LONG POND, Pa. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. is having a blast again, with a shared bond with his crew, comfort in his own skin as NASCARs most popular driver, even finding fun 140 characters at a time on Twitter. Winning races sure has a way of easing burdens on Junior. Earnhardt turned Brad Keselowskis trash into Victory Lane treasure, pulling away down the stretch Sunday at Pocono Raceway for his second win of the season and a secured spot in the Chase field. He paired his first career win at Pocono with his Daytona 500 championship for his first multi-win season since 2004. "I feel like Im such a lucky guy to have this second opportunity again to be competitive," Earnhardt said. But for as strong as he ran in the No. 88 Chevrolet, Keselowski gift-wrapped this win when he yielded the lead with five laps left in a desperate attempt to clear debris from his grille and cool his overheated engine. Keselowskis gamble backfired -- he couldnt get the draft needed from the lapped traffic to clear his car and make one final pass for the win on Earnhardt. Keselowskis No. 2 Ford still had the oomph in the engine needed to finish the race, and he had his second-straight runner-up finish. "It was definitely a mistake because the engine made it," Keselowski said, rubbing his face. "It probably shouldnt have." Junior shook off the rising red gauges in the No. 88 that could have had his car meet a similar fate as Keselowski. "They were still within good reason to stand on it and give it hell," he said. Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin and rookie Kyle Larson completed the top five. Earnhardt gave Hendrick Motorsports three straight wins, following back-to-back victories by Jimmie Johnson. Johnson overcame a pit road accident to finish sixth. Owner Rick Hendrick texted Earnhardt before the race to let him know he would not attend and would see him next week at Michigan. Earnhardt told him, "Ill drink one for you after its over." Earnhardt stuck to his end of the deal, spraying all types of beverages in a jubilant Victory Lane. Johnson was the first driver over to congratulate him. I dont have much to do tomorrow," Earnhardt said, grinning. "Tonights going to be a long one." Earnhardt, long NASCARs most popular driver, gave the Pocono crowd plenty of reason to go wild. He was mobbed by almost 100 fans outside the Pocono media centre, screaming his name and clamouring for a picture with the winner. He waved and ducked into a waiting car, whisked away for another party. Maybe the fans should try tweeting at him to earn his attention. A reluctant participant on Twitter for years, Earnhardt warmed fast to the social media site after winning Daytona. He said he underestimated the amount of fun hed have interacting with fans. He loved the "go get ems" that dot his feed, though its the "haters" that he really feeds off. "The real short ones, like, You suck, those are the best ones," he said, smiling. "I just favourite them and block them. Its so much fun." Earnhardts second win means he is guaranteed to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship field. He won for the 29th time in 519 career Sprint Cup starts. "When we won at Daytona, man, it made the rest of the year a lot more relaxing, a lot easier," he said. "It makes it fun because you can just go to the track and just race, not worry about points." Juniors breakthrough was more meaningful because has come in crew chief Steve Letartes final season. Letarte, who had a Pocono win with Jeff Gordon, has become one of Earnhardts best friends. That tightness off the track just may have sparked the wins on the track. "Maybe thats why him and I are such good friends, because I might be the only one in the world that doesnt wonder what its like to be Dale Junior," Letarte said. "Hes a normal guy, hes a great guy, hes a great talent. I dont have any idea what its like to be him." Earnhardt led three Hendrick drivers in the top 10; Gordon finished eighth. Johnsons bid for a third straight victory was derailed when he connected on pit road with Marcos Ambrose. Coming off wins in the Coca-Cola 600 and at Dover, Johnson was fifth when he pitted under yellow. Johnson hit Ambrose and spun 180-degrees, which forced him to back into his stall for more repairs. He needed two tires, had right-front damage and dropped to 29th on the restart. Busch posted his first top 10 since his win at Martinsville nine races ago. He salvaged a rough day for his team that saw fellow Stewart-Haas Racing drivers Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick drop from contention with various issues. Stewart held the lead and was in great position late to win until he was busted for speeding on pit road and was dropped to 31st. Harvick was running second when had tire trouble. Stewart finished 13th, Harvick 14th, and SHRs Danica Patrick was 37th after she smacked the wall with 22 laps left. All those mishaps -- and one loose wrapper -- all made it a race to remember for Earnhardt. "A year or two ago, we werent running to seize the opportunity," Earnhardt said, "and now we are." Oakland Athletics Shirts .com) - Australian Open champion Li Na, former Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova and former world No. Custom Oakland Athletics Jerseys . Beanballs were the theme Friday night as the Red Sox and Rays had another AL East rumble, with Boston earning a 3-2 victory on A. https://www.cheapathleticsonline.com/. The 12th-ranked Haas served well throughout the match at the Ibirapuera arena, allowing only one break point to the 152nd-ranked Italian. Both players held serve until the first-set tiebreak, when Haas stepped up his game to easily clinch the set. Oakland Athletics Store . - Chicago Bears general manager Phil Emery was so busy in free agency he didnt mind having a few extra weeks to prepare for the draft. Athletics Jerseys 2020 . The 26-year-old slider from Calgary posted a time of 50.464 seconds, 0.573 seconds back of leader Natalie Geisenberger. The German led the overall World Cup womens standings this season and continued her dominance by putting down a track record time of 49.EL SEGUNDO, CALIF. – Darryl Sutter was at his sarcastic best on Sunday. "Yeah, Im not rattled," the Los Angeles Kings head coach said when asked about overcoming the Game 4 loss to Anaheim. "Im just thankful Im alive today. Im fortunate to pull through after the devastating loss last night." Sutter joked that he almost didnt make it to his daily media interrogation. "They had to get me up – Radar and Hawkeye had to get me up to come here today," said Sutter, referencing characters from the television show M*A*S*H. The point was clear: this is a veteran coach with a veteran team that isnt about to be fazed by losing two straight or by facing a hotshot young goalie. The Kings lost 20 games during the regular season when outshooting an opponent. Only the New York Rangers (22) and Calgary Flames (21) were ahead of them in that category. So what happened on Saturday night, when they outshot the Ducks 28-14 overall and 19-3 over the last two periods, but still came out on the short end of the scoreboard, is old hat and thus not worth losing too much sleep over. "Pretty nice out here today," said forward Jarret Stoll. "Sun came out. Its Mothers Day and my moms here so itll be a good off day." Meanwhile, about 30 miles down the road in Anaheim, John Gibson had already been named the Ducks starter for Game 5. Only hours earlier he had become the youngest goalie in NHL history to post a shutout in his playoff debut. It was only his fourth career NHL game. Hes stopped 111 of the 115 shots faced in those games (.965 save percentage). It has been a remarkable start to the 20-year-olds career. "I know hes calm and cool or whatever, but its our job to make his job a lot harder," said Kings forward Mike Richards. "Its a lot of pressure to put on a young kid [playing him in this series] and you can say it all you want, Hes calm, cool, but if we start getting bodies in front we dont know how hes going to react." Los Angeles had 25 shots blocked on Saturday and missed on 18 other attempts. "Most of the goalies in the league are pretty much the same," said defenceman Drew Doughty. "We have a little sheet that we [get] before the game and its pretty much the same things: whether he handles the puck well, hes usually not good in traffic like any goalie, not good with screens, tips, so thats exactly what we have to do. We have to get the ssecond opportunities and put them in.dddddddddddd We just got to bear down and get more goals. "It shouldnt matter whos in net." Thats basically the exact same message players on the Ducks were telling anyone who would listen after they dropped the first two games at home despite outshooting the Kings and controlling the lions share of possession. Now the shoe is very much on the other foot. "The playoffs, really, is about scoring big goals and we were doing that early in the series and winning games that way and theyre doing that now," Doughty said. "We want to have possession of the puck and take control of the game like we did in the last two periods last night, but we got to score big goals." Considering the Kings track record and championship pedigree they are far from flustered. After staring into the abyss of an 0-3 deficit in the last round against the San Jose Sharks they arent about to let a rookie goalie get in their heads. So there was no cram session on Sunday featuring video of Gibson. After all, Gibson isnt the issue. "I dont think weve played poorly," said Richards, "but we just havent gotten to that desperation level that we had in San Jose where youre just fighting for every inch on the ice, and I think thats that mentality that we have to get back to." The Kings will get a chance to up their intensity level on Monday night at the Honda Center when the series resumes. But Sunday was all about mothers. And Sutter had already placed a call to his mom before meeting with the media. "Yeah, I did," he acknowledged. "But she was in church. I shouldve known to call later. Thats the last thing I told the players. Make sure they talk to their moms or a mother in their life today." Stoll wont have to make a call. His mom, Sherri, is in town and he planned on spending the day with her. "She loved the cowbell," said Stoll, a Saskatchewan native, when asked about his favourite hockey-mom memory. "We had a group of parents who were the loudest group of parents who followed their sons around and my mom had the big cowbell that shed hammer on and Im sure it was pretty annoying for some people and you look up in the stands and Im like, Thats my mom." As for Sutter, he was asked if had any special plans for Mothers Day. "Oh no," he said sarcastically. "Im going to go watch some video on Gibson." ' ' '