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DOVER, Del. — Martin Truex Jr. mastered the Monster Mile on a Monday for the third time in his career and the former NASCAR champion snapped a 54-race winless streak overall in the Cup Series at Dover Motor Speedway.

Thanks to a race postponed a day because of rain, it was a long weekend sweep for the Truex brothers. Younger brother Ryan Truex won the second-tier Xfinity Series race on Saturday for his first NASCAR victory across all three national series in 188 career starts.

Big brother poked his head in Ryan’s Toyota as he pulled it into victory lane. Martin Truex appreciated the winning weekend for the family.

“It’s just special,” Truex said. “It was such a big day for our family to see Ryan do that on Saturday.”

Martin knows how to get to victory lane at Dover. The 2017 Cup champion has the blueprint on how to win at the Monster Mile on a Monday. Truex raced to his first NASCAR Cup win on June 4, 2007, at Dover and 12 years later used another rainout to take the checkered flag on May 6, 2019.

Truex also won a regularly scheduled Sunday race here in 2016.

Truex held strong on the outside lane Monday off the final restart to hold off runner-up Ross Chastain by a half-second. Ryan Blaney, William Byron and Denny Hamlin completed the top five.

“We knew we could do this,” Truex said. “It just never all came together.”

Truex was once of the most dominant drivers in the series, winning a career-best eight times in 2017 and 23 times overall from 2016 to 2019. But the Joe Gibbs Racing driver had been winless since his last Cup victory on Sept. 11, 2021, at Richmond Raceway.

Determined to rebound from a winless season, Truex opened his 18th full season with an exhibition victory in the Busch Light Clash in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

He did have three top-10 finishes this season in the No. 19 Toyota but couldn’t find his way to victory lane until Monday. He earned his 32nd career Cup victory and became the 10th driver to win four or more Cup races at Dover.

“It feels nice to get one to come around our way,” Truex said.

SO, YOU’RE TELLING ME THERE’S A CHANCE?

Noah Gragson made the cut.

No, not to victory lane, but to his head when he shaved the sides and left only a mop-topped shock of hair on top.

Gragson joked, “I’m gonna put it right on black, baby,” as he flashed an autographed $100 bill from fellow NASCAR driver Austin Dillon as part the payout for the bet that the Legacy Motor Club driver would get a bowl cut.

“Some say I lost a bet,” Gragson said. “I think I won.”

He sure didn’t win at Dover, finishing 34th because of an early wreck. Gragson hasn’t finished better than 30th in any of his last five races.

HE SAID IT

“Probably needs to get his butt whooped,” Brennan Poole after he was hit by Ross Chastain in a wreck that also took out Kyle Larson.

UP NEXT

NASCAR heads to Kansas Speedway. Kurt Busch won likely the last race of his career there after it was cut short because of a head injury suffered in a crash at Pocono last summer. Bubba Wallace won the fall race at the track.

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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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