iChina.com

EDMONTON - For 10 races, James Hinchcliffes engine drove his car. NFL Jerseys China. With five races to go, he is trying to avoid the engine driving him. The 25-year-old from Oakville, Ont., is on his fifth and final Chevrolet engine heading into Sundays Edmonton Indy. If this one blows, hell get a penalty, fall 10 places in the starting grid, and get a rebuilt engine as a replacement. For each subsequent blown engine its another 10-spot penalty. If that happens, he can kiss goodbye any chance of leapfrogging four opponents, including series leader Ryan Hunter-Reay, to reach the top of the driver standings. Hinchcliffe said for now the engine is not dictating race strategy because his crew is still trying to salvage another motor that went south two weeks ago at the Toronto Indy. "When we establish whether or not this engine from Toronto is salvageable, then that might have an effect going forward for future races," Hinchcliffe said Thursday. "But for right now, were on full attack mode. "If not, I cant do the entire rest of the season on one engine, so I would have to take a penalty at some point." Hinchcliffes problems with his 2.2-litre turbocharged V6 powerplant mirror his season — a fantastic start, but a season now starting to hit the ditch. Replacing Danica Patrick in the neon lime-coloured GoDaddy car for Andretti Autosport, Hinchcliffe had a storybook first three months. He consistently finished in the top six except for a freak crash in Belle Isle, Mich., when a piece of the track dislodged into his undercarriage, sending his Dallara into the wall. He was second overall in the standings after the Milwaukee race on June 16th, but since then has —literally and figuratively — hit the skids. At the oval track at Iowa on June 23rd, he started fourth but spun into the wall late in the race and finished 17th. Engine-wise he was still doing fine, with one in the car and two in reserve. But that all came apart in Toronto. The third engine had problems in practice, forcing his engineers to go to the fourth powerplant. Under the rules, the engines cant be swapped out without penalty until after 1,850 miles. The engine had not reached that limit, so Hinchcliffe incurred the 10-spot grid penalty and started 19th. The fourth engine was good for the first third of the Toronto race, then mysteriously began bleeding horsepower. He finished 22nd. "It all deteriorated very quickly," Hinchcliffe said. "Theres no way we could have finished that race in Toronto. It was losing power. It was getting progressively worse." He said because it was an in-race problem with the engine he wont be penalized 10 spots on the grid in Edmonton for swapping it out. As for the ailing engine, he said hes got his fingers crossed it can be saved. "Its a brand new motor. We only had 100 miles on it." The engine strategy was introduced by IndyCar this year to help control costs, bring parity and introduce a new element of strategy. Teams are using powerplants from Lotus, Chevrolet, and Honda. Hinchcliffe is not alone. The engines are beginning to dictate the fortunes of other drivers, particularly Scott Dixon. The 31-year old New Zealander with Target Chip Ganassi is having the kind of year that should translate into a championship. He sits fourth, 54 points behind Hunter-Reay with a car that is competitive week in and week out. Dixon won at Belle Isle., has finished second three times, held the lead in seven out of 10 races and is No. 1 in IndyCar this year with a total of 405 laps out front. Hes done all this despite a blown instant replay call that penalized him on a restart and cost him a potential podium finish at Milwaukee. Dixon, however, needs to make up points and will have to do so starting no better than 11th in the 25-car field at Edmonton. He used up the last of his five Honda engines at Toronto and is now on his sixth, incurring the 10-spot penalty. Will Power is second to Hunter-Reay and sits just 34 points back, with 50 points going to the driver who takes the checkered flag. The Australian Team Penske driver said the engine factor will grow as the season winds down after Edmonton, with road courses at Mid-Ohio, Sonoma, and Baltimore before a wide-open 500-mile race on the two-mile oval at Fontana, Calif., east of Los Angeles. Power said a 10-spot grid penalty can be made up on wider courses like Edmonton — with its long straightaways and tight braking zones — and on the oval at Fontana, but not so easily on the tighter road courses. "If you get engine penalties at Mid-Ohio, Sonoma, or Baltimore, a 10-grid spot penalty there is way harsher," Power said. "All those strategies will play in. You get a 10-spot grid penalty at the wrong track and youre in trouble." Hunter-Reay is in good shape with one engine in the car and two spares. Power and Helio Castroneves (sitting third at 46 points back) have some breathing room, with each having one engine in the car and one to spare. Simona De Silvestro is on her sixth Lotus engine and will take a 10-spot grid penalty in Edmonton. IndyCar brought in the three manufacturers this year, replacing the Honda 3.5-litre V8 that had been used exclusively from 2006-2011. Chevy leads the manufacturer points competition 81 to 69 over Honda, with Lotus third at 40. Seven of the 10 race winners this season have used Chevy engines versus three for Honda. Its been a tough year for Lotus. Four of five teams using its engines switched to a rival over performance issues. De Silvestro says recent improvements have closed the 2.5 per cent horsepower gap between Lotus and the others, but said the engine is not there yet. Hinchcliffe said while the engine problems can be frustrating, its good for the sport. "Everybody has had to serve a (grid) penalty at some point or another throughout the season, but the racings been great and the competition between manufacturers is fantastic," he said. "Its just an occupational hazard." Cheap NFL Jerseys. He was 88. New Zealands Sir Edmund Hillary makes a speech during the 50th Anniversary of Scott Base celebration, at Scott Base, Antarctica, in this Jan. 20, 2007 file photo. Hillary, the unassuming beekeeper who conquered Mount Everest to win renown as one of the 20th centurys greatest adventurers, has died, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark announced Friday, Jan. Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping. England coach Roy Hodgson revealed details of the unspecified injury, which United manager Alex Ferguson had not disclosed as his side tried -- and failed -- to stop Manchester City winning the Premier League last weekend. http://www.nflwholesalecheapjerseysstore.com/. The backup goalie continued to make the most of his limited opportunities, stopping all 31 shots he faced as the Jets beat the Los Angeles Kings 1-0 in overtime Thursday night. Cheap NFL Jerseys China. Lampard will have a scan and be assessed by medics on Thursday before a decision is made about whether the Chelsea player can remain in the 23-man squad, which has already been submitted to UEFA. On Monday, central midfielder Gareth Barry was ruled out of the tournament because of a stomach injury and replaced by Phil Jagielka. Cheap Jerseys China.Y. -- After netting the lone shootout goal in Colorados 5-4 victory over Buffalo on Wednesday, Peter Mueller had difficulty digesting how quickly the Avalanches fortunes turned. VANCOUVER - Most of the San Jose Sharks didn’t know what happened until they saw the Vancouver Canucks celebrating. The 3-2 goal that ended their season at 10:18 of the second overtime period Tuesday night was not manufactured off your routine shoot-in and a diligent forecheck. Canuck defenceman Kevin Bieksa got a fortuitous bounce off a stanchion along the side boards after Alex Edler tried to fire the puck behind the San Jose net. Bieksa swatted the rolling puck behind netminder Antti Niemi who never saw it. I was looking for the puck, Niemi said in a subdued Sharks dressing room as teammates silently stuffed pads and skates into equipment bags. I saw it go by so quickly, there was nothing to do at that point. Everybody was celebrating so, obviously ... . Their season was over. The Canucks won the best-of-seven Western Conference final 4-1 and will play either Boston or Tampa Bay in a bid to win the first Stanley Cup in the 40-year history of the franchise. Sharks captain Joe Thornton, playing despite a separated shoulder suffered in Sunday’s Game 4, didnt see Bieksa’s winner. The way they reacted you knew it went in, Thornton said as the Sharks failed to get past the West final for the second straight season. Kind of a blur. Weird bounce and the pucks in the net. Rookie Logan Couture, who had one of the best chances in double overtime but was foiled by goaltender Roberto Luongo, saw most of the sequence leading to Bieksas winner. (The puck) was coming up the wall, he said. (Shark forward) Patty (Marleau) hit it out of the air and no one saw it. I followed it but no one else saw it. I was out of position. Bieksa just took a slapshot and no one saw it. It was tough to follow. It was there (on the glass) and back out. San Jose coach Todd McLellan said Bieksa appeared to bounce the puck into the net. When you watch the replay, the officials didnt know where it was, (Niemi) didnt know where it was, Vancouver, San Jose, nobody knew where it was, McLellan said. One more bounce (Bieksa) probably whiffs on it were still playing. Defenceman Ian White was on the ice but didn’t know what happened. I thought they kind of dumped it in behind the glass and it was going behind the net, he said. I saw one of their guys skating toward the corner looking for it too so I started skating towards him. It still hasnt hit, really. Well have to see it (on replay) but it doesn’t matter at this stage. The Canucks, outplayed for most of the game and outshot 56-34 by a team with more desperation in its effort, drew even on a Ryan Kesler tip-in with 13.2 seconds remaining. Goalie Roberto Luongo was on the bench for an extra attacker and Kesler started the play with an offensive zone face-off win. The ddraw resulted from an icing call the Sharks claimed went off Canuck forward Daniel Sedin. Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale It happens real fast, McLellan said. May be hard to catch with the naked eye. Obviously an error but theres nothing were doing about it now. We were yelling and screaming, but it wasnt going to change. Centre Joe Pavelski said his club shook off the disappointment of failing in regulation time to force a sixth game Thursday in San Jose. We still liked our chances, regardless, Pavelski said. We thought we had the puck a lot. Our mood doesnt change. We definitely thought we knew the way back and came out and played a pretty good game. I’m definitely frustrated right now. But the Sharks had plenty of early scoring opportunities to take the game out of the hockey gods’ hands. Many went to Dany Heatley, the $8 million forward who had only one assist to show for the series and no goals for eight games. His best chances missed the net. “I thought we played well enough to win tonight but throughout the series I didn’t think we played well enough to win the previous games,” Heatley said. Marleau, credited with a goal that gave San Jose a 1-1 tie -- his sixth in as many games -- said the Sharks let the Canucks off the hook. “We had our chances to score earlier and we let it slip away,” Marleau said. Devin Setoguchi scored 24 seconds into the third period when a bad bounce at the blue-line led to a two-man break-in on Luongo. While the Canucks reached their third Stanley Cup final after a 17-year wait, the Sharks lost for the seventh time in nine games since taking a 3-0 lead over Detroit in the conference semi-final. The loss has already led to questions about an under-achieving team that also had the NHL’s best record in 2009 but bombed out in the first round to the Anaheim Ducks. “We’ve still got a lot of years,” said Thornton of his club’s window to succeed with its current personnel. “Our core group still has three years left so we’ll come back and be more hungry next year.” He said there are 27 other teams that didn’t play as deep into the playoffs. “I think they’d be jealous of the success we’ve had. To get here is an accomplishment but next year we’ve got to beat it.” NOTES: The Sharks were 0-3 in Game 5s this post-season ... they are 8-14 all-time when facing elimination ... they have never won a series when trailing 3-1 but twice extended it to a sixth game ... Sharks defenceman Jason Demers missed his fifth consecutive game although he said he was ready to play ... Demers suffered an undisclosed injury when the Sharks closed out Detroit in Game 7 ... Kent Huskins remained in his place. ' ' '