Connect with us

Published

on

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — William Byron scraped the wall in practice at Kansas Speedway, then proceed to set the fastest time in qualifying, and will be joined on the front row by Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race.

Byron turned a lap of 179.206 mph on Saturday to earn his second pole of the season and the 10th of his career — all of them coming at different tracks. The trick now is to turn that first-row starting spot into a victory at Kansas, where he got his first win in the Truck Series but has never finished better than sixth in NASCAR’s top series.

“Feels great. Feels really good to get a pole,” Byron said. “I think you’re going to see a good race. I think this car races well on the mile-and-a-halfs and hopefully we’ll be able to move around and find some clean air.”

As for the damage on his No. 24 Chevrolet?

“I think it’s fine,” Byron said. “I kind of dragged the wall being a dummy the second lap of practice. It seems like the car is fine. We can kind of polish up the quarter panel just to make it look nice for Sunday.”

Larson was among the fastest in qualifying as Chevrolet power dominated the day. His lap of 179.170 was good enough for the second starting spot, while Ross Chastain qualified third in the Chevy-powered No. 1 car for Trackhouse Racing.

“Cool to be on the front row there with William,” Larson said. “Wish I could have went a little bit better. I have to look at the data to see where I gave up a little bit of time to him. Still feel like we have to work on our car quite a bit in race trim.”

The forecast is for temperatures in the 90s on Sunday, which could make the race even more unpredictable.

“I think it lends itself to moving up (to the wall),” Larson said. “Maybe with it being so hot it slows the pace down, where the other lanes develop. It didn’t seem like that in practice but we didn’t run that long, either.”

After winning Monday’s rain-delayed race at Dover, Martin Truex Jr. led the Toyota contingent — who swept Kansas last year with 23XI Racing — with a fourth-place qualifying run. Truex also made the list this week of NASCAR’s 75 greatest drivers.

“Honestly, this sport is so difficult to manage emotionally,” Truex said. “You’re always just trying to look at the positives and look at everything that’s good. And you know, you go through your questions about not winning for 50-some races and it’s like, all of a sudden you win a race and you’re on the list of the 75, you know, best drivers in history.

“It’s just very humbling,” Truex said, “and you know, just honored to be on that list. Honored to be back in victory lane.”

Tyler Reddick rounded out the top five in the No. 45 car for 23XI — the same car that won the race twice last year, Kurt Busch driving it in the spring and Bubba Wallace in the fall. No car has won at a track three straight times with different drivers.

“Had to race against 23XI last year and it was really cool to see all the speed they had, knowing I would be going there at some point,” said Reddick, whose car needed three trips through inspection to pass and had his car chief ejected.

Brennan Poole‘s car also failed inspection twice and the team was penalized a crew member.

Continue Reading

Sports

Journalism opens as 8-5 favorite for Preakness

Published

on

By

Journalism opens as 8-5 favorite for Preakness

HALETHORPE, Md. — Journalism is the morning line favorite for the 150th running of the Preakness Stakes.

The Kentucky Derby runner-up to Sovereignty opened at odds of 8-5 on Monday night when post positions were drawn for the middle leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown. Journalism is again set to be ridden by jockey Umberto Rispoli and leave the starting gate from the No. 2 post.

Post time is set for 7:01 p.m. EDT on Saturday.

No. 7 Sandman is the 4-1 second choice in the field of nine, which does not include Sovereignty after his owners and trainer decided not to run the Derby winner two weeks after his triumph at Churchill Downs. The Preakness goes on without a true shot at a Triple Crown winner for a fifth time in seven years since Justify swept all three races in 2018.

Bob Baffert, who trained Justify and 2015 Triple Crown champion American Pharoah, is entering Goal Oriented looking for a record-extending ninth victory in the race. Fellow Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas can tie Baffert if he wins the Preakness back-to-back, this time with American Promise a year after Seize the Grey ended Mystik Dan’s Triple Crown bid.

There are three Derby horses running in the $2 million Preakness at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore: Journalism, American Promise and Sandman, the latter of whom will be ridden by John Velazquez for trainer Mark Casse. American Promise drew the No. 3 post and opened at odds of 15-1.

New to the Triple Crown trail, along with No. 1 Goal Oriented (6-1), are No. 4 Heart of Honor (12-1), No. 5 Pay Billy (20-1), No. 6 River Thames (9-2), No. 8 Clever Again (5-1) and No. 9 Gosger (20-1).

Continue Reading

Sports

U.S. shut out by Switzerland at hockey worlds

Published

on

By

U.S. shut out by Switzerland at hockey worlds

HERNING, Denmark — Switzerland, last year’s runner-up, shut out the United States 3-0 and handed the Americans their first loss at the ice hockey world championship Monday.

Damien Riat, Jonas Siegenthaler and Dean Kukan scored in the Group B game in Herning. Netminder Leonardo Genoni stopped 23 shots for the shutout.

“Give credit to Switzerland,” U.S. coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “But I know our group has a lot more in them. We’ll regroup and get ready to play Norway.”

Riat put Switzerland ahead with 7:14 remaining in the first period, redirecting the puck into the goal from the air. It was the first goal the U.S. conceded at the tournament.

The second followed 3:13 later by Siegenthaler from the blue line. Kukan’s came halfway through the final period from the top of the left circle.

“After the first goal we did a better job,” Swiss forward Kevin Fiala said. “We got into it more and more, and shut them out.”

Fiala recorded an assist in his first game at the worlds. He joined the Swiss late after his Los Angeles Kings were eliminated from the NHL playoffs in the first round.

U.S. goalie Joey Daccord made 24 saves.

The U.S., which beat Denmark 5-0 and Hungary 6-0 in its first two games, will next face Norway on Wednesday.

In other games, Martin Necas had two goals and David Pastrnak had a goal and two assists as the defending champion Czech Republic used a four-goal middle period to ease past Denmark 7-2.

Nick Olesen also had a goal and an assist for Denmark.

In Stockholm, Sweden topped archrival Finland 2-1 on goals from Leo Carlsson and Jonas Brodin for a third victory in regulation from three games.

Austria defeated Slovakia 3-2 in a penalty shootout.

Continue Reading

Sports

Leafs’ Domi fined $5K for hit to Panthers’ Barkov

Published

on

By

Leafs' Domi fined K for hit to Panthers' Barkov

Toronto Maple Leafs forward Max Domi was fined $5,000 — the maximum amount allowed by the league’s collective bargaining agreement — for boarding Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov as time expired in Game 4 of their second-round Eastern Conference playoff series Sunday.

Toronto was trailing 2-0 when the final buzzer sounded, and Domi hit Barkov from behind, sending him headfirst into the boards. Domi was given a minor penalty for boarding at the time while several other scrums broke out before officials moved players off the ice.

Florida’s victory evened the best-of-seven series at 2-all. Game 5 is set for Wednesday in Toronto.

Toronto coach Craig Berube didn’t comment on the Domi hit directly Monday, but he did say he thought Dmitry Kulikov‘s hit on Mitch Marner “was way worse”

On that play, the Panthers defenseman caught Marner up high with an elbow, leaving the Leafs forward momentarily dazed. No penalty was called on Kulikov.

It wasn’t the first elbowing incident to draw attention in the series.

In Game 1, Panthers forward Sam Bennett sent an elbow to the head of Leafs netminder Anthony Stolarz shortly before Stolarz left the game. He was later hospitalized for further evaluation and hasn’t been able to resume skating since. There is currently no timeline for his return.

The physical intensity of the series might continue to rise now that it’s down to being a best-of-three. Based on how Game 4 played out, the Leafs are prepared to push back when they host Florida on Wednesday.

“We expected [the physicality], and I think we’re fine with it,” Berube said. “We’re handling it. We’re physical. I thought we were the more physical team [in Game 4].”

Continue Reading

Trending