Beschwerden » the tires.While the focus in the past at Kentucky was getti

With West Ham United saying goodbye to Upton Park and hello to European football, a new era has effectively dawned in east London.Manager Slaven Bilic pushed all the right buttons with his club last season, guiding the Hammers to a seventh place Premier League finish and a spot in the Europa League.Bilics side has been unable to recreate their 2015-16 form in the early stages of the current term, having lost two of their three opening fixtures. But home matches always bring hope and theyre aiming to collect three points against Watford at Olympic Stadium on Saturday.After a season-opening 2-1 loss to Chelsea, the club opened their new stadium with a narrow 1-0 win over Bournemouth before heading into the international break on a sour note following a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Pep Guardiolas Manchester City.West Ham (1-0-2) fell behind after only seven minutes thanks to a strike from Raheem Sterling. Fernandinho doubled the lead prior to the 20-minute mark. Michail Antonios 58th-minute strike gave the Hammers some hope, but it was extinguished in added time as Sterling completed his brace to seal the three points.Despite the defeat, Bilic left the Etihad encouraged with his sides second-half performance.You can break it down to two halves of football, he said. They were much better than us in the first half. They started very well, and not only did they show the quality on the ball which we knew (they had) but they were quicker, more aggressive than us and better on the second balls.At half time, I wasnt happy, but I asked the guys to show the character, the spirit, the attitude and mentality which they basically did in the second half. I have praise for the team for the second half performance. Its a shame that we conceded the late goal, but it was a good second half as I said. The first wasnt.West Ham also managed some decent transfer business before the closure of the summer window, bringing in former Liverpool and Real Madrid defender Alvaro Arbeloa on a one-year deal.I am really happy to be here in a great club in a great league, he told the clubs official television channel. Im really happy to be back in England and, for me, its a great chance and Im looking forward to playing with this side.Watford (0-1-2) are also currently struggling for form while winless in their opening three fixtures and desperate not to let those early troubles spiral out of control.Walter Mazzarris boys were simply outclassed by Arsenal in a 3-1 defeat to the Gunners prior to the international hiatus. Santi Cazorla fired home a penalty after nine minutes and Alexis Sanchez doubled the lead before Mesut Ozil plunged the dagger into Watford hearts in first-half stoppage time.Roberto Pereyra pulled one back for Watford in the second half, but it was merely a consolation goal.The second half we were good and should have scored more, Mazzarri said. A lot of players are new so we have to prepare later. The organisational things are still missing and two starting players were out last minute and this really didnt help.Reinforcements have arrived for Mazzarri ahead of Saturdays clash as the club signed Kenedy from Chelsea on a season-long loan. They also handed a new three-year deal to Adrian Mariappa, who featured for Watford from 2005-12 before departing for Reading and Crystal Palace.West Ham holds the historical advantage in this fixture, having won 11 of their last 13 home league meetings with Watford. The home side won both games by a two-goal margin last season in this fixture. 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The defence is doing its part, too. Drew Brees threw a pair of touchdown passes in the first half and the guys on the other side made sure that was enough, sending the Saints to a 17-13 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday night. SPARTA, Ky. -- Kentucky Speedway has changed, and we probably wont know whether its for the better until a full weekend of racing has been completed.Thanks to a repave and a mild reprofiling of Turns 1 and 2, almost everything that competitors have learned since the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series started running there in 2011 has been thrown out. For all practical purposes, Kentucky is a brand-new racetrack, to the joy of some and the disappointment of others.Its a totally different race track, for sure, 2013 Kentucky winner Matt Kenseth?said. Id say its basically like starting over.Almost since it opened in 2000, Kentucky was notorious for its bumpy surface. While that created difficulty in setting up cars to handle, it also provided much of the tracks character. The 1.5-mile oval some 35 miles south of Cincinnati was also famous for its weepers and was known as one of the most difficult tracks to dry and make race-ready after periods of rain.Coarser asphalt and a revised aggregate base, along with south-end banking increased from 14 to 17 degrees, are expected to provide relief from the drainage problems. The other major change to the track is a wider pit lane exit and resultant narrower entry to Turn 1, where the width has been reduced from 72 to 56 feet.About a dozen teams tested the new surface for Goodyear on June 13 and 14, prompting the tire maker to change to a slightly harder right-side compound for the Cup Series to address concerns about the potential for excessive wear.We spent two days testing here and obviously Goodyear needed to make some adjustments to the tires coming back to make them live, said?Kevin Harvick, who claimed pole position based on owner points after qualifying for the Quaker State 400 was rained out Friday.As weve gone through practice, we havent had any tire issues so far. But it changed things a lot with the feel in the car and the things you want in the car. So weve scrambled a little bit, and hopefully getting a little more practice will be beneficial because we still arent exactly where we need to be in terms of balance and whats going to happen the longer you run the car.Harvick admitted that he and crew chief Rodney Childers took a conservative approach for practice. Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne both contacted the wall, and?Kyle Busch had to summon all of his skill to catch a huge tank-slapper.Youre definitely cautious just because you dont know where the limits are, and every time you go out you push or see something you havent done before, Harvick said. You start to gather a notebook in your mind about how far you can push things, how far you can hang the car out or how loose or tight the balance needs to be.The hard thing about repaves at some places is you can be overaggressive and slide up out of the groove, but here, you wind up knocking the side off the car into the fence.The rain that arrived just 20 minutes into Fridays Cup practice made things more difficult for competitors in several ways. After any track is repaved, teams need as much track time as poossible to dial in their cars to adapt to the changes.dddddddddddd In addition, having more rubber laid down on the track tends to widen the groove for the race, creating opportunities for passing.The decision to jettison qualifying in favor of additional practice time was welcomed by the drivers. Just a few days ago, NASCAR altered its rule for a qualifying rainout to set the grid by owner points, rather than practice speeds as it had been done in the past.That put Harvicks Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet on pole, with Brad Keselowskis Team Penske Ford alongside on the front row.With the major changes to the Kentucky track, Keselowski welcomed the extra practice time.The approach is to take all the Kentucky notes and run them through the shredder and start from scratch, he said, adding that he and crew chief Paul Wolfe based their car setup on what worked earlier this summer at Michigan International Speedway. Whats worked here in the past isnt even close to whats going to work here this weekend. That was pretty obvious before we got on the track and confirmed when we did.The cars are challenging to drive like we thought they would be and like we hoped they would be, Keselowski continued. Midcorner speed is way down and straightaway speed is way up, so thats a bit of a handful, but the good kind of handful that really challenges drivers and really forces drivers to really push it to the limit.Keselowski believes that the reduction in midcorner speed brought on by the low downforce package in the Cup Series has the added benefit of reducing the potential for tire issues. But he was concerned about the Xfinity Series race scheduled for Friday night.Its interesting going back and forth between the Xfinity car and the Cup car because the midcorner speed in the Xfinity car is almost 10 mph higher than the Cup car, and the Xfinity cars are just killing the tires.While the focus in the past at Kentucky was getting a car to handle over the bumps, the new challenge is to manage tire wear. With a conservative, ultrahard right-side tire and a high-grip new track surface, expect plenty of two-tire and even no-tire stops Saturday night as teams try to gain track position through pit strategy.The Friday rain didnt help things in that respect.It definitely will make the groove narrower, which is a shame, Keselowski said. The tire on the car this weekend really isnt laying down the rubber that would make the groove wider and wider.It is what it is. We all deal with the same thing and well get through it.One thing the drivers wont have to endure this year is the physical pounding they used to take at the roughest oval on the NASCAR tour. Some of them say theyll miss the bumps and the character they contributed to Kentucky, but Harvick isnt one of them.It feels great, to tell you the truth, Harvick said. My neck doesnt hurt; it doesnt pound your heels and your neck to the point where you cant hardly walk for two days. ' ' '