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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Tony Stewart put his NASCAR team on blast ahead of the Daytona 500 and in the wake of a winless 2023 season: get to victory lane, hang banners — or else.

Stewart-Haas Racing is in more than a small slump. SHR has been downright dismal.

The team, once among NASCAR’s best, hasn’t won in the last 84 Cup races headed into Sunday’s Daytona 500. This season’s four-driver lineup, which includes holdovers Chase Briscoe and Ryan Preece and newcomers Josh Berry and Noah Gragson, have a combined one career Cup victory — Briscoe won in 2022 at Phoenix.

Stewart, so fiery as a driver he was nicknamed Smoke, had enough of the failures. The three-time Cup Series champion and NASCAR Hall of Fame driver said the standard at SHR — where Stewart and recent retiree Kevin Harvick each won championships — was set too high for the team to now languish far outside title contention.

“We’re going to have to get some races into it,” Stewart said this month on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, “but if we’re not having the results we’re looking for, we’re going to start making some major changes. Everybody knows that. Everybody understands that.”

SHR’s stumbles on the track led to other losses off it, with premier sponsors Anheuser-Busch and Smithfield leaving the team. SHR’s deal with Ford ends after this season and negotiations could hinge on how many checkered flags Berry, Briscoe, Gragson and Preece chase.

The four drivers have heard the criticism — already harsh from fans and the media — but it hits harder when it comes from Stewart.

“We hear everybody, we hear you guys, we’re not just ignoring it,” Preece said. “And as you heard Tony say, mediocrity isn’t acceptable.”

Aric Almirola and Harvick both left at the end of last season. They were veteran leaders in the race shop and at the track, and their voices will be missed. But even a proven winner such as Harvick wasn’t immune to the troubles that plagued the Fords in 2023. He won 37 races and the 2014 title in his 10 seasons at SHR, including nine wins in 2020, but scuffled to just six top-five finishes in his farewell season.

Now a Fox Sports broadcaster, Harvick compared SHR’s current station to one Hendrick Motorsports endured in 2018 when Jimmie Johnson, William Byron and Alex Bowman all went winless and Chase Elliott won three times. Johnson was a veteran on the backend of his full-time career while Byron, Bowman and Elliott were young and inexperienced. It was a rebuilding effort that followed the retirements of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon.

Much like Stewart ripped SHR, team owner Rick Hendrick didn’t hold back in 2019, saying “Last year sucked. I ain’t gonna do that no more.”

Harvick said it’s up to Berry, Briscoe, Gragson and Preece to see SHR through back into one of the elite teams in NASCAR.

“Hey, we need to rebuild this and we need to refresh it with some young faces from the driver’s seat and let’s build our group around this,” Harvick said. “With that, I think there’s probably other things that come with that process and where they go and where they’re at, I don’t think any of us will really know until they start the season and you start to see what the strengths and weakness of what they have.”

Here are the SHR drivers on hot seats:

• Josh Berry, 33, No. 4 Ford.

Berry did win five career races in the second-tier Xfinity Series but is winless in 12 career Cup starts. Berry spent last season as a substitute driver in the Cup Series. He made starts for both Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman at Hendrick and for Gragson at Legacy Motor Club.

“Tony has been a great leader and had a lot of success in this sport. I can completely understand why he would say that he wants us to perform better,” Berry said. “That’s naturally as an owner what he’s expected to do and that’s what we expect of ourselves. I don’t think any of us, I didn’t walk into this deal expecting everybody to pat me on the back and tell me how easy it’s going to be and how nice they’re going to be to me. I knew it’s going to be hard. I know I’m going to have to work at this. I know we’re going to have to perform.”

• Chase Briscoe, 29, No. 14 Ford.

Briscoe has just one win in 108 career Cup starts. He has the most starts among the four SHR drivers and could be feeling the most heat as the longest-tenured driver to start racing for a championship. Briscoe was 30th in the standings last year.

• Noah Gragson, 25, No. 10 Ford.

Gragson is winless with just one top-five finish in 39 career starts. Gragson was excited for a second chance at a NASCAR career after his “like” of an insensitive meme of George Floyd led to the end of his brief tenure at Legacy Motor Club. Gragson, who won 13 races in the Xfinity Series driving for JR Motorsports and was the 2022 championship runner-up, ran 21 races in Cup with Legacy before his suspension.

“We’ve done a lot of self-reflecting and soul searching over the past handful of months and trying to become the best leader possible,” Gragson said. “I think that’s what in 20 years when I look back I feel like, man, if I was the best leader for my team and the best piece of the puzzle for my team and did the best job, I’ll be satisfied with myself.”

• Ryan Preece, 33, No. 41 Ford

Preece was just as underwhelming in his first season at SHR as he was in his previous stop with JTG Daugherty Racing. He’s winless in 151 career races and had just two top-10 finishes last season.

“Preece has the personality that he’s going to speak up and voice his opinion on what things are,” Harvick said. “Ryan’s not going to be shy about speaking his mind and that’s what it’s going to take to be the leader.”

Maybe Preece can learn a thing or two about how to speak out from his fed-up boss.

“We had two miserable years in a row,” Stewart said. “I’m tired of taking the blame from everybody on why the cars aren’t running good. I think the fans need a reality check and a reminder that I’m not the crew chief, I’m not the engineer, I don’t dictate the setups on the cars. I give these guys the tools to do the job and we just haven’t got it done the last couple years.”

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MLB: Iassogna crew chief, plate umpire for ASG

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MLB: Iassogna crew chief, plate umpire for ASG

NEW YORK — Dan Iassogna will be the umpire crew chief and work the plate during Tuesday night’s All-Star Game at Atlanta’s Truist Park.

His crew will include Marvin Hudson at first, Chris Segal at second, Jansen Visconti at third, Jeremie Rehak in left and Erich Bacchus in right, Major League Baseball said Thursday.

Iassogna, 56, will work his second All-Star Game. He was at third base for the 2011 game at Arizona.

He worked his first big league game in 1999, was hired to the major league staff in 2004 and appointed a crew chief ahead of the 2020 season. Iassogna umpired the World Series in 2012, ’17 and ’22 along with eight League Championship Series and seven Division Series.

Segal, Visconti, Rehak and Bacchus will work their first All-Star Games and Hudson his second after being in left field in 2004 at Houston.

Tony Randazzo will be the replay umpire in New York.

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A’s Rooker joins list of HR Derby participants

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A's Rooker joins list of HR Derby participants

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Athletics slugger Brent Rooker is adding his name to the list of Home Run Derby participants.

Rooker announced Thursday that he’s participating in the event, which takes place Monday in Atlanta. He will become the first Athletics player in the Home Run Derby since Matt Olson in 2021.

“Competing in the Home Run Derby has always been a dream of mine,” Rooker said in an Instagram post. “Can’t wait to make it happen next week in Atlanta! See ya there!”

Rooker, 30, entered Thursday with a .270 batting average, 19 homers and 50 RBIs, putting him on pace for a third straight season of at least 30 homers. He went deep 30 times in 2023 and had 39 homers in 2024.

His 58 homers since the start of the 2024 season rank him third among all American League players.

The only A’s to win the Derby were Mark McGwire in 1992 and Yoenis Céspedes in 2013 and 2014.

Other announced participants include Atlanta’s Ronald Acuña Jr., Minnesota’s Byron Buxton, Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero, Pittsburgh’s Oneil Cruz, Seattle’s Cal Raleigh and Washington’s James Wood.

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Mets recall Acuna from Triple-A, DFA Jankowski

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Mets recall Acuna from Triple-A, DFA Jankowski

BALTIMORE — The New York Mets recalled 23-year-old utility man Luisangel Acuna from Triple-A Syracuse before Thursday’s split doubleheader against the Baltimore Orioles.

The brother of Atlanta Braves star Ronald Acuna Jr., Luisangel Acuña went 13-for-45 (.286) for Syracuse after the Mets optioned him in late June.

Capable of playing second base, shortstop or the outfield, Acuna had batted .241 in 65 games before going to the minors.

“He was a big part of this team the first couple of months,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters. “We got to a point where we felt like, ‘Hey, let’s get him some everyday playing time. ‘And now it’s time for him to be back up here, continuing to help us win baseball games.”

In a corresponding move, the Mets designated outfielder Travis Jankowski for assignment.

Acuna was on the bench for New York’s first game of the doubleheader.

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