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MADISON, Ill. — As he’s trying to race his way into the NASCAR Cup series playoffs, Chase Briscoe now faces a fresh challenge with the potential for his Stewart-Haas Racing team to deteriorate around him.

Owners Tony Stewart and Gene Haas announced this week that the four-team garage would cease operations at the end of the season, leaving the future up in the air for Briscoe and teammates Josh Berry, Noah Gragson and Ryan Preece.

“It might really be hard for us just to even get cars to the race track,” Briscoe said during qualifying Saturday at World Wide Technology Raceway. “You know, if people are leaving. It’s not like you’re going to get somebody to start coming to work there even on short-term basis.

“Once people leave, there’s nobody coming back. We already do it on way less people than the other four-car teams, so it is kind of scary just knowing the position that we’re in right now.”

Briscoe will enter the race Sunday 16th in the points standings, but just outside the 16-driver playoffs because Daniel Suarez has claimed a playoff spot with a victory at Atlanta. Berry is 19th and Gragson 21st.

“For my side of things, nothing’s really going to change, right? I mean, I’m going to keep racing hard and fighting and doing everything I can to stay racing at this level,” said Berry, a rookie.

Berry said he hopes to find a new home where he can stay with crew chief Rodney Childers and other members of his crew.

“Nothing’s really ever came that easy for me. So, you know, when I got this opportunity, I almost felt like it was too good to be true,” Berry said. “And here we are less than a year later dealing with all this, but we’re not going to quit. We’re going to keep digging.”

Amid the distractions, the team struggled on the track. For just the second time this season, none of the four drivers qualified in the top 20. The other time came on the road course at Circuit of the Americas.

LARSON IN LIMBO

After missing the start of the Coca-Cola 600 because he was competing in the Indy 500, Kyle Larson filed a waiver seeking to regain his playoff eligibility. But he isn’t fretting about it.

“It’s not up to me,” Larson said. “So, yeah, just I’ll be here every weekend.”

Other Cup Series contenders said they expect Larson to get the waiver.

“I do think he’ll get it and that he should get it,” Brad Keselowski said. “There’s some rather unique circumstances and, you know, I like the idea of drivers running the double I think that’s good for our sport.”

Kyle Busch agreed that Larson shouldn’t be punished when he’s “doing more for motorsports than anybody else.”

“Kyle Larson is going to win five or six or seven races this year,” Michael McDowell said after winning the pole. “To sit here and say that he’s not going to get a waiver because he tried to do the double and brought a tremendous amount of eyeballs on our sport and a tremendous amount of eyeballs on IndyCar and just helped motorsports all together is crazy.”

LOGANO’S LAMENT

Joey Logano, the 2022 winner and a two-time Cup Series champion, had the fastest time in practice but sagged to 12th in qualifying.

“We don’t have any mulligans left at this point. Where we are in points, we need to get up in points, get all the points we possibly can, win a race if possible,” said Logano, who is currently 17th in points. “I look at this track as one of our strongest, the last two times we’ve been here. finishing first and third. So I feel like we should have a good shot.”

Logano’s only win so far this season came in the All-Star race at North Wilkesboro, which doesn’t help in the playoff hunt.

“There’s a million reasons to love it. But, you know, there’s no points, right?” said Logano, who has failed to record a top 10 in the last six races that awarded points. “It doesn’t really affect the season a whole bunch outside of just a momentum-builder.”

BUSCH

Kyle Busch has led the most laps in both races at the St. Louis-area track, recording a second-place finish in 2022 before winning last year. It’s also special place for the team because Busch’s crew chief, Randall Burnett, is from the St. Louis suburb of Fenton, Missouri.

“You have to drive World Wide Technology Raceway differently than other places we go. As a driver, that’s fun and gives you a different challenge,” Busch said. “It’s also unique because it’s not quite a short track but it’s not quite a superspeedway. It’s egg-shaped and drives like a short track.”

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Wisconsin fires offensive coordinator after 2 years

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Wisconsin fires offensive coordinator after 2 years

Wisconsin fired offensive coordinator Phil Longo on Sunday, a day after the Badgers’ 16-13 home loss to No. 1 Oregon.

In a statement, Badgers coach Luke Fickell thanked Longo for his two seasons with the program, while adding, “We are not where we need to be and believe this decision is in the best interest of the team.”

Wisconsin ranks 97th nationally in scoring and 102nd in passing while operating an Air Raid-style offense that Longo brought with him from North Carolina and other stops.

The Badgers, who lost starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke to a season-ending injury Sept. 14, had only three points and 88 yards in the second half against Oregon, which rallied from a 13-6 deficit entering the fourth quarter.

Wisconsin ranked 101st nationally in scoring in Longo’s 23 games as coordinator and failed to eclipse 13 points on its current three-game losing streak. Quarterback Braedyn Locke had only 96 passing yards against the Ducks.

Fickell did not immediately announce an interim coordinator for Wisconsin’s final regular-season games against Nebraska and Minnesota.

Fickell had long targeted Longo for a coordinator role, going back to his time as Cincinnati’s coach. Longo, 56, oversaw productive offenses at Ole Miss, North Carolina, Sam Houston State and other spots but never consistently got traction at a Wisconsin program that had operated dramatically differently on offense before his arrival.

“This team still has a lot in front of us and I am committed to doing everything we can to close out this season with success,” Fickell said in his statement.

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4-star QB Jones, former FSU commit, picks Florida

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4-star QB Jones, former FSU commit, picks Florida

Four-star quarterback Tramell Jones Jr. has committed to Florida, he told ESPN on Sunday, joining the Gators’ 2025 class four days after pulling his pledge from Florida State.

Jones, a four-year starter at Florida’s Mandarin High School, is ESPN’s No. 9 dual-threat passer in the Class of 2025. After multiple trips to Florida throughout his recruitment, Jones returned to campus Saturday, taking an official visit with the Gators during the program’s 27-16 win over LSU. A day later, Jones stands as the lone quarterback pledge in a 2025 Florida class that includes five pledges from the ESPN 300.

“I pretty much saw everything I needed to see when I visited last spring — I just love everything around the campus,” Jones told ESPN. “And then hanging out with the guys yesterday, seeing the camaraderie with each other, that really just sealed it for me.”

Jones was the longest-tenured member of Mike Norvell’s 2025 class at Florida State before his decommitment from the Seminoles on Thursday morning.

Jones’ exit came days after Norvell announced the firings of three assistant coaches on Nov. 10, including offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Alex Atkins. Jones was the first Florida State commit to pull his pledge in the wake of the staff shakeup but marked the Seminoles sixth decommitment since the start of the regular season, joining five ESPN 300 recruits who have left Norvell’s recruiting class across the program’s 1-9 start.

Jones’ commitment follows a key late-season victory for Billy Napier on Saturday and marks the Gators’ first recruiting win since athletic director Scott Strickland announced on Nov. 7 that Florida would stick with the third-year coach beyond the 2024 season.

Uncertainty over Napier’s future had weighed down Florida’s recruiting efforts in the 2025 class as the Gators began November with the No. 39 class in ESPN’s latest team rankings for the cycle. But Jones’ pledge comes as a boost for Florida one day after the Gators hosted a handful of high-profile flip targets, including five-star offensive tackle Solomon Thomas (Florida State pledge) and four-star wide receiver Jaime Ffrench (Texas pledge).

When Jones signs with Florida, he’ll arrive on campus flanked by fellow in-state offensive talents in four-star wide receivers Vernell Brown III (No. 44 in the ESPN 300) and Naeshaun Montgomery (No. 115), as well as four-star running back Waltez Clark (No. 223). Florida is also set to sign a pair of in-state defenders from the 2025 ESPN 300 between four-star defensive end Jalen Wiggins (No. 68) and four-star cornerback Ben Hanks Jr. (No. 121).

With Jones’ commitment, Florida has another jolt to its momentum on the recruiting trail as the Gators seek to chart a strong finish in the 2025 cycle next month. More imminently, Florida will host No. 11 Ole Miss on Saturday.

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Ted Williams’ 1946 MVP award sells for over $500K

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Ted Williams' 1946 MVP award sells for over 0K

A rare souvenir postcard picturing Hank Aaron as a rookie with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro Leagues sold for nearly $200,000 at a baseball memorabilia auction that also included Ted Williams’ 1946 AL MVP award, which went for $528,750.

The Aaron postcard from the scrapbook of scout Ed Scott, who discovered Aaron, went for $199,750 following a bidding war that soared past the pre-sale estimate of $5,000-$10,000, Hunt Auctions said.

The auction included 280 items from Williams’ personal collection that had been held by his daughter, Claudia, who died last year. Among the other items were a silver bat awarded for his 1958 batting title, which sold for more than $270,000, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom presented to him by fellow naval aviator George H.W. Bush, which went for $141,000.

The sale also included items from the collection of Rutherford Hayes Jones, the business manager of the Washington Giants, one of the earliest Black baseball teams. The trove was discovered in 2001 in a suitcase, where it had been unseen for 40 years.

A first batch of items from Claudia Williams’ collection went up for auction in 2012 at Fenway Park and garnered more than $5 million.

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