Professional Sports

LONG POND, Pa. (AP) - Jimmie Johnson isn't ready to panic despite a recent swoon. The four-time defending NASCAR champion enters Sunday's race at Pocono seventh in the points standings and coming off a crash-filled 37th-place finish in Charlotte last weekend. ...Read more

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (AP) - NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton, and Marcos Ambrose have completed the first half of a two-day tire test at Watkins Glen International, which has been altered to improve safety. ...Read more

ATLANTA (AP) - Chipper Jones and Troy Glaus homered to back a strong start by Tommy Hanson and help the Atlanta Braves move into first place in the National League East with a 9-3 victory Monday over the slumping Philadelphia Phillies. The Braves, winners of six straight, are one-half game ahead of Philadelphia, which has dropped two straight and nine of 13. I ...Read more

MIAMI (AP) - Here's a chance to buy tickets to a guaranteed perfect game - the one Roy Halladay already threw. ...Read more

CONCORD, N.C. (AP) - Kurt Busch has won the Coca-Cola 600 to sweep the two weeks of racing at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Busch won last weekend's $1 million All-Star race to roll into NASCAR's longest race of the year with a ton of momentum. ...Read more

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Dario Franchitti has won the Indianapolis 500, beating Dan Wheldon to help Chip Ganassi become the first car owner to win at Indy and the Daytona 500 in the same year. Franchitti's victory Sunday was his second at the Indy 500 in four years and denied Helio Castroneves a chance to become the fourth driver to win a record four times at the Brickyard. Castroneves was running in the top 3 until he stalled coming out of a pit stop on the 145th lap. He finished ninth, as none of Roger Penske's drivers came across in the top seven. ...Read more

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - Zach Johnson now has a plaid jacket to go along with his green one. Johnson shot a closing 6-under 64 Sunday in the final round of the Colonial, winning at Hogan's Alley with a tournament-record score of 21-under 259. The 2007 Masters champion finished three strokes ahead of Brian Davis, who had a closing 68. ...Read more

NEW YORK (AP) - The Philadelphia Flyers and Chicago Blackhawks are already a television hit in the Stanley Cup finals. Chicago's stirring 6-5 victory Saturday night in Game 1 produced the best o vernight rating for a hockey finals opener in 11 years. The game on NBC garnered a 2.8 overnight rating and 6 share, the best numbers since 1999 when Buffalo and Dallas produced a rating of 3.7 on FOX. Saturday night's rating was 12 percent higher than last year's opener between Detroit and Pittsburgh. ...Read more

Former Alabama baseball teammates Emeel Salem and Greg Paiml are now both playing professional baseball in the Double-A Southern League.  Salem with the Tampa Bay Rays affilate Montgomery Biscuits and Paiml with the Chicago White Sox Double-A affilate Birmingham Barons. WVUA Sports Correspondent Alex Corddry has more on these baseball buddies who have known each other since they were kids.

MIAMI (AP) - Anibal Sanchez allowed two runs and five hits while pitching into the seventh inning, Cody Ross hit a two-run double in the eighth and the Florida Marlins extended Kenshin Kawakami's season of woe by beating the Atlanta Braves 6-4 on Tuesday night. ...Read more