HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- The celebration was a bit messy. That tends to happen when history is made.?As Jimmie Johnsons Chevy blew burnout smoke along the Homestead-Miami Speedway frontstretch and his crew hugged it out behind him, the ticket buyers bum-rushed the gates. Race fans funneled through an opening in the catch fence that lines the grandstand and poured over the shoulder-high wall that separates pit road from the racing surface. By the time track workers had set up the stairs to aid their climb, it was too late. They were on the track by the hundreds. And only a few of them wore Jimmie Johnson gear. That did not matter.?I thought people were supposed to not like Jimmie, right? observed Johnsons employer, Rick Hendrick. I said on Friday that I felt like a guy like him wouldnt be appreciated until his career was done.The just-crowned 12-time champion car owner looked over the still-growing crowd being showered in confetti.But it looks like they are doing a pretty good job of appreciating him right now, doesnt it? Hendrick said.? ?Johnson, the 41-year-old Californian, outran the field on a wild final restart, holding off two of his four fellow championship competitors, as well as Kyle Larson, the noncontender who had dominated the 400-mile event. With the win, Johnson became only the seventh driver in NASCAR Cup Series history to reach 80 wins. That was merely his second-most impressive record of the night -- a distant second.?Johnsons seventh Cup title places him alongside Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt to share the most coveted line of the stock car racing record book. His march to that accomplishment has not been easy.He grew up on the low end of the income scale in Southern California, where he became a desert rat, an off-road truck racer. His personality and work ethic endeared him to the builder of those trucks, Chevrolet, and it pushed him into stock cars.He moved east and slept on other racers couches while working to find his NASCAR footing. When Jeff Gordon was wowed by Johnsons fearless style while driving second-tier Busch Series (think Triple-A baseball) equipment, he impossibly tabbed the kid to drive for the team he was cofounding with Hendrick.No one -- especially not Johnson -- foresaw the near-immediate success that followed.?Yet, somewhere along the way, Johnsons story became twisted, from the blue-collar truth into a silver spoon myth. Some of that was rooted in his ride. Hendrick Motorsports is the New York Yankees of NASCAR. More money, more resources ... so, no way the driver could actually be great, right??Petty heard the same complaints in the 1960s and 1970s as he blew past the records set by NASCARs pioneers, including his father, three-time champion Lee Petty. But by the time he won his seventh Cup in 1979, he was the sports most beloved figure.?Earnhardt dealt with even more vicious criticism, directed at his steel-toed driving style and a perception that he was handed multiple advantages by Chevy and even NASCAR. It is conveniently forgotten to history now, but when The Intimidator clinched his seventh Cup at Rockingham, North Carolina, in 1994, the crowd reacted with as many boos as cheers.How dare that scofflaw tie The King!But eventually, even the naysayers embraced Earnhardts greatness.?I think you end up getting what you deserve, Dale Earnhardt Jr. explained, having just left a stage celebration that included his teammates, Gordon and Johnson, as well as a conga line of visits from Tony Stewart, who had just finished his final Cup race, and Kyle Busch, a former Hendrick teammate and one of the fellow title contenders Johnson had to hold off at the end.I think people are coming around, Earnhardt said. Hes always had a great understanding with his people, his fans. Now others are realizing how great he is.?I can tell you this, Earnhardt continued. I have no doubt that you can take Jimmie, my dad and Richard Petty and they would have won championships races whenever and wherever they raced. If Jimmie had raced against Dad, Dad wouldnt have won seven championships; and if Dad had raced against Jimmie, he wouldnt have won seven championships.Again, I think people are coming around. I hope so.?? ?????? ?Thats why Hendrick said what he did on Friday -- that Johnson would be appreciated only through the rearview mirror of time. But the crowd that climbed and shoved its way into his celebration on Sunday night never uttered as much as one boo. Instead, there was thunderous applause, from the grandstand in front of him to the skyboxes behind him.?There was no shortage of questions about how this title was earned. The caution flag that set up the madness -- a pair of late restarts and a red flag -- created plenty of online outrage.Austin Petty, grandson of Richard, tweeted that NASCAR was doing all it could to help Johnson win. (Petty later took the tweet down.) On any other night during Johnsons career, that would have been the prevailing sentiment. Come Monday morning, when sports talk call-in shows crank up, it might be again.?But thats not what the Homestead crowd was running with on Sunday evening. They were running with their smartphone camera apps open, eager to capture the moment.Before the race, when they put the four of us [Cup contenders] in the truck to do a lap around the track, usually I get flipped off, like a lot, Johnson recalled of traditional parade laps. I mean, I get flipped everywhere, every state, no matter where we are. So today, I looked up and they had their hands up, and I realized they werent holding up one finger. They were holding up seven -- so maybe, with what we were trying to do, no matter what hat they were wearing, we had their support today.?Earlier in the day, around the team transporter of Richard Pettys famous No. 43 team, there was a lot of talk about history and what it might mean should Johnson match their boss famous mark.The crew chief for all of Pettys titles, NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Inman, embraced the idea. (Its likely easier for him to take because he actually has eight titles, winning another with Terry Labonte.) Standing alongside Inman was his nephew, racer-turned-NBC analyst Kyle Petty.The Kings son got visual with his explanation of it all, using a Sharpie to sketch out various peaks to show the eras of his father, Earnhardt and Johnson, with connectors of the others -- the one-, two-, three- and four-time champs.Its like looking at a mountain range, Kyle Petty said. Theres plenty to look at, but the tallest peaks are pretty obvious arent they? It makes it impossible not to notice those guys.??? ?On Sunday night, amid the crushing throng on the Homestead-Miami Speedway frontstretch, they were certainly noticing and perhaps -- finally -- appreciating Jimmie Johnsons ascension to one of those all-time pinnacles.?Honestly, Im a Dale Earnhardt Sr. fan, and Ive always hated Jimmie Johnsons ass, said Bill Lindon of Ocala, Florida, one of those fans who had pushed his way to the edge of the temporary stage NASCAR rolled out atop the start-finish line. But this is a chance to see something thats only happened twice before.I can still think hes great even if I still hate his ass, right? Hyun-Jin Ryu Jersey . Paul Pierce couldnt believe he missed at the end. Young scored a season-high 26 points to spark a huge effort from the leagues most productive bench, and Los Angeles beat the Brooklyn Nets 99-94 on Wednesday night after blowing a 27-point lead. Jackie Robinson Jersey . According to a report from the Vancouver Province, the Lions are expected to replace former DC Rich Stubler with defensive backs coach Mark Washington. http://www.dodgersteamproshop.com/Dodgers-Matt-Kemp-Kids-Jersey/ . With the first unit struggling of late and Amir Johnson - one of the teams iron men - hobbling on an injured right ankle, Patterson knew he could get the nod in a challenging matchup against one of the leagues up and coming players at his position. Yasiel Puig Jersey . SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. Los Angeles Dodgers Jerseys . A statement from the worlds top-ranked player says all checks "were satisfactory and showed positive evolution" regarding the injury, which contributed to his loss to Stanislas Wawrinka in the final in Melbourne. I wrote up a League of Legends World Championship power ranking before the tournament began two weeks ago. Now that were on the verge of the quarterfinals at the historic Chicago Theatre, its time to see how wrong I truly was and try to right some wrongs from the initial ranking. How are the teams stacking up heading into the playoff stage, and which teams left the tournament without a whisper?The teams are ordered by retroactive rank, with pre-Worlds ranking listed below.1. Samsung Galaxy (South Korea)Fionns pretournament ranking: 5th Samsungs group stage performance: 5-1 (1st, Group D)This might cause some debate between the ordering of the top two teams in the retroactive rank, but Samsung was nearly flawless in its second week of the group stages. It ran over two good teams in Chinas Royal Never Give Up and Europes Splyce in fewer than 25 minutes, and Samsung was also able to exact revenge against North Americas Team SoloMid from its only loss the week before. The scary thing about Samsung is that it feels like it hasnt reached its full potential, unlike the other two South Korean titans at Worlds. Lee Crown Min-ho has a chance to break into superstar status depending on how he fares in a favorable side of playoff bracket, and his play on champion Viktor should be on the top of the ban list for any team that encounters him in the upcoming rounds.2. SK Telecom T1 (South Korea)Fionns pretournament ranking: 3rd SKTs group stage performance: 5-1 (1st, Group B)Albus Nox Lunas star support Kirill Likkrit Malofeev said it best in an ESPN interview last week, so take it away, League Jesus:No one wants to face SKT! They always come to the tournament with people saying theyre not as good as they used to be and -- Likkrit starts clapping his hands furiously. [They] clap your face. I dont want to be that guy that gets clapped.Every tournament, SKT seems like the too-easy prediction to win. However, the team has issues in some areas. Ah, people then say, this will be the international tournament where the king might finally fall off. Nope. SKT T1 only dropped a single game the entire group stage, and it showcased a variety of styles across the first two weeks going into the bracket stage. Samsung Galaxy might have been the best team in San Francisco, but come Chicago and the best-of-five format, there is nothing scarier for an opposing team than seeing the trademark red jackets of T1 take the stage.3. H2k (Europe)Fionns pretournament ranking: 10th H2ks group stage performance: 5-2 (1st, Group C)There was never a question about H2k players individual talents, especially the bottom lane; the question was whether the European club could play well enough as a team to prevail on the international stage. Week one, it didnt look like H2k could, going 1-2 and possibly a single loss away from being eliminated. Instead of crumbling, the teams core strengthened during the off days, and H2k reeled off four straight victories, including two against group-favorite Edward Gaming to take the top spot leading into the quarterfinals.4. ROX Tigers (South Korea)Fionns pretournament ranking: 1st ROXs group stage performance: 5-2 (1st, Group A)What a weird group stage for the ROX Tigers. The South Korean domestic champion wasnt able to get its early game going until the last few games of the opening round; it was pushed to an elimination match against NAs Counter Logic Gaming before finally turning on the jets to clear out of the group as the first seed by beating CLG and then ANX in the first-place tiebreaker. The Tigers should feel more at home now in the best-of-five format, but their laning phase will need to drastically improve if ROX wants to make another deep run at Worlds. The stumblings might have not killed them in Group A, but these initial mistakes, if they persist, will be the death of them against the likes of Edward Gaming, ROXs quarterfinal opposition.5. Royal Never Give Up (China)Fionns pretournament ranking: 8th RNGs group stage performance: 3-3 (2nd, Group D)RNGs ranking at fifth is more of a statement about the weakness of the field than RNGs excellence through the first two weeks. Not to say Royal was bad -- it was able to get out of the most difficult group in the opening round -- but there were clear deficits in its play that will most likely be exploited by SK Telecom T1 in the quarterfinals. But honestly, thats the case for almost every team outside of Samsung, SKT T1 and possibly H2k who all came into Week 2 looking better than Week 1. Royal is a team that runs everything through its bottom lane, and its not as though even the players are keeping it a secret.I think the reason TSM lost against us is because they didnt pay too much attention to our bot-lane duo. For enemy teams, if they actually heavily focus on our bottom lane, itll give us a much harder chance to win. But [TSM] didnt do that, said RNGs AD carry Jian Uzi Zi-Hao in an interview.TSM didnt exploit that vulnerability. SKT, the two-time world champion, will.6. EDward Gaming (China)Fionns pretournament ranking: 2nd EDGs group stage performance: 4-3 (2nd, Group C)So if you read my Top 5 at each position articles (under Features - Top 5 on our landing page) leading into the tournament, I had EDG players littered throughout. When asked why I didnt have the team first over ROX in my initial ranking, since ROX had fewer players in the Top 5 for their respective positions, I answered by pointing out the one EDG starter that I didnt include: Chen Mouse Yu-Hao. As a serviceable top laner in the domestic summer season, Mouse has been exposed in the enforced one-on-one laning phase in the top lane against some of the best players in the world. Although he did come up big on Poppy in the second half of EDGs must-win game against ahq when facing elimination in Group C, his time in lane has been miserable.To put this in perspective, Mouse has a CS differential of -22 at 10 minutes.EDGs next opponent? ROX and top laner Song Smeb Kyung-ho. Good luck, Mouse and Edward Gaming as a whole.7. Albus Nox Luna (CIS)Fionns pretournament ranking: 16th ROXs group stage performance: 4-3 (2nd, Group A)I was wrong. I was wrong. I was super-mega-wow-I-need-to-give-this-team-respect wrong. I even ranked Albus below INTZ, the other wild-card team who advanced through the International Wildcard Qualifier, and ANX even looked better than the Brazilian side there. While no one could have expected ANX to do this well on the international stage -- even the ANX players themselves -- the CIS champion accomplished the historic achievement of being the first wild-card team ever to advance out of Worlds groups. It even has a channce of beating H2k and making the Cinderella run of all Cinderella runs to the semifinal.dddddddddddd.The team, although sporting a few crafty pocket picks, is not winning through gimmicky strategies. There isnt a single individual standing out; rather, its the rosters internal cohesion that shines. The team has been able to secure objectives with stellar macro play, and it was able to defeat ROX Tigers in an hour-long marathon that currently holds the title for best game of the tournament. ANX isnt unbeatable and can unravel quickly if things start to get out of control, but even as the underdog heading into Chicago, can we really bet against Likkrit & Co. in any circumstance?8. Cloud9 (NA)Fionns pretournament ranking: 9th C9s group stage performance: 3-3 (2nd, Group B)Its hard to rank Cloud9. On one hand, it did make it to the quarterfinal stage. Thats an accomplishment on its own. It played hard against SK Telecom T1 in Week 2 and could have upset the defending champion if a few less-than-decisive plays hadnt gotten in the way. On the other, the team was romped by Flash Wolves and had difficulty putting away an I May club that picked one of the weirdest compositions of the tournament and got stomped in the laning phase. C9 still has a chance to improve with a quarterfinal meeting with Samsung Galaxy, and yet, even the players know theyre coming in at the bottom of the totem pole of the playoff teams.My general thoughts on the group stage are kind of that we didnt deserve to get out of groups just on how we played, said William Meteos Hartman in an interview following the teams advancement into the bracket portion of the competition.9. Team SoloMid (NA)Fionns pretournament ranking: 4th TSMs group stage performance: 3-3 (3rd, Group D)This was a team that wanted to be in the Summoners Cup Finals, and it will now find itself watching the festivities from home without even having a shot at a best-of-five series. TSM was the only team to take a game from group juggernaut Samsung Galaxy, but it threw away its chance of making the quarterfinal with sloppy decisions and lackluster map play when it played SSG for a second time. It lost another game it was ahead in against RNG in the first week, and then was eliminated by the Chinese club after it gave three kills to Uzi at the start of the game which, for all intents and purposes, buried the North American champion six feet under.I have TSM as the best team not to make the bracket stage, but really, what does that mean to a team that wanted and practiced for so much more?10. Counter Logic Gaming (NA)Fionns pretournament ranking: 12th CLGs group stage performance: 3-3 (3rd, Group A)I have the three NA teams ranked in order from 8th to 10th, and if you look at all three fared, I feel like this is pretty fair. As a whole, NA had the second-best record after South Korea as a region in the group stages, but it didnt have a single team like Europes H2k Gaming stand out in front of the pack. All three had the ability to go from average to a contender, but each failed in its own special way.For CLG, its lack of success against wild-card teams was once again its death at Worlds. It went 1-1 against the ROX Tigers and 2-0 against G2 Esports, something any CLG fan would have been ecstatic about on paper going into the tournament. Alas, despite the success against the favorites in the group, it was Albus Nox Luna who took both games from CLG and sent them out of the group stage.11. Ahq e-Sports Club (Taiwan)Fionns pretournament ranking: 14th Ahqs group stage performance: 3-3 (3rd, Group C)Like TSM and CLG, ahq was one win away from the quarterfinals. Unlike the other two, however, ahq had a gigantic lead against its do-or-die opponent in the game it lost. Edward Gaming was on its deathbed and the Taiwanese second-place team couldnt close the casket. The team meandered around, played too passively when it had chances to finish, and was once again eliminated from the tournament by its Chinese big brother EDG.12. Flash Wolves (Taiwan)Fionns pretournament ranking: 7th FWs group stage performance: 2-4 (4th, Group B)Taiwan was the only region this year not to send a team to the bracket stage. The Flash Wolves were the hope of the League Master Series, and the team failed to live up to expectations. The Taiwanese champion was able to take a game off of SKT in Week 1, but its ineptitude and lack of understanding against Chinas eccentric I May sent them out of the tournament. The FW will keep wondering how it let a team that played with its starting mid laner as support and starting support as jungler kill their chances at advancing from the first round.13. I May (China)Fionns pretournament ranking: 11th IMs group stage performance: 2-4 (3rd, Group B)Even talking about I May makes my head hurt. Its only two wins of the tournament came from the Flash Wolves in two games that the Flash Wolves almost certainly should have won. The first was a throw in Week 1, and the second was a game where I Mays starting support Yun Road Han-gil was suspended and had to use a crazy makeshift starting five. The Chinese team that had always found a way to survive and advance was ultimately eliminated by C9 in a game where IM was once again on the cusp of pulling another gigantic comeback.14. SplyceFionns pretournament ranking: 14th SPYs group stage performance: 1-5 (4th, Group D)Although Splyce was only able to pick up one victory, it shouldnt feel too badly about its performance at Worlds as a rookie organization. It was in the Group of Death that lived up to the hype, and it was able to take a thunderous victory over RNG in a blowout that kept it from going home winless.15. INTZ e-SportsFionns pretournament ranking: 15th INTZs group stage performance: 1-5 (4th, Group C)Sure, INTZ did lose five in a row to close out the tournament; even though it wasnt a rosy end to the journey, the Brazilian champion will always remember its debut match on the Worlds stage where it knocked out EDward Gaming in one of the biggest upsets the tournament has ever seen.16. G2 EsportsFionns pretournament ranking: 6th G2s group stage performance: 1-5 (4th, Group A)Another poor performance by G2 on the international stage in 2016. It was able to win a game in its last match against Albus Nox Luna, but other than that, there was nothing to show for the back-to-back European champion. This team is better than its position on the ranking, and its sad we possibly may never see this starting five reach its full potential on the world stage. Discount NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China Wholesale Black NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL T-shirts Wholesale NFL Autographed Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Online NFL Jerseys From China Nike NFL Jerseys China Cheap NFL T-shirts Wholesale NFL Camo Jerseys Jerseys From China China Womens NFL Jerseys China Jerseys Cheap Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping ' ' '