Category Archives: Racing

SPORTS IS BACK. Or is it “ARE?”

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Super Bowl’s done. Players are showing up in Florida.  So are the stock cars.  March Madness is just around the corner.

But first, a literary note:

“I believe in the Church of Baseball.  I’ve worshipped all the major religions nd most of the minor ones. I’ve worshipped Buddha, allah, Vishnu, Siva, trees, mushrooms, and Isadora Duncan. I know things. For instance there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance. But it just didn’t work out between us. The Lord laid too much guilt on me. I prefer metaphysics to theology. You see, there’s no guilt in baseball and it’s never boring.”

Fans of the movie Bull Durham will recognize Annie’s soliloquy that opens the film.  The Church of Baseball is Ron Shelton’s biography of the movie and his creation of the characters we will watch anytime we come across the movie while we’re channel surfing.  If you’re a baseball fan or a fan of the movie or both (who couldn’t be?) we recommend getting the book.

Shelton, by the way, is a former minor league pitcher and he admits he was wrong about the rosary but he’s right about the stitches in a baseball.

There are three great film speeches about baseball.  James Earle Jones’ reverential, “The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball” needs a voice like his to avoid sticky sentimentality.  But Susan Sarandon’s reading of the “Church of Baseball” is better.  The third film speech isn’t about baseball exactly or at all about baseball.  But when Kevin Costner as Crash Davis lists “the hangin’ curveball” as one of life’s great pleasures and believes that “there should be a constitutional amendment outlawing astroturf and the designated hitter,” among other things on his list, the viewer is left with the same reaction as Annie, “Oh My.”

Baseball is inching back into our lives and our lives are getting better every day.   Read Shelton’s book.

(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals gained a catcher, lost a Hall of Famer, and said goodbye to one of their voices in the off-season.  They enter the season with a lot of strengths and questions about the pitching staff. Perhaps the best thing to do is recall how many young arms came up for varying stints last year and, having tasted The Show, have a whole season to polish their game.  Former Missourinet Sports Director John Rooney will be glad to keep us up on the latest.

We’ll enjoy watching Wilson Contreras, miss talkative Tim McCarver, and hope that Dan McGlaughlin is getting the help he needs.

(ROYALS)—The Kansas City Royals have a new hall of famer. Of course, it’s their own hall of fame, but the honor is well deserved. Ned Yost has the most wins of any Royals manager (746), was the first team manager to take the team to back-to-back World Series appearances and one world championship. His post season record of 22-9 (.710 winning percentage) is a major league record for managers with at least 20 postseason appearances.

(FL)—The XFL has wasted no time filling the pro football gap after the Super Bowl.  The USFL won’t be along until April. But the opening weekend of the XFL featured a stirring come-from-behind win by our own St. Louis Battlehawks. The win has some NFL fans wondering why their league doesn’t adopt some XFL excitement.

Former Cincinnati Bengals Quarterback A. J. McCarron let the Hawks to two scores in the last two minutes to rally from a 15-3 deficit to an 18-15 win over the San Antonio Brahmas.

McCarron drove his team 71 yards in eight plays to score with 1:25 left to narrow the margin to 15-9.

The XFL does not allow extra point kicks.  It awards one point for a pass or run from two yards out; 2 points from five yards, and three points from the ten yard line. McCarron hit Austin Proehl with a pass to cut the margin to 15-12.

The league also allows teams a chance to keep the ball after touchdowns if they can convert a fourth-and-15 play from their own 25.  Proehl got open for a 22-yard reception to keep the game going, and snagged a 14-yard pass a few plays later for the winning touchdown with sixteen seconds left.

Proehl is the son of former St. Louis Rams player Ricky Proehl.  McCarron hadn’t played pro football since he tore his right knee ACL in a preseason game in August of 2021. The touchdown passes were his first since he threw one for the Bengals in a playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers seven years ago.

(TIGERS)—The Missouri Tigers basketball team will try again to notch its 20th win tonight against Mississippi State, a team that beat them by eleven points in Starkville earlier this season. The game is in Columbia and the Tigers haven’t played well since dumping highly-ranked Tennessee two games ago. Missouri is 19-8 and has split 14 SEC games. Mississippi State is 18-9 and 6-8 in a crowded mit-pack of conference teams.

Now for the racin’

(NASCAR)—Ricky Stenhouse Jr., has won the Daytona 530, the longest Daytona 500 in history, surviving a series of crashes that forced two overtimes.  The nose of Stenhouse’s car was inches ahead of the car of Joey Logano when the final caution came out because of a crash.  Its his first win in 199 races since he won the summer race at Daytona six years ago.  It’s the first win for his team, JTG-Daughery Racing since 2014, a string of 266 races.

NASCAR races next weekend at Fontana, California as the series starts its spring West Coast swing.

(INDYCAR)—INDYCAR is two weeks away from its first race of the year, on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida and has started the countdown to the Indianapolis 500 in May.

2103 winner Tony Kanaan says he will step out of the cockpit for good after this year’s 500, the 390th race he’s driven in the series. He’ll finish his 500 career by driving for McLaren. He told Motorsport.com’s David Malsher-Lopez that he’s at peace with his decision.

Kanaan has no ride for the full season. He has no regrets about his decision but says, “I’m going to miss it every day of my life. I miss it now.”  He’s 48 and says he’ll still drive “everything,” but he has nothing on his schedule for the rest of this year, or 2024.

(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen shoots for his third straight F1 championship in two weeks at the Grand Pix of Bahrain.

Sports: Championships come in Twos in 2022

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

Baseball Season’s done. So is NASCAR for the year.  Champions have been crowned. Changes already are coming in the dugouts and the cockpits.  And the Tigers can’t get over the hump.

The Houston Astros brought down the curtain on Major League Baseball’s 2022 season Saturday night winning the World Series from the Phillies four games to two. It is the second time the Astros have won the World Series. The first time was against the Dodgers in 2017.

(CARDINALS)—Most of the speculation focuses on who the Cardinals will pluck from the free agent market or trade for in the offseason. But it’s changes in the dugout that make the first headline.

One-time fan favorite Matt Holiday will be wearing the birds on the bat again. He’s the new bench coach for Oliver Marmol’s second season. Holliday is still young enough to play (in Wainwright years, at least).  He’s been coaching at Oklahoma State University since winding up his playing days with single seasons with the Yankees and a return to the Rockies in 2017-2018.  He spent eight years with the Redbirds during which he hit .293 and was a member of the World Series-winning team in 2011.

Dusty Blake comes aboard as pitching coach and Turner Ward is the new hitting coach. Blake will have help from Julio Rangel, who comes over from the Red Sox, and Holliday will have help from Brandon Allen, who has been a member of the Cardinals Minor League coaching staff.

Ward is a holdover as the hitting assistant. He was the hitting coach for the Dodgers for three years, the Diamondbacks for to, and the Reds for one.  Blake was a pitching strategist for the Cardinals last year after three years as the pitching coach for Duke University. Allen spent four years playing major league ball for Arizona, Oakland, and Tampa Bay before joining the Cardinals minor league staff six years ago.  Rangle was in the Yankees minor league system as a player for seven years, did a couple of years as the pitching coach for the Texas Rangers, and for the last two seasons was the Red Sox Pitching Coordinator.

Several guys are holdovers including Willie McGee and Patrick Elkins along with First Base Coach Stubby Clapp, Third Base coach Ron “Pop” Warner, and bullpen catchers Jamie Pogue and Kleininger Teran.

(ROYALS)—The Royals and new manager Matt Quatraro are waiting for some other shoes to fall before deciding who needs to be replaced on their coaching staff. The White Sox, who have lured Pedro Grifoil away from the Royals bench to be their manager reportedly are talking to some other members of the Royals coaching staff. The Royals, in turn, are thought to be talking to some coaches on the Tampa Bay Rays staff to see if they want to follow Quatraro to KC.

(TIGERS)—It was a winnable game that would have put the Missouri Tigers clearly in the postseason bowl picture.  But things went wrong, again, and they now stand at 4-6 after going their sixth straight game with only two touchdowns.

On the bright side: the defense is averaging 7.1 tackles for loss per game, the best in the conference. The Tigers are 18th nationally in total defense. They have the 11th best pass defense and 13th best third-down defense in the country.

Both sides will be bested next week when Missouri meets Tennessee, ranked fifth in the country. They close out against New Mexico State and Arkansas.  New Mexico is 3-5. Arkansas is 5-4 but plays two tough games before meeting Missouri: seventh-ranked LSU and 11-ranked Mississippi.  Missouri needs to win two of the three games to be bowl-eligible.

(CHIEFS)—Patrick Mahomes’ dash for a two-point conversion kept the Kansas City Chiefs from losing to the Tennessee Titans Monday night.  Harrison Butker, who had missed two kicks (a field goal and an extra point) drilled a field goal home in overtime to give the Chiefs a 20-17 win.

Mahomes scored the touchdown that set up the conversion and lifted his team from an eight-point deficit as the clock was running down.

Mahomes set a personal record in the game.  He needed just 105 yards passing to break Matthew Stafford’s record for the fastest quarterback to 20,000 yards passing.  He finished his 71st game going 43-68 for 446 yards, running his career total to 21,596.  It took Stafford 75 games to reach 20,000 yards.

The Chiefs are tied with the Bills for the best record in the AFC at 6-2.  The NFC has the league’s only undefeated team, the Eagles at 8-0. Minnesota is 7-1.

(NASCAR)—It’s two for the 22 in ’22.   Joey Logano has won his second NASCAR Cup, driving car number 22.  Logano didn’t need to win the last race at Phoenix to become the champion but he did, beating three other drivers who qualified to run for the championship.

Logano and teammate Ryan Blaney finished 1-2.  Logano’s championship means team owner Roger Penske has had a historic year with championships in the two major racing series in this country.  Will Power won the INDYCAR championship a few weeks ago.

Logano, who started from the pole, led 187 of the race’s 312 laps. Blaney led 109. Only three other drivers led laps during the race. Logano the first driver since Kyle Busch in 2019 to achieve multiple NASCAR championships and the first Ford driver to win two of them since David Pearson went back-to-back in 1968 and 1969.

The race was the last for Kyle Busch with Joe Gibbs racing, a sad day that turned into a grieving day when the team learned that co-owner Coy Gibbs had died in his sleep hours after watching his son, Ty, win the Xfinity championship Saturday. He was 49, the same age as his brother J.D., who died three years ago.

The race started with four drivers running for the championship.  Ross Chastain, who started farthest back, in 25th, finished third. Christopher Bell, who was threatening late in the race, was derailed by a too-lengthy pit stop and finished tenth.  Chase Elliott’s car was damaged when he and Chastain went after the same racing area. Repairs to Elliott’s car left him two laps back, in 25th.

NASCAR’s next race will be the second annual pre-season exhibition race in the Los Angeles Coliseum 88 days from today.

(INDYCAR)—RM Sotheby’s, the famous auction house, called it “the largest sale ever of open-wheel race cars ever auctioned,” last week when 237 registered bidders took part in the sale of forty race cars and racing memorabilia left over from Newman-Hass-Lanigan Racing, which competed in INDYCAR and CART from 1983-20011.  The team won eight series championships and 107 races.

The sales totaled about $6.1 million, with the 1993 Ford/Cosworth car driven by former Formula 1 Champion Nigel Mansel the year he won the INDYCAR series championship.  It brought $995,000 from McLaren Racing boss Zak Brown.A helmet worn by Mansel went for $90,000.

The other big-ticket car was a 1984 Lola T800 that Mario Andretti drove to wins at Mid-Ohio and the Meadowlands. It brought $401,000.

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INDYCAR’s most important trophy returns to its Indianapolis Motor Speedway home this week after a tour of Sweden, the home country of this year’s Indianapolis 500 winner, Marcus Ericsson.  The trophy includes the newly-installed carved image of Ericsson’s face.

Ericsson is the second driver from Sweden to win the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. Kenny Brȁck won the 500 in 1999.

The trip to Sweden is only the fourth time the big trophy has left the United States.  It toured Japan in 2017 in honor of Takuma Sato’s first 500 victory.  It was displayed at the Silver Anniversary Goodwood Festival of Speed in England in 2018 and it went to Paris the next year for the unveiling of the likeness of 2019 winner Simon Pagenaud, a native of Montmorillon, France.

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Bryan Herta, whose career was thought at times this year to be headed to Formula 1, has signed a contract extension that will keep him at Andretti Autosports through 2027.  Herta is the youngest driver ever to win an INDYCAR race, at age 18. He becomes the senior driver for Andretti at the age of 22 (that’s from point of service, not age).

(FORMULA 1)—Formula 1 finishes its year next weekend with the Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi.  Max Verstappen wrapped up his second straight championship last month.

(Photo Credits:  Logano—Bob Priddy; Mansell car—R. M. Sotheby’s)

Sports—Doing What You Have to Do

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(BASEBALL)—The Cardinals and the Royals have taken major steps for 2023, the Cardinals by locking in their All-Star third basemen through 2027 and the Royals hiring a new manager.

Arenado had an opt-out provision in his contract and after a disappointing two-and-out playoff series with the Phillies had said some things that raised doubts in fans minds that he would come back next year.  But the Cardinals sent President John Mozeliak to California for a heart-to-heart discussion and the best third baseman in baseball today.  Teammates Paul Goldschmidt and Adam Wainwright also had been telling him how much they wanted him back.   So he’s staying for the last five years and $144 million of his contract. He’s 31 and playing in his prime. He’s expected to compete with Goldschmidt for MVP honors.

The Royals have picked Tampa Bay bench coach Matt Quatraro as Mike Matheny’s replacement as manager. Quatraro finished his fifth year as bench coach this year. The Rays went 86-76 and lost both games of the wild card playoff to the Guardians. Quatraro got as high as Triple-A as a catcher, outfielder, and first baseman, then managed four years in the Tampa Bay system in Sigle-A and was Cleveland’s hitting coach in 2014.

During his five years on the Rays bench the team went 412-296 (.574), made the playoffs four times, lost the 2020 World Series, lost twice in the Division series and, this year, got knocked out in the wild card games.

Quatroro has his work cut out for him and likely will need some front office help.

He takes over a team that finished 27 games behind the Guardians, lost 97 games, and was under .500 at home. It ranked 24th in runs per game, 26th in run differential with opponents, had the 8th most strikeouts per 9 innings, ranked 27th with a team ERA of 4.70. Pitchers ranked 28th in strikeouts per nine innings and 29th in hits per nine innings.

Both the Cardinals and the Royals have some things to do in the offseason, however.

(CHIEFS)—No game this weekend but the Chiefs picked up some depth at receiver by giving the New York Giants a couple of next year’s low draft picks to get Kadarius Toney, a former number one pick of the Giants (2021). NFL observers say that he might be a significant outside threat for Kansas City—if he can stay healthy.

Now, Racing:

(NASCAR)—-Christopher Bell did what he had to do for the second elimination race in a row and Ross Chastain did what he had to do with an astonishing run through the last half of the last lap.

Bell, far down in the standings after last week’s bad-luck crash, had to win to make the final four for the season’s last race next Sunday at Phoenix. He grabbed the lead during pit stops with about 100 laps left, but dropped to sixth during the final round of stops, coming out sixth with 24 laps left on the short Martinsville track. He got past Ryan Blaney, another contender who had to win to advance to the final four, with four laps to go and held on to edge Kyle Larson at the line.

But behind the finishing gaggle, Chastain had started a desperate dash to the front.  Too far back to pass enough cars to make the playoffs, Chastain floored it, and ran full speed scraping the wall for the last two turns of the race, going 50-70 mph faster than other competitors, and nipped rival Denny Hamlin for fourth place, knocking Hamlin out of the playoffs.

https://www.nascar.com/video/franchise/nascar-cup-highlights/see-multiple-angles-of-chastains-last-lap-move-to-advance-at-martinsville/

Hamlin, who has had several run-ins with Chastain this year, came out of the last turn of the race two points ahead of Chastain in the points standings only to find himself displaced by Chastain’s mad dash.  Hamlin called the tactic “brilliant.”

Bell and Chastain, along with Chase Elliott and Joey Logano will fight for the championship next weekend in Phoenix. Whoever finishes highest gets the NASCAR Cup.  Logano and Ellott will be racing for their second championship.

(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen arguably has had the greatest season in Formula 1 history—and there are still two races left. Vertappen’s win in the Mexico City Grand Prix is his 14th win of the year, breaking the record held by Michael Schumacher in 2004 and tied by Sebastien Vettel in 2013.  His win gives Red Bull Racing its ninth victory in a row, tying the team record, and its 16th win in 21 races. Lewis Hamilton finished second for the second race in a row and Sergio Perez, Verstappen’s teammate, finished third, the second year in a row he has run third on his home track.

 

A Haunting Baseball Question—and Racing

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(BASEBALL)—A lot of stick-and-ball sports fans adopt the attitude that if their team gets knocked out of the playoffs, they’ll hope the team that did it goes on to the championship.

So some Cardinals fans will be rooting for the Phillies in the World Series that starts Friday.  The Phillies, winners of only 87 games in the regular season, have run the table so far against the Cardinals, Braves and the Padres to gain the right to take on the Houston Astros, who swept the Yankees in the American League finals.   Houston won almost 20 more games in the regular season, 106, than the Phillies did.

But Cardinals fans are left to ponder, “If we had beaten the Phillies, would it be our guys in the World Series?”  The Cardinals were one of eleven teams in major league baseball this year with better records than the Phillies.  But if the Phillies need extra inspiration they need only look at the Cardinals of 2006, who finished 83-78 in the regular season and beat the Detroit Tigers in the World Series. Based on winning percentages, the 2006 Cardinals are the worst teams to win it all.

Five teams with fewer than 90 regular season victories have won the World Series including last year’s Atlanta Braves that finished 88-73, one victory more than the Phillies had this year.

(KC Chiefs)—-Sometimes it seems as if the only way the Kansas City Chiefs can lose is if they beat themselves—last week’s game against the Bills, for example.  For a few minutes against the San Francisco 49ers Sunday, the trend was headed in that direction. The Chiefs spotted the 49ers ten points and then outscored them the rest of the way 44-13 with thirty points in the second half.

The Chiefs have survived a tough first half of the season to go into their break week 5-2.

(TIGERS)—After playing just well enough to lose for a month, the Missouri Tigers played just well enough to win against Vanderbilt.  The Tigers went into the game favored by a couple of touchdowns in some forecasts but needed a fourth-down stop of a Vanderbilt running back to stop a drive that appeared destined for a tying field goal attempt or a winning touchdown.

Missouri is now 3-4 and faces another tough test next weekend against 25th ranked South Carolina.

Now, for the non-stick-and-ball stuff:

(NASCAR)—Unlike other sports where playoff losers go home and pack up the gear until next year, those who lose in NASCAR’s playoffs keep playing.  And winning.

Case in point, Kyle Larson, who won both stages and the race at Homestead-Miami Speedway last weekend.  Larson led all but 68 of the 267 laps. Larson was eliminated from the playoffs earlier as the NASCAR season winds down with only two races left.

Playoff contender Ross Chastain trailed Larson across the line by 1.3 seconds followed by A. J. Almendinger, Austin Dillon, and Brad Keselowski.  Chastain was the only playoff driver in the top five. Keselowski’s finish as his first top five of the year, the first top five since becoming part owner of what is now Roush-Fenway-Keselowski racing.

Joey Logano remains the only driver guaranteed a chance at the championship.  Chastain is the second-seed with Chase Elliott and William Byron holding the top four positions. Denny Hamlin is five points below the cutline. Ryan Blaney is eighteen points back.  Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe need to win next weeks’ race at Martinsville if they are to advance to the final four who will run for the title November 5 at Phoenix.

(INDYCAR)—Two fan favorites have sewn up rides for the 2023 Indianapolis 500.

Sponsorship has been found for a fourth car to be fielded by Andretti Autosport that will give Marco Andretti his eighteenth chance to get his face on the Borg-Warner Trophy.  Andretti was second as a rookie in 2006, sat on the pole in 2020 and has four top-three finishes and eight top tens.

The winner of the 2013 Indianapolis 500, Tony Kanaan, will drive for Arrow McLaren SP team in the 2023 race, which he has said in the past will be his last 500.  He’ll drive the fourth car in the race for AMSP. Kanaan finished third last year for Chip Ganassi Racing. It will be his 22nd 500. He has five top-three finishes including his 2013 win that as the fastest Indianapolis 500 at the time; the record was later broken by Helio Castroneves in 2021.

(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen has three races left to set a new Formula 1 record for most victories in one year.  He won his thirteenth race last weekend at the Circuit of the Americas, in the United States Grand Prix, near Austin Texas, passing Lewis Hamilton with just six laps left and won by about five seconds.

Hamilton, a seven-time F1 champion, thought he had a shot at his first win of the year and admits he’s beginning to think this will be the first time in his career that he has gone without a victory all year. He’s been racing in F1 since 2007.

The win also locks up the constructors’ championship for Red Bull Racing. It comes the day after the death of the co-founder of the Red Bull energy drink, Dietrich Mateschitz.

Sports: Chiefs lose, Logano wins, A champion steps away

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing editor

(BASEBALL)—The post-season playoffs have developed a big underdog issue.

San Diego, which won 89 games in the regular season, has ousted the Dodgers, who won 111.

The Phillies, winners of 87, have dumped the Braves, winners of 101.

So far only Houston, winners of 106, has played to form, topping Seattle in three straight. Settle won 87 in the regular season.

Cleveland’s Guardians, making the playoffs in the first season with their new name and 92 wins in the regular season, play the deciding game against the Yankees, winners of 99 this afternoon. Their game was rained out last night.

Tonight Philadelphia and San Diego begin the National League Championship Series.

Thursday night, Houston opens the ALCS against the survivor of tonight’s Guardians-Yankees series.

(FOOTBALL—NFL)—For the second weekend in a row, a Kansas City Chiefs placekicker has set a new team record for longest field goal.  But this time, it didn’t lead to a win.

The Buffalo Bills beat the Chiefs 27-24 on a touchdown with about a minute to play,

The game was tied at 10 at halftime thanks to a 62-yard field goal into the wind by Harrison Butker, who had missed the last few games with an ankle sprain.  His kick broke substitute Matthew Wrights record, a 59-yarder a week earlier.

Patrick Mahomes threw an interception in the end zone in the first quarter and threw a second one that ended the game as the Chief tried to recover from the final Buffalo score.

The win lets the Bills stay a game ahead of the Jets in the Eastern Division. The Chiefs drop to 4-2 but still lead the West over the Chargers, who are 3-2.

(FOOTBALL—MISSOURI TIGERS)—Missouri had the weekend off and is spending this week preparing for Vanderbilt. The Commodores have split six games. Missouri is 2-4, winless in the SEC.  Nashville football columnist Aria Gerson says the game “is one of Vanderbilt’s best shots of winning an SEC game.”

(BASKETBALL—MISSOURI TIGERS)—We’re only about three weeks away from the first University of Missouri-Columbia basketball game. Southern Indiana is the first of the warm-up games for the new-look Tigers on November 7 as they work their way through a non-conference schedule and develop as Dennis Gates’ first Missouri team.

Ken Pomeroy, an atmospheric sciences professor at the University of Utah who has made a science of ranking college basketball teams, ranks Missouri 41st in the country in his Kenpom.com rankings.

(NASCAR)—Joey Logano has made the final four.

Logano’s win at Las Vegas guarantees he’ll be one of the four drivers who will compete for the NASCAR  Cup in the last race of the season next month.  Logano had dropped out of the top ten when he pitted for new tires with 26 laps to go. But he caught leader Ross Chastain with three laps left and led him by eight-tenths of a second at the checkered flag.

Logano, who drove his first Cup race fifteen years ago, wrapped up his 30th career victory. He’ll be chasing his second Cup championship in the final race of the year. He won the title in 2018 and went into the Las Vegas race as the second seed and emerged number one.  The previous number one seed, Chase Elliott, struggled all day and finished 21st.  He dropped to third in the standings.

Chastain, who led a race-high 68 laps, is second in the standings with Elliott and Denny Hamlin making up the rest of the top four.  Hamlin started 31st and finished fifth, behind Chase Briscoe.  Kyle Busch became the only non-contending driver to finish in the top five by crossing the line third.

Two races are left to decide who will be the three drivers joining Logano in the final run for the title.

Christopher Bell was collected in a crash involving Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson and dropped to the eighth and last contender spot.  Another contender, Ryan Blaney, hit the wall and finished 28th. Contender William Byron finished 13th. Byron, Blaney, Brisco, and Bell are below the cutline headed to next weekend’s race at Homestead-Miami.

(NASCAR—KURT BUSCH)—Kurt Busch, the last active NASCAR Cup driver to compete against Dale Earnhardt Sr., says he’s done as a fulltime Cup driver.  He’s 44, a Daytona 500 winner, and NASCAR’s 2004 champion.

The oldest of the Busch brothers has missed thirteen races since backing his car into a wall in July and suffering a concussion.  He says he might do some selected races next year if doctors say he’s recovered from his concussion, but his days as a fulltime driver are finished.

Tyler Reddick will mover over from Childress Racing and will take Busch’s seat in the 45-car, joining Bubba Wallace on the 23XI team.

Busch was hired by 23XI, co-owned by NBA star Michael Jordan (whose jersey was 23 for most of his career) and driver Denny Hamlin (whose car carries the number 11) to drive last year. The team says he was hired to “elevate our organization in many ways.”  He gave the team its first playoff berth by winning at Kansas earlier this year then had to withdraw from the playoffs because of his injury.

A second driver, Alex Bowman, also has been out of his car because of a concussion in a race three weeks ago. He says he won’t be back on the track until the last race of the year, if then.

NASCAR has announced it will have a re-designed rear section of the chassis available next year. NASCAR hopes it will do a better job absorbing energy in a crash, lessening chances for other drivers to incur the kinds of injuries Busch and Bowman have had to deal with this year.

Photo Credits:  Logano at WWTR—Bob Priddy; Busch at Indianapolis—Rick Gevers

 

 

 

Sports: Baseball playoffs; Tigers & Chiefs; NASCAR playoffs

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(Baseball)—Well, that sure didn’t take very long, did it?  Two and out for the Cardinals whose big bats went one for fifteen and whose most solid relief pitcher’s finger apparently couldn’t last two innings.  Albert and Yadi went out with base hits in their last times at bat—a fitting conclusion to their careers.

In years to come, young men in the grandstands will be telling their grandchildren, “Yes, I saw Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina play baseball,” much as THEIR grandfathers told them, “I saw Mantle and Musial and Williams” or “Gibson and Marichal and Clemens.”

Across the state, the Royals are looking for a new manager and a new pitching coach.  And some better talent.

In the meantime the playoffs continue although a lot of people no longer care.

(Tigers)—The Missouri Tigers are playing just well enough to drive their fans nuts.  They’re off this week after losing three games they could have won.  This is a team that appears capable of winning only if they play mistake-free.  The break comes at a good time.

(Chiefs)—The Oakland/Los Angeles/Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders played the Kansas City Chiefs (ex-Dallas Texans) for the 127th time last night.  The Chiefs spotted the Raiders the first 17 points then worked their way back into the lead thanks to four short-yardage touchdowns by Travis Kelce, tying a team record and a 59-yard franchise-record field goal from substitute kicker Matthew Wright.  The hinge point of the game came when Wright missed a field goal but the Raiders were called for defensive holding, giving Kansas City a first down and keeping a drive alive that turned into a TD.

Both teams failed on two-points-after efforts and the Chiefs with only a 30-29 lead had to turn the ball over with less than three minutes left. Las Vegas couldn’t get close enough for a winning field goal and the Chiefs get away with a 4-1 record to start the season.

The Chiefs are now 71-54-2 against  O/LA/O/LV.

Now, on to another kind of playoffs:

(NASCAR)—The number of drivers who can win the NASCAR championship has been cut to eight after a competitive and contentious race on the Charlotte Roval—the combination oval and road course.

And in a season known for its unlikely turnouts, Christopher Bell’s victory fits right in.  He had to win to make the round of eight—and he did thanks to pit strategy that gave him fresh tires that let him clear Kevin Harvick on a restart and then pull away for the victory.

On-track incidents turned the day around for several contenders, none so much as 2021 champion Kyle Larson who hit the wall and broke a rear suspension piece on his car. The repairs were made but he was unable to regain enough positions to make the semi-final round. He fell two points short of Chase Briscoe, who had his own adventure when he spun with five laps to go but was able to recover to finish 9th, just enough to move into the next round.

Bell went into the race 33 points below the cut line with no chance to advance unless he finished first. “We were just there at the right time,” he said. “We rolled the dice, gambled, and it paid off for us.”

Also not making the cut was rookie Austin Cindric, the winner of the Daytona 500 at the start of the year. Daniel Suarez lost his power steering but muscled the car to the finish. Unfortunately his finish was 36th, knocking him out of the playoffs, too. Alex Bowman missed his second straight race because of a concussion and is the fourth driver eliminated,

Moving ahead are Chase Eliott, Joey Logano, Ross Chastain, Bell, Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Deny Hamlin, and Briscoe.  The field will be cut to four after three more races and the champion will be decided in the last race of the year. Whichever driver in the final four has the best finish in the last race will wear the crown.

(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen raced through a deluge that sometimes left visibility on Japan’s Suzuka Circuit to win his twelfth race in eighteen starts this year and wrap up his second F1 championship.  The race was halted after the first two laps because of the downpour.  His championship was clinched because initial runner-up Charles LeClerc was assessed a five-second penalty that dropped him to third place.  The result leaves Verstappen 113 points in the lead with four races to go, a margin impossible for LeClerc to make up.

Verstappen becomes only the third driver in F1 history to lock up a title with four races left.  Michael Schumacher and Sebastien Vettel are the only other drivers to dominate a season as he has done this year.

(Photo Credit: Bob Priddy, Bell at WWTR)

Sports—Albert makes it; Aaron ties it as the season reaches its final games; and a contender finally wins a NASCAR race

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(BASEBALL)—Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina, and Adam Wainwright walked off the field together in the fifth inning of Sunday’s game against the Pirates, the last regular season game Pujols and Molina will play.  Wainwright, who has struggled in the last month of the season, has not announced if he’ll be back next year.

Pujols hit one more for the home folks, his 702nd home run, then added his 703rd last night in the sixth inning in Pittburgh, putting him past Babe Ruth into second place in the all-time runs batted in list (only Hank Aaron has more).

His 24 home runs in his final year is the most homers he’s had in  season since he hit 31 for the California Angels in 2016.

The Cardinals lost to the Pirates in St. Louis Sunday, then headed to Pittsburgh for the last three games of the regular season. The Cardinals went into the last series of the regular season with a chance to finish above .500 on the road. They were 39-39 going in.

AARON JUDGE was in a tie with Roger Maris for the American League home run record as the Yankees opened a four-game final series with the Rangers. Judge got his 61st home run last week.  Roger Maris Jr., says Judge should be considered the Major League home run record-holder if he gets his 62nd homer before the season’s end.  Maris says Bobby Bonds’ 73 homers and the 70 hit by Mark McGwire should be in a separate category because both used performance-enhancing drugs.  Maris says Major League Baseball “should do the right thing” and consider Judge the home run king if he gets to 62.

Maris has become more vocal as Judge has approached his dad’s American League record. Many might remember that, in 1998, he had no qualms celebrating McGwire’s year.

As far as Judge is concerned, Bonds deserves the crown.

PLAYOFFS—The playoffs begin Friday.  The Cardinals entered their last series not knowing who their opponent would be in the best-of-three game series.

(NASCAR)—Finally, a playoff driver has won a playoff race.  Chase Elliott is the first playoff contender to lock in a position in the next round of the playoffs by winning a race, in this case a thriller at Talladega. Elliott got a last-lap push from Erik Jones to gain a slight edge on Ryan Blaney and led Blaney to the finish line by less than .05 of a second.

It’s Elliott’s fifth win of the season, the most of any driver.  The race became a two-lap shootout after Daniel Hemeric stopped on the track with engine trouble.  “It was a wild last couple laps,” Elliott said. Elliott was the last of seventeen drivers to lead the race, which featured 57 lead changes, the most in any single race this year. And the win is a big relief to him.  After crashing out of the previous race at Texas and finishing 32nd, Elliott went into the race 8th in points. Only eight drivers will transition into the semifinal round after next weekend’s race on the Charlotte Roval (combination of oval and road course). He’s the first playoff contender to win a playoff race this year.  Non-contenders had swept the first four races.

Austin Cindric and Chase Briscoe are tied for the eighth playoff spot.  William Byron and Christopher Bell also are on the outside looking in.  Alex Bowman skipped the Talladega race because of a concussion he suffered at Texas the previous week. He’ll be re-evaluated this week to see if he can run at Charlotte but he is so far behind in the points standings that he will need a victory to advance.

(INDYCAR)—INDYCAR has announced a 17-race schedule for 2023 with several of the races within reach of Missourians, depending on where they live.

The season begins, as usual, on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida on March 5. They’ll race at the Texas Motor Speedway on April 2, run the Indianapolis road course on May 13 and the Indianapolis 500 on the 28th. The series returns to the Iowa Speedway for a double-header on July 22-23, then goes to Nashville on August 6 and back to the Indianapolis road course on the 12th.  The drivers will return to World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis on August 27th for the 15th race of the season and, if the past is an indicator of the future, the championship chase tight going into the last two races of the yearThey’ll race at the Texas Motor Speedway on April 2, run the Indianapolis road course on May 13 and the Indianapolis 500 on the 28th. The series returns to the Iowa Speedway for a double-header on July 22-23, then goes to Nashville on August 6 and back to the Indianapolis road course on the 12th.  The drivers will return to World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis on August 27th for the 15th race of the season and, if the past is an indicator of the future, the championship chase tight going into the last two races of the year.

FORMULA 1)—Sergio Perez picked up a history win in the Grand Prix of Singapore, becoming the first driver since 2011 to win both of Formula 1’s street races in the same year. He won at Monaco earlier. He also became the 58th driver in F1 history to lead flag to flag.

Ferrari failed to win for the sixth race in a row but its drivers, Charles LeClerc and Carlos Sainz took the two podium positions behind Perez.

Season points leader Max Verstappen saw his five-straight wins streak snapped. He had a poor start, spun during the race, and finished 7th.

The race was the 350th grand prix start for two-time Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso, the first driver to achieve that number of races.  Unfortunately, he was unable to finish.

Five races remain in the Formula 1 schedule.

 

Sports—Numbers, Numbers, Numbers

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(Baseball)—Albert got his.  Judge has ten games left to get his.   Landmark home runs.

Albert Pujols ended the suspense and the run to 700 home runs with two of them off two Dodger pitchers Friday night, running his season total to 21. It’s the fourth multi-homer game for him since turning 42, the most by player 42 or older in major league history.

The San Francisco Giants, in the field during their game against the Diamondbacks, stopped the action to watch him hit 700.  It is his 18th season with 20 or more homers. Only Henry Aaron and Bobby Bonds have more (Bonds, 19 and Aaron 20)

He didn’t get the ball back and that’s fine with him. The fan who caught it got it certified by MLB officials and left the stadium.  We’ve heard him say something similar before:

“Souvenirs are for the fans. I don’t have any problem if they want to keep it. If they want to give it back, that’s great. But at the end of the day, I don’t focus on material stuff.”

Babe Ruth is next and out of reach with eight games left.

AARON JUDGE heads into the last ten games on the Yankees schedule stuck on 60 home runs.  His last blast was September 20.  He needs two to break Roger Maris’ 61-year old American League record of 61. Judge, who is 30, is unlikely to join Pujols in the 700 home run club. He would have to average about 49 homers a year in the next decade to get there.

His home runs might be overshadowing the extraordinary season he is otherwise having.  Through the weekend he was hitting .314, with 128 runs batted in. However, his 165 strikeouts are the highest since his rookie season when he fanned 208 times (while hitting 52 home runs).  He has 99 walks this year, the most since 127 in that rookie year.

UPDATE:  Cardinals head into the closing days of the season with 65 losses.  The Royals head into the closing days of the season with 63 wins.

(NASCAR)—Bigger news, probably, than the latest scramble that was the latest Cup playoff race is word that Jimmie Johnson is done as a fulltime driver, regardless of whether the car has fenders.  Johnson announced yesterday. His retirement leaves the 48-INDYCAR seat open at Chip Ganassi Racing. Ganassi says the door will be open for Johnson’s return, perhaps for a second shot at the Indianapolis 500.

Johnson, approachable and chatting with fans before the start of the INDYCAR race at World Wide Technologies Raceway near St. Louis, won seven NASCAR championships, five of them in a row, driving the number 48 for Hendrick Motorsports.

Johnson has been promised continued sponsorship support from Carvana for whatever kind of racing he wants to do in ’23. Johnson has indicated he’d like to run the 24 Hours of LeMans but hasn’t said if he’d like another shot at Indianapolis.  But, at 47, he says he realizes the value of more time for himself, wife Chani and daughters Evie and Lydia.

Johnson’s INDYCAR career seldom saw him competitive, especially on road courses. His best finish in any race in the two years on the circuit was fifth in one of the double-headers at Iowa Speedway.

(NASCAR—THE CUP)—Tyler Reddick waited a week too long to win a NASCAR playoff race this year.  He was one of four drivers eliminated after the first three playoff races.  But race four in the playoffs was his to take.  And he took it.

(Reddick with fans in the pits before the NASCAR race at Indianapolis this year)

Reddick’s victory at Texas is his first on an oval course.  He has two road-course wins. Reddick had moved to the point on the 281st of the 334 laps, gave up the led during last pit stops to Joey Logano, but took the lead back after one lap and beat Logano to the finish by 1.2 seconds. He admitted being concerned about his tires as the laps wound down in a race where tire failures again spoiled several drivers’ days and were a major contributed to the record number of yellow flags—16.

Playoff points leader Chase Elliott was leading when “something came apart,” and he went into the wall, ending his day in 32nd place and dropping from first to ninth in the playoff standings.  He’s now just four points above the cut line to advance to the final eight in two more races.

Christopher Bell, the only playoff driver with top fives in the first three playoff races, also was a tire victim. He started the race as the sixth-seed and dropped to 11th in the playoff standings after tire trouble put him 34th at the end.

Martin Truex Jr., and Kevin Harvick also had tire problems while leading.

Chaotic races such as this one often gives drivers usually found in mid-to-back of the field a chance to finish far above their status—Justin Haley, for example, was third, ahead of playoff drivers Ryan Blaney and Chase Briscoe,

If drivers and fans are looking for a reduced-chaos race, they’ll have to wait past this weekend when the NASCAR show goes to the high banks of Talladega.

(Photo Credits: Bob Priddy)

 

Sports: Four-gone conclusion to NASCAR first round; Some dashed hopes in INDYCAR; and a homer watch

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(BASEBALL)—Some teams are watching their magic numbers dwindle for pennant-clinching.  But many fans are waiting to see magic numbers for two great hitters, one in the full flower of his career and the other watching the shadows move closer.

(PUJOLS)—Albert Pujols continues to add drama to each home run as he heads toward 700 for his career.  Friday night, with his team down by two runs, Pujols blasted a 427-foot shot into the left field stands for number 698.  Five of his six recent home runs either have tied games or given the Cardinals the lead as they went into this week with a magic number of their own: eight.

His renaissance since the all-Star break has been a key in the St. Louis drive for a divisional championship. In games in which Pujols has homered, the Cardinals are 15-1.

Baseball being a game of statistics, here are some about Pujols going into the last 14 games of his career.  His home run off the Reds’ Raynel Espinel was the 89th first-pitch homer of his career.  He has ten more when the count is 1-1 and 92 when he took the first pitch for a ball.

Raynel is the 453rd pitcher to give up a Pujols home run. Pujols hit the first pitch he saw from Espinal for a home run Friday. It was the 89th first-pitch home run of Pujols’ career. The only counts where he’s hit more home runs have come on 1-1 (99 HRs) and 1-0 (92).

His home run off Espinal was his 49th career home run against the Reds.  He has 62 against the Astros, 59 against the Cubs and another 54 against the Pirates.

He admits he’s feeding off the excitement of the crowd.  “I can feel that energy,” he said Sunday, “and when I’m going out there and performing, I’m going out here to represent God, this organization, and also my country.  I want to make my country proud every single day that I step onto that field.”

(JUDGE)—Sometime this week, the Yankees’ Aaron Judge is likely to catch former Cardinal outfielder Roger Maris’s American League home run record.

It’s a record often overlooked because of the overall record set first by the Cardinals Mark McGwire and then eclipsed by Barry Bonds of the Giants.

But Maris’ record set 61 years ago this year, is likely to fall to Judge, who upped his total to 59 Sunday with two homers against the Brewers.  Judge brushes off repeated questions about whether can do it. “We’ve got some big games coming up. That’s really the only thing on my mind,” he said Sunday night.

Maris took a lot of heat in 1961 about whether his 61 home runs really beat Babe Ruth’s 34-year old record of 60. That was the first year the American League went to the 162-game schedule. The National League followed suit in 1962.  Baseball commissioner Ford Frick decided Maris did not really break The Babe’s record because he didn’t hit number 61 until the 162nd game. He ordered an asterisk attached the Maris record because Ruth set his record in a 154-game season.

As of the end of Sunday’s games, the Yankees had played 146 games.  Judge is on course to break the Maris record—and the Ruth record.

However, if you want to get picky about it, Ruth only played 151 games in 1927.

Many do not remember (it has been sixty years and more, after all) that Maris bracketed his Yankee years by playing for both Missouri teams.  He was traded by the then-Cleveland Indians to the Kansas City Athletics in 1968 and after the 1959 season went to the Yankees.  He played his last two seasons in St. Louis, 1967-68.

(THE SEASON RECORD)—To update you on the question we asked last week: Will the Royals win more games this year than the Cardinals lose?  After Sunday’s game, the Royals were 58-89. The cardinals were 87-61.

(NASCAR)—The chaotic first round of NASCAR playoffs has come to a chaotic end with Chris Buescher winning the night race at Bristol, ending a 222-race winless streak and giving Roush-Fenway-Keselowski Racing its first checkered flag.

The last time the once-proud Roush Racing organization won a Cup rate was July, 2017. Roush Racing became Roush-Fenway in 2007 when the Fenway Sports Group bought in, It added the “K” this year when driver Brad Keselowski bought in.

For a time it appeared Keselowski would be the one to claim the teams’ first win.  But a flat tie with 87 laps to go took him out of the lead. He finished 13th.

Buescher is the third non-playoff driver to win a race in the three-race first round of the playoffs, a first-time record.  He’s the 19th driver to win a race this year, the most in a half-century.  He took the lead from Christopher Bell with 61 laps left and held off Chase Elliott the rest of the way.

The race eliminated four competitors from the playoffs.  2014 champion Kevin Harvick, needing a win, was in contention until a tire change problem in his last pit stop dropped him to tenth.  Two-time champion Kyle Busch, clinging to a playoff spot, lost an engine for the second time in three races and finished 34th.  Childress Racing teammates Austin Dillon and Tyler Reddick were caught in a 12-car wreck just past the halfway point. Dillon was 31st and Reddick kept going to finish 25th.

Chase Elliott, who finished about a half-second behind Buescher, goes into the second three-race series of playoffs as the top seed. Joey Logano, Ross Chastain, Kyle Larson, William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Bell, Ryan Blaney, Chase Briscoe, Alex Bowman, Daniel Suarez, and rookie Austin Cindric  make up the rest of the field.

The first race of round two will be at the Texas Motor Speedway.

(INDYCAR)—Hopes of INDYCAR driver Colton Herta that he might be in Formula 1 next year have been dashed by F1’s administrative body, prompting strong criticism from both INDYCAR and Formula 1 drivers and teams.

F1 relies on a points system to determine who can have a Superlicense to compete.  The system requires 40 points and Herta has only 32. Despite efforts by Red Bull, the dominant F1 team this year, to get a waiver for Herta, administrators have refused.

Herta, how 22, won his first INDYCAR race four years ago at 18, the youngest driver in INDYCAR history to win in the series.  He drives for Andretti Autosport, which had hoped to get permission to run an F1 team in 2023. But that bid was rejected by the sanctioning body and by other teams. McLaren signed Herta as a development driver for 2022, giving him opportunities to practice in Formula 1 cars.  Alfa Tauri had considered providing a seat for him next year. But all of those efforts have gone by the boards.

Herta will remain with Andretti in the INDYCAR series in 2023.  He had a win, two poles, five top five finishes, and eight top tens to finish in a tie for 9th in the final standings.

(Photo credits; Bob Priddy, Jim Coleman)

 

 

 

 

Sports—Albert, Patrick, Bubba, Will, Max, and two questions

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

It’s the autumn of baseball season, the spring of football season, and racing heads toward its last turns.  We begin with stick and ball sports today because, well, they’re more important right now.

(BASEBALL)—Next up for Albert Pujols: The Babe.  Albert’s dramatic homer in the ninth gave the Cardinals the lead  that held up against the Pirates. Home run number 697 broke a tie with Alex Rodriguez for fourth place on the all-time homer list. Next up: Babe Ruth with 714, realistically out of reach even with Pujols’ remarkable surge in the closing weeks of the season.

The ball was retrieved by Matt Brown in the right-center field grandstand.  Pujols let Brown and his wife, Samantha, keep it and even gave them two signed balls when they offered to give him homer 697.  “It’s just a baseball,” he said. “They deserve to have it. It went out of the ballpark. We play this game for the fans. So whether they want to give it back or they want to keep it, I don’t have any problem with that.”

The Kansas City Royals won their 57th game with a 4-0 shutout of the Tigers Sunday.  And that sets up our first question:

Will the Royals win more games than the Cardinals lose this year? The Cardinals’ win on Sunday ran their record to 83-58. 

(FOOTBALL)—The rebuilt Kansas City Chiefs seem to have eliminated a lot of the concerns fans might have had about the players they lost in the off-season and the number of rookies they kept after training camp.

Although the Arizona Cardinals blitzed quarterback Patrck Mahomes 54 percent of the time, he threw four touchdown passes against the blitz and added a fifth when the defense stayed back. Clyde Edwards Hillaire showed signs last year’s injuries are in the past with 74 yards rushing and receiving and two touchdowns.  Travis Kelce got a good start on his 7th straight 1,000 yard year with 121 yards. The Cardinals had little to offer offensively or defensively as the Chiefs rolled to a 44-21 win on the road to open the season.

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The real world came calling on the Missouri Tigers during the weekend.  Missouri got an early field goal for its only lead in the game and left Manhattan after absorbing a 40-12 drubbing. The Tigers won convincingly 52-24 in their first game of the year, against Louisiana

The Tigers have a chance to feel better next week against Abilene Christian University, a school with about 4,600 students that plays football in a stadium holding 12,000. It completed its move to NCAA Division 1 five years ago.

The Tigers won convincingly 44-21 in their first game of the year, against Louisiana Tech, a school of 12,600 students.  So the second question:

How good will Missouri be this year against big-time competition?

RACING:

(INDYCAR)—It’s all over for INDYCAR in 2022 with two winners in the last race—the race-winner and the series champion.

Defending series champion Alex Palou ran away from the field to win the race.  Will Power, who finished third, racked up enough points to win his second INDYCAR championship.

Power broke Mario Andretti’s record for most career poles by starting from P1 for the 68th time.  Although he won only one race this year, he was in the top five in twelve of the seventeen races. He finished twenty points ahead of Penske teammate Josef Newgarden, who had five victories this year.  Six-time champion Scott Dixon was never a threat in the race but finished third in the standings.

Power and Dixon were the only drivers to complete every lap in every race this year. Power also won the series championship in 2014. He said after the race he had driven “on the edge” all day because his car was “very loose.”  He credited his championship to a mental adjustment early in the season to play the long game by not overdriving his car’s capabilities and forcing mistakes.

Palou’s last race of the year might be his last with Chip Ganassi Racing but he made it a memorable finish. He finished more than half-a-minute ahead of Newgarden.  He started eleventh after a six-position starting penalty for an unapproved engine change. But he was in the lead on the 16th lap and finished by leading 67 of the 95 laps on the Laguna Seca road course near Monterey, California.

His future in the series is uncertain. He, Ganassi, and McLaren Racing are in court because he appears to have contracts to run with both teams next year.

(NASCAR)—NASCAR’s playoff applecart has been fully upset by Bubba Wallace’s win at Kansas Speedway.  It’s the first time two non-playoff drivers have won the first two races of the ten-race playoff series. His win leaves fifteen of the sixteen driver to fight for twelve positions in the next round at the next race—on the “world’s fastest half mile” at Bristol, Tennessee.

Wallace dominated the closing stage of the race at Kansas, leading the last 43 laps and beating his car owner, Denny Hamlin, to the finish line by a second. It’s his first win this year, his second career Cup win.

Although Wallace is not one of the playoff drivers, his car is one of eight still in the running for the owner’s championship.  It’s the car that Kurt Busch had been driving before a crash at Pocono left him with a concussion that he couldn’t shake in time to be one of the 16 playoff drivers. The car is owned by the 23XI team owned by basketball legend Michael Jordan (who wore number 23 most of his career) and Hamlin (who drives the 11-car for Joe Gibbs Racing).

He led Hamlin by almost 2.1 seconds with ten laps to go but Hamlin couldn’t catch him. Hamlin admitted mixed feelings about finishing second to a car he owns but commented, “Bubba has just really worked hard on his craft and we’ve just given him fast race cars and now he’s showing what he has got”

Christopher Bell is the only one of sixteen competitors with enough points to be locked into the second round of playoff races. Former Cup Champion Kevin Harvick, who finished last, is 35 points out of 12th, the cutoff line, and needs to win at Bristol to advance.  But the fight for that 12th position is a fierce one with only thirteen points separating tenth from fifteenth.

Tyler Reddick, who started on pole at Kansas, blew a tire and hit the wall early and finished one slot ahead of Harvick, 35th.  He will start at Bristol eleventh in the standings. Rookie Austin Cindric is clinging to the last playoff slot with Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon, and Chase Briscoe within two to nine points.

(Formula 1)—Six races are left and only a miracle can give somebody other than Max Verstappen his second straight Formula 1 championship.  Verstappen won his fifth race in a row at the Grand Prix of Italy on the Monza course. It’s his eleventh win this year, one more than he had in last year’s championship season.

The race finished under caution after Daniel Ricciardo crashed with five laps left and stewards could not get his car’s transmission into neutral so it could be moved to an off-track area. Officials said the situation was not serious enough to warrant stopping the race so it could be finished under the green flag.

Verstappen has a shot at equaling, or breaking, Michael Schumacher’s record of 13 grands prix wins in a season, out of eighteen races in 2004, the year he won his seventh and last championship. That’s 72 percent, also a record.  This year there are 22 races.

The next F1 race is in two weeks, at Singapore.

(Photo credits: Bob Priddy, Rick Gevers)