Almirola to retire at end of season

NASCAR driver Aric Almirola will retire from competition at the end of the 2022 season to spend more time with his young family.

Almirola revealed his plans to the employees at StewartHaas Racing at the same time Smithfield Foods announced its 11th season sponsoring the driver.

“To be the best in this business you’ve got to be selfish, and for the last 37 years, my life has always revolved around me and what I needed to do,” Almirola said. “I want to be present. I want to be the best husband and father, and that to me means more than being a racecar driver.”

Almirola made his Cup debut with Joe Gibbs Racing in 2007 but moved to Dale Earnhardt Inc. later that season. He became a full-time Cup driver with Richard Petty Motorsports in 2012 — the same year he partnered with Smithfield — and scored his first Cup victory two seasons later in the rainshortened July race at Daytona.

Almirola and Smithfield moved to SHR in 2018, and Almirola has made the playoffs in all four seasons driving the No. 10. He has three career Cup wins and finished a career-best fifth in the 2018 standings. Winter sports: USA Luge has been told that Chris Mazdzer is headed to the Olympics. The 2018 silver medalist, who thought a 25th-place finish in a World Cup luge race last weekend had doomed his chances of making the Beijing Games, apparently has qualified for the Olympics for a fourth time.

USA Luge was told by the International Luge Federation that it was getting three starting spots for the men’s race at the Games. The FIL has not released the final quotas, but three spots for the U.S. would mean Mazdzer is going. Obituary: Don Maynard, a Pro Football Hall of Fame receiver who made his biggest impact catching passes from Joe Namath in the wide-open AFL, has died. He was 86.

Maynard was Namath’s main target for the New York Jets, who pulled off a stunning upset of the NFL champion Baltimore Colts in the 1969 Super Bowl.

When Maynard retired, having played 13 of his 15 seasons for the Jets, his 633 receptions for 11,834 yards were pro football records. He caught 88 touchdown passes, averaging 18.7 yards per catch, and played in four Pro Bowls. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1987.