LOUDON, N.H. — In a race in which Fords were fastest at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Ryan Blaney barely was best in class for the second-round opener of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
The 2003 Cup champion led 116 laps in his No. 12 Mustang, including the final 39, but still had to fend off a furious charge by runner-up Josh Berry, who closed within a few car lengths with 10 laps left before overdriving a corner.
Blaney pulled away to win by 0.937 seconds Sunday in his third victory of the season and 16th of his career.
“That was probably the hardest 20 laps that I drove,” the Team Penske driver said. “I was trying to kind of bide my stuff and pull Josh a little bit, then he really started coming. It was all I could do to hold him off, trying new lanes. That was good and clean racing. I appreciate Josh for not throwing me the bumper when he could have.
“What a cool day, what a cool weekend. Super fast car. Really have been strong through the playoffs. It’s great to get a win in the first race of the round.”
Blaney, who is trying to reach the Championship 4 season finale for the third consecutive year, became the first driver to advance into one of the eight available spots in the third round of the Cup playoffs.
Berry, whose No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford has a competitive alliance with Penske, overcame a spin on the 82nd lap and rebounded from his first-round elimination after finishing last in each of the first three races in the playoffs.
“It was definitely an awesome day,” said Berry, who led 10 laps. “Hats off to Ryan at the end. All our cars were really strong, and Ryan did a great job there. I was honestly surprised I was able to keep him honest at the end.
“Just a shame to finish second, but after the last couple of weeks, it feels good. This is definitely what we’re capable of, and hopefully we can keep it going.”
The Fords backed up their impressive performances in qualifying Saturday when Penske star Joey Logano won the pole position to cap a sweep of the top three starting spots with Blaney and Berry. The same trio led 273 of 301 laps Sunday.
William Byron was the highest-finishing Chevrolet driver in third.
“It was a good day overall,” said Byron, who is the highest-ranked driver behind Blaney in the playoff standings with two races left in the second round. “Penske guys were super fast. I felt like they were in another zip code.”
Logano took fourth after leading a race-high 147 laps in the No. 22 Ford. The Middletown, Connecticut, native started from the pole for the first time at New Hampshire, which he considers his home track.
“[Blaney] was wicked fast in practice, and he showed that again in the race,” Logano said. “We obviously got a ton of points today, so we did what we needed to do, but I’d rather win. That’s just the greed in me, especially when it’s home.”
After qualifying 27th, last among the 12 playoff drivers, Chase Elliott raced to a fifth-place finish.
Christopher Bell took sixth as the top finishing Toyota driver for Joe Gibbs Racing, which went undefeated in the first round of the playoffs.
Kyle Larson took seventh, and Ross Chastain was ninth as playoff drivers took eight of the top 10 spots on the 1.058-mile oval.
Teammates tangle
The race turned awkward for Joe Gibbs Racing on Lap 110 when Denny Hamlin spun teammate Ty Gibbs into the Turn 2 wall while racing for 11th. Gibbs, the only JGR driver who failed to qualify for the playoffs, seemed to be impeding the progress of teammates Hamlin and Christopher Bell when the incident happened.
“Does Ty know we’re running for a championship?” Hamlin said on his team radio shortly before they made contact. “What the (expletive) is he doing?”
After the wreck, Hamlin questioned whether the grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs was getting preferential treatment. “Are they afraid to talk to him? That’s what I feel like,” Hamlin radioed his team. “They’re just scared of him.”
Ty Gibbs briefly returned to the track before being forced to the garage with damage to his Camry. He finished 34th and refused to address the incident or what Hamlin said when asked directly about both.
“It’s unfortunate, but I’m excited to go race next week and looking forward to it,” said Gibbs, the 2022 Xfinity Series champion who remains winless through 117 starts in the Cup series.
After finishing 12th, Hamlin had a postrace conversation with Joe Gibbs and JGR director of competition Chris Gabehart before addressing the media.
“It’s super unfortunate he got spun there, and obviously the contact came from us,” Hamlin said. “I don’t have any comment other than that. We’ll work through it and all, but we’ll see how it goes. But honestly, it’s unfortunate the contact happened.”
After dominating the first round with three consecutive victories, Joe Gibbs Racing surprisingly faltered in the first stage at New Hampshire, where the team had won the past three Cup races and six consecutive stages.
The team failed to earn any points in the first stage Sunday as Hamlin, Bell and Chase Briscoe finished outside the top 10 in the 70-lap segment.
The second race in the second round of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs is Sunday at Kansas Speedway. Kyle Larson won at the 1.5-mile track on May 11.
EAST MEADOW, N.Y. — The New York Islanders fired goaltending coach Piero Greco, making the change at an unorthodox time just six games into his seventh season with the team and after winning three in a row.
General manager Mathieu Darche announced the abrupt decision Wednesday to part ways with Greco and promote Sergei Naumovs from Bridgeport of the American Hockey League. Naumovs, who is Latvian, has been in Bridgeport since May 2024 but has an extensive history coaching franchise goalie Ilya Sorokin going back to their time together with CSKA Moscow in the KHL from 2018 to 2020.
Sorokin’s 3.90 goals-against average is second worst and his .873 save percentage ranks fourth worst in the NHL among netminders who have appeared in at least four games.
“Piero has done a great job for the organization for the last seven years,” Darche said. “We just felt at this time it was the right timing to have a reset with our goalies.”
Darche said he did not seek input from Sorokin, who is in the second year of a $66 million contract that runs through 2032.
“It’s my decision — it’s not on the player,” Darche said. “I know he’s had success with Sergei, and that’s where we went. It’s 100% my decision, and the goalie had nothing to do with it.”
In other Islanders news, injured forward Pierre Engvall had ankle surgery and is expected to miss the entire season, or roughly five to six months, according to Darche, who said goaltender Semyon Varlamov continues to progress toward a return from knee surgery.
With some other players banged up and salary cap space at a premium, the Islanders put forward Marc Gatcomb on waivers. The 26-year-old had dressed in only one game so far this season.
BOSTON — The Little Ball of Hate still feels a lot of love for Boston.
Brad Marchand struggled to hold back tears on the ice when the TD Garden crowd gave him a standing ovation Tuesday night during his first game back as a Bruins opponent. The 37-year-old forward tapped his heart, wiped his face and waved to the crowd as both teams banged their sticks against the ice and even the referee and linesmen clapped.
“I knew it was going to hit me the way it did. It was extremely touching,” Marchand said after the game, a 4-3 Panthers victory in which he had two assists. “The Bruins will always hold a very, very dear place in my heart.”
The last remaining member of Boston’s 2011 Stanley Cup-winning team, Marchand was traded from the noncontending Bruins to the Panthers last season for another chance at a title. He helped Florida complete its pursuit of back-to-back championships, while Boston plummeted to the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings.
“I left and I turned the page and I found something truly special again that I’m very, very proud and blessed to be part of. And I chose to be part of again,” said Marchand, who re-signed with the Panthers in the offseason to a six-year deal worth about $32 million.
“I built something really special with every guy on this team last year, with winning. You build a bond that will last a lifetime. So I try not to show any disrespect in that way, as if I’m not grateful, because I am.
“But I’ve been here for several months. I’ve been in Boston for 15 years,” he said. “When you go from being a kid, with a dream, and then you grow up and you have a family, you become a man and you build an entire life in a city, it’s just different. Of course, it’ll always be in my heart and always be a special place.”
Marchand got his first taste of the welcome he would receive when the crowd cheered him off the ice after the pregame warmups, as the DJ played a mashup of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” The former Bruins captain responded with a stick salute as he headed off via the visitors bench.
Fans wearing Marchand’s Boston and Florida No. 63 jerseys cheered again during introductions, then booed when he drew a tripping penalty just 33 seconds into the game. “I knew it wouldn’t take long,” he said with a chuckle.
There was a mixed reaction when the Panthers scored on the power play — a goal that first appeared to be Marchand’s but was credited to Mackie Samoskevich; Marchand picked up his first assist.
But things got really emotional during the first commercial break, midway through the first period, when the scoreboard showed a highlight reel from Marchand’s time in Boston — including shots of him being anointed with the captain’s “C” that he wore for a little more than one full season. It ended with a picture of him holding the Stanley Cup and the message, “Welcome back, Marchy.”
Marchand circled in front of the Panthers bench, waving to the fans and holding his heart. His face betrayed his emotions as he took his place on the bench, still on the verge of breaking down, and the crowd chanted his name.
“Those tears are real,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said during an in-game television interview. “He just wears his heart on his sleeve. He had so many great moments here, won a Stanley Cup here. He’ll always be a Bruin at heart.”
Marchand said he was able to mostly hold it together until his kids were shown on the scoreboard.
“It kind of hit like a ton of bricks,” he said. “The careers go by fast. It doesn’t matter how long you’re in, it goes by extremely fast. And to see a snapshot of that, it brings everything back. The amount of pride that I have that I played here and was part of this organization, I just couldn’t hold it in.”
The focus soon returned to hockey, with the Panthers taking a 2-0 lead in the second period. Marchand picked up a hooking penalty, drawing cheers from the crowd, and assisted on the goal that gave Florida a 3-2 lead with 1:31 left.
The Bruins tied it again before Carter Verhaeghe put the Panthers up for good with 27 seconds to play.
But the lasting memories will be of Marchand.
“He had so many good memories in this building, and he’s been a part of this franchise for so long. So it’s just good, kind of sit back and be a part of history a little bit,” Verhaeghe said. “He’s such a great guy and we’re so lucky to have him. I can only imagine what he meant to the city and to the fans.”
A four-time All-Star who had 422 goals and 554 assists in 16 seasons in Boston, Marchand remains in the Bruins’ top 10 for goals, assists, short-handed goals, overtime goals, playoff goals and points. His 1,090 games played is fourth in team history, one spot ahead of Don Sweeney, the general manager who dealt him to Florida at the trade deadline.
Marchand did play in the TD Garden as a visitor in February when he suited up for Canada in the 4 Nations Face-Off; although he was still a member of the Bruins, the Boston fans booed him during a time of heightened geopolitical animosity between the U.S. and Canada.
He was traded to Florida a few weeks later as Boston began a rebuild. But when the Panthers visited for the Bruins’ first home game after the trade deadline, Marchand was injured and skated on the Garden ice only during practice.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Former University of Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron, who helped lead the team to back-to-back national championships, announced Thursday that he is running for lieutenant governor of Alabama.
McCarron made the announcement in a video posted to YouTube on Thursday. McCarron, a first-time candidate, described himself as a political outsider. He cited conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in September, as his inspiration to “get off the sidelines.” McCarron, who is running as a Republican, also stressed his 2016 endorsement of President Donald Trump.
“Today, Alabama’s conservative and cultural values are under attack from every direction. That’s why Charlie Kirk’s assassination affected so many of us so deeply,” McCarron said in the video.
McCarron is seeking to be the latest figure to channel sports fame into a political win. Former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2020 and is running for governor of Alabama. Former Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl had considered a run for Senate but decided against it.
“The Montgomery insiders and career politicians have had their chance. It’s time for political newcomers and outsider candidates like me to lead the battle,” McCarron said.
McCarron joins a crowded GOP field that includes Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen, Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Rick Pate, pastor Dean Odle and businessperson Nicole Jones Wadsworth.
McCarron was the Crimson Tide’s starting quarterback and led the team to national championship wins in the 2012 and 2013 seasons. He was a runner-up for the Heisman Trophy and went on to play for the Cincinnati Bengals and other NFL teams.
