The Air Titan track-drying system would be a good NASCAR fantasy pick this weekend. (Getty Images)

Rain has washed out qualifying for the Aaron's 499 at Talladega, meaning that the field will be set based on the first practice speeds from Friday. That puts Carl Edwards at the front of the field. However, Mother Nature being fickle, even though Edwards starts at the front he won't benefit from the pole position for the purposes of qualifying for the 2014 Sprint Unlimited.

"We were all driving like idiots out there in first practice knowing it was probably going to rain today," Marcos Ambrose said shortly after qualifying was rained out. Ambrose will start third, and he's pleased: "It's good to start at the front. It eliminates a lot of accidents."

Edwards paced the field with a time of 47.958 seconds for 199.675 miles per hour. Lining up alongside him on the front row is Martin Truex Jr., who was just 0.025 mph slower than Edwards. Filling out the rest of the top 10: Ambrose, Joey Logano, Ryan Newman, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne. (Full

Bjoern Warner while at Florida State. (Getty Images)

Bjoern Werner is one of many new NFL draftees who comes to the league via a somewhat unconventional route. Bjoern was born in Berlin and only played two years of high school football, but nonetheless established himself as a beast of a defensive end in three years at Florida State.

But there aren't many options to play football in Germany, so as a lad, Werner had to educate himself. As he told Indianapolis radio station 1070 The Fan, he learned football by playing Madden. "I knew every NFL star probably when I was 12, 13 or 14," he said. "I learned every team, every player in the game and I always created my little All-Star games, All-Star teams."

[Also: What was the motivation behind RG3's cryptic tweets?]

And given that the early teen years weren't that long ago, Werner will be lining up against and alongside some of the same players he once controlled: "When I was 12, 13, 14, I played with [defenders] Robert Mathis and Dwight Freeney. They were like the dynamic duo for years. Now I’m

NASCAR has upheld its ruling dealing severe penalties to the Penske teams of Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano. The Penske teams have indicated they will appeal the decision of the three-person panel to NASCAR's Chief Appellate Officer.

The Penske teams' penalties stemmed from violations of NASCAR's Sections 12-1, 12-4J and 20-12. Both teams' crew chiefs, car chiefs, engineers and competition directors were suspended for six races, including the All-Star Race in Charlotte. The crew chiefs were fined $100,000 apiece. And both teams lost 25 championship points.

The National Stock Car Racing Appeals Panel had the ability to uphold, reduce or increase the penalties. The panel heard the appeal beginning at 9 a.m. ET Wednesday, and rendered its verdict at 3 p.m. The violations stemmed from concerns about the rear-end housings of both the 2 and 22 cars at Texas in mid-April.

The appeal means that the suspended crew members could be permitted to continue with track activities, provided the

Last summer, Lawrence Okoye was slinging the discus for Great Britain in the Olympics. (Getty Images)

The draft and the first round of free-agent signings are done. While most players come to the NFL the traditional college-football way, a few take a more winding path. Check out some of the more interesting routes some of the NFL's newest crop of players took to get to the promised land.

Lawrence Okoye (undrafted free agent, signed by San Francisco 49ers): As raw as it gets, Okoye had never even put on a helmet and pads before a pre-draft visit to New Orleans this year. But at 6'6" and 304 pounds, he could make one heck of a defensive lineman. He reached the Olympic finals in discus for his native Great Britain, though he finished last. 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh called him "an Adonis, a great physical specimen of a man." So there you go.

Demetrius Harris (UFA, Kansas City): He last played football in high school, then spent the last four years at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee playing basketball. When he got the initial call from Kansas City, he thought it was a practical joke.

Menelik Watson (2nd round, Raiders): Another British product, he played for Florida State but started only 20 football games in his entire college career.

Murphy Holloway (UFA, Baltimore):

Robert Griffin III. (Getty Images)

Robert Griffin III is already the most popular athlete in his adopted hometown of Washington, D.C. (Sorry, Bryce Harper.) He's outspoken without being outrageous, and as a result he's also fast becoming one of the more influential athletes in the country. He's still finding his footing when it comes to addressing controversial topics, but once he does, he's likely to be a go-to source on both social and sports issues.

Case in point: a series of tweets that Griffin issued over the course of five hours on Tuesday evening. It's not quite clear what set Griffin off, but he offered up a series of honest tweets. They're not exactly soul-baring, but in a world where athletes are expected to toe the family-friendly, politically correct line in order to preserve their brand, Griffin is clearly chafing at the thought of staying silent.

Here are the tweets; following is some speculation about what Griffin may have been addressing:

You ever say something & people interpret it a certain way but you

Concept design via 360 Architecture.

Alien invasion or football experience? In Atlanta come 2017, there won't be much of a difference, if an exotic new stadium plan becomes reality.

That there is one of the two major designs for the new Atlanta Falcons stadium, proposed to open in time for the start of the 2017 season. Crafted by 360 Architecture, it's called the "Pantheon," and it's a new design on the usual retractable-dome style. How new? This new:

Concept design via 360 Architecture.

The centerpiece of the dome is the "Oculus," the eye that rotates open depending on the day's weather and the facility's needs. It's meant to resemble the sweep of a falcon's wing, and you can see it in action in the video below. Sweet, huh?

Also under consideration: the "Solarium," a more traditional two-paneled retractable-roof facility:

Concept design via 360 Architecture.

360 Architecture, which also designed MetLife Stadium, home of the Giants and Jets, won a $35 million deal to design the estimated billion-dollar stadium. And the amenities, if actually built, will rival any stadium in the world.

San Diego Union-Tribune.

Manti Te'o is coming to San Diego, courtesy of a second-round pick. And, if the above cartoon from his newly-adopted hometown paper, the San Diego Union-Tribune, is any indication, old jokes about Te'o won't die easily.

The combination of poor performance in the national championship, unexpectedly bad showings in the NFL combine, and of course the phantom girlfriend all combined to knock perhaps the most famous name in the draft out of the first round.

Still, Te'o is saying the right things. About the whole phantom-girl fiasco, "it's definitely made me stronger," he told chargers.com. "Dealing with adversity, it can hurt you or make you stronger, and it definitely made me stronger. That's how I feel right now."

Dealing with adversity, that's one thing. Dealing with bad jokes? Yeah, Te'o's going to be living with that for the rest of his life.

-Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee.-

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Chris Kluwe. (Getty Images)On Monday, the NBA's Jason Collins came out of the closet. And now, Chris Kluwe, an outspoken advocate for gay rights, is demonstrating the thorny interrelationship between social agendas and good business sense.

Kluwe is a punter in the NFL, a position that demands precision and focus ... but also a position with a number of suitable candidates for every spot. Kluwe has kicked with distinction for the Minnesota Vikings for the past eight years. But while he's not on the field, he's certainly made an impact off it, speaking out on social issues such as the rights of gays.

Last fall, after Kluwe publicly supported fellow kicker Ray Guy for the Hall of Fame, Vikings special-teams coach Mike Priefer had had enough. “Those distractions are getting old for me, to be quite honest with you,” he said at the time.

And now, those "distractions" could be what is costing Kluwe a job, at least in his estimation. In the fifth round, the Vikings selected punter Jeff Locke, the first selection of a