...Thats the only decision we made. So

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Furniture Row Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. had a jack bolt confiscated from his car during an inspection before qualifying Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway, but NASCARs top competition executive said a points penalty is unlikely.Truex went on to win the pole for the playoff elimination race, turning a lap of 193.423 mph.NASCAR typically announces penalties Wednesday after the race weekend and has the option of issuing a points penalty that could be 10 to 25 points, depending on how severe NASCAR views the violation.NASCAR occasionally takes parts from cars and evaluates them after the race weekend in determining the penalty.But NASCARs initial reaction was that this would not warrant a points penalty. Scott Miller, NASCARs senior vice president of competition, compared it to a car failing body measurements before qualifying, then fixing it and going through without penalty or a warning. Miller said it was not a competitive advantage.I would say [a points penalty] is unlikely, Miller said. It has to go through our [evaluation] process. ... It could be [a safety issue], but it wasnt to the point to where we would think it was a safety infraction.Truex crew chief Cole Pearn said in a tweet Saturday that the jack bolt was a mistake and?also indicated it was clearly unintentional because, he said, common sense says center of gravity doesnt matter at Talladega.Truex, who has four wins this season, has a 13-point edge on the current cutoff spot in the standings heading into the final race of the Chase quarterfinal round of 12 Sunday at Talladega.If Truex is penalized, it could affect whether he advances in the Chase; he could be placed among the four Chase drivers who are winless in the round and have the fewest points.But if Truex was worried about a penalty, he didnt show it Saturday afternoon. After winning the pole, Truex said he was calm all day knowing NASCAR occasionally takes parts from cars.All the crazy talk going on today is nonsense, Truex said. People speculate on things and dont know what they are. The jack bolt issue is really not a big deal. ... It was a part manufacturing issue.Pearn said he hopes the team does not get a points penalty, but teams are never sure until they get a final decision from NASCAR. The team changed left front springs Friday, and the issue with the new bolt wasnt discovered until they went through tech Saturday.It was a stupid mistake, Pearn said. Obviously, youre not trying to lower the center of gravity on just the left front corner of one part of the car. ... Were not perfect.I know people like to think were brilliant geniuses that have malicious plans to cheat the system somehow, but sometimes were just stupid and make mistakes.While initial reports indicated that the bolt was hollow, Pearn said the jack bolt was not.Its got threads on the outside and its got an adjuster where you put it in on top, and its recessed in to allow the adjuster to go in, Pearn said. When they broached it down in, it was broached down in too far. Half of [the bolt] was solid, it was just recessed in too far.Brad Keselowski, in nearly a must-win situation Sunday, qualified second. He won the knockout race in 2014 to stave off elimination and said his best starting position at Talladega bodes well for him.I feel like qualifying well is certainly a very strong omen for Talladega and Daytona, he said. I think all of the races Ive won here, weve had good starts and the races that we havent won or been super-competitive we usually dont have any speed in qualifying, so its certainly a confidence-builder.Its not a guarantee by any means, but a confidence-builder that you carry into this weekend and carry into (the) race.Matt Kenseth qualified third and was followed by Chase Elliott, who is also in a must-win situation on Sunday. Greg Biffle and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were fifth and sixth, and Roush-Fenway Racing put three of its cars into the final round of qualifying as Trevor Bayne was 11th.Rounding out the top 12 were Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Austin Dillon, Paul Menard and Reed Sorenson. It was a huge drop-off for Sorenson, who was the fastest car in the first round of qualifying.The Associated Press contributed to this report. Custom Nike Texas Rangers Jerseys . 9. 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Cyber Monday Custom Nike Baseball Jerseys .B. - Sebastien Auger made 44 saves as the Saint John Sea Dogs edged the visiting Acadie-Bathurst Titan 2-1 on Saturday in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. ARLINGTON, Texas -- Lets not rush to judgment. One game does not make a season, much less a career. But after seven years and nine attempts, Alabama may have recruited a quarterback -- maybe even two -- good enough to step on the field with his highly talented teammates.Freshman Jalen Hurts, after losing a fumble on his first collegiate play, settled down to throw for two touchdowns and run for two more in less than three quarters. The No. 1 Crimson Tide overcame a slow start to maul No. 20 USC 52-6 in the AdvoCare Classic at AT&T Stadium.The Trojans havent lost that badly since Notre Dame beat them 51-0 in 1966, one week after the world chewed on Irish head coach Ara Parseghian for settling for that famous 10-10 tie against Michigan State. Nick Saban had no interest in making any statement, although his offensive coordinator might have. Well get to that, but the biggest statement Saban made after the game described the rough edges he plans to sand down on his young team.If you want to know the truth about it, I wasnt pleased with the way we played, Saban said. If you look at your internal scoreboard rather than the external scoreboard and you say, What do we need to do to get better? [Or] you just get satisfied with the result that we got.About that result: Alabama hasnt beaten a top-20 team that badly since a 61-6 defeat of Syracuse in the 1953 Orange Bowl.It was a commanding show of defense by the defending national champion, which limited the Trojans to 194 yards, two snaps inside the red zone and no touchdowns. USC starting quarterback Max Browne completed his first seven passes for 65 yards, and then seven of his remaining 22 passes for 36 yards.In addition to Hurts, redshirt freshman Blake Barnett, who started and played poorly in the first quarter, returned in the fourth quarter and led the Tide to two touchdowns.We think both guys are talented, and we wanted both guys to play in the game, Saban said. And when the first quarter was over, I was wondering to myself, Was this a good plan or a bad plan?Hurts practiced a package of plays all week and came into the game on the third series, as Saban planned. On his first snap, Hurts tried to pull the ball out of tailback Damien Harris belly. But the QB fumbled it, and USC linebacker Cameron Smith fell on the ball at the Alabama 48.Hurts may never win two Heisman Trophies, like Ohio State icon Archie Griffin, the most famous player ever to fumble on his first collegiate play. Let it be known that Saban showed a tad more patience than Buckeyes coach Woody Hayes, who sat Griffin for the rest of the afternoon.Griffin, by the way, rushed for 239 yards in his next game. Hurts didnt have to wait a week to redeem himself.He had to gain his composure, wide receiver ArDarius Stewart said. I had a little, short talk with him. ... Hes a freshman. He was just battling with that freshman mindset. I told him, Turn the page. Next play. Things like that are going to happen.Three series later, early in the second quarter, on a third-and-13 at the USC 39, Hurts rolled right, set up and threw deep to Stewart for the first touchdown of the Alabama season. There was a lot more where that came from.On the third play of the second half, with Alabama leading 17-3, Hurts saw a blitz coming and coolly turned right and threw to Stewart, all by his lonesome.ddddddddddddStewart took the pass 71 yards for a touchdown, and the floodgates opened. Hurts finished with 150 total yards. He already had the respect of his teammates.When he first got here in the winter, he was on the scout team, cornerback Minkah Fitzpatrick said. Ive seen him since hes been here. Hes really grown both physically and mentally, and hes matured. Im really proud of him for the way he played, and I can see a lot of potential for him.It has been a confounding, if little-discussed, fact: Saban has assembled one top-three recruiting class after another and yet whiffed on just about every single quarterback since he signed A.J. McCarron in 2009.Even if you give Saban a pass on Blake Sims, who moved from quarterback to running back and then, as a fifth-year senior, returned to quarterback in 2014 and led the Crimson Tide to an SEC championship, its a list consistent only in its inability to perform.A roll call, please:Phillip Sims (transferred to Virginia, transferred to Winston-Salem State)Blake SimsPhillip Ely (transferred to Toledo)Alec Morris (transferred to North Texas, started Saturday night)Parker McLeod (transferred to Western Kentucky, walked on at Georgia)Cooper Bateman (one start last season)David CornwellBlake BarnettJalen HurtsDont forget: Jake Coker, the quarterback who led the Crimson Tide to the national championship last season, started at Florida State. He transferred to Alabama in 2014. .Hurts, the ninth signee, is a 6-foot-2, 209-pound native of Channelview, Texas, and Barnett is a 6-5, 211-pound product of the Los Angeles area. Saban had no interest in discussing what their play meant for practice on Tuesday, much less the Western Kentucky game next week or the rest of the season.I made a decision for this game that whatever we did at quarterback was for now, Saban said. ...Thats the only decision we made. So Im not speculating on what were going to [do] in the future.One note about Barnetts 45-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter: It came inside of 10 minutes to play, with the Tide leading the Trojans 45-6. Saban allows neither his freshmen nor his assistant coaches to speak to the media. So we dont have direct evidence that offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin had any reaction to playing his former team. (He was fired as USC head coach three years ago.)We dont know if Kiffin, who signed 19 current Trojans, including eight starters, was trying to show up the Trojans.Or if Kiffin read that one of those starters, offensive tackle Zach Banner, when asked by the Los Angeles Times if he had any positive memories of Kiffin, said, He had good visors, and walked away.But we do know this: On that early-fourth-quarter play, Kiffin sent wide receiver Gehrig Dieter into the game and had Barnett launch it deep. If USC head coach Clay Helton was fuming, he had nothing on Sabans sideline reaction. Saban went over with his palms out and chastised Kiffin.Alabama threw one more pass the rest of the game. ' ' '