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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Rick Hendrick gave Kyle Larson a second chance in NASCAR because Hendrick Motorsports had wanted him in its lineup for years. Now that Hendrick has his man, he has locked Larson down for two more seasons with full sponsorship.

Hendrick on Wednesday told his 93 dealerships that the hottest driver in motorsports has signed a contract extension through 2023 and Larson will be fully sponsored by HendrickCars.com.

It may seem like the sponsorship is all Rick Hendrick’s money anyway, but the sponsorship for 35 races the next two years is paid for from the marketing budget of Hendrick Automotive. The deal is somewhat unprecedented because the website will also sponsor Larson in all his non-NASCAR events with branding on the nose of his dirt cars, helmets, gloves and firesuits.

“My dealerships, the general managers and the employees, they didn’t want anyone else on the car,” Hendrick told The Associated Press.

Larson joined HMS this season on the cheap after a nearly yearlong NASCAR suspension for using a racial slur. Sponsors were initially skittish so the Hendrick website for new and used cars bought some of the ad space on the No. 5 Chevrolet.

The site has been on Larson’s car in 14 races so far this season but only three of his five NASCAR victories. A different sponsor was on the car when Larson won at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May to make Hendrick the winningest team in NASCAR history and the automotive group was not pleased.

Hendrick told AP his marketing team at Hendrick Motorsports was actively selling Larson sponsorship and had offers, but the team owner halted all conversations when his automotive group said it wanted the ad space.

“I bumped it up about 20% once automotive committed,” Hendrick said. “We had one deal for the whole thing, so I made them step up and at least match the offer. And they did, they want as much as they can get.”

The top stars in NASCAR for years were identified by their sponsors but the branding faded in an unsustainable economic model and teams have been forced to sell ad space on their cars in chunks to multiple companies.

Ally, the sponsor for Hendrick driver Alex Bowman, is the only current company in the Cup Series with a full season of sponsorship and HendrickCars.com would have matched that commitment if Valvoline had not already bought three races for next year on Larson’s car; that deal is expected to continue in 2023.

“When we race on Sunday our people are excited when they get to work on Monday,” Darryl Jackson, vice president of financial services for Hendrick Automotive Group, told AP. “By the water cooler, on the showroom floor, in the service center, they are talking about their car. It is ‘My driver. My team.’

“When you put that together with the business, it just makes sense. More leads sell more cars, right? We’ve got to advertise somewhere, so why not advertise on one of our assets?”

Larson has won a Cup Series-high four points races this season, as well as the $1 million All-Star race. He is second in the championship standings and has won 10 times so far this year in non-NASCAR events.

He races at dirt tracks all over the country and has 56 wins since the start of 2020 – most of those coming outside of NASCAR during his 32-race suspension for using the slur while participating in an online race at the start of the pandemic.

Hendrick hinted at his automotive arm keeping the sponsorship following Larson’s win at Nashville last month and said he wouldn’t sell the No. 5 car in a “piecemeal deal because I think it’s worth more to me than to do that.”

The data proved Hendrick right.

Jackson said since the paint scheme was revealed in February, traffic to the HendrickCars.com website has exploded. Five of the six highest-trafficked days this year followed races in which Larson contended with the website as his sponsor.

“He’s created total lead generation value of $1.8 million and over $5 million in television exposure,” Jackson said. “And we haven’t even gotten to the (playoffs) yet.”

Seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson retired from NASCAR at the end of last season and inked a sponsorship deal with Carvana for his transition from Hendrick Motorsports to IndyCar. Carvana has made significant ad buys during NASCAR races, but the Hendrick group insisted it felt no competitive pressure to increase its presence.

“Look, Kyle’s on-track performance and what we saw on the business side is what drove us to make this decision,” Brian Johnson, vice president of marketing at Hendrick Automotive Group, told AP. “Kyle has elevated our business platform in such a tremendous way that this makes sense. As someone who is responsible for our advertising spend, and all things have remained equal except for the addition of Kyle, I don’t know how else you correlate what he’s doing for the company.”

Exiled from NASCAR this time last year, the 28-year-old Larson would not have dreamed of such a fortunate turn in his career. He grew up a Jeff Gordon fan and to this day links the Hall of Famer with sponsor Dupont and its rainbow and flames paint schemes.

Larson was backed heavily by Target at the start of his NASCAR career but in eight seasons has never had one company fully committed to him.

“I want to be at Hendrick for the rest of my career and if I can have this sponsorship attached to me, I think that goes a long way for my brand and my fanbase,” Larson told AP. “Someday when I’m retired from Cup and only racing dirt cars, maybe they can back me there, too. … I feel like we’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible.”

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Source: USC flips Ducks’ Topui, No. 3 DT in 2026

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Source: USC flips Ducks' Topui, No. 3 DT in 2026

USC secured the commitment of former Oregon defensive tackle pledge Tomuhini Topui on Tuesday, a source told ESPN, handing the Trojans their latest recruiting victory in the 2026 cycle over the Big Ten rival Ducks.

Topui, ESPN’s No. 3 defensive tackle and No. 72 overall recruit in the 2026 class, spent five and half months committed to Oregon before pulling his pledge from the program on March 27. Topui attended USC’s initial spring camp practice that afternoon, and seven days later the 6-foot-4, 295-pound defender gave the Trojans his pledge to become the sixth ESPN 300 defender in the program’s 2026 class.

Topui’s commitment gives USC its 10th ESPN 300 pledge this cycle — more than any other program nationally — and pulls a fourth top-100 recruit into the impressive defensive class the Trojans are building this spring. Alongside Topui, USC’s defensive class includes in-state cornerbacks R.J. Sermons (No. 26 in ESPN Junior 300) and Brandon Lockhart (No. 77); four-star outside linebacker Xavier Griffin (No. 27) out of Gainesville, Georgia; and two more defensive line pledges between Jaimeon Winfield (No. 143) and Simote Katoanga (No. 174).

The Trojans are working to reestablish their local recruiting presence in the 2026 class under newly hired general manager Chad Bowden. Topui not only gives the Trojans their 11th in-state commit in the cycle, but his pledge represents a potentially important step toward revamping the program’s pipeline to perennial local powerhouse Mater Dei High School, too.

Topui will enter his senior season this fall at Mater Dei, the program that has produced a long line of USC stars including Matt Leinart, Matt Barkley and Amon-Ra St. Brown. However, if Topui ultimately signs with the program later this year, he’ll mark the Trojans’ first Mater Dei signee since the 2022 cycle, when USC pulled three top-300 prospects — Domani Jackson, Raleek Brown and C.J. Williams — from the high school program based in Santa Ana, California.

Topui’s flip to the Trojans also adds another layer to a recruiting rivalry rekindling between USC and Oregon in the 2026 cycle.

Tuesday’s commitment comes less than two months after coach Lincoln Riley and the Trojans flipped four-star Oregon quarterback pledge Jonas Williams, ESPN’s No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in 2026. USC is expected to continue targeting several Ducks commits this spring, including four-star offensive tackle Kodi Greene, another top prospect out of Mater Dei.

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Sources: QB Pyne leaves Mizzou, seeks 4th team

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Sources: QB Pyne leaves Mizzou, seeks 4th team

Missouri quarterback Drew Pyne has entered the portal as a graduate transfer, sources told ESPN on Tuesday.

Pyne is looking to move to his fourth school after stints at Notre Dame, Arizona State and Missouri. He’ll be a sixth-year senior this fall.

Pyne joined Missouri last year as a backup for senior starter Brady Cook. He earned one start, leading the Tigers to a 30-23 comeback win over Oklahoma while Cook was sidelined by ankle and wrist injuries.

Missouri brought in former Penn State quarterback Beau Pribula via the transfer portal this offseason. He’ll compete with redshirt junior Sam Horn and true freshman Matt Zollers, the No. 86 overall recruit in the 2025 ESPN 300, for the opportunity to start this season.

Pyne, a former ESPN 300 recruit, began his career at Notre Dame and started 10 games for the Fighting Irish in 2022. He threw for 2,021 yards on 65% passing and scored 24 total touchdowns with six interceptions while winning eight of his starts.

After the Irish brought in grad transfer quarterback Sam Hartman, Pyne transferred to Arizona State but appeared in just two games with the Sun Devils before an injury forced him to sit out the rest of the season.

Pyne played 211 snaps over six appearances for the Tigers last season and threw for 391 yards on 60% passing with three touchdowns and three interceptions.

The NCAA’s spring transfer window opens April 16, but graduate transfers are permitted to put their name in the portal at any time. More than 160 FBS scholarship quarterbacks have already transferred this offseason.

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What’s going on with Rafael Devers? Putting his historic strikeout streak into context

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What's going on with Rafael Devers? Putting his historic strikeout streak into context

There are slow starts, there are slumps, and then there is whatever Rafael Devers is going through.

The 28-year-old three-time All-Star for the Boston Red Sox has been one of baseball’s best hitters since 2019, posting three 30-homer seasons, three 100-RBI seasons and a whole bunch of doubles.

His first five games of 2025 have been a nightmare. It’s the early-season equivalent of dealing Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. Johnny Pesky holding the ball. Bucky Dent. The ball rolling through Bill Buckner’s legs. Aaron Boone. Just to name a few Red Sox references. Here’s how those games unfolded for Devers:

Game 1: 0-for-4, three strikeouts
Game 2: 0-for-4, four strikeouts
Game 3: 0-for-4, three strikeouts, walk, RBI
Game 4: 0-for-4, two strikeouts, walk
Game 5: 0-for-3, three strikeouts, two walks

Along the way, Devers became the first player to strike out 10 times in a team’s first three games of a season — and that’s not all.

He became the first player to strike out 12 times in a team’s first four games. And, yes, with 15 strikeouts through five games he shattered the old record of 13, shared by Pat Burrell in 2001 and Byron Buxton in 2017. Going back to the end of 2024, when Devers fanned 11 times over his final four games, he became the fourth player with multiple strikeouts in nine straight games — and one of those was a pitcher (the other two were a rookie named Aaron Judge in 2016 and Michael A. Taylor in 2021).

With Devers struggling, the Red Sox have likewise stumbled out of the gate, going 1-4 after some lofty preseason expectations, including an 8-5 loss to the Baltimore Orioles in the home opener Monday. To be fair, it’s not all on Devers: Jarren Duran, Devers and Alex Bregman, the top three hitters in the lineup, are a combined 11-for-62 (.177) with no home runs.

But there is one question weighing heaviest on the minds of Red Sox Nation right now: What is really going on with Devers?

It’s easy to say his head simply isn’t in the right space. Devers made headlines early in spring training after the Red Sox signed Bregman, saying he didn’t want to move to DH and that “third base is my position.” He pointed out that when he signed his $331 million extension in January of 2023, the front office promised he would be the team’s third baseman.

That, however, was when a different regime was in charge. Bregman, a Gold Glove winner in 2024, is the better defensive third baseman, so it makes sense to play him there and move Devers — except many players don’t like to DH. Some analysts even build in a “DH penalty,” assuming a player will hit worse there than when he plays the field. While Devers eventually relented and said he’d do whatever will help the team, it was a rocky situation for a few weeks.

But maybe it’s something else. While Devers avoided surgery this offseason, he spent it trying to rebuild strength in both shoulders after dealing with soreness and inflammation throughout 2024. He didn’t play the field in spring training and had just 15 plate appearances. So maybe he is still rusty — or the shoulder(s) are bothering him.

Indeed, Statcast metrics show his average bat speed has dropped from 72.5 mph in 2024 to 70.3 mph so far in 2025 (and those are down from 73.4 mph in 2023). His “fast-swing rate” has dropped from 34.2% in 2023 to 27.9% to 12.2%. Obviously, we’re talking an extremely small sample size for this season, but it’s clear Devers isn’t generating the bat speed we’re used to seeing from him.

That, however, doesn’t explain the complete inability to make contact. Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters after the series in Texas that Devers had made alterations with his foot placement — but was having trouble catching up to fastballs. Following Monday’s game, Devers told reporters (via his interpreter) that, “Obviously this is not a position that I’ve done in the past. So I need to get used to it. But I feel good, I feel good.”

Which leads to this question: Does this historic bad start mean anything? Since the DH began in 1973, three DHs began the season with a longer hitless streak than Devers’ 0-for-19 mark, so let’s dig into how the rest of their seasons played out:

  • Don Baylor with the 1982 Angels (0-for-20). Baylor ended up with a pretty typical season for him: .263/.329/.424, 24 home runs.

  • Evan Gattis of the 2015 Astros (0-for-23). Gattis hit .246 with 27 home runs — not as good as he hit in 2014 or 2016, but in line with his career numbers.

  • Curtis Terry with the Rangers in 2021 (0-for-20). Terry was a rookie who ended up playing just 13 games in the majors.

Expanding beyond just the DH position, I searched Baseball-Reference for players in the wild-card era (since 1995) who started a season hitless in at least 20 plate appearances through five games. That gave us a list of … just seven players, including Evan Carter (0-for-22) and Anthony Rendon (0-for-20) last season. Both ended up with injury-plagued seasons. The list also includes Hall of Famer Craig Biggio, who was 0-for-24 for the Houston Astros in 1995. He was fine: He hit .302/.406/.483 that season, made the All-Star team and finished 10th in the MVP voting. J.D. Drew started 0-for-25 through five games with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2005; he hit .286/.412/.520, although an injury limited him to 72 games.

But none of those hitters struck out nearly as often as Devers has.

So let’s focus on the strikeouts and expand our search to most strikeouts through the 15 first games of a season. Given his already astronomical total, Devers is likely to rank high on such a list even if he starts making more contact. Seventeen players struck out at least 25 times through 15 games, topped by Yoan Moncada and Miguel Sano with 29, both in 2018. Not surprisingly, all these seasons have come since 2006 and 12 since 2018.

How did that group fare?

They were actually OK, averaging a .767 OPS and 20 home runs. The best of the group was Matt Olson in 2023, who struck out 25 times in 15 games, but was also hitting well with a .317/.423/.650 line. He went on to hit 53 home runs. The next best season belongs to Giancarlo Stanton in 2018, his first with the Yankees. He finished with 38 home runs and an .852 OPS — but that was a big drop from his MVP season in 2017, when he mashed 59 home runs. His strikeout rate increased from 23.6% in 2017 to 29.9% — and he’s never been as good.

Indeed, that’s the worrisome thing for Devers: Of the 16 players who played the season before (Trevor Story was a rookie in 2016 when he struck out 25 times in 15 games, albeit with eight home runs), 13 had a higher OPS the previous season, many significantly so.

As Cora argued Monday, it’s a small sample size. “You know, this happens in July or August, we’d not even be talking about it,” he said.

That doesn’t really sound quite forthright. A slump, even a five-game slump, with this many strikeouts would absolutely be a topic of discussion. Still, that’s all the Red Sox and Devers have to go on right now: It’s just a few games, nothing one big game won’t fix. They just hope it comes soon.

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