Incites | Putting a whole new meaning on 'burn some rubber'

After watching NASCAR since the rollicking days of Lee Petty and Fireball Roberts, I'd always figured championship stock-car racing took fantastic hand-eye coordination and the courage of a fighter pilot.

The sport requires a special technician-athlete with the eyes of a predator, razor-sharp reflexes and the raw guts to aim a ton of hurtling metal at a curving concrete wall at 200 m.p.h.

Now it turns out you also need really thick skin on your posterior and feet made of concrete.

Driver Brian Vickers suffered burns to his backside and feet when an exhaust pipe broke midway through the 500-lap race at Bristol Motor Speedway last Sunday.

"We think that a piece of the tailpipe came off halfway through the race, so heat was blowing directly onto the floorboard," Vickers said. "I basically had to run the whole race with my feet burning, and that was just painful."

Vickers finished 15th, despite the smoke and carbon monoxide fumes that filled his cockpit for the final 200 laps. He needed immediate medical attention and received oxygen while still in the car.

He went for a long bicycle ride on Monday to help his body get rid of the carbon monoxide, but had to do it standing up because his buttocks were burned from the heat in the car.

Trivia Time. The Final Four lineup of Florida, UCLA, Georgetown and Ohio State is a rare group - all four finalists already have won an NCAA title. When was the last time such a Final Four occurred?

Names from the past. Former Phillies second baseman Mickey Morandini won his debut game as a high school baseball coach on Tuesday. Morandini, the first-year coach at Valparaiso High in Indiana, led his team over Michigan City Marquette, 3-1.

There is no truth to the rumor that the team is entirely composed of good-field, no-hit lefthanders.

What's in a name. A judge in Decatur, Ill., ruled that Chicago Bears fan Scott Wiese can't legally call himself "Peyton Manning" because it would be too confusing and might infringe on the privacy of the Indianapolis Colts quarterback.

The 26-year-old Weise was trying to change his name to make good on a bet he lost when the Colts beat the Bears in the Super Bowl.

The winner had to change his name to Eli.

Interesting thought. Boxing rarely has a good idea these days, but the sweet science came up with one the other day.

World Boxing Council champion Oleg Maskaev and former champion Vitali Klitschko have proposed paying the division's No. 1 contender, Samuel Peter, as much as $2.5 million to step aside so that they can fight each other.

That brings up some interesting possibilities. For instance, could the Phillies pay the Mets to stand aside so they can win the NL East this season? Should the Cowboys pay Donovan McNabb to get "hurt" so they have a chance at the NFC East?

We may have found a new sport: "Pay it and they will stay home."

Nice guys finish... Barry Zito, San Francisco's $126 million pitcher, surprised the team's minor-leaguers with a catered steak-and-potatoes dinner at the team's minor-league complex Tuesday.

The Giants' new ace lefthander bought the meals as a gesture of appreciation, one week after he pitched in a minor-league game to stay on turn.

After the feast, the bush leaguers pooled their meal money and bought Zito a bottle of bromo.

Finally. Penn State is conducting an internal investigation into hazing on the wrestling team.

The investigation was prompted by pictures e-mailed to coach Troy Sunderland and posted on the Internet. The photos were taken at an off-campus party two years ago, school officials said.

According to the Centre Daily Times, the pictures showed freshman wrestlers clad only in jockstraps, with 40-ounce beers duct-taped to their wrists.

Hazing? I had roommates who did that before breakfast.

Trivia answer. In 1998, when Kentucky, Utah, Stanford and North Carolina made the Four Four. Kentucky and North Carolina have won 10 NCAA titles between them. Utah won in 1944, and Stanford won in 1942.