Danica Patrick to make NASCAR debut at Daytona

Danica Patrick will make her NASCAR debut this weekend at Daytona International Speedway in Florida.

The IndyCar star will drive the No. 7 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports in Saturday’s second-tier Nationwide Series race.

The decision announced Monday to race at Daytona was made after team officials dissected her stock car racing debut in the ARCA race at Daytona on Saturday. The team had left the option to race up to Patrick, who wanted to assess her first race before deciding whether to enter one of the most prestigious Nationwide races of the season.

Patrick overcame a mid-race spin to finish sixth.

FOOTBALL

Browns waive Stallworth

Donte’ Stallworth will get the chance to resurrect his NFL career, but it won’t happen in Cleveland. The Browns released the troubled wide receiver Monday, wasting little time after NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Friday that Stallworth would be reinstated following the Super Bowl.

Stallworth was suspended for the 2009 season by Goodell after he pleaded guilty to killing a pedestrian while driving drunk in Florida. He spent 24 days in jail.

The Oakland Raiders hired longtime NFL defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast as an assistant. The team did not say what Pendergast’s role would be when announcing his hiring. Pendergast was let go last month as defensive coordinator in Kansas City.

Pendergast is the third assistant hired by the Raiders since the end of the season, joining offensive coordinator Hue Jackson and defensive line coach Mike Waufle. The team has not announced whether Tom Cable will return as coach.

ETC.

Galaxy’s Mathis has knee surgery

Major League Soccer’s Galaxy announced that Clint Mathis, 33, will be sidelined for four to six weeks -- or basically until the start of the 2010 season -- after undergoing surgery Friday for a torn meniscus in his left knee. Mathis suffered the injury during training last week.

The Galaxy said Mathis “is expected to be available” for the team’s March 27 season opener.

Galaxy midfielder David Beckham, 34, on loan to AC Milan in Italy, has closed his soccer academies in London and Los Angeles. The lease had expired on the London location and was not renewed, and the Carson site, at the Home Depot Center, shut its doors before Christmas, without the Galaxy, its owner AEG, or Beckham making any announcement at the time.

-- Grahame L. Jones

Former Big 12 Conference commissioner Kevin Weiberg is joining the Pacific 10 Conference as deputy commissioner and chief operating officer.

Former U.S. Olympic skier Jimmie Heuga, who won a bronze medal at the 1964 Games in Innsbruck, Austria, and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis six years later, died at Boulder Community Hospital in Colorado. He was 66.