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Bubba Wallace and Christopher Bell shared a flight home from Las Vegas, and Wallace apologized during the trip to his fellow Toyota teammate for the incident that damaged Bell’s championship chances.

Bell said Wallace also apologized to the entire Toyota group in the Monday competition meeting. Wallace has been suspended one race by NASCAR for a dangerous act of retaliation that inadvertently collected Bell.

“We actually flew home together on Sunday night and he did apologize Sunday, and then he addressed our entire group on Monday and the competition meeting,” Bell said Wednesday. “He just apologized for what went down and the fact that we got taken out is unfortunate circumstances.”

Wallace has been suspended for Sunday’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway for deliberately retaliating against reigning NASCAR champion Kyle Larson at Las Vegas. Wallace hooked Larson in the rear corner of his car to spin him directly into traffic, where Larson drilled Bell and ended Bell’s race.

Bell drives for Joe Gibbs Racing and Wallace drives for 23XI Racing, which is co-owned by JGR driver Denny Hamlin. The two teams have an alliance, and Toyota demands its teams work together.

Bell and Hamlin are the only two Toyota drivers still eligible to qualify for next month’s winner-take-all championship finale, and Bell is now ranked last in the eight-driver field.

There are four slots in the championship finale and Joey Logano claimed the first spot for Team Penske and Ford with his win Sunday at Las Vegas. But the entire opening race of the third round of NASCAR’s playoffs has been overshadowed by Wallace, who lost his cool when he and Larson were racing for position and neither would give an inch of room.

Larson ended up running Wallace into the wall, and Wallace immediately retaliated by chasing Larson down the track and hooking him back into traffic. By hitting the passing car of Bell, Larson’s trajectory was stopped before he slammed directly into the wall.

Wallace then had a shoving match with Larson after the crash and also pushed away a NASCAR official. The suspension handed down Tuesday falls under NASCAR’s behavioral policy and technically covers most of Wallace’s actions at Las Vegas.

But Steve O’Donnell, the executive in charge of competition and racing operations, said the penalties were for Wallace’s dangerous and deliberate retaliation against Larson, not the fracas a few moments later. O’Donnell said Wallace’s hooking of Larson was “really a dangerous act that we thought was intentional and put other competitors at risk.”

Kevin Harvick, one of the most outspoken drivers on safety issues of late, condemned Wallace’s retaliation.

“Intentionally hooking people in the [right rear] should never be acceptable,” Harvick posted on social media. “Protect us from ourselves. I hope this is the beginning of the end of it happening.”

Wallace is the first driver suspended for on-track actions since Matt Kenseth was suspended two races in 2015 for returning his wrecked car to the track to deliberately crash Logano at Martinsville.

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Pirates ball-crusher Cruz accepts HR Derby invite

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Pirates ball-crusher Cruz accepts HR Derby invite

Pittsburgh Pirates center fielder Oneil Cruz accepted an invitation on Tuesday to compete in Monday’s Home Run Derby in Atlanta.

Cruz is the fifth player to commit to the competition, held one day before the All-Star Game. The others are Ronald Acuna Jr. of the Atlanta Braves, Cal Raleigh of the Seattle Mariners, James Wood of the Washington Nationals and Byron Buxton of the Minnesota Twins.

Cruz, 26, is known for having a powerful bat and regularly delivers some of the hardest-hit homers in the sport. His home run May 25 at home against the Milwaukee Brewers had an exit velocity of 122.9 mph and was the hardest hit homer in the 10-year Statcast era.

But Cruz has never hit more than 21 in a season, and that was in 2024. He’s on track to set a new high this year and has 15 in 80 games.

Cruz has 55 career homers in 324 games with the Pirates.

Cruz will be the first Pittsburgh player to participate in the Derby since Josh Bell in 2019. Other Pirates to be part of the event were Bobby Bonilla (1990), Barry Bonds (1992), Jason Bay (2005), Andrew McCutchen (2012) and Pedro Alvarez (2013).

Overall, Cruz is batting just .203 this season but leads the National League with 28 steals.

Among the players to turn down an invite to the eight-player field are two-time champion Pete Alonso of the New York Mets, Kyle Schwarber of the Philadelphia Phillies and 2024 runner-up Bobby Witt Jr. of the Kansas City Royals.

Defending champion Teoscar Hernandez of the Los Angeles Dodgers recently turned down a spot as a consideration to nagging injuries.

Top power threats Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees and Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers also are expected to skip the event.

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Yanks moving Chisholm back to 2B after 3B stint

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Yanks moving Chisholm back to 2B after 3B stint

New York Yankees All-Star Jazz Chisholm Jr., after making 28 starts in a row at third base, is moving back to second base starting with Tuesday’s game against the Seattle Mariners, manager Aaron Boone said.

Boone confirmed the change on the “Talkin’ Yanks” podcast on Tuesday.

Chisholm, who is batting .245 with 15 home runs, 38 RBIs and 10 steals in 59 games, has recently been bothered by soreness in his right shoulder, which he said is an issue only on throws.

He said he prefers to play second base and prepared in the offseason to exclusively play in that spot before injuries played havoc with Boone’s lineup card, starting with Chisholm’s oblique injury in May.

Third baseman Oswaldo Cabrera went down with a season-ending ankle injury on May 12.

DJ LeMahieu manned second base while Chisholm was at third, but Boone has a better glove option in Oswald Peraza, a utility man with a stronger arm plus defensive skills across the infield.

LeMahieu, 36, is batting .266 with two home runs and 12 RBIs this season.

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White Sox reinstate OF Robert (hamstring) from IL

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White Sox reinstate OF Robert (hamstring) from IL

The Chicago White Sox reinstated outfielder Luis Robert Jr. (hamstring) from the 10-day injured list Tuesday.

Robert, 27, has struggled this season through career lows in batting average (.185), on-base percentage (.270) and slugging percentage (.313). Through 73 games, he has amassed just 16 extra-base hits (eight doubles, eight home runs) in 285 plate appearances.

He does have 22 stolen bases in 28 attempts and is just one shy of his career- high in steals.

In a corresponding move, the White Sox optioned infielder Tristan Gray to Triple-A Charlotte. Gray was just recalled before Monday night’s game but did not play.

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