KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Christopher Bell won the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series playoff race at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, putting himself in good position to wiggle off the playoff bubble and make next week’s cut-off a little less stressful.
Bell was the only driver among the 10 in the final round of qualifying to go over 180 mph, turning a lap of 180.276 for a comfortable margin over Kyle Larson, who locked up his place in the next round of the playoffs with a win last week at Darlington.
“That was a lot of fun,” said Bell, who rode the preferred high line along the wall at Kansas to his second straight pole and fourth of the season. “Qualifying here is very intense. That’s certainly all we had.”
Bell followed his pole run at Darlington with a mistake during the race and finished 23rd. That left him just one point ahead of Bubba Wallace for 12th place in points with next week’s race at Bristol the cut-off for the top 12 drivers to advance.
“There’s a handful of people on the team that just have to control what they can control and I’m a big part of that equation,” Bell said. “Last week I made a mistake early in the race that ruined our finish, and that was me not doing my job.
“I’m glad I get another opportunity this week to control what I can control and get the best finish out of it.”
Larson, who finished second to Denny Hamlin in the spring race at Kansas, will start alongside the No. 20 Toyota on the front row. Fellow playoff contender Martin Truex Jr. qualified third with Chase Elliott, who did not make the playoffs, fourth and Tyler Reddick fifth.
“You want to build on good finishes and we haven’t had two in a row for a long time,” Larson said. “So that’s kind of my goal going into really the whole playoffs, is just to be consistently up front and finishing right.”
William Byron, who is second in points, qualified ninth to earn a good pit selection, but he thought he would have to start at the back after breaking a suspension part during a 20-minute practice session. NASCAR ruled later that it was a part problem rather than a team issue and gave Byron his qualifying spot on the grid.
There is still another playoff contender starting at the rear after Kyle Busch had a tire blow in practice, sending him slapping along the outside wall. The Chevrolet sustained heavy enough damage that Busch wasn’t able to make a qualifying run.
“Just like every other weekend — always put in a hole, always put behind, always have to dig ourselves out,” Busch said. “Hate it for the guys. The car was really good here. We were just going to fine tune some things to get ready for qualifying and here we are, starting last again. It just never changes.”
Reds manager Terry Francona plans to opt out of elective participation in the automated ball-strike challenge trial during spring training but is willing to let Cincinnati’s minor league players accustomed to the procedure use the system.
ABS allows pitchers, hitters and catchers an immediate objection to a ball-strike call. Major League Baseball is not fully adopting the system — which has been used in the minor leagues — this season but began a trial Thursday involving 13 spring training ballparks. Teams are allowed two challenges per game, which must come from on-field players and not the dugout or manager.
“I’m OK with seeing our younger kids do it because they’ve done it,” Francona said. “It’s not a strategy for [the MLB teams], so why work on it? I don’t want to make a farce of anything, but we’re here getting ready for a season and that’s not helping us get ready.”
For nearly a half-century, the New York Yankees‘ facial-hair policy kept the visages of some of the world’s most famous baseball players whisker-free. Over the past week, with a nudge from a new player and the advice of an All-Star cast, team owner Hal Steinbrenner changed the face of the Yankees. Literally.
“Everyone was kind of stunned,” said Yankees closer Devin Williams, whose desire to sport his signature beard helped spur the rule change that will allow players to wear more than a mustache. “There were a few guys who had heard it was being discussed and a possibility, but that it actually happened — I’m just looking forward to it growing back.”
The announcement by the Yankees on Friday morning that players would be allowed to grow a “well-groomed beard” sent shockwaves through the sport. The draconian rule instituted in 1976 by then-owner George Steinbrenner had been maintained for more than a decade and a half since his death, and Hal Steinbrenner, his son, had shown no signs of relenting.
When Williams showed up to Yankees spring training in Tampa, Florida, last week for the first time after arriving in an offseason trade with the Milwaukee Brewers, he finally came face-to-face with his longtime nemesis: a razor. Never had Williams thrown a pitch in the major leagues without at least a healthy layer of stubble. After shearing his beard, he looked in the mirror, didn’t recognize who was looking back and eventually took his concerns to Yankees manager Aaron Boone.
Williams later relayed the frustration to general manager Brian Cashman, who listened to his points — about how players who feel their best will play their best, about the hypocrisy of a policy implemented to promote clean-cut players applying only to facial hair below the upper lip — and agreed. Steinbrenner then sat down with Williams, and the moment to push for a facial-hair revolution had arrived.
The inconsistent application of the policy — from Goose Gossage’s Fu Manchu to later-than-5-o’clock shadows on the faces of Thurman Munson to Andy Pettitte to Roger Clemens — was just the beginning of the argument for change. There were concerns that players might pass up opportunities to play for the Yankees because of an attachment to their beards. Steinbrenner heard the case and Monday discussed with a cast of stars — alumni Ron Guidry, Pettitte and newly minted Hall of Famer CC Sabathia plus current players Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole and Giancarlo Stanton — how they saw it.
In the days thereafter, Steinbrenner came away from the conversations convinced: No longer was banning stubble worth the trouble.
“Winning was the most important thing to my father,” Steinbrenner said. “And again, if somebody came and told him that they were very sure that this could affect us getting the players we want to get, all we’re trying to do every offseason, right, is put ourselves in the best position to get a player that we’re trying to get. And if something like this would detract from that, lessen our chances, I don’t know. I think he might be a little apt to do the change that I did than people think because it was about winning.”
Steinbrenner and Cashman announced the change to the team Friday morning — and the players responded with appreciation.
“It’s a big deal,” said Cole, who had worn a beard with his past two teams, Pittsburgh and Houston. “I just threw today, and no one cares. Nobody is talking about how I look. I feel like I obviously, being a Yankee fan [growing up], wanted to emulate everything the Yankees did, so it was kind of cool that I was able to shave and be a part of that legacy. And then it’s also really cool at the same time that we’re transitioning to a different legacy to a certain extent, moving forward.”
Williams will be moving forward by not shaving. He said he expects his beard to grow back in two to three weeks. While he believes his past facial hair “was pretty well-groomed,” he’s happy to cut it shorter if the team desires “because it’s nice to feel like you’re being listened to.”
“Hal took the time to hear Devin out, spoke with other players and made a decision that I’m sure was very difficult,” said Nate Heisler of Klutch Sports Group, Williams’ agent. “The Yankees showed today why they are one of the best organizations in professional sports.”
No longer are they the most fresh-faced. Free agent signings with bearded pasts — from Cole to Stanton to left-hander Carlos Rodon to first baseman Paul Goldschmidt to reliever Tim Hill — are free to return to their hirsute ways. Homegrown players can celebrate no-shave November eight months early. And Boone — once himself a cleanly shaven Yankees player — summed up the mood in the clubhouse for everyone.
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Juan Soto homered in his first spring training at-bat for his new team, hitting a solo shot to left-center field in the first inning for the New York Mets against the Houston Astros on Saturday.
Soto signed a record 15-year, $765 million contract this offseason, moving across New York from the Yankees to the Mets.
He hit second in the order Saturday, between Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso, and drilled a 426-foot homer on a 2-1 pitch from left-hander Colton Gordon. The following inning, Soto drove in another run with a ground ball.
Soto entered Saturday’s game with a career .302 average and 13 home runs in 86 spring training games.
