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As the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs approached last season, Ryan Blaney and his team were, as he looks back on it now, afterthoughts. The Team Penske driver had a lone victory in the win column to make him postseason eligible, but his group was far from the strongest of those looking at a championship run.

But the No. 12 team stepped up when it mattered most, going on a tear to end the 2023 season with two wins and three more top-six finishes in the last six races as Blaney was crowned champion for the first time. A year later, as another postseason approaches, the narrative is entirely different.

“The last two months, I feel like we’ve really flexed our muscle and shown we’re a top-three team right now,” Blaney told ESPN. “My mindset — and I talk to my dad about his stuff — is: How do we make every other team afraid of this group getting close to the playoffs? That’s what we did last year in the Round of 8; we got everybody scared of us that we were clicking off some things and were the best car the last month of the year by far. How do we continue to bring that, not intimidation, but mindset, to other people?

“That’s important in every sport. You have teams that intimidate other groups because they’re strong and execute really well. How do we do that as well? So, it’s just a confidence thing from last year to this year. We know we can do it [because] we did it before.”

Confidence within the team was a recurring talking point for Blaney when discussing the tone of the 2024 season. A championship win might be the ultimate feat in Cup Series racing, but there has been no resting on past successes or trying to prove it wasn’t a fluke.

A demeanor shift happened after winning at Talladega Superspeedway in October last year. It was the victory that started the team’s run to the title. Travis Geisler, the Team Penske competition director, has felt Blaney has been “laser” focused ever since, and his driver doesn’t deny the significance of that particular victory.

Talladega came a week after Blaney was collected in a multicar crash at Texas Motor Speedway. It was a hit to his chance to advance in the postseason as he fell 11 points below the cutline, and the team knew things weren’t looking good.

“[Talladega] was the perfect moment for something like that to happen because we were kind of down, needed a huge day, got it, and honestly overexceeded the day we needed,” Blaney said. “Gong on the run we did after Talladega was great, and it stayed through the winter and into this year, and that mindset with everyone in this group is what I want to keep because it’s been working for us. It’s fun when you hit that sweet spot, and you have to make the most of it when you’re there.”

After a quiet start to the 2024 season, Blaney won two of the six races before NASCAR’s Olympics-induced summer break. He also led 271 laps in that stretch to catapult from 12th in the championship standings to fifth.

No longer flying under the radar, Blaney hasn’t hidden how great it feels that his team isn’t being overlooked as the championship contenders they deserve to be. And they shouldn’t be: Blaney is working with the same crew he has had for a number of years, a group good good enough to fight for a championships if not for a crash in the Round of 8 in the 2021 postseason or the mistakes he made behind the wheel in 2022.

The end of the two-week break for the Olympics gives way to the final push to the postseason. There will be no switch to flip, however. All season has been a title defense for Blaney, but he had a very specific message for his team when addressing them at the race shop coming out of the break: The championship run begins now.

“We’ve got to perform every week, and we have a lot of people gunning for us to take our title away,” he said. “We need to keep this intensity now and get the momentum ready for the last 10 races.”

That’s why life is not much different for Blaney today than it was a year ago. Sure, there are a few added responsibilities because he’s the face of the sport. Yes, he is now serenaded by calls of “Hey, champ” from the fans. And there is the weekly reminder of the exclusive club he’s in by way of the champion patch stitched on his firesuit.

But there is only one thing that has Blaney’s attention.

“Just try to do it again,” he said. “That’s the hardest part now. How the heck do we do it again? You could say, ‘Well, just do what you did last year,’ but everything always changes.”

If it were that easy, Blaney wouldn’t be trying to do something no other driver has done in the NASCAR playoff elimination era: win back-to-back championships. A unique opportunity to do something no one else has isn’t lost on him.

“Hopefully, the stars line up for us where we can do it, and everyone can stop talking about it, and we can be the first,” Blaney said. “It’s got to happen sometime.”

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Hurricanes: ‘Tough look’ not sticking up for Aho

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Hurricanes: 'Tough look' not sticking up for Aho

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The Carolina Hurricanes regretted not sticking up for star center Sebastian Aho when he was mauled by Florida Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk late in their Game 3 loss on Saturday night.

In the third period, with the Panthers cruising to a 6-2 win and a 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals, Tkachuk went after Aho with a series of shoves and cross-checks, eventually putting him in a headlock and bringing him down to the ice. The incident was seen as retaliation for Aho’s low hit on Florida’s Sam Reinhart that injured him in Game 2 and kept the forward out of the lineup on Saturday.

“I don’t really look at it as intent or intimidation at all. It’s just sticking up for teammates,” said Tkachuk, who was given a roughing penalty and a 10-minute misconduct. “We’re a family in there. It could happen to anybody and there’s probably 20 guys racing to be the guy to stick up for a teammate like that. That’s just how our team’s built. That’s why we’re successful. I don’t think any of us would be thrilled at that play in Game 2.”

But while Tkachuk was on top of Aho, who remained in the game, there was no chaotic response from the Hurricanes, nor any retaliation for the rest of the game. Carolina forward Taylor Hall said, in hindsight, there needed to be some reaction.

“I think what happened is that we don’t want to take penalties after the whistle, and they’re very good at goading you into them. But we have to support each other and make sure all five of us are having each other’s backs,” Hall said. “That was a tough look there, but we’ll battle for each other to no end.”

Coach Rod Brind’Amour said there needed to be a response, especially since the game was all but over on the scoreboard

“In that situation, there probably does. There’s a fine line. You don’t want to start advocating for that kind of hockey, necessarily. But with the game out of hand, yes, we have to do a better job of that with the game out of hand,” he said.

The Hurricanes face elimination on Monday night in Sunrise. They also face a 16th straight loss in the Eastern Conference finals, a streak that stretches back to 2009.

“We’re going to give our best tomorrow,” Hall said. “I think that we have a belief in our room, honestly. We’re playing for our season.”

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Stars rule forward Hintz out for Game 3 vs. Oilers

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Stars rule forward Hintz out for Game 3 vs. Oilers

EDMONTON — Dallas forward Roope Hintz has been ruled out for Game 3 of the Stars’ Western Conference finals series against the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday.

Hintz was a game-time decision for Dallas after leaving the third period of Game 2 on Friday with an injury. The center took a slash from Edmonton defenseman Darnell Nurse less than four minutes into that final frame and was helped off the ice without appearing to put weight on his left leg.

Stars’ coach Pete DeBoer said on Saturday they were awaiting test results on Hintz before determining his status for Game 3. Hintz travelled with the team from Dallas and arrived at Rogers Place on Sunday without wearing a walking boot.

DeBoer still declared Hintz’s status uncertain about an hour before puck drop. Hintz took warmups with the Stars before Game 3 but left several minutes early without participating in line rushes.

Hintz has five goals and 11 points in 15 postseason games and ranked fourth on the Stars in regular-season scoring with 28 goals and 67 points in 76 games.

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Horse trainer Clement dies from rare eye cancer

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Horse trainer Clement dies from rare eye cancer

Christophe Clement, who trained longshot Tonalist to victory in the 2014 Belmont Stakes and won a Breeders’ Cup race in 2021, has died. He was 59.

Clement announced his own death in a prepared statement that was posted to his stable’s X account on Sunday.

“Unfortunately, if you are reading this, it means I was unable to beat my cancer,” the post said. “As many of you know, I have been fighting an incurable disease, metastatic uveal melanoma.”

It’s a type of cancer that affects the uvea, the middle layer of the eye. It accounts for just 5% of all melanoma cases in the U.S., however, it can be aggressive and spread to other parts of the body in up to 50% of cases, according to the Melanoma Research Alliance’s website.

The Paris-born Clement has been one of the top trainers in the U.S. over the last 34 years. He learned under his father, Miguel, who was a leading trainer in France. Clement later worked for the prominent French racing family of Alec Head. In the U.S., he first worked for Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey.

Clement went out on his own in 1991, winning with the first horse he saddled at Belmont Park in New York.

“Beyond his accomplishments as a trainer, which are many, Christophe Clement was a kind and generous man who made lasting contributions to the fabric of racing in New York,” Dave O’Rouke, president and CEO of the New York Racing Association said in a statement.

Clement had 2,576 career victories and purse earnings of over $184 million, according to Equibase.

“I am very proud that for over 30 years in this industry, we have operated every single day with the highest integrity, always putting the horses’ wellbeing first,” he wrote in his farewell message.

One of his best-known horses was Gio Ponti, winner of Eclipse Awards as champion male turf horse in 2009 and 2010. He finished second to Zenyatta in the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Classic.

In the 2014 Belmont, Tonalist spoiled the Triple Crown bid of California Chrome, who tied for fourth. Tonalist won by a head, after not having competed in the Kentucky Derby or Preakness that year.

Steve Coburn, co-owner of California Chrome, caused controversy when he said afterward the horses that hadn’t run in the other two races took “the coward’s way out.” He later apologized and congratulated the connections of Tonalist.

Clement’s lone Breeders’ Cup victory was with Pizza Bianca, owned by celebrity chef Bobby Flay, in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. Clement had seven seconds and six thirds in other Cup races.

“It was Christophe’s genuine love for the horse that truly set him apart,” Eric Hamelback, CEO of the National Horseman’s Benevolent and Protective Association, said in a statement. “He was a consummate professional and a welcoming gentleman whose demeanor was always positive, gracious and upbeat.”

Clement’s statement said he would leave his stable in the hands of his son and longtime assistant, Miguel.

“As I reflect on my journey, I realize I never worked a day in my life,” Clement’s statement said. “Every morning, I woke up and did what I loved most surrounded by so much love.”

Besides his son, he is survived by wife Valerie, daughter Charlotte Clement Collins and grandson Hugo Collins.

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