For two-thirds of the Edmonton Indy on Sunday, it looked like it might be Alex Taglianis day. The Lachenaie, Que.-native led for almost two-thirds of the race, but fell behind for good after his second pit stop. Finishing fifth, it was a decent showing for the Canadian on home soil, but Taglianis failure to capture the checkered flag means that it has now been more than five years since a Canadian driver has reached the top of the podium at an Indy race, the last coming when Paul Tracy claimed the 2007 Cleveland Grand Prix. James Hinchcliffe – expected to be Canadas next great racing hope – finished 12th overall. What has happened to Canadas winning tradition in IndyCar racing? That victory came in the final season of the Champ Car World Series, before it merged with the Indy Racing League to form the current IZOD IndyCar Series. The reunification of the two leading circuits has coincided with a long drought for Canadian drivers in a sport that once captivated an entire nation. Starting in the early 1990s a crop of Canadian drivers emerged to take North American open-wheel racing by storm. Scott Goodyear thrust himself into the national spotlight in 1992, finishing a mere 0.043 behind Al Unser Jr. at the Indianapolis 500. The result remains the closest finish in the races 101-year history. Goodyear would win the Marlboro 500 that same year to become the first Canadian Indy driver since Jacques Villeneuve Sr. in 1985 to win an Indy race. From there the floodgates opened. Tracy would win five races in 1993 including the Molson Indy in Toronto, becoming the first Canadian to win on home soil. The next year, Canadians would win five Indy races, including three by Tracy, helping him to third in the year-end drivers standings. That year would also mark the debut of Jacques Villeneuve (the younger), who would win Rookie of the Year honours. Villeneuve would help launch the team that would come to define Canadian racing for the next decade. Forsythe-Pettit Racing - under the sponsorship of Players – would produce a long line of successful Canadian drivers. Despite losing Villeneuve to Team Green, where he would win the Indy drivers title as well as the Indy 500 in 1995, Forsythe found success with the likes of Greg Moore, Patrick Carpentier and Tagliani who would thrive on the circuit from 1996 through 2004. Tracy and the Forsythe drivers became breakout stars in North America while Villeneuve conquered the Formula One circuit with Williams-Renault, winning the 1997 overall Grand Prix points title. The future looked bright, with Forsythes pipeline of successful Canadian drivers winning races at the Indy Lights and Atlantic Championship levels as well. In addition to developing Moore, Carpentier and Tagliani, the teams stable included promising young drivers like David Empringham, Claude Bourbonnais and Lee Bentham. Forsythes biggest breakthrough, however, would come in 2003. After signing with Forsythe from Team Green, Tracy would win the CART drivers championship in 2003 after winning seven races. He along with Carpentier and Tagliani would guide Canada to the Nations Cup that season with a Canadian reaching the podium in 13 of the seasons 18 races. The trio would repeat the feat in 2004, missing the podium just four times in 14 races. However, the bubble would burst soon after. The Vancouver Indy – founded in 1990 – would run for the last time in 2004. The Grand Prix of Montreal would also be cancelled after just five races in 2006. The Toronto Indy, long viewed as the strongest Indy event in Canada, would also be forced to shut down, cancelling the 2008 race after the merger of CART and IRL. It would return in 2009 with fresh sponsorship from Honda. Coupled with a lack of success on the track, the sports prestige in Canada has tumbled in recent years. But is the sport on the rebound? Hinchcliffe has become the nations poster-boy in the sport after winning the 2011 Rookie of the Year Award and has a pair of podium finishes under his belt thus far in 2012. The Series CEO has also hinted at adding another Canadian race for the 2013 season, so there may still be room for further growth for Indy north of the border. So, what do you think? Is Indys star once again on the rise in Canada, or are the series glory days merely a thing of the past? As always, its Your! Call. . The Marlins, who are one game behind Philadelphia for the NL East lead, received a superb outing from Anibal Sanchez in Thursdays 1-0 win over San Francisco that completed a three-game sweep of the defending World Series champions. [url=http://www.chinajerseyscheap.us.com/nhl-jerseys_anaheim-ducks-jersey/]Cheap Anaheim Ducks Jerseys . -- The Baltimore Ravens have terminated the contract of guard Bobbie Williams, who played in all four playoff games for the Super Bowl champions. h... . Austin Kearns had three hits for the Indians, while starter Fausto Carmona gave up an unearned run in five innings. He also allowed five hits, walked one, and fanned three. [url=http://www.chinajerseyscheap.us.com/]wholesale jerseys . The Braves set a season high with 16 hits and matched their high for runs. The game was tied at 3 before the Braves opened the sixth with three straight hits off Dan Jennings (0-1), loading the bases. nfl jerseys china .C. -- Jim Larranaga snipped the final strand of net hanging from the rim, then faced his players and cheering fans to twirl it in the air before draping it around his neck.Leading up to SportsCentres Year In Review on Christmas Eve, TSN and TSN.ca look back at each of the Top 10 stories of 2013. Today, we look back at LeBron James and the Miami Heat winning their second straight NBA championship. The Decision seems so long ago now. Its now been over three years since LeBron James sat down with Jim Gray to let the world know that he was taking his talents to South Beach, turning his back on his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers and signing with the Miami Heat to form - along with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade - the NBAs most hated triumvirate. Something strange, but compelling, has happened since then and it culminated in the Heats second-straight NBA Championship this past June. It took three years, but LeBron James finally found redemption. Few shed tears when the Heat fell to the Dallas Mavericks in six games in the 2011 NBA Finals. The sense of schadenfreude was palpable as Mark Cubans charges pulled the upset and left the Heat wondering what went wrong. When the team re-emerged in 2012 as Eastern Conference Champions and mowed down the Oklahoma City Thunder to claim the Heats second-ever NBA Title, there was a sense of inevitability. They were built to be the best and they were and there was nothing anyone could say otherwise. But something changed in 2013 and its hard to put a finger on it. The NBAs reigning championns, the leagues biggest heels in recent memory, underwent a transformation that few saw coming.dddddddddddd Maybe it was the second act of Chris “Birdman” Andersen, the man once banned from the league on drug offences who signed in January and emerged as a catalyst for the club just before their 27-game winning-streak that took them into late March. Maybe it was watching Ray Allen, chartered member of the Boston Celtics “Big Three” shift into a supporting role with the Heat, coming off of the bench to provide key minutes. Maybe it was watching the team battle to a seven-game Eastern Conference finals victory over the upstart Indiana Pacers, the team that will most likely challenge their Eastern Conference crown come this June. If it was none of those, it was certainly Game 6 of the NBA Finals. Down 13 points in the fourth to the San Antonio Spurs and seemingly doomed to their second defeat in the NBA Finals in three seasons, James decided to take control of the narrative on his own, dropping 18 points in the final frame to help send the game into overtime, where the Heat came back for a 103-100 win to even the series for a third time. The Heats Game 7 triumph seemed like an inevitability after that, the aging Spurs deflated and resigned to defeat. In looking human, the Heat found humility. In humility, they found victory. cheap jerseys wholesale jerseys ' ' '