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HOMESTEAD, Fla. — William Byron‘s playoff push will start from the ideal spot Sunday. He won the pole in Saturday’s qualifying laps at Homestead-Miami Speedway, turning in a lap of 32.454 seconds.

That was 0.049 seconds ahead of fellow playoff entrant Bell. Another driver still in the playoff, Chase Elliott, will start third.

“Anywhere in that top 10 is a good place to start here,” said Byron, who got the first pole of his season and the eighth of his career.

Among the other drivers still in the playoff: Ryan Blaney will start 13th, Hamlin 14th, Logano 17th, Briscoe 19th and Chastain 20th.

Most drivers don’t expect to see much correlation between qualifying and what’ll happen over 267 laps on Sunday.

“The car drives tremendously different and the lines are different around the racetrack, too,” Bell said. “It’s completely two different animals.”

Comforts of home

Daniel Suarez is from Mexico, not Miami, but he feels the comforts of home this weekend in a place where most people speak at least some Spanish and the Latin flavor is just about everywhere.

“Everything starts, I would say, driving to the racetrack,” Suarez said. “If you turn on the radio and you start flipping stations, everything is in Spanish. Then we get to the racetrack and most of the security people speak Spanish. So, the energy just feels different, and they make me feel like home. And that feels very amazing.”

It’s not uncommon for Suarez to go to tracks and hear plenty of Spanish – he cited Texas and “every single race on the West Coast” as such locales.

“I really feel more like home in coming to places like this,” Suarez said. “And I know that there are going to be a lot of fans speaking to me in Spanish and bringing some Mexican flags. We have a lot of support and that is something that I really enjoy a lot.”

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Sources: Hokies fire Pry after 0-3 start, ODU loss

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Sources: Hokies fire Pry after 0-3 start, ODU loss

Virginia Tech has fired coach Brent Pry, sources told ESPN’s Pete Thamel on Sunday. Pry is set to be owed more than $6 million in his buyout.

The move comes a day after a 45-26 home loss to Old Dominion in which the Hokies were booed loudly while heading to the locker room for halftime.

Saturday’s loss dropped Virginia Tech to 0-3 on the season and 16-24 through four seasons under Pry.

The hot-seat talk bubbled up around Pry in November last season, and if the Hokies had lost to Virginia to end the season, a change may have been made at that point. But Virginia Tech defeated Virginia, and Pry’s second consecutive 6-6 regular season landed him in a bowl game.

But as the offseason included personnel changes, the talk around Pry’s status didn’t fade. He entered Year 4 with a new defensive coordinator — Sam Siefkes, a former linebackers coach with the Arizona Cardinals — and a staff that included former longtime Hokies defensive coordinator Bud Foster as an adviser/analyst.

It did not work in the early going. Though the Hokies played hard in a season-opening loss to South Carolina, they were pushed around by another SEC team, Vanderbilt, in Virginia Tech’s home opener a week later. The Commodores scored 34 consecutive points to close out a 44-20 win in which they trailed by 10 points at halftime.

That loss, however, proved to be just an opening act to Saturday’s stunning loss to in-state foe Old Dominion.

“Clearly, it starts with me,” Pry said after the loss to the Monarchs. “Coaches, players, everybody is accountable here. We’ve got to get back to the basics and find a way to be closer to the team we can be.”

Virginia Tech will host Wofford on Saturday before beginning ACC play the following week at NC State.

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UCLA fires coach Foster after Bruins start 0-3

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UCLA fires coach Foster after Bruins start 0-3

UCLA fired football coach DeShaun Foster after he started his second season at the helm 0-3, the school announced Sunday.

An impressive class in the transfer portal, including the addition of former Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava, seemed like a solid foundation for Year 2 under Foster, who rallied the Bruins to win four of their last six games to end the 2024 season.

But this season couldn’t have started off any worse. In the Rose Bowl on opening night, the Bruins fell to Utah 43-10. A week later at UNLV, they stumbled again, dropping a 30-23 decision. But those losses were just lead-ins to a puzzling 35-10 defeat at the hands of New Mexico in Week 3 at the Rose Bowl.

The Bruins, through three weeks, did not top 23 points in any game, and had allowed at least 30 in all three losses.

Foster had a 5-10 record in the 15 games he coached for the Bruins.

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Surging Rangers get Garcia back from stint on IL

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Surging Rangers get Garcia back from stint on IL

NEW YORK — The Texas Rangers got a key player back for their playoff push Sunday, when outfielder Adolis García was activated from the 10-day injured list.

García, who missed 10 games with a strained right quad, was set to bat fourth and play right field in the series finale against the New York Mets.

The IL stint was the second in a month for García, who was sidelined by a sprained left ankle from Aug. 13-22. The former All-Star and Gold Glove winner is batting .235 with 18 homers and 73 RBIs this season, but he hit .368 with two homers, nine RBIs and three steals in as many attempts in nine games following his return from the ankle injury before getting hurt while beating out a potential double-play grounder against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sept. 1.

“It’s always good to get one of your core guys back,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. “He was really swinging the bat well when he got hurt.”

Despite dealing with a litany of injuries, the Rangers entered Sunday on a six-game winning streak and with the best record in the majors (16-4) since Aug. 23. Texas was two games behind the Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners in the AL West race.

Second baseman Marcus Semien (left foot) and pitcher Nathan Eovaldi (right rotator cuff) are likely out for the regular season while shortstop Corey Seager is recovering from an appendectomy.

To make room for García, the Rangers optioned outfielder Dustin Harris to Triple-A Round Rock.

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