Double Duty

Friday turned out to be a marathon day but, all things considered, a fairly decent one. I travelled to Chicago to cover be on hand for the NASCAR races this weekend, and I sprinkled in a touch of AVP beach volleyball for kicks.

AVP pro Angie Akers is originally from Fort Wayne and a Bishop Luers grad. I met her a couple of years ago in Los Angeles at a sports photography workshop, and it was there that I learned she was from here in town. So I talked to Blake Sebring, our resident volleyball guru, and he filled me in about her time in high school here. So when I learned she was going to play in the AVP Crocs tour Chicago Open the same weekend as the NASCAR LifeLock.com 400 Sprint Cup race, I figured I'd pull double duty and try to cover both events.

While at the beach, I narrowly missed having my car towed. By that I mean I walked up to my car as the tow truck was pulling up to it and convinced the officer not to take it. That was only because there was another car next to mine, the last of the two cars not towed off, and he figured the truck could just take the other one. I parked where several AVP vehicles were directed - most of them are sitting in the impound today - but it didn't matter. So after finding another paid parking spot, I went back to the beach and shot a match with Olympic-bound players Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor. I have to say they make winning look easy.



Akers and her partner Holly McPeak won both of their matches on Friday, but lost to Walsh and May-Treanor (21-12, 21-12) in their match today. Akers' second match Friday finished up right around 4 p.m. which put me trying to get out of downtown in rush-hour traffic. Needless to say, it took me an hour and 45 minutes to travel 48 miles to Joliet. So I pulled up to the track right at the start of the Nationwide race and went right back to work.

Kyle Busch ran away with Friday night's race, the first night race at Chicagoland Speedway. He had built a 10-second lead and cruised the last 30 laps to finish four seconds ahead of Denny Hamlin.

Check news-sentinel.com for race coverage.

Very soon, it's back to the track for tonight's LifeLock.com 400 Sprint Cup race.

As always, thanks for looking and, if you can handle my writing, taking the time to read my rants.