NASCAR and IndyCar team Owner ROGER PENSKE is "exploring opening an auto racing museum in downtown Detroit." He said, "We're looking at a building downtown, and our thoughts are, 'Can we put an office downtown and maybe put in a museum where we would bring in race cars?'" (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 5/6).
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS: The fate of Saints and Pelicans owner TOM BENSON's fortune "might be decided behind the closed doors of an Orleans Parish courtroom, and without the 87-year-old billionaire ever stepping into court." Benson's legal team Monday "filed a motion to seal Judge KERN REESE's courtroom during hearings set for June on Benson's mental competence" (NOLA.com, 5/5).
THE GOOD STUFF: Pacers F PAUL GEORGE in February visited an Indianapolis girl with cerebral palsy at Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health, and on Sunday, he "chipped in $10,000" for a wheelchair-accessible van that she needed (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 5/6)....The Predators Foundation yesterday morning during a ceremony at Bridgestone Arena distributed 88 grants worth more than $415,000 to Nashville and Middle Tennessee-based community service and charitable organizations (Predators)....The Mets “asked for and received permission” from MLB to wear caps during batting practice last night honoring late NYPD officer BRIAN MOORE, who “worked out of a station just two miles from Citi Field.” Moore died Monday, “two days after a gunman shot him in Queens” (ESPNNY.com, 5/5).
NAMES: Ole Miss basketball coach ANDY KENNEDY "agreed to a contract extension which will keep him in Oxford" through '19. After having made $1.8M per year in a contract that went through '17, his new four-year deal "has a base salary" of $1.925M and "also includes performances incentives related to" SEC regular-season and NCAA postseason success (Jackson CLARION-LEDGER, 5/6)....The NFL Cardinals on Saturday were recognized as the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce's corporation of the year (Cardinals)....Heat F CHRIS BOSH has acquired a stake in Ft. Lauderdale-based VSN Mobile, which has “developed a technology that provides 360-degree images” (MIAMIHERALD.com, 5/5)....A source said that Browns QB JOHNNY MANZIEL has “moved out of his downtown Cleveland apartment and into a golf course community in a suburb west of town” (ESPN.com, 5/5)....Food Network host GUY FIERI will serve as the Grand Marshal and pace car driver for the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race on May 16 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (CMS)....Organizers have appointed U.S. skier LINDSEY VONN as an “honorary ambassador” for the ’18 Pyeongchang Olympics (AP, 5/5)....The Ft. Worth City Council last night declared May 23 as "Lance Barrow Day" during the PGA Tour Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial in honor of CBS Sports Coordinating Producer LANCE BARROW (THE DAILY).
