INDIANAPOLIS — Kyle Larson left Indianapolis in May in the middle of one of the most agonizing days of his racing career.
In his return Sunday, Larson finished one of the most memorable races of his career with one of sports’ more revered celebrations — kissing the bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The 31-year-old Californian overcame an early, unscheduled pit stop by charging from 12th place into the lead over the final 32 laps. He won battles for the lead off the final two restarts and barely avoided a third overtime to win his first Brickyard 400 under caution.
“Today was definitely meant to be for us with the way the strategy was working out and all that fell into place,” Larson said after jumping on the roof of his car and climbing through the fence to thank the roaring fans. “I just can’t believe it. It’s just surreal to win here.”
Perhaps it will help Larson forget just how miserable he was Memorial Day weekend when rain in Indianapolis and Charlotte, North Carolina, washed away his shot at completing the full 1,100 miles of the two races. He didn’t even turn a lap in the Coca-Cola 600 after scrambling to fly in.
On Sunday, though, he rebounded with brilliant tactical racing and, yes, some good luck.
Larson was running third in the paint scheme he was supposed to have for the 600 when race leader Brad Keselowski ran out of fuel and pulled off the track just before the second-to-last restart. That put Larson in position to pull into the shorter inside lane, next to Ryan Blaney‘s second-place car, and Larson easily leapfrogged Blaney — just ahead of a five-car crash that brought a red flag and a second overtime.
This time, after needing an assist to get his No. 5 Chevrolet refired, Larson again beat Blaney on the inside and reached the finish line before another caution flag came out.
“I don’t know what was driving him today other than he wanted to win the Brickyard 400,” said Jeff Gordon, who won five Brickyard 400s before rejoining the Hendricks team as an executive. “You could tell he was driving for a purpose.”
Pole winner Tyler Reddick wound up second as Blaney dropped to third.
Larson has now won three of NASCAR’s four crown jewel races, all but the Daytona 500, and this one came in the first Cup race held on Indy’s historic 2.5-mile since 2020. The past three covered 200 miles on the track’s 14-turn road course.
His fourth win of the season also put him atop the Cup standings, ahead of Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott, with four races left before the playoff begins.
The thrilling finish didn’t come by happenstance, though.
Keselowski gambled he could run the final 59 laps without pitting for fuel — and he essentially did. What he didn’t count on was the race going an extra seven laps. And Blaney had been trying to fend off the hard-charging Larson for several laps, even blocking his low line once, to stay in front.
“That’s a heartbreaker,” Blaney said. “We did everything right today. He was in prime position to win, and it just didn’t work out for us.”
But with most drivers in fuel-saving mode, Larson just kept pushing hard — making team owner and pace car driver Rick Hendrick nervous.
“He was coming through the field like a rocket,” Hendrick said. “It was hard to pass, but he made it look a little bit easier to pass. Then I was worried when he got up to second or third, I started worrying about fuel. They said we had enough for one overtime, but we were holding our breath. But he put on a show. That’s Kyle Larson.”
And now, even though Hendrick didn’t give his approval Sunday, Larson told the crowd he wants to make amends for what happened in May by trying it all again.
“I wish we could have done both,” Larson said. “But I think everything comes full circle and everything’s meant to be.”
ODDS AND ENDS
Denny Hamlin won the first stage, his first ever at Indianapolis, and Bubba Wallace took the second, giving him 10 points as he tries to make the playoffs. It was Wallace’s first stage win since 2022 and he finished fifth. Elliott wound up fourth.
QUICK SWITCH
The race was scheduled to be broadcast on NBC, but viewers who tuned into the network found something else — breaking news about President Joe Biden withdrawing from the presidential race.
NBC made the decision to briefly switch the telecast to USA Network, which also covered some of the weekend’s festivities and then went back to Cup coverage at the start of the race. The race also finished on USA Network after the red flag stoppage, again because of the breaking news.
BACK HOME AGAIN
Before the race, speedway owner Roger Penske and PPG announced they have extended and expanded their partnership for both the Cup and IndyCar Series.
PPG will continue to serve as the presenting sponsor of the Brickyard 400, as the paint and finishing supplier for the speedway and as a sponsor for all six Team Penske drivers — Scott McLaughlin, Josef Newgarden and Will Power on the IndyCar side as well as Ryan Blaney, Austin Cindric and Joey Logano on the Cup side.
The partnership between PPG and Penske began in 1984.
UP NEXT
NASCAR takes next two weeks off as part of its Olympic break. The first of the final six races will be held Aug. 11 at Richmond, with a new tire compound.
The Hockey Hall of Fame is going to swing open its doors to some impressive former NHL stars in the next few years. Legends such as Zdeno Chara, Joe Thornton, Duncan Keith and Patrice Bergeron. Eventually Jaromir Jagr will be inducted. Probably in his 80s, when he’s done playing.
The Hall can welcome up to four men’s players in every annual class. Given how many current NHL players have a legitimate case for immortality, the selection committee will not suffer for a lack of choices.
Here is a tiered ranking of active NHL players based on their current Hall of Fame cases. We’ve picked the brain of Hockey Hall of Fame expert Paul Pidutti of Adjusted Hockey to help figure out the locks, the maybes, “the Hall of Very Good” and which young stars are on the path to greatness.
Let’s begin with the two players who have defined this century of hockey, and another player whose legend has grown to the point where he’s a sure-thing Hall of Famer.
“Honestly, when we lose, I don’t even get in the shower until early this morning. I’ll just be mad. I just brush my teeth. It’s like, I don’t deserve soap.” — Syracuse head coach Fran Brown
Here at Bottom 10 Headquarters, located behind the “sorry, not sorry” bouquet of water hemlocks sent to the Big 12 officiating office from Utah athletic director Mark Harlan, we know all too well the sting of losing football games. We see it every week in every game we watch.
Yeah, yeah, we know what you’re thinking. “Come on, dummy, someone loses every game that anyone watches.” That’s true. At least now it is. We are also old enough to remember when games ended in ties. That was way worse.
But here in the Bottom 10 Cinematic Universe, losses are worse because that’s all you experience. You’d think we’d get used to it, numb from the pain like when you keep accidentally biting that same spot on your tongue to the point that it just becomes sensory free. But instead, it’s like Bruce Banner explained about being the Hulk: “You see, I don’t get a suit of armor. I’m exposed. Like a nerve. It’s a nightmare.”
However, as we learned in “Age of Ultron,” even after one of his worst losses, Bruce Banner does take a shower. So, Coach Brown, take it from us, in a world where every team has a helluva lot more losses than Syracuse … dude, wash up. Seriously. We can smell you from here. And we’re in Kent, Ohio.
With apologies to Mr. Clean, former Miami (Ohio) quarterback Mike Bath, former Southern Illinois running back Wash Henry and Steve Harvey, here are the post-Week 11 Bottom 10 rankings.
The Golden(plated) Flashes are still America’s last winless FBS team, losing their 18th straight game when they were edged by Ohio 41-0. Now they travel to My Hammy of Ohio, where they are given a 2.8% chance to win by the ESPN Analytics Ouija board, er, I mean Matchup Predictor. But honestly, that game will only be the appetizer ahead of the, yes, Week 13 main course that is the Wagon Wheel showdown with Akronmonious. And by appetizer we mean way-past-the-expiration-date freezer-burned mini-pizza bagels.
The New Owls not only used their talons to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at UTEP, losing in double overtime, they earned Bottom 10 Bonus Points for firing their head coach — and during their first year as an FBS team, no less. Though the AD issued a statement that Brian Bohannon had “stepped down,” Bohannon himself responded on social media: “Contrary to what’s been reported, I want to be clear that I did not step down.” But there is no confusion as to whether the Owls have stepped up or down in these rankings, where every move up is also a move down.
Brett Favre Funding U. lost to We Are Marshall 37-3, meaning all eight of their defeats this season have been by double digits. In related news, I also received double digit political texts on Election Day — and one of those was from Favre. No, for real. I wonder, did he cover the data charges himself or did he steal change from the donation jar at his grocery store checkout?
Sometimes in this life we are asked to do things that go against the fiber of our being. Like taking your daughter to the concert of an artist you’ve never heard of. Or me having to use Earth’s most annoying instrument, the leaf blower. This weekend this team of Minutemen will be asked to try to defeat Liberty.
5. The Sunshine State
The Coveted Fifth Spot has never been more crowded. The FBS, FCS and NFL teams of Florida posted a 1-11 record over the weekend, salvaged only by the Miami Dolphins’ win over the Los Angeles Rams on “Monday Night Football.” UC(not S)F, US(not C)F, FA(not I)U, Stetson, Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman all lost, led in misery by the Wildcats’ five-overtime loss to Southern. The Flori-duh Gate Doors celebrated the announced retaining of coach Billy Napier by losing to Texas in a squeaker 49-17. And My Hammy of Florida finally spotted an opponent a lead too large for a Cam Ward comeback and took its first loss of the season, falling to unranked Georgia Tech. If only someone else in the state could relate to that …
The Semi-No’s are continuing to work around the Coveted Fifth Spot by earning their Bottom 10 keep the old-fashioned way, not only losing to semi/sorta/kinda ACC member Notre Dame by a scant 52-3, but also earning a pile of their own Bottom 10 Bonus Points not by firing head coach Mike Norvell, but because Norvell fired both his offensive and defensive coordinators and a wide receivers coach. In related news, over the weekend a friend of mine steered his bass boat into a giant pile of sharp rocks and reacted by throwing his shirt and hat overboard.
It was three weekends ago that the Buttermakers lost to then-second-ranked Oregon 35-0. On Saturday, they lost to then-second-ranked Ohio State 45-0. Now they play sixth-ranked Penn State, and in two weeks end their season playing currently eighth-ranked Indiana. We have to assume that a team of professors from Purdue’s legendary mechanical engineering department is studying this experience as a way to assess the stress put on a school bus that is attempting to drive over a lava field covered in landmines.
The Minors have a weekend off to continue their post-Kennesaw victory party. And what’s the best way to snap yourself out of a two-week hangover? Hair of the dog? A cold bucket of water over the head? How about the hair of a coontick hound and a bucket of water from the river during a Week 13 trip to Neyland Stadium to play Tennessee?
Whatever is left of UTEP after Knoxville will then play whatever is left of the Other Aggies after their Week 12 trip to face the OG Aggies of Texas A&M. If there’s any justice in this world, then the loser and/or winner of that Aggie Bowl would go on to play …
The Other Other Aggies lost to the one-loss team the nation forgot about, Warshington State. But if you consider the week before that, we find a Bottom 10 conundrum. Utah State beat WhyOMGing? but the week before that lost to Whew Mexico by five points. Meanwhile, Wyoming, who lost to Utah State two weeks ago, spent last weekend beating New Mexico by five points. Perhaps we will be given some clarity when Wyoming ends the year at Washington State. Or perhaps we will have already given up. As so many here in the Bottom 10 seem to do.
Waiting list: Miss Sus Hippie State, Georgia State Not Southern, FA(not I)U, Akronmonious, Meh-dle Tennessee, WhyOMGing?, Temple of Doom, Living on Tulsa Time, You A Bee?, Standfird, people who put all those election signs up but now won’t take them down.
NEW YORK — An arbitrator upheld five-year suspensions of the chief executives of Bad Bunny’s sports representation firm for making improper inducements to players and cut the ban of the company’s only certified baseball agent to three years.
Ruth M. Moscovitch issued the ruling Oct. 30 in a case involving Noah Assad, Jonathan Miranda and William Arroyo of Rimas Sports. The ruling become public Tuesday when the Major League Baseball Players Association filed a petition to confirm the 80-page decision in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan.
The union issued a notice of discipline on April 10 revoking Arroyo’s agent certification and denying certification to Assad and Miranda, citing a $200,000 interest-free loan and a $19,500 gift. It barred them from reapplying for five years and prohibited certified agents from associating with any of the three of their affiliated companies. Assad, Miranda and Arroyo then appealed the decision, and Moscovitch was jointly appointed as the arbitrator on June 17.
Moscovitch said the union presented unchallenged evidence of “use of non-certified personnel to talk with and recruit players; use of uncertified staff to negotiate terms of players’ employment; giving things of value – concert tickets, gifts, money – to non-client players; providing loans, money, or other things of value to non-clients as inducements; providing or facilitating loans without seeking prior approval or reporting the loans.”
“I find MLBPA has met its burden to prove the alleged violations of regulations with substantial evidence on the record as a whole,” she wrote. “There can be no doubt that these are serious violations, both in the number of violations and the range of misconduct. As MLBPA executive director Anthony Clark testified, he has never seen so many violations of so many different regulations over a significant period of time.”
María de Lourdes Martínez, a spokeswoman for Rimas Sports, said she was checking to see whether the company had any comment on the decision. Arroyo did not immediately respond to a text message seeking comment.
Moscovitch held four in-person hearings from Sept. 30 to Oct. 7 and three on video from Oct. 10-16.
“While these kinds of gifts are standard in the entertainment business, under the MLBPA regulations, agents and agencies simply are not permitted to give them to non-clients,” she said.
“While it is true, as MLBPA alleges, that Mr. Arroyo violated the rules by not supervising uncertified personnel as they recruited players, he was put in that position by his employers,” Moscovitch wrote. “The regulations hold him vicariously liable for the actions of uncertified personnel at the agency. The reality is that he was put in an impossible position: the regulations impose on him supervisory authority over all of the uncertified operatives at Rimas, but in reality, he was their underling, with no authority over anyone.”