Random thoughts from the weekend

* I know it was halfway around the country, but the America's Cup was won by BMW Oracle Racing, meaning the Auld Mug is returning to the United States for the first time since 1995. Before I arrived here, I didn't know anything about sailing, but it's almost hard to not get caught up in the excitement of it (minus the lame courtroom drama).

Furthermore, according to reports from Europe, team owner Larry Ellison, who recently bought Astors' Beechwood in Newport, said the 34th America's Cup would take place in either San Francisco, San Diego or .... Newport!

Imagine the greatest spectacle in racing returning to the place it called home for so long. Although he's in the U.S. Virgin Islands with his family, Sail Newport Executive Director Brad Read had this to say:

"It will be a tough sell due to infrastructure needed to host an AC," he wrote via e-mail. "The Volvo (Ocean Race) is a different event that it comes, it is here for 3-4 weeks and then leaves. However. Anything is possible with the right resources!!!"

Anything is possible.

* If NASCAR is going to build a larger fanbase, it needs to do something about the disaster that unfolded during Sunday's Daytona 500. Labeled as the the sport's Super Bowl, the race at perhaps the world's most famed speedway hit a snag when a pothole was spewing tar all over the place.

The race was stopped twice, totalling about two hours of race time. FOX did a decent job during the delays, bouncing from driver to driver to get their take while producers were sweating bullets. Still, I can only assume that only diehards were left watching when Jamie McMurray clipped Dale Earnhardt Jr. at the finish line.

* I'm no spring chicken, and I can admit that time is passing me by a bit. But Nate Holland, who is 10 months younger than I am, is really showing his age. Holland a member of the U.S. Olympic snowboard cross team, is complaining that the younger generation is wearing their snowpants too tight and making everything look "emo."

"I think the problem we have now is the emo look," he told the New York Times, "and people trying to use that as an excuse for wearing tight clothing. I'm a snowboarder through and through, and boardercross is a freestyle snowboarder's race. I think it should stay that way."

Look, nobody knows who you are, so who cares if you stay true to the sport. Besides, things change. When Larry and Magic ruled the NBA, along came Michael Jordan and his low baggy shorts. That's how it works ... now stop getting your snowpants in a bunch.