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CHARLOTTE, N. Thomas Vermaelen Belgium Jersey .C. -- NASCAR will not penalize Martin Truex Jr. or Jimmie Johnson for failing inspection after the opening race of the playoffs.Truex won Sundays race at Chicagoland Speedway and Johnson finished 12th. Both cars failed the laser inspection with infractions that should have drawn 10-point penalties.Although the infractions were similar, NASCAR executive vice president Steve ODonnell said the penalties would not have been equal. Truex advanced into the second round of the playoffs with his victory, but Johnsons chances of advancing would have been hampered by the loss of 10 points.ODonnell said not penalizing either driver was the fair decision.If we applied those penalties, the post-race penalty really would not treat each competitor fairly, ODonnell said. We also saw this as a potential situation that we could see repeating itself for the next nine races of the Chase going forward. So we made the decision coming out of Chicago not to penalize (Truex) or (Johnson) for the post-race infractions we saw in Chicago, which the industry would agree were minor in nature.NASCAR didnt budge, though, on the penalties for missing lug nuts. The crew chiefs for Aric Almirola and Greg Biffle were each penalized $10,000 for not having properly installed lug nuts at Chicago. Drew Blickensderfer (Almirola) and Brian Pattie (Biffle) were both hit with P3 penalties on NASCARs scale.Also, all 16 teams in the Chase will go through the laser inspection after this Sundays race at New Hampshire. Only nine were inspected at Chicagoland.When we talked to the drivers and the teams shouldnt all 16 (Chase) go through there and thats a very fair point as well, ODonnell said. Going forward that will be part of our post-race inspection as well. If we have a field of 16, all cars will go through post-race LIS and go down to 12, eight and four.NASCAR is trying to set defined guidelines for penalties to avoid teams manipulating the system to their advantage.We dont want to be talking about post-race penalties, ODonnell said. Our goal is to never have to penalize anybody and we want to just talk about the action on the track. We felt like that this is hopefully enough of a deterrent not to have teams go there and also to be very up front as to what the consequence would be. Mousa Dembele Belgium Jersey .ca looks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable. Axel Witsel Jersey . -- Stanfords Kevin Danser knelt on one knee and hardly moved on the sideline as Michigan State celebrated its Rose Bowl victory and his Cardinal teammates made their way to the locker room. http://www.belgiumsoccerpro.com/Adnan-Januzaj-Belgium-Jersey/ . The Americans, skipped by John Shuster, seized the advantage in the eighth end by scoring five points for a 7-3 lead. The Czechs pulled two back in the ninth, but Shusters team of third Jeff Isaacson, second Jared Zezel and lead John Landsteiner ended with another point to secure the last Olympic berth on offer. DALLAS -- Yet another Dallas injury opened the door for a Charlotte Hornets rally.Kemba Walker scored 19 points, Nicolas Batum had 14 points and 15 rebounds, and the Hornets came back from an 11-point, third-quarter deficit to beat the Mavericks 109-101 on Monday night.Already down three regulars to injury, Dallas lost center Andrew Bogut late in the first quarter to a right knee injury. While the Mavericks didnt think the injury was serious, the Hornets took advantage to dominate the boards, outrebounding the Mavericks 55-35 and scoring 54 points in the paint.Thats a big difference, Hornets coach Steve Clifford said of Boguts absence. Hes always been a terrific basket protector. If you take him out, those other guys are good, but its a different level of rim protection.Marco Belinelli scored 12 of his 16 points in the second half, including the teams first two 3-pointers after the Hornets missed their first 14 from long range. Six Hornets scored in double figures.Jeremy Lamb added 10 of his 14 points in the fourth quarter, including a 3 with 13.9 seconds remaining to hold off a late Dallas run.Harrison Barnes scored 29 points for the Mavericks and Deron Williams had his first double-double of the season with 15 points and 13 assists.It seems like we get someone back and somebody else goes down, said Williams, who had missed eight games of his own due to a calf strain. Its been tough. Wed really like to have Dirk (Nowitzki) out there, and J.J. (Barea). You cant control certain things so weve just got to keep on trucking.After a 15-4 Mavericks run early in the third quarter temporarily opened up a back-and-forth game, the Hornets answered with a 10-1 spurt and the game stayed close into the final minutes.Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle was assessed a technical foul arguing a call and Batum converted the free throw for a 98-91 lead with 4:26 to play, capping a 15-5 Hornets run.After the Hornets opened the lead to 104-95 with 2:01 to play, Dallas scored the next six points and had a chance to get closer, but Cody Zeller blocked Willliams shot in the lane with 34 seconds to play and Lamb followed with his 3. Vincent Kompany Jersey. Its a tough environment, but we stuck together today, Lamb said. We got down 10, but we kept fighting, and we were able to pull out a win.SIGH OF RELIEFBogut limped off the court with 45 seconds left in the first quarter after a collision with Charlottes Roy Hibbert, grabbing his right knee immediately. He was quickly ruled out for the rest of the game.But Carlisle said initial reports were positive and that the knee was only hyperextended.The X-ray was clean from the information that I got, Carlisle said. Well probably have more information in a day or so. At this point, it appears we dodged a bullet.Bogut was not available for comment after the game.LONG ODDSAfter 16 seasons in a row of finishing .500 or better and making the playoffs in 15 of those seasons, the Mavericks are just 4-16.The last team to make the playoffs after such a poor start was the 2004-05 Bulls, who started 5-15 and finished 47-35 before losing in the first round of the playoffs to Washington.TIP-INSHornets: The game had 18 lead changes and was tied 17 times. . The Hornets made 24 of 26 free throws in beating the Mavs for the second time in five days. . Charlotte has lost six of eight aside from its two wins over Dallas.Mavericks: Nowitzki missed his fifth straight game and 15th overall with right Achilles soreness. Barea missed his 10th game in a row with a left calf strain. Seth Curry missed his third game in a row with a right knee sprain. ... Devin Harris scored seven points in the first quarter -- more than he had scored in three games combined since returning from a big toe injury.UP NEXTHornets: Home against Detroit on Wednesday. The Pistons beat the Hornets in Charlotte 112-89 on Nov. 29.Mavericks: Home against Sacramento on Wednesday, the third of a four-game homestand and the first of two visits the Kings make to Dallas in 11 days. ' ' '