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LOUDON, N.H. — Christopher Bell used a three-wide, last-lap pass on Saturday to drive away and win the NASCAR Xfinity Series race for the fourth straight time at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

The 29-year-old Bell needed three extra laps on the 1.058-mile track but remained undefeated at New Hampshire in the Xfinity Series and scored another win for Joe Gibbs Racing in the No. 20 Toyota. The 20 team behind crew chief Tyler Allen has won four times this season with four drivers: John Hunter Nemechek, Aric Almirola, Ryan Truex and Bell.

“Once I got to the inside at three-wide down the front straightaway, I felt like I was in the position I wanted to be in to win the race,” Bell said.

Bell led 43 of 203 laps and added this checkered flag to his collection of Xfinity wins at New Hampshire in 2018, 2019 and 2021.

Sheldon Creed was second and Cole Custer third, both drivers caught up in Bell’s thrilling pass and both drivers fell just shy of keeping Bell out of victory lane.

“I feel so bad for Sheldon,” Bell said. “He’s been really really close to winning these things.”

Creed has two runner-up finishes this season and 10 overall in the Xfinity Series without a win in 86 career races. He’s tied with Dale Jarrett and Daniel Hemric for most second-place finishes before a victory.

“I’m running out of ways to lose these things,” Creed said.

Bell and Custer kept the headlines confined to the track.

Bell blurted out that Chase Briscoe was set to leave Stewart-Haas Racing, which shuts down at the end of the season, and make the move to Joe Gibs Racing in 2025. Briscoe is slated to drive the No. 19 Toyota for JGR.

“I stayed off social media, for sure,” Bell said.

Custer lost his Cup ride at SHR after the 2022 season and spent the last two years driving for its Xfinity program. He won the series championship last season and leads the points standings this season by 15 points over Zane Smith.

“I felt like we had that one,” Custer said. “We had the best car all day and to have it ripped away with one lap to go is just heartbreaking.”

Custer, who led 114 laps at New Hampshire, could get a return to the Cup next season.

SHR co-owner Gene Haas announced this week he will remain in the Cup Series and field one car in 2025. Haas will keep one of the four charters that belong to Stewart-Haas Racing and will operate next season as the Haas Factory Team.

“I think what Gene Haas has done in this sport, it would be a dream come true to get to run that Cup car,” Custer said.

Stewart-Haas Racing is primarily run by Joe Custer, the chief operating officer and longtime Haas confidant. Custer will remain president of Haas Factory Team – and his son could get the Cup seat.

“Whenever I went back to the Xfinity Series, my goal was always to go back to Cup,” Cole Custer said. “I’ve been trying to work on what I can do to get myself better over the past year and a half. At the end of the day, you try and do as best you can and you hope it all sorts itself out. But I really don’t have much to say or anything right now that’s solidified or anything.”

Justin Bonsignore finished 23rd in his Xfinity Series debut hours after he won a race at the track in NASCAR’s Modified Tour. He’s a three-time NWMT champion. Driving the No. 19 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, Bonsignore was collected in a late wreck.

The Xfinity race was run on wet-weather tires, a first for the series on the oval.

Matt DiBenedetto was disqualified during post-race inspection for three loose lug nuts on the right rear.

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Effort to unionize college athletes hits road block

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Effort to unionize college athletes hits road block

The legal efforts to unionize college athletes appear to be running out of steam this month as a new Republican-led administration gets set to take over the federal agency in charge of ruling on employment cases.

A players’ advocacy group who filed charges against the NCAA, Pac-12 and USC that would have potentially opened the door for college players to form a union decided Friday to withdraw its complaint. Their case – which was first filed in February 2022 – was one of two battles against the NCAA taken up by the National Labor Relations Board in recent years. Earlier this week, an administrative law judge closed the other case, which was filed by men’s basketball players at Dartmouth.

The National College Players Association, which filed its complaint on behalf of USC athletes, said the recent changes in state law and NCAA rules that are on track to allow schools to directly pay their players starting this summer caused them to reconsider their complaint.

“[T]he NCPA believes that it is best to provide adequate time for the college sports industry to transition into this new era before football and basketball players employee status is ruled upon,” the organization’s founder Ramogi Huma wrote in the motion to withdraw.

The NCAA and its four power conferences agreed to the terms of a legal settlement this summer that will allow schools to spend up to roughly $20.5 million on direct payments to their athletes starting next academic year. The deal is scheduled to be finalized in April.

College sports leaders, including NCAA President Charlie Baker, have remained steadfast in their belief that athletes should not be considered employees of their schools during a period when college sports have moved closer to a professionalized model.

Some industry stakeholders believe that the richest schools in college sports will need to collectively bargain with athletes to put an end to the current onslaught of legal challenges facing the industry. Currently, any collective bargaining would have to happen with a formal union to provide sufficient legal protection. Some members of Congress say they are discussing the possibility of creating a special status for college sports that would allow collective bargaining without employment. However, Congressional aides familiar with ongoing negotiations told ESPN that influential Republican leaders in Congress are firmly against the idea.

The NLRB’s national board previously declined to make a ruling on whether college athletes should be employees in 2015 when a group of football players at Northwestern attempted to unionize. Jennifer Abruzzo, the agency’s leader during the Biden administration, signaled an interest in taking up the athletes’ fight to unionize early in her tenure. Abruzzo is not expected to remain as the NLRB’s general counsel during Donald Trump’s presidency.

Under Abruzzo, the agency’s regional offices pushed both the Dartmouth and USC cases forward in the past year. Dartmouth players got far enough to vote in favor of forming a union in March 2024, but were still in the appeals process when they decided to end their effort last month.

The only remaining legal fight over employee status in college sports is a federal lawsuit known as Johnson v. NCAA. That case claims the association is violating the Fair Labor Standards Act, which does not guarantee the right to unionize but instead would give athletes some basic employee rights such as minimum wage and overtime pay. That case is currently working its way through the legal process in the Third Circuit federal court.

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LSU’s Lacy facing charges related to fatal crash

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LSU's Lacy facing charges related to fatal crash

Louisiana State Police have issued an arrest warrant for former LSU receiver Kyren Lacy, who is accused of causing a fatal crash that killed a 78-year-old man on Dec. 17 and then fleeing the scene without rendering aid or calling authorities.

Louisiana State Police said on Friday that Lacy will be charged with negligent homicide, felony hit-and-run and reckless operation of a vehicle.

Police said they have been in contact with Lacy and his attorney to turn himself in.

According to a news release from state police, Lacy was allegedly driving a 2023 Dodge Charger on Louisiana Highway 20 and “recklessly passed multiple vehicles at a high rate of speed by crossing the centerline and entering the northbound lane while in a designated no-passing zone.”

“As Lacy was illegally passing the other vehicles, the driver of a northbound pickup truck abruptly braked and swerved to the right to avoid a head-on collision with the approaching Dodge,” a Louisiana State Police news release said.

“Traveling behind the pickup was a 2017 Kia Cadenza whose driver swerved left to avoid the oncoming Dodge Charger. As the Kia Cadenza took evasive action to avoid impact with the Dodge, it crossed the centerline and collided head-on with a southbound 2017 Kia Sorento.”

Police alleged that Lacy, 24, drove around the crash scene and fled “without stopping to render aid, call emergency services, or report his involvement in the crash.”

Herman Hall, 78, of Thibodaux, Louisiana, who was a passenger in the Kia Sorrento, later died from injuries suffered in the crash, according to state police.

The drivers of the Cadenza and Sorento also sustained moderate injuries, according to police.

Lacy played two seasons at Louisiana before transferring to LSU in 2022. This past season, he had 58 catches for 866 yards with nine touchdowns and declared for the NFL draft on Dec. 19, two days after the crash.

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Penn State star DE Carter entering NFL draft

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Penn State star DE Carter entering NFL draft

Penn State All-America defensive end Abdul Carter is entering the NFL draft, where he is expected to go early in the first round, his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, told ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Friday.

Carter, the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, recorded his 12th sack of the season during the Nittany Lions’ 27-24 loss to Notre Dame in Thursday’s College Football Playoff semifinal. He played in the game after recovering from an apparent left arm injury suffered in the quarterfinals against Boise State.

ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. has Carter as the No. 2 player available on his Big Board.

Carter was Penn State’s first consensus All-America selection since Saquon Barkley in 2017. He moved from linebacker to defensive end this season under new Nittany Lions defensive coordinator Tom Allen.

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