It has been a few days since the checkered flag waved over Christopher Bell‘s victory at Phoenix International Raceway. From my social media timelines to my email inbox to that guy at the gym who always corners me by the water fountain (you know who you are), the post-PIR refrain has remained the same.
“Hey, man, that race sucked; didn’t it suck?”
After so many days stuck on racing reaction repeat, my refined response has landed squarely in one place, and it has been steered there after spending those days in constant communication with those who were behind the wheel for that race and those who prepared the cars that those drivers wheeled in that race. In fact, let’s let one those racers speak for me, via a text I received Tuesday afternoon.
Yes, Mr. NASCAR Racer who asked to remain anonymous, they did become spoiled. As did I. As did perhaps even the racers themselves. After all, this 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season opened with three consecutive crazy, unpredictable, nail-chewing finishes.
First, came a Daytona 500 that ended under yellow, but the field was so tight and convoluted that even the timing of that yellow came into question, as William Byron edged a field that was wrecking wildly just inches off his rear bumper. One week later, Daniel Suarez came out in front of a three-wide door-to-door-to-door photo finish with defending series champ Ryan Blaney and all-time legend Kyle Busch, winning by a tissue paper margin of .003 seconds, the third-closest finish recorded since NASCAR went to electronic timing and scoring 31 years ago. Even the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, never a bastion of memorable end-of-race moments, produced a Mission: Impossible-ish countdown of drama, as Kyle Larson, who looked as though he would stink up the show early, was forced to fend off Tyler Reddick, ultimately blocking his way to a .441-second win.
See? Spoiled rotten.
It wasn’t our fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. It was awesome. An entire month of awesome. But it was also like when you hit your favorite steakhouse buffet. Everything is so delicious, and on the surface, it seems as though that eating ecstasy will last forever. But no matter how delectable that steak and fried chicken and chocolate fountain might be, you know deep down that the end is always near. At some point, you’re going to end up hitting a bad batch of mac and cheese. Then again, is it actually bad, or was everything that came before it so amazing that your taste buds’ expectation level has exceeded reality? No matter what came next, it wasn’t going to be enough, even if Gordon Ramsay and Wolfgang Puck were suddenly back there in the kitchen of the Golden Corral.
“Did people see what Bell actually did? He went by me like he was driving for Red Bull!”
No, they didn’t, second anonymous texting NASCAR driver. Honestly, does anyone ever see what Bell does? I mean, he has almost won the past two championships and no one realizes it … but that’s another column for another day. What he did Sunday was take the race’s final green flag sitting 21st with 90 laps remaining and then sliced his way through the field to seize the lead with 40 laps to go. He won by a whopping 5.465 seconds.
Boring? Sure, by 2024 standards, it was boring. On my press box pal Jeff Gluck’s tell-all “Was it a good race?” poll, it scored a 40.2%, compared to 76.1 for Daytona, 77.8 for Vegas and 94.8 for Atlanta (the latter is the fourth-best score since he started compiling his numbers seven years ago).
But the reality is that by Phoenix standards, it was not a bad race. If you are old enough to have watched pretty much every Cup race at PIR since 1988, and I am, then you know that it was actually pretty standard PIR stuff. And if you want to really get real with all of this, then you have to also be willing to admit that a race with 10 lead changes among 6 drivers balanced with 6 caution flags for 40 of 312 laps — 13% of the race — feels like a description that you could copy/paste into the vast majority of Cup Series races run in the 1990s and 2000s. And race fans of the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s would have looked at those numbers and believed that they had just witnessed one of the most thrilling events of the season.
Again, we have become a little bit spoiled. And to be clear, that’s OK. It is not our fault. Because for all of the consistent fan complaints about stage racing and still-new short track packages, those rules and regulations have also led to or are the result of giving us fans more of what we were screaming for more of not so long ago: race days electrified by more restarts and a schedule packed with more short tracks.
“You know, they can’t all be the 1979 Daytona 500 or the end of the movie ‘Cars.'”
Yes, third anonymous racer/texter, we do know that, but we also refuse to accept it. Call it the curse of the highlight era of sports, the hex of being able to call up the finishes of the all-time classics on our pocket computer search engines. The neverending mythology of the greatest finishes in stock car racing history is a gift. However, it also creates a lifetime of unreasonable checkered flag wishes and dreams.
There’s a reason that the Daytona 500s of 1976 and ’79 and the Firecracker 400s of 1976 and ’84 are so revered, and it goes beyond their obvious greatness. They also benefited from the fact that they contrasted so incredibly against all of the other races of that era at Daytona that everyone has since forgotten. Why? Because the overwhelming majority of them — heck, the overwhelming majority of those very races leading up to those day-saving finishes — would have been lucky to have scored a 40.2% on the Gluck scale.
“I have been fortunate to have been a part of some amazing finishes,” racer-turned-commentator Jeff “The Mayor” Burton said to me last year at Daytona, immediately bringing to my mind his side-by-side .051-second victory over Jeff Gordon at Richmond in 1998. “But then, when you went back and didn’t have that same finish, re-creating a once-in-a-lifetime finish, people were like, ‘Well, what happened? That was boring!’ Living up to those moments all the time, that’s impossible.”
The next stop on the schedule has long been the mountaintop of impossible expectations, the bull ring carved into the actual mountains of East Tennessee. Bristol Motor Speedway has brought us Dale Earnhardt vs. Terry Labonte, Episodes I and II, aka “Terry’s Wrecked Win” and the “Rattle His Cage” race. It has also gifted us with wrecks and fights and water bottles bounced off of Hall of Fame faces. But when every single race wasn’t able to match up with that greatest hits highlight reel, what had been NASCAR’s arguably most beloved racetrack suffered from an inexplicable identity crisis. The fabled ticket wait-list vanished. The track was reconfigured, repaved and even covered with red clay.
Many have attempted to explain it, from legendary racing promoters to university economists, but the reason is simple. It’s because every race didn’t end like Dale and Terry in ’95 and ’99.
The good news is that Bristol’s perception has finally and rightfully been restored in recent years. The better news is that we have this problem at all. That’s because you can’t become spoiled unless there was a lot of awesome that happened to spoil you in the first place. Fans didn’t have this issue back in the day. It was quite the opposite. They were numbed by spending so many of their Sunday afternoons watching races they’d already forgotten about by Monday morning, as cars won races not by fractions of seconds but by multiple laps.
So, sure, call us spoiled. I’ll take that, complaining about being bored every now and then instead of most the time, over what I grew up with, which was going to sleep for the middle 250 laps and then watching Dale Jarrett or Jeff Gordon do what Christopher Bell just did, but 30 times a year.
Hang on, I have another text from another driver who wants the final word.
“All we can do is drive our asses off and what happens is what happens. Hopefully, that’s enough for everyone.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. — White Abarrio won the $3 million Pegasus World Cup with a dominant performance at Gulfstream on Saturday.
He ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.05 under jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., who earned his third career Pegasus victory.
Sent off as the 5-2 favorite, White Abarrio paid $7.60, $3.80 and $3.
Locked returned $3.20 and $2.40, while Skippylongstocking paid $4.40.
White Abarrio hit the apex of his career in 2023, when he won the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic as well as the Whitney at Saratoga for trainer Rick Dutrow. The horse won the Florida Derby at Gulfstream in 2022.
The horse had been transferred when his Florida-based trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. was barred from racing at Churchill Downs and in New York after two of his horses died suddenly 48 hours apart in races at Churchill in the weeks leading up to the 2023 Kentucky Derby.
White Abarrio’s owners wanted to run him in the Met Mile at Belmont, so they chose the New York-based Dutrow to oversee him. The horse went back to Joseph’s barn in June 2024.
“Today he was spectacular,” a teary-eyed Joseph said. “I’m just thankful.”
In the $1 million Pegasus Turf, Spirit of St Louis edged Integration by a neck.
The 6-year-old gelding ran 1 1/8 miles on turf in 1:44.50, just off the track record of 1:44.45 set by last year’s winner Warm Heart. He paid $17.80 to win at 7-1 odds.
Spirit of St Louis was ridden by Tyler Gaffalione and trained by Chad Brown, who won the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding trainer earlier in the week.
Daniel Oyefusi covers the Cleveland Browns for ESPN. Prior to ESPN, he covered the Miami Dolphins for the Miami Herald, as well as the Baltimore Ravens for The Baltimore Sun.
FRISCO, Texas — Former Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders said Saturday he is unsure if he will throw at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis next month.
Sanders is attending the East-West Shrine Bowl but will not participate in practice or in the game Thursday. He was at the West team’s first practice at the University of North Texas on Saturday morning but stood on the field, watching the other prospects.
While Sanders won’t conduct any on-field work at the Shrine Bowl, he reiterated his belief that he’s worthy of being the top pick in the 2025 NFL draft. He has been training in the Dallas area with former Miami‘s Cam Ward, another top quarterback prospect in this year’s draft.
“We changed the program at Jackson [State University],” Sanders said. “We went to Colorado, changed the program. And we did everything people didn’t think we were able to do. So, that’s why I know I’m the most guaranteed risk you can take.”
Sanders met with multiple teams Friday, including the Tennessee Titans, Cleveland Browns and New York Giants, who hold the first three picks in the draft, respectively. The Titans met with Sanders for 45 minutes.
“I like that I’m able to get in the forefront of everything and they’re able to understand me and ask me whatever questions they want,” Sanders said. “I’m not ducking. I ain’t hiding. I’m right here, live in the flesh and able to answer whatever questions are out there.”
While Sanders is confident in his worthiness as the first overall pick, he said he would be “thankful for whatever situation and whoever drafts me. I know I’ll be able to change their program.”
Asked what he will bring to a team, Sanders smiled and said, “A lot of wins.”
ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.
NEW YORK — The New York Mets held their first winter event for fans in five years at Citi Field on Saturday, and there was one notable absence. Pete Alonso wasn’t in attendance because, for the first time since the 2016 draft, he isn’t a member of the Mets’ organization.
The homegrown star first baseman remains a free agent and, though a reunion remains possible, he might have played his last game as a Met.
Owner Steve Cohen bluntly said as much Saturday after taking the stage for a fireside chat with fans to chants of “We want Pete!”
“Personally, this has been an exhausting conversation and negotiation,” Cohen explained. “I mean, [Juan Soto’s negotiation] was tough. This is worse. A lot of it is, we’ve made a significant offer. I don’t like the structures that are being presented back to us. I think it’s highly asymmetric against us and I feel strongly about it.”
Alonso, along with third baseman Alex Bregman, is one of the two best position players left on the free agent market. The first baseman, who is represented by Scott Boras, originally sought a long-term deal, but he is open to returning to the Mets on a three-year contract and the Mets have been open to such a deal, according to a source. The obstacle has been money.
“I will never say no,” Cohen said. “There’s always the possibility. But the reality is we’re moving forward and we continue to bring in players. As we continue to bring in players, the reality is it becomes harder to fit Pete into what is a very expensive group of players that we already have and that’s where we are.
“I’m being brutally honest. I don’t like the negotiations. I don’t like what’s being presented to us. Maybe that changes. I’ll always stay flexible. But if it stays this way, I think we’re going to have to get used to the fact that we may have to go forward with the existing players that we have.”
The Mets recently re-signed outfielder/designated hitter Jesse Winker to a one-year, $7.5 million contract and added left-handed reliever A.J. Minter on a two-year, $22 million deal. They’ve also signed Soto (15 years, $765 million), Sean Manaea (three years, $75 million), Clay Holmes (three years, $38 million), and Frankie Montas (two years, $34 million), among other moves, this winter.
Preparing for life without Alonso, the Mets recently instructed third basemen Mark Vientos and Brett Baty to work out at first base. Vientos and Baty both confirmed the organization’s request Saturday.
“We all love Pete, and we’ve said that many times,” Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said. “And I think, as we’ve gone through this process, we’ve continued to express that. We also understand that this is a business and Pete, as a free agent, deserves the right and has the right and earned the privilege, really, to see what’s out there. We also feel really good about the young players who are coming through our system who have the ability to play at the major-league level.”
Vientos, 25, enjoyed a breakout season as one of the best hitters in the National League after solidifying himself as the Mets’ every-day third baseman in May and helping fuel the team’s run to the NL Championship Series. Baty, a former top prospect, was the club’s opening day third baseman last season. He struggled after a hot start before he was demoted to Triple-A and didn’t return to the majors.
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza also named veterans Jared Young and Joey Meneses, both of whom signed this winter, as other options at first base if Alonso doesn’t return.
“Pete’s been here since I’ve been here,” said Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor, who has starred for the franchise since 2021. “He was here before me. So, yeah, it would be different if he goes somewhere else. Yeah, it would be different. But I think he should take his time. I think he should make the best decision for himself and not feel that he’s rushed.”
Alonso, 30, became a fan favorite while becoming a franchise cornerstone over his six seasons in Queens. He’s hit 226 home runs since making his major-league debut — the second-highest total in baseball behind only Aaron Judge. His 53 home runs in 2019 set a rookie record. He’s been a reliable everyday presence; he’s never missed more than nine games in a season and played in all 178 games, postseason included, in 2024. He’s made four All-Star teams and won the Home Run Derby twice.
But he rates as a poor defender and baserunner whose offensive production has declined over the last three seasons, creating a free-agent market that hasn’t been as fruitful as projected when he declined a seven-year, $158 million contract extension in 2023.
“Listen, he’s a special player,” Hall of Famer and former Mets catcher Mike Piazza said Saturday. “Guys that can hit 40 home runs are not walking on the street. So when he’s really in his game, he’s a special player. I hope, from a personal standpoint, I hope they work something out.”
Outfielder Brandon Nimmo, the longest-tenured player on the roster after debuting in 2016, signed an eight-year, $162 million contract to remain with the Mets two offseasons ago. Like Alonso, Boras is his agent. Unlike Alonso, he reached a resolution in December, not with spring training around the corner.
“I would love to see Pete back with us, but I also understand that I don’t make those decisions,” Nimmo said. “And that’s between Pete and our front office and David [Stearns] and Steve [Cohen]. And from what I understand, there’s been a lot of talks between them. I’m still hopeful that we’ll sign him.”