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KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Joey Logano knows he is in the most precarious of positions heading to the Chase elimination race at Talladega, tied for the eighth and final spot for advancing to the next round of NASCARs playoffs.There are two clear strategies his Penske Racing team could employ.The first is the relatively low-risk option: They could spend the entire race at the unpredictable superspeedway spying on Austin Dillon, who is even with him in points, and Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski, who are also within striking distance, and ensure they get through on points.The riskier option? Race to win, points be damned.Thats the way I race. I dont know a different way, said Logano, whose third-place finish behind Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards on Sunday at Kansas at least made the points route possible.Im sure well talk about it this week, Logano added, but Im a racer.At least three Chase contenders dont have the same dilemma. Harvick and Jimmie Johnson are already locked into the next round by virtue of their wins in the first two stops of the round, and Chase Elliotts trouble for the second straight week left him in a must-win situation.The other nine drivers are much like Logano, racing to win but keeping a wary eye on points.The big thing that swung everything around was Kevin winning. We would have been in pretty good shape if he had finished second, Logano said. It isnt disappointing because we still should be proud of the effort we had, but it would have meant a lot if he finished second.Thats because Harvick had problems of his own in the round at Charlotte, which means even second place at Kansas would have put him squarely on the bubble heading to Talladega.Logano should at least have some confidence heading to the volatile restrictor-plate track. After years of mostly terrible results, he won there to complete a sweep of the entire round last fall.Meanwhile, Dillon was third there earlier this year, Hamlin won there a couple of years ago and Keselowski won for the fourth time there earlier this year.I dont think its a must-win situation, said Keselowski, who spun into the grass and tore up his car before finishing 38th at Kansas. Im not worried about it. Im going to go there and bust my butt to try to win, but I dont think its a must-win yet.Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Edwards and Kurt Busch are relatively safe after steering clear of major trouble the last two rounds, and Martin Truex Jr. has a 13-point cushion over eighth place.For each of them, winning at Talladega would be great. But they also know that simply by staying out of trouble, their spot in the next round is virtually assured.Its a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately sport and to a huge extreme with the Chase now with this format, Truex said. Youve got to perform every single week. Youve got a bad week, it could ruin your whole season. ... Weve just got to go to Talladega and hope that nothing crazy happens.MAKE YOUR PICKNASCAR could take steps soon to limit Sprint Cup driver participation in lower series, a point driven home after Kyle Busch won his ninth Xfinity Series race of the year at Kansas. NASCAR executive vice president Steve ODonnell was asked about the dominance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio this week and said something could change in the rules by next year.Weve heard the fans. Its interesting, its been a balance throughout the years, he said. We have always had Sprint Cup drivers come into the Xfinity Series and sometimes dominate.As the sport has evolved, one of the great things is weve got more of a fan following in the Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series. They like seeing those drivers come up through the ranks and its our job to make sure that Xfinity is where names are made.NASCAR is already prohibiting any Sprint Cup driver who was in last years Chase from competing in this years season finale for the Xfinity and Truck Series at Homestead-Miami Speedway.Of the 30 Xfinity races this season, 19 have been won by Sprint Cup regulars.TAKING A BREAKThe Xfinity Series is on a two-week break after Kyle Busch trumped the eight Chase contenders at Kansas on Saturday. Justin Allgaier plans to do some endurance racing in Brazil, and Daniel Suarez will squeeze in a trip to Mexico before racing trucks at Martinsville.Its been a while since the last time I went to Mexico to visit my family, my mom, my sisters and my dad, he said. Were going to do something fun with the people from NASCAR.SKIPPING THE SUNTruexs team decided not to take part in this weeks testing at Homestead, even though its the site of the season-ending race next month. One reason is that its far from Denver, where his Furniture Row Racing team is based, and another is that he isnt convinced it does any good.Every time weve tested this year, weve gone to the race track and spent the first day-and-a-half trying to regroup, he said. It seems like its probably hurt us more than helped us.HAAS F1 DECISIONSFormula 1 team owner Gene Haas said Sunday that he wants to see how Esteban Gutierrez fares the rest of the season before deciding on a second driver for his team. Romain Grosjean has been solid in the teams debut, and his spot for next year is secure. But while Gutierrez has been improving in recent races, he still has not earned a championship point.We havent definitively said whether Esteban is the driver for next year or not, said Haas, whose Sprint Cup team won at Kansas. That doesnt necessarily mean that he wont be, either.Liverpool Away Kit 2018/19 . Andreas Johnson had a goal and two assists while Jacob de la Rose also scored for Sweden (2-0-0). Esa Lindell and Rasmus Ristolainen replied for Finland (1-1-0) Lindell opened the scoring for Finland just 41 seconds into the game, but the hosts quickly regained their composure and tied the score less than four minutes later on Wennbergs first of the game. Firmino t-Shirt . -- The Bishops Gaiters are showing they belong among the countrys top varsity football teams. http://www.liverpoolstoreuk.com/ . Durant finished with 24 points and 13 rebounds, Jackson matched his career high with 23 points on 10-of-14 shooting and Lamb scored 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting, lifting the Thunder to a 94-88 win over San Antonio and snapping the Spurs 11-game winning streak. Cheap Liverpool Shirts 18/19 . Woodson said during a radio interview Thursday that the Knicks Carmelo Anthony doesnt get the same calls as other superstars. Liverpool Home Kit 2018/19 . -- About a third of the way through the regular season, the Washington Wizards are at .Ellia Green has been cutting her teeth as a rugby player for four years in the pursuit of an Olympic gold medal. It has cost her a couple of teeth along the way, too.The so-called fastest woman in world rugby, for a long time Green trained in track and field and had competed at international level for Australia before making a sudden move into the rough-and-tumble sport.Like so many players in the world series-winning Australian womens squad, it was games of backyard rugby with a brother as a child that provided the only real hint about the physical demands of the game.He always tried to get me involved. He tried to tackle me in the backyard, Green recalled of her brother, Mitchell, now 25 and still playing rugby union. It helped. Growing up, we were sort of rough with each other. He told me `You should try rugby, youd be so good at it.That wasnt exactly the unanimous family line. Her mother, Yolanta, wasnt really sold on the idea at first.She was unsure about it -- she was worried, Green said. `Ellia, cant you pick a sport where you cant get hurt?Four years later, by her reckoning, Green has had five operations.Finger surgeries, Ive lost teeth, shoulder operations, she said, running through her catalog of injuries. Thats one thing (Yolanta) was worried about.But above all, she said opportunities like this dont come often. If it wasnt for her, I probably wouldnt have gone on with it.Greens initial contact with rugby sevens was as a driver -- giving her cousin a ride to a Pathway to Gold talent identification tryout in Melbourne in 2012. There were women there from all kinds of sports, and from all over Australia.I wasnt planning on going at all. I was just taking my cousin, Green recalled in an interview with The Associated Press. It was spontaneous. There were 150-200 girls. They only picked two.One of those was Green, who was born in Fiji and raised in Australia.The team has several players drawn from other sports, including Chloe Dalton, who earlier had aspirations to be in Australias womens basketball team, field hockey players Shannon Parry and Sharni Williams, who was a full-time auto mechhanic, and Charlotte Caslick and Alicia Quirk from touch football -- a non-contact form of rugby.ddddddddddddaving a squad of full-time contracted players paid off in the womens world sevens series when the Australians broke New Zealands dominance of the competition,Green made more clean line breaks than anyone in the 2016 world series and scored 17 tries -- fourth on the list for the season -- lifting her career tally to 61. New Zealander Portia Woodman led the try-scoring for the season with 24, followed by Greens Australian teammate Emilee Cherry with 22 and Ghislaine Landry of Canada with 19.Australia won the first three titles in the five-event series and reached the final on the last stop to finish with 94 points, 14 clear of second-place New Zealand and 20 clear of Canada and England.The convincing series win make the Australians favorites for gold in Rio, but Green and her teammates are conscious that New Zealand timed its preparations to peak for the Olympic tournament which kicks off Saturday.Speed is one of the Australian teams biggest assets, and Green knows shell be in the targets of defenders for that reason. She looks inside and outside of the game for motivation, recalling the posters of sprinters she had on her walls in her track and field days, admiring the likes of Carmelita Jeter, Allyson Felix and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.From a rugby sevens perspective, she looks to the likes of U.S. mens players Carlin Isles and Perry Baker.I do look up to speedsters, she said. I just like the power.Rugby is returning to the Olympics for the first time in 92 years, in the modified sevens version rather than the traditional 15-a-side game. Women will be playing for rugby medals for the first time, and Green sees that as an opportunity to break down some stereotypes.I want to be a tough girl who can do anything, she said. Im into my cars. I love building -- I did some construction work last year. I dont think there should be any boundaries to what girls should do. ' ' '