I'm on to you, KCCI news video editor.

It was a scary scene for one driver and racing fans during a recent event at the Boone Speedway in Boone, Iowa. Race car driver Danny Watson experienced a broken axle after his vehicle hit a hole on the racetrack and his car burst into flames. He would have been a goner for sure, but fortunately another driver’s bravery led to Watson’s life being saved.

Richard Yaw was trailing Watson when the accident occurred and he was able to stop his vehicle and exit his car in time to pull Watson from his own flaming car in a beautiful moment of sportsmanship, heroics and friendship.

Watson was knocked unconscious and was quickly running out of time as the fire raged through his disabled vehicle. Yaw, who was right behind Wilson when the crash occurred pulled his own stock car over and ran to his friends aid. With his helmet still on Yaw jumped from his car and into the smoke and flames.

“I owe him my life,” Watson told the news station. (Via AOL)

And they both said some other stuff about how scary this was or whatever, but I totally became distracted when I saw Yaw’s t-shirt in this local news interview.

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Tomorrow marks the beginning of the 103rd annual Drake Relays at Drake University, at which more than 8,000 athletes and spectators will gather to participate in the record 120 events at this year’s competition. The Relays began in 1910 with 100 people both competing and cheering each other on. Now, the event is widely regarded at Iowa’s premier sporting event. Better luck next year, competitive corn shuckers.

But more importantly than any heptathlon, decathlon, or dodecahedronathon was the Drake Relays preliminary event that took place yesterday as the official launch to the week – the 33rd annual Drake Relays Beautiful Bulldog Contest. Fifty bulldogs showed up for this year’s poochstravaganza, and a bulldog named Tyson (above) was the ultimate good widdle boy. Joining Tyson’s court were:

Runner-up – Charlie
Oldest bulldog – Max, 10-year-old
Best Dressed – Flethcher, dressed as Jethro’s BBQ’s famous “Emmenecker” sandwich
Mr. Congeniality – Vinny
Miss Congeniality — Heartstopping Ittybitty
Farthest from the Doghouse – Pork Chop, from Cambridge, Minnesota

(Via the Des Moines Register)

I’ve definitely added the Drake Relays to my sports bucket list, but not because I want to go see a few thousand people try to be the best at exercising – although finding the next Allison Stokke should be any sports blogger’s greatest ambition. I just want to spend a whole day judging bulldogs for their costumes. Seriously, costumed bulldogs are the key to world peace, just look at the pictures after the jump and tell me you feel like doing anything other than rubbing a tummy or 50.

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Ames, Iowa parents are beating each other bloody over how often their 12-year old stands in at second shortstop. Who ya got?

Ames police arrested three people at North River Valley Park Sunday night following the championship softball game for 12-year-old girls competing in the Iowa Games.

The Centerville Hot Shots had just beat the Nevada Cubs when according to police a Centerville parent got in an argument with the team’s coach over playing time.

Officers said 32-year-old Angela Sales, of Centerville, punched coach Todd Sebolt. The coach is also accused of punching Sales. Sales sister, 19-year-old Stephany Summers, was also arrested for punching Sebolt’s wife.

I picked the one in the middle (“Sebolt”), but I honestly thought he was a lesbian. Now I feel bad for everyone at the game, because the guy who coaches a team of 12-year old girls is okay punching a woman. I wish the paragraph about who had punched who had kept going. Sales punched the coach. The coach is accused of punching Sales. Sales sister, Stephanie But Spelled Stupid, was arrested for punching the coach’s wife. The coach’s wife was arrested for punching Sales’ dog. The dog was arrested for urinating in public. Several pre-teen girls were arrested for punching a fire hydrant, and so on.

Video of the incident is below, but be warned, it is extremely graphic.

[h/t Off the Bench and my lifelong crush on Thora Birch]

If you’re like me, you commonly make out with two girls at the same time and you were also able to watch the NCAA Tournament’s early games on your office’s 70-inch LED TV while your coworkers shook their ham fists in rage. But many people didn’t have the luxury of skipping work or class to watch games yesterday or today, and thankfully there are still American businesses that care about the common man. Like Iowa Clinic in Des Moines, for instance, offering men discounted vasectomies this week so they could recover at home yesterday and today while watching the Tourney in peace.

The clinic’s Dr. Mark Kellerman says that the idea, while a common scheme across the country, is a great way for older men to be responsible and enjoy one of their favorite four-day sports weekends of the year. And it’s also when women finish the job they started 20 years earlier.

“A lot of times some of the discussion with patients is a bit tongue-in-cheek,” he said. “Guys come in and say it wasn’t their idea, but the wife says ‘Go.’ If they can get something out of it by being able to watch TV, that’s great.” (Via Des Moines Register)

Haha, yeah that’s awesome, women be demandin’, right guys? “Honey, if you go get your reproductive system destroyed then we can still never have sex but at least you can watch the games at home. Until I make you change the channel.” I don’t know, I’ve never been married, but I feel like I’m pretty close.

In related news, someone should make Travis Henry watch college basketball.

If your girlfriend gets a little extra pissed at you this week for not holding the door or giving her a Dutch oven or sleeping with her sister, you can thank Joel Northrup for weakening the man line in the battle against supreme chick dominance. Northrup is a sophomore wrestler at Linn-Mar High in Iowa, and he recently lost his opening round match at the Iowa state tournament by forfeit… because he refused to wrestle a girl.

Cassy Herkelman is now the first girl to have ever won a match in Iowa state tournament history, thanks to Northrup’s inability to see through gender bias and treat her as a peer with respect. Or maybe someone was afraid to get a visit from the Boner Fairy.

So why, Yahoo!, did Northrup succumb to this camel toe clutch?

“I have a tremendous amount of respect for Cassy and Megan [Black] and their accomplishments,” Northrup said in a statement given to the media following his official forfeit. “However, wrestling is a combat sport and it can get violent at times.

“As a matter of conscience and faith, I do not believe that it is appropriate for a boy to engage a girl in this manner. It is unfortunate that I have been placed in a situation not seen in most other high school sports in Iowa.”

Damn, he’s got a good point. Only in Midwest high school wrestling can religion-induced chivalry interfere with the action. But when I played baseball growing up, anytime a girl joined a team we always tried our hardest to strike her out or hit line drives at her or see her boobs. To be fair, that last one may apply to my coed softball league.

Video of additional footage from the Iowa state high school wrestling tournament after the jump…

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