Weekend Wake Up: Dale Jr. Wins in No. 3, Wade’s Second Bulls Session, Isles Want Kovy?

Like Old Times. Sure, it seemed almost too good to be true, but it was an Earnhardt who drove the No. 3 car to victory at Daytona on Friday night. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. got his first win in any NASCAR series in more than two years by driving the familiar blue-and-yellow Wrangler to Victory Lane in the Subway Jalapeno 250, Friday’s Nationwide Series race. “I worked hard to try to win, not only for daddy—I’m proud of him going to the Hall of Fame, and he would be proud of this, I’m sure—but just all these fans,” Earnhardt said. “I hope they enjoyed this.” It’s safe to say that most of them did.

Second Whirl in Windy City. Dwyane Wade’s from Chicago, a little detail you might have forgotten during the approximately 4,382 hours of coverage devoted to LeBron James’ future in the last week. That might be more important now, after Wade had two meetings with the Bulls on Friday, throwing doubt on how likely he is to return to the Heat as expected. A source told ESPN that Wade went into the second meeting leaning towards Chicago, and that Chris Bosh was present for part of the meeting. It’s still unlikely that any decisions are made this weekend, but the intrigue is certainly at an all-time high.

Ilya the Islander? Ilya Kovalchuk is unquestionably the class of this NHL free agent crop. But the New York Islanders’ surprise entry into the Kovalchuk sweepstakes might be one of the more questionable moves of the NHL offseason. One hockey insider tweeted that the Islanders’ offer might be for ten years, $100 million, an insane deal even for the team that locked up Rick DiPietro for 15 years and $67.5 million. The Kings still appear to be the leaders for Kovalchuk’s services, but the Islanders’ alluring offer probably puts them no further down the line than second.

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