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It may come this weekend, even if Red Bull's runaway leader Sebastian Vettel and team mate Mark Webber will be hard to beat at Silverstone, but 2009 champion Button feels he still has time on his side after all these years.

The McLaren driver's stirring victory in Montreal last month, coming from last place to pass Vettel on the final lap, has made sure of that even if McLaren were off the pace and off the podium in the latest race in Valencia.

"It seems that every interview I do now, people talk about how many more years are you racing, when are you retiring?," Button told British reporters at a recent media event.

"I'm only 31 years old, so there is a lot of life left in me yet, and hopefully quite a few more British Grands Prix."

Button started out with Williams in 2000 and had to wait until 2006, with Honda in Hungary, for his first race win to arrive.

He then won six races with Brawn GP in his championship year and has taken three more victories with McLaren. Fittingly enough, this month's return to Hungary will be his 200th start.

FUNERAL JOURNEY

"I still want to achieve more. I want to win more races, I want to challenge for more world championships," said the Briton, speaking on board the vessel that carried Winston Churchill's coffin along the Thames from his 1965 state funeral.

In terms of symbolism, an ageing boat heading through sometimes choppy waters at a stately pace might have seemed an unfortunate choice for a pre-Silverstone team outing but Button remained upbeat despite McLaren's performance problems.

"This year, I've had some great races and I've really enjoyed it, and that's the most important thing," he said.

"Getting the win in Canada was a very special win for me, and that will definitely keep me going for quite a bit longer in the sport in terms of excitement and really wanting to get back to that," he said.

"It becomes very addictive, winning, and you really miss it when you haven't got it."

Vettel has won six of eight races so far this year and is 77 points clear of second-placed Button in the championship with 11 more grands prix to come.

It will take a comeback of unprecedented proportions for anyone to overhaul the 24-year-old German, with McLaren also fighting Ferrari just to get on the podium.

Button's team mate Lewis Hamilton wrote off his championship chances after the last race in Valencia, before backtracking and saying he would never give up, and Button's chances of a win on Sunday look just as remote.

He too was down after that race, before consigning it to history and recharging his batteries.

"Everyone wants to win their home grand prix, and at least be on the podium," Button said.

"Winning would be out of this world but even being on the podium would be special.

"I've been close a couple of times, and last year was pretty close. It was disappointing not to get there, especially to come from 14th (to fourth).

"So yeah, it would be nice to get a podium. I think it's going to be tricky. We've got to really focus on bringing some good improvements to the race to have a chance. But that's exactly what we're doing."

Last year was Button's second fourth place at Silverstone, after a fifth in 2000 and 2005 and a sixth in 2009.

The start/finish has been relocated this year, with the opening of a new pit and paddock complex making it a new experience for all.

"I'm really excited about the weekend. I hope it's dry, I really do. The British fans deserve that," said Button.

"It's going to be exciting having a new Turn One as well. I've got quite a few of my family members coming and friends from all over to watch the race, so that's even more reason to have a good result."

Phyllis Smith, probably best known for her role as the motherly, but somewhat conniving, knitter Phyllis Lapin-Vance on NBC's The Office, has been making the media rounds promoting her new movie Bad Teacher, where she plays a teacher and friend to Cameron Diaz's character.

During this recent media blitz, Smith has been asked about her somewhat colorful past which included spending time as a pre-school teacher, casting agency employee, burlesque dancer and performer and ... NFL cheerleader.

News surfaced several years ago Smith worked as a cheerleader for the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1970s. In fact, that nugget of information is part of her bio page on NBC.com.

But the topic has come up again and in a recent interview with Slate.com, Smith talked more about her time working for the team and what NFL cheerleading was like in those days.

"I was at the height of my glory, because I loved dancing and wearing the boots and the hot pants, the tied up shirts, looking really hot. And I was able to dance, I loved football. My dad used to have season tickets, so I was flirting with the guys on the sidelines as much as I could. The organizations make sure that the cheerleaders and the players have minimal contact, but that's what you try to do. It was great, in the '70s."

Rob Sylvester of NBCSports.com's Off The Bench provided the visual proof through St. Louis radio station KYKY and noted the ... we'll go with ... dated hairstyle and that the cheerleaders of the 1970s wore significantly different uniforms than the ones the women who roam the sidelines today wear.

MIAMI — Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra made a lineup change Sunday for Game 6 of the NBA Finals, with his team down 3-2 as it returned home.

Spoelstra went with Mario Chalmers for Mike Bibby at point guard.

"What we've proven is we can play guys different amounts of minutes," Spoelstra said, "regardless of who we start."

Chalmers was averaging 10.6 points, 2.8 assists and 1.2 steals in 27 minutes off the bench in the Finals, shooting 43% from the field and from three-point range. Bibby was averaging 3.8 points, 1.0 assists and 1.4 steals in 17 minutes and shooting 35% from the field (29% from three-point range).

PHOTOS: Top images from the NBA Finals

"I felt that he's been a big part of who they've become," Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said of Chalmers. "He's a better all-around player than people probably believe. Look, off of this series, he's their fourth most dangerous player, if you look at the stats."

Faulty memory: Mavericks guard Jason Terry recalled confetti hitting him the night Miami beat Dallas for the championship in 2006. "Something I'll never forget," he said.

Terry is a good storyteller. Game 6 that year was in Dallas and no confetti fell when Miami won, a point Wade clarified Sunday morning.

"I can tell you one thing that's different, if they do miraculously win the game (Sunday), won't be no confetti falling down for them, which was none in '06, neither," Wade said.

Around the hardwood: The Mavs won Games 4 and 5 after inserting point guard J.J. Barea into the starting lineup and moving DeShawn Stevenson to the bench. "DeShawn embraced it," Carlisle said. … Before Game 6, the Heat had a better shooting percentage in the fourth quarter than the Mavs. Yet the Mavs had outscored the Heat 118-104 in the final quarter. One major reason? Free throws. Dallas had made 38 to Miami's 22. … Also before Game 6, James had shot a higher percentage vs. the Mavs (45.3%) than he did vs. the Chicago Bulls (44.7%) in the Eastern Conference finals — but was averaging nearly nine fewer points. The explanation is simple: James had attempted three fewer shots and five fewer free throws a game.