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CONCORD, N.C. -- Just like that, Jimmie Johnson has a seventh championship within reach.Johnson salvaged a ho-hum season with a strong win Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway that moves him into the third round of the playoffs. The elimination format had not been good to the six-time champion since its 2014 inception: He was eliminated in the second round of the inaugural year, then bounced out of the first round last season.Johnson snapped a career-worst 24-race losing streak while winning for the first time since March.I just knew it was taking way too long, he said of the drought.He has quietly turned it up through the first round of the Chase and became an official title contender on Sunday, a day in which nearly half the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship field had trouble.Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick both had engine issues. Austin Dillon and Chase Elliott were in crashes. Joey Logano had tire problems, and Martin Truex Jr.?had an electrical issue as he left pit road after the final pit stop.Five Chase drivers finished lower than 30th, and Harvick, the 2014 champion, is last in the standings.Johnson, meanwhile, has a record eighth victory at Charlotte and a spot in the round of eight drivers. He doesnt have to worry about tire trouble, mechanical breakdowns or a wild ride at Talladega Superspeedway in the elimination race later this month. Johnson is through to the third round, and many of the top names are in trouble.Hamlin was running second when his engine blew with 25 laps remaining. As the cars left pit road, Truex seemed poised to restart in second, but he appeared to stall and instead restarted 16th.Although Truex salvaged his day and finished 13th -- lowest of the Chase drivers still running at the end of the race -- Hamlin wound up 30th.Dillon was 32nd, Elliott 33rd, Logano 36th and Harvick 38th.The hectic day left only Johnson breathing easy at the end. Not even Matt Kenseth, who finished second to Johnson, is relaxed heading into races at Kansas and Talladega.Would love to have the win, would make you feel a lot better about the next two weeks, Kenseth said.Hurricane Matthew had washed out most of the weekend at Charlotte and pushed both the Sprint Cup and Xfinity Series races to Sunday in an 800-mile doubleheader. Scheduled for both races were Harvick, Logano, Dillon and Brad Keselowski.HENDRICK RETURNS: This had been a miserable season for Hendrick Motorsports, by its own standards. Only two of its four drivers made the Chase this year, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.?is sidelined with a concussion.Johnson has the only wins for the organization, but Elliott had been sniffing Victory Lane all season.On Sunday, the two combined to lead 258 of the 334 laps, and Johnson and Elliott ran 1-2 for a huge chunk of the race.Elliott was involved in a crash with 75 laps remaining and could not hide his disappointment.We had such a good car, he said. Im devastated that we didnt get the result that my guys deserve.Despite Elliotts finish, it was a good organizational day for Hendrick: Kasey Kahne finished third and Alex Bowman showed early speed before a tire issue caused him to wreck.HAMLIN WOES: During a lengthy red flag, NBC Sports interviewed Hamlin while he idled in his car and said he was just cruising along for a strong finish.Then his engine blew up and a strong points day was ruined.It was Hamlins first engine failure since Talladega in 2013, and he noted afterward that hes always hit with bad luck during NASCARs postseason.Its just my time, he said with a shrug.DILLON GAMBLES: As the long shot in the field, Dillon likely needed tremendous luck or a stroke of strategic planning to advance out of the second round. His team gambled on a late pit stop in taking only two tires, a move that earned him nine spots and into second for a restart.He seemed to get off cleanly at the drop of the flag, but as he shifted, he was hit from behind by Truex and went spinning into an interior wall.Truex accepted blame for hitting Elliott in a frustrated communication over his team radio.I tried to give him a shot and just turned him around like a damn idiot, Truex radioed.Dillon, a rookie in the Chase who is winless so far at the Cup level, figured he needs to get a victory in one of the next two races.We will have to work hard the next two weeks to get the points back, he said. We just have to do a lot, we have to win one of the next two races. Spud Webb Jersey . 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OLYMPICSSAN JOSE, Calif. -- Michael Phelps wants to dive into Silicon Valleys investment opportunities as he tries to make the transition from Olympic swimming star and product pitchman to entrepreneur.I would love to get involved, whether its in a couple little startups here and there, take a little risk, have some fun and see where it goes, Phelps said in an interview during a recent visit to San Jose, California, while appearing at Intuits QuickBooks software conference.For now, Phelps isnt providing any details about what he is going to do, though he says he has been getting advice from venture capitalists and other experienced investors in Silicon Valley startups.Getting into tech investing would be a new direction for Phelps, whose business experience to date consists mostly of his own line of swimwear and endorsement deals with the likes of Under Armour, Visa and Wheaties.These and other big brands have paid him an estimated $75 million during his career. Thats far more than the $1.65 million that he received from the U.S. Olympic Committee and Speedo for winning a record 28 medals, including 23 golds, in five Olympics. Hes still promoting products; he is currently doing commercials for computer chipmaker Intel in a campaign that began in October.Whatever he does next, Phelps isnt ready to start his own investment fund, like retired Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant did earlier this year with entrepreneur Jeff Stibel. And if Phelps has ideas for founding a startup of his own, hes keeping them to himself.COLLEGE BASKETBALLSTORRS, Conn. -- No. 2 UConn was expected to be tested against No. 15 DePaul, the first of five ranked teams it will face this month.It quickly became clear that the Huskies had all the answers.Kia Nurse scored a career-high 33 points and UConn routed the Blue Demons 91-46 for its 81st straight victory.Napheesa Collier added 18 points, and Katie Lou Samuelson had 16.Kelly Campbell had 10 points to lead DePaul (5-2).The Blue Demons missed their first eight shots and were held to a single free throw for nearly 6 minutes to start the game. UConn (6-0), which has won 53 straight at home, hit its first nine shots, most of them on the break, and jjumped out to a 22-1 lead.ddddddddddddBy the end of the quarter, UConn led 37-6.We played with a little bit more of a purpose defensively and that got us off and running, coach Geno Auriemma said. We created a lot of easy shots for ourselves.NBANEW YORK -- Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers was fined $15,000 by the NBA for verbally abusing a game official and failing to leaving the court in a timely manner after his ejection.The incident happened with 18.6 remaining in the first overtime of the Clippers 127-122 double-overtime loss at Brooklyn on Tuesday night.Rivers was given a technical foul for crossing over midcourt, then another and ejected.The Clippers trailed by two late in the first OT and fouled Sean Kilpatrick in the backcourt after he received the inbounds pass. Rivers appeared to think Kilpatrick swung his elbows and should have been called for the foul, and walked nearly to the Nets bench to say something to referee Lauren Holtkamp.Rivers said they werent even arguing, and that Holtkamp had agreed with what Rivers said. But referee Ken Mauer, who was standing on the Clippers side of the court, called what Rivers said was an awful tech.COLLEGE FOOTBALLCOLUMBUS, Ohio -- Geologists measuring vibrations caused by boisterous Ohio State football fans say the Buckeyes game-winning touchdown in double overtime against rival Michigan had Ohio Stadium rocking more than any other time this season.Ohio State and Miami University professors teamed up with the Department of Natural Resources to devise the FanQuakes Magnitude Scale. Using measurements taken around the stadium, it converts the shaking from fans into the perceived magnitude of a naturally occurring earthquake.Before last Saturdays game, the high point was after Curtis Samuels touchdown catch against Nebraska. It reached a FanQuake Magnitude of 5.2.Researchers say the opening kickoff with Michigan topped that at 5.27, and the magnitude grew after a couple of interceptions. It rated 5.7 during J.T. Barretts first overtime touchdown, and 5.79 after Samuels game-winning score. ' ' '