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LONG POND, Pa. -- Pocono CEO Brandon Igdalsky took refuge from the rain inside a garage stall that was being used as the site of the drivers meeting.His message Sunday morning to Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and the rest of the field: I love you guys. But I dont want to see you tomorrow.Well, tough luck.Call it, Pocono Rainway.Rain washed out the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Pocono Raceway, and the 400-mile race will now run at 11 a.m. Monday.Martin Truex Jr.?is on the pole and Kurt Busch will try to sweep Pocono in the tracks second Monday race of the season.The June Pocono race also was delayed a day. NASCAR said this is the first time a track has had two rain-postponed races in the same season.This was NASCARs 10th postponed race since 2011. The 2012 rain-shortened race at Pocono was marred by lightning strikes that killed one fan and injured nine others.Mondays forecast also appears cloudy, but NASCAR set the time an hour earlier than the green flag start on that June Monday to try to beat some of the rain and reach at least the halfway point for an official race.I feel bad for the fans more than anybody, Igdalsky said. We were going to have an unbelievable crowd here today.The track-drying Air Titans provided the only action at Pocono and, after morning rain had passed, there were clear skies at the scheduled 1:30 p.m. start. But about 90 minutes later, it started pouring at the track, and the race was quickly called off.Kasey Kahne?went on TV and bemoaned that he would have to delay a vacation to the Bahamas.Pocono had more pressing problems.While NASCAR tracks dont release attendance numbers, Igdalsky said Pocono was on pace for its biggest crowd in years. The tracks infield and camping areas were sold out, along with some of the higher-priced suites. And Monday races are a burden for everyone involved in NASCAR.A lot of our staff are volunteers and theyve got jobs tomorrow theyve got to get back to, he said. Theyve taken off Friday already. It definitely hits you in the purse strings. The possibility of two in one season -- thats painful.Igdalsky said there was a Jeff Gordon bump in ticket sales when the retired four-time champion came back to drive for the injured Dale Earnhardt Jr., adding that?it was hard to put an exact number on the number of additional tickets sold because of Gordons return because it coincided with the tracks usual ticket sales push in the final weeks.For us, it was the perfect storm, Igdalsky said.Unfortunately for the track, the wrong kind of storm hit Sunday.Kevin Harvicks 4-year-old son, Keelan, splashed around in a puddle. Some drivers took their dogs for a walk. Crew members stretched out on pit road and gazed at darkened clouds that hinted of the rain ahead.Even more Monday races rain loom at a track without lights such as Pocono in 2017 and beyond. NASCAR bumped start times at most tracks from the 1:30 p.m. window to around 3 p.m. or later next season, meaning one rain delay could lose a track for the day.Igdalsky lobbied NASCAR to keep his traditional and more fan-friendly start time.For us, 1 is a better time, he said. I understand the thought process behind it and Im going to support it.There are six races left until the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship driver field is set. Led by four-time winners Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski, there are 11 slots seemingly set for race winners. Chase Elliott, Austin Dillon, Ryan Newman, Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson are the four winless drivers perilously holding on to the final five spots. NCAA Jerseys Wholesale . -- There were a lot of firsts for the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night. 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RIO DE JANEIRO -- One destroyed racket -- and one poor set -- later, Serena Williams made it safely into the third round of the Rio Olympics as she bids for a second consecutive singles gold medal.The No. 1-seeded American struggled for quite a while Monday night, before emerging with a 7-6 (5), 6-2 victory over Frances Alize Cornet, despite making 36 unforced errors and getting broken four times.I just needed to relax. I was missing shots by, literally, centimeters, and Im not really used to missing those shots, Williams said. I really had to figure out a way to adjust.Williams started well enough, taking the first three games and compiling 17 of the matchs first 21 winners. But then she dropped 5 of 6 games to fall behind 5-4.During that troublesome stretch, Williams reacted to losing two games in a row by mangling the tool of her trade, slamming it against the back of her green-and-white sideline bench before depositing it on the ground. Hardly the first time shes done that sort of thing -- and likely not the last, either.In her previous tournament, Wimbledon, Williams broke a racket after losing the opening set of a second-rounder against American Christina McHale. Williams then flung the racket so far behind her that it landed in the lap of a TV cameraman filming the match.From that point on, Williams didnt drop a set the rest of the way at the All England Club, taking 12 in a row to earn her record-tying 22nd Grand Slam title.She didnt quite generate that sort of spark Monday, 24 hours after she and older sister Venus lost an Olympic doubles match for the first time. They had been 15-0 with three golds, but that run is now over.So, too, is Cornets three-match winning streak against the younger Williams.Thats because Williams cut down on her mistakes in the second set.How?Just tried to add a little bit more spin, she explained. If its going out, maybe Im hitting it a little bit too flat.After three No. 1 seeds exited Sunday -- Serbias Novak Djokovic in mens singles, the Williams sisters in womens doubles, and Frances Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert in mens doubles -- Williams avoided that sort of result in singles. But Djokovics Olympics are over, because after he and Nenad Zimonjic lostt 6-4, 6-4 to Brazils Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares, the 12-time major champion said he will not enter mixed doubles in Rio de Janeiro.ddddddddddddilliams singles match was touch-and-go for more than an hour. Cornet held a pair of set points in the opener but failed to convert either. Then Williams served for that set at 6-5, only to get broken at love when she double-faulted for the fifth time. In the tiebreaker, Cornet went ahead 5-4 before Williams claimed the next three points and the set.She raced to a 3-0 edge in the second set, and that was pretty much that.No tennis player ever has won two Olympic singles golds -- let alone two in a row. But Williams is not just any player, of course. Which is why it was rather remarkable that Cornet, who is ranked only 48th and never made it past the fourth round of a major in 42 appearances, entered Monday with a 4-3 record against Williams.She knows how to play me, Williams said. Every time I play her, Im not in my best shape.Joining Williams in the third round: No. 2 Angelique Kerber of Germany, No. 3 Garbine Muguruza of Spain and No. 7 Madison Keys of the U.S.Elsewhere, the man who got stuck in an elevator for 40 minutes and then beat Djokovic in singles on Sunday, Argentinas Juan Martin del Potro, got to the third round with another win in singles but lost to Spains Rafael Nadal in doubles.Del Potro produced a 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 victory over Portugals Joao Sousa, before heading back out on court with partner Maximo Gonzalez and getting beaten by Marc Lopez and Nadal 6-3, 5-7, 6-2. Add it all up, and del Potro spent nearly 7 hours on court in a span of barely 25 hours.In a tournament that began without half of the ATPs top 10, del Potro looks like someone who might be able to add another medal to his 2012 bronze.Because of injuries, del Potro went 2 1/2 years without participating in a major until Wimbledon, so one big question is what his fitness level is.Im getting better. Im in good shape, he said, but I dont know if Im prepared to play six or more matches.---Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich ' ' '