures to save taxpayers a fortune. The farm spending bill came to the floor with an "open rule"--meaning any germane amendments could be offered. Reps. Sanford and Coburn together drafted 121 fat-trimming amendments, and after trudging through just a few dozen of them, House leadership pulled the entire bill. It was only re-introduced after $1 billion had been carved out.

Though it was exciting to work for Sanford, it wasn't lucrative. His staff was consistently among the lowest-paid on Capitol Hill, and we were expected to pinch every penny in running the office. But a hypocrite Sanford was not; he slept on a cot in his office--all six years. Taxpayers were rewarded for his frugality. Sanford returned well over $1 million of his office budget to the Treasury during his tenure.

Since becoming governor in 2003, Sanford has only gotten more tightfisted. Compared to his one-term predecessor, total salaries in his first term were $7 million lower--just for the governor's office, not statewide. And even though Gov. Hodges wasn't exactly a jetsetter, the Sanford administration's travel budget nosedived 42%, saving taxpayers over $25 million. In total, the running of South Carolina's government from 2003-2006 cost $100 million less than the previous four years.

While his budget cuts have proven quite popular with a public fed up with pork barrel politics, Gov. Sanford doesn't gear his actions to maximize popularity. As governor, he vetoed earmarked funding for the Special Olympics, on the theory that government should not play favorites among non-profits. On Capitol Hill, he was just one of three Congressmen to oppose taxpayer subsidies for a breast cancer stamp. Looking past the feel-good image of the funding request, Sanford voted against it because most of the money raised was going to go to Post Office administration, with little dedicated to actual breast-cancer research.

South Carolina's chief executive is also a practical problem solver. When Wall Street was poised to lower the state's perfect AAA bond rating--over concern for the $155 million budget deficit Hodges left as a parting gift--the MBA-educated governor traveled to New York. He persuaded two of the three main bond-rating agencies to maintain South Carolina's score, while the third only dropped it one notch, to AA+.

Sanford hasn't even hinted that he's interested in running for 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., but that hasn't stopped activists and contributors from prodding him. Should he run, he would face very long odds. Then again, long odds are all he's ever known. In a seven-way 2002 primary, he beat three statewide-elected officials and then cruised to a fairly easy victory over incumbent Democratic Gov. Jim Hodges. Going back even further, he emerged from complete obscurity to top a six-way Congressional primary in 1994.

In spite of open opposition from some in the Republican establishment, Sanford won handily, 55-45--the largest margin for any South Carolina gubernatorial or Senate candidate in 16 years. To celebrate defying the GOP old guard and winning, Sanford is about to fight fellow Republicans--again--for more tax cuts.

That this is par for his course is exactly why conservatives, from inside the beltway and out, have been pleading with Sanford to think of the White House--and why his message could resonate with voters.

Arab groups protest Beck's hiring

Arab groups protest Beck's hiring

Fri Jan 26, 8:48 AM ET



NEW YORK - Three groups are urging ABC News not to keep CNN Headline News personality Glenn Beck on as a "Good Morning America" commentator because they believe he's biased against Arabs.

The Arab American Institute, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Muslim Public Affairs Council all said Thursday they had written to ABC News President David Westin about Beck.

"Good Morning America" executive producer Jim Murphy has spoken to a representative of the groups and has invited them on the air to talk about their grievances, said ABC News spokeswoman Jeffrey Schneider. Beck has appeared twice on the show, once together with a Muslim religious leader.

The groups said that Beck _ who's drawing strong ratings with his evening show on CNN Headline News _ has stated on his show that Arab and Muslim Americans are apathetic to terrorism. During an interview in November with Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison (news, bio, voting record), the first Muslim member of Congress, Beck asked him to "prove to me that you are not working with our enemies."

"That blatant anti-Arab, anti-Muslim bias has been given credibility on a larger news show is something that concerns us," said Arab American Institute spokeswoman Jennifer Kauffman.

Beck has said that his question to Ellison was poorly worded.

"My message is clear: Islam is a peaceful religion for over 90 percent of the world's Muslims," he said. "I have urged viewers repeatedly to understand this, while asking all of the proud, peaceful Muslims here in America to take a more visible role in our fight against those who make a mockery of the Quran. I also make airtime available, at any time, to any Muslim organization to help reinforce this realistic, peaceful view of Islam."

Unser Jr. Charged With DUI After Crash

Unser Jr. Charged With DUI After Crash

By KEN RITTER, Associated Press Writer
2 hours ago

LAS VEGAS - Al Unser Jr. faces a charge of driving under the influence after leaving the scene of a crash on a Nevada freeway.

The 44-year-old Unser was arrested after he was identified as the driver of a car that sideswiped another on the Las Vegas Beltway shortly before 11 a.m. Thursday, Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Kevin Honea said.

Unser's vehicle had little damage, but the other car crashed into a cement center median. The driver reported no injuries at the scene, Honea said Friday.

Honea said Unser failed several field sobriety tests before being taken into custody. Unser was charged with driving under the influence, misdemeanor hit and run, failure to render aid in an accident and failure to report an accident.

Andrew Leavitt, a lawyer representing Unser, did not immediately respond Friday to a message seeking comment.

Unser is the son of Indianapolis 500 racing legend Al Unser and nephew of three-time Indy winner Bobby Unser. He won the Indy 500 in 1992 and 1994, and won two CART points titles and two IROC championships.

Unser also has had bouts with alcohol abuse and depression. He underwent treatment for alcohol abuse in 2002 after his girlfriend said he hit her in the face while drunk in Indianapolis. Prosecutors did not file charges against him.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.