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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Travis Pastrana is a motor sports icon decorated for his fearless attack on anything with wheels or engines or ramps or danger.

But there is one thing missing from his resume, and as far as Pastrana is concerned, no event is bigger.

Pastrana said Tuesday he’ll make his long-coveted attempt to race the Daytona 500 this year in an entry fielded by 23XI Racing and sponsored by Black Rifle Coffee. The No. 67 Toyota will be a third entry for the NASCAR team owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, and gives action-star Pastrana the chance to fulfill his career dream.

“As my career gets further to the end, I just really, really, really want to be able to line up one day at the Daytona 500. It’s the biggest race in the world as far as my family is concerned,” Pastrana told The Associated Press.

“My grandma watched the Daytona 500. It was our one really big family/friend event that everybody pretty much in our county would go and watch. It was a holiday for us,” Pastrana said. “It has a big place in my heart, a lot of great memories, and I always said, ‘Man, one day I’d love to go racing in the Daytona 500.”

Pastrana is a decorated X Games star and has won championships in supercross, motocross, freestyle motocross, rally racing and, most recently, offshore powerboat racing. But as he begins to wind down his career – the father of two turns 40 this year – Pastrana couldn’t let go of his desire to race the Daytona 500.

He made a brief run at NASCAR a decade ago and raced the full Xfinity Series schedule in 2013 for Roush Fenway Racing. Pastrana struggled far more than he expected – “I didn’t pick up on the rear-wheel drive on pavement as quick as I needed to,” he told the AP – and sponsorship was a challenge, so his NASCAR career came to a halt.

Pastrana had shown, though, that he can handle fast cars. He finished 10th that year in the Xfinity Series opener at Daytona International Speedway and won the pole at Talladega Superspeedway. He will need to be fast next month at Daytona, where Pastrana will have to qualify his way into “The Great American Race.”

There are only four open spots in the 40-car field and seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, a two-time Daytona 500 winner, is vying for one of them. Another potential entrant is four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves.

Pastrana will be teammates with Bubba Wallace and 23XI Racing newcomer Tyler Reddick, and he will be part of the larger Toyota group that includes team co-owner Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 winner. He is expecting a fast motor but knows the pressure will be intense just to make the race.

“Everything else that I do uses a lot of practice. But this is the first time I’ll ever (drive) a Cup car over 40 mph, the first time I’ll ever have a Cup car on the Daytona track, the first time I’ll ever be in front of the world with all the sponsors and everything trying to qualify – will be my qualifying lap,” Pastrana said. “2311 said: ‘We’re going to give you the absolute best that we can. We’re not playing favorites.’ And for me, looking those guys in the eye, I realized we’ve got a shot to go out there and not just qualify, but qualify well and put ourselves up in a position to potentially mix it up in there.

“I definitely can drive and I’m looking forward to having the opportunity to put my best foot forward.”

Acknowledging that racing in the Daytona 500 was a “pay-to-play” venture in which he had to fund the package, Pastrana needed to partner with a team that gave him a shot to compete and not blow the money in a failed effort. He said he chose to take the Black Rifle sponsorship to 23XI because of an existing friendship with Kurt Busch and others inside the organization.

Pastrana, who broke his pelvis and back last year, insists he’s slowing down. But as he heads into the Daytona 500, he’ll be in an airplane or a car every day between his announcement Tuesday and arriving in Daytona. On his working list is representing the United States with Tanner Foust at the Race of Champions in Sweden later this month.

“I love what I do. I love driving. I love competition,” said Pastana, who also hailed the lifestyle. He met his wife through extreme sports and they raise their daughters at events around the world.

“We have so much access to trampolines and go-karts and bicycles and motorcycles, and I just feel like I can be the best father that I can be,” Pastrana said. “But I realized that it’s very difficult to stay on top and I’ve been very fortunate to have a long career. And it’s – I wouldn’t say it’s over or coming to an end – but definitely my priorities are changing.

“That’s why I’m doing the Daytona 500 this year. I felt like even though the door didn’t totally close 10 years ago, I feel like it’s close.”

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Yanks finally score, otherwise sputter in latest loss

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Yanks finally score, otherwise sputter in latest loss

NEW YORK — The good news for the Yankees on Wednesday was they scored a run after 30 consecutive scoreless innings. The bad news was they again didn’t score enough to win.

The Yankees fell to the Los Angeles Angels 3-2 to extend their season-high losing streak to six games. The Angels will look to complete a four-game sweep Thursday afternoon at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees, whose lead in the AL East has shrunk to 1½ games, will look to emerge from an offensive funk that has produced seven runs in seven games.

“That’s baseball,” Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge said. “We know what we signed up for. You’re going to play 162. You’re going to hit a little rut like this, but you can’t give up. You can’t mope about it. You just got to show up the next day and you got to be ready to play.”

Jazz Chisholm Jr. ended the Yankees’ scoreless innings streak in the second inning with a moonshot solo home run down the right-field line, giving New York its first run since the ninth inning Saturday against the Boston Red Sox. Two innings later, Cody Bellinger launched another solo shot to give the Yankees their first lead since last Thursday when they defeated the Kansas City Royals 1-0.

But the Yankees mustered only one other hit — a ground ball from Bellinger in the sixth inning that was ruled a single after it bounced off Trent Grisham as he ran to second base for the inning’s second out. Yankees manager Aaron Boone said he believed his team’s at-bats Wednesday were better than they were Tuesday — when he said he noticed his players pressing — and pointed to four walks as progress.

But the Yankees went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position and are 5-for-48 (.104) with 12 strikeouts, four walks and three RBIs in such situations over their past seven games.

“We just got to break through now like we’re capable of offensively,” Boone said.

Judge, the two-time AL MVP who is a heavy favorite to win a third this season, has gone 1-for-19 with 11 strikeouts, two intentional walks and a home run over the past five games. He went 0-for-4 on Wednesday with two strikeouts, a 94.7 mph groundout and 107.9 mph flyout.

“Guys are pitching, they’re doing their job,” Judge said. “Sometimes we’re faltering on doing our job. But it’s tough to say. I think it just comes down to us not executing, us not doing our job. Maybe a little passive in certain situations. But all we can do is show up tomorrow ready to go.”

The Angels broke through to retake the lead in the eighth inning Wednesday without a hit when, after three walks, shortstop Anthony Volpe mishandled a ground ball on what should’ve been a routine, inning-ending double play. Volpe, a Gold Glove winner in 2023, was charged with his ninth error of the season, the second most among shortstops across the majors.

“Right off the bat, I got to be aggressive, go get the ball, make the play,” Volpe said. “As far as that, that’s all it is. It’s the first read off the bat.”

The lack of execution trickled to the offensive side in the bottom of the inning. The Yankees appeared ready to mount a rally when Jasson Dominguez walked and Oswald Peraza was hit by a pitch to begin the inning. But they were left stranded as Grisham, who was given the green light to swing away with one strike after failing to drop down a bunt, popped out, before Judge flied out and Bellinger popped out to extinguish the threat.

“When we’re not scoring a lot of runs, we got to execute on the highest level on the little things,” Boone said. “And we haven’t done that this week a handful of times when we had some opportunities.”

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Rays’ 8-run comeback largest in MLB this season

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Rays' 8-run comeback largest in MLB this season

TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Rays overcame an eight-run deficit to beat the Baltimore Orioles 12-8 on Wednesday night in the largest comeback in the majors this season.

Tampa Bay matched the biggest comeback in franchise history. The Rays also rallied from eight down in a 10-8 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Aug. 18, 2012, and in a 10-9 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on July 25, 2009.

It tied the Orioles’ largest blown lead over the past 50 seasons. Baltimore last gave away an eight-run lead on April 28, 2017, against the New York Yankees. The Orioles led that game 9-1 entering the bottom of the sixth inning before losing 14-11 in 10 innings.

Baltimore had an eight-run second inning on Wednesday. Colton Cowser smacked a three-run home run, Cedric Mullins added a solo shot, Gunnar Henderson had an RBI single and Ramón Laureano hit a three-run homer.

Tampa Bay’s Christopher Morel hit an RBI double in the third, and Jake Mangum‘s two-run single cut it to 8-3. Curtis Mead hit a two-out triple in the fourth and scored on a Junior Caminero single. Brandon Lowe‘s two-run homer in the fifth made it 8-8. And Jonathan Aranda had a two-run single in the Rays’ four-run seventh.

Lowe has at least a hit and a run in seven consecutive games, the longest active streak of its kind in the majors. He is batting .464 (13-of-28) with two home runs, five RBIs and eight runs during that span.

Caminero had four hits and two RBIs for the Rays.

Entering Wednesday, teams were 0-134 when trailing by eight or more runs at any point this season.

“It’s a tough game,” Orioles manager Tony Mansolino said. “It really hurts. But tomorrow, we’ll have to bounce back and try to figure out how to win a game.”

Three teams came back from eight runs behind last season in the majors. Pittsburgh was the most recent team to rally from more than that, erasing a nine-run deficit in a 13-12 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Nov. 23, 2023.

ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Singer defied Dodgers, belted anthem in Spanish

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Singer defied Dodgers, belted anthem in Spanish

Latin singer Nezza said that she is “super proud” of performing the national anthem in Spanish at Dodger Stadium on Saturday night and that she has “no regrets.”

Her surprising 90-second rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ game against the Giants — and a behind-the-scenes video she shared on social media of team representatives discouraging it beforehand — quickly went viral. It has become a flashpoint for Dodgers fans frustrated by the team’s lack of vocal support for immigrant communities impacted by the deportation raids across the U.S., including numerous neighborhoods in and around Los Angeles.

“This is my moment to show everyone that I am with them, that we have a voice and with everything that’s happening it’s not OK,” Nezza, 30, told The Associated Press. “I’m super proud that I did it. No regrets.”

Nezza said she hadn’t yet decided whether to sing in English or Spanish until she walked out onto the field and saw the stands filled with Latino families in Dodger Blue. Before that, as shown in the singer’s TikTok video, a Dodgers employee had told Nezza, “We are going to do the song in English today, so I’m not sure if that wasn’t transferred or if that wasn’t relayed.”

The Spanish-language version Nezza sang, “El Pendón Estrellado,” is the official translation of the national anthem and was commissioned in 1945 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt from Peruvian American composer Clotilde Arias.

Nezza says her manager immediately received a call from an unidentified Dodgers employee saying their clients were not welcome at the stadium again, but the team denied that in a statement to the AP.

“There were no consequences or hard feelings from the Dodgers regarding her performance,” the Dodgers said in the statement. “She was not asked to leave. We would be happy to have her back.”

Despite the Dodgers’ statement, Nezza said she does not think she will return to the stadium but said she hopes her performance will inspire others to use their voice and speak out.

“It’s just shown me, like, how much power there is in the Latin community,” Nezza said. “We’ve got to be the voice right now.”

The Dodgers have not gone on the record regarding the arrests and raids made by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the areas just a short drive from Dodger Stadium, but player Enrique Hernández posted about it on Instagram over the weekend.

“I am saddened and infuriated by what’s happening in our country and our city,” Hernández posted in English and Spanish. “I cannot stand to see our community being violated, profiled, abused and ripped apart. ALL people deserve to be treated with respect, dignity and human rights.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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