Dale Jr., welcome to Twitter
What could possibly upstage winning the Daytona 500 for NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.?
Joining Twitter.
So maybe starting a social media account isn’t as big of a deal as winning NASCAR’s biggest race. But Earnhardt made good on his promise to join Twitter if he won Sunday’s Daytona 500.
Earnhardt won the rain-delayed race, earning his second Daytona 500 victory. After the race, Earnhardt’s Twitter account, @ DaleJr, went live and more than 456,000 followers have already followed him.
Earnhardt’s first tweet, complete with a “selfie” of him with the Daytona 500 trophy: “Tonight seemed like as good a night as any to join Twitter. How is everyone doin?
# 2XDaytona500Champ”
Amy Reimann, Earnhardt’s girlfriend, told USA Today she knew Earnhardt would follow through on his promise.
“I think he will,” she said in Victory Lane at Daytona. “We’ve talked about it a little bit anyway and he’s not as apprehensive as he was before. He’s pretty good at honoring his bets.”
As of Monday evening, Earnhardt had six tweets. He posted photos of his winning car as well as a photo of him in front of his late father Dale Earnhardt’s statue and with U.S. Olympic snowboarder Kelly Clark, whom he met in New York on Monday.
He didn’t win!
Sunday’s Daytona 500 was delayed six hours by rain, but that didn’t stop NASCAR fans and friends of Jimmie Johnson from congratulating the six-time champion on his victory - from the 2013 Daytona 500.
Fox replayed the 2013 race during the rain delay, which led to confusion among fans and media outlets, incuding Fox News.
Fox News tweeted, “Just in: Jimmie Johnson wins the Daytona 500 for the third time in his career. He previously won in 2013 and 2006.”
The 2014 race, though, was halted after 38 laps before resuming later Sunday night.
“I hear I won the #Daytona500?” Johnson posted on Twitter. “Haha! I also have friends confused and texting congratulations to me.”
Driver Clint Bowyer had fun with Johnson’s “victory.”
“Wait a minute! I’m confused, did @JimmieJohnson win or not?” Boyer tweeted.
NASCAR officials even got into the act.
“Congrats @JimmieJohnson amazing,” tweeted Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s senior vice president of racing operations.
Bacon ball
The Lehigh Valley IronPigs are the latest organization to take advantage of America’s obsession with bacon.
The Class AAA affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies unveiled new uniforms Monday. One uniform has a jersey featuring the word “Pigs” across the front and a hat with a slice of bacon across it.
Lehigh Valley will wear the bacon hats every Saturday night during the 2014 season. The hats are available at the team’s online store for $28.
He said it
From Miami Herald columnist Greg Cote:
“The baseball [Miami] Hurricanes are off to a rough start. Miami is making errors in the field nearly on a pace with Richie Incognito’s errors in judgment.”
“CBS fired NFL analyst Dan Marino. In an upcoming column, I’ll recommend the network replace him with Scott Mitchell. ”
“Hank Aaron, 80, is recovering from a partial hip replacement after falling on the ice. Even worse, the spill ruined his medal chances.”Quote of the day “But let’s be honest right
now: The only reason we have garnered No. 1 and we would have never, ever been No. 1 if it had not been for the teams in front of us losing.” Florida Coach Billy Donovan
Sports, Pages 16 on 02/25/2014