Byron aims to validate embattled Hendrick’s start
HAMPTON, Ga. — Back-to-back wins haven’t stopped William Byron from believing he and his Hendrick Motorsports team have a lot to prove in Sunday’s NASCAR stop in Atlanta.
In fact, Byron said Saturday, there is even more on the line. Drivers of the Hendrick Chevrolets want to show the strong start to the season is not the result of illegally manipulating NASCAR’s rules.
NASCAR slammed Hendrick Motorsports on Wednesday with the largest combined fine on one team in series history for allegedly modifying louvers, which direct air through the hoods of cars. The penalty included a combined $400,000 in fines — $100,000 to each of its four crew chiefs — plus four-race suspensions for the crew chiefs — Byron’s, Kyle Larson‘s and Alex Bowman‘s included.
Those suspensions begin with Sunday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Hendrick is appealing the penalties, which also affected the drivers by losing 100 regular-season points and 10 playoff points.
Asked if the penalties provide more motivation for the team this week, Byron said: “Absolutely. I really get excited about coming to the racetrack right now.
“If anything, it just shows that we’re not there yet and we have more to prove and we have more to accomplish. That’s a dangerous thing, right?”
Byron qualified 11th on Saturday, while Ford drivers, led by Joey Logano, took the top eight spots. Larson qualified ninth, and Bowman was 15th.
Byron won last year’s spring race in Atlanta while Hendrick teammate and home-state favorite Chase Elliott was the winner in July. Josh Berry, 21st in qualifying Saturday, is the fill-in driver while Elliott recovers from a broken tibia suffered while snowboarding in Colorado last month.
Byron took advantage of a restart to beat Larson at Phoenix Raceway last week, following his win one week earlier at Las Vegas.
FREE TO BE DENNY
NASCAR also penalized Denny Hamlin 25 points and gave him a $50,000 fine for intentionally wrecking Ross Chastain on last week’s final lap at Phoenix. Hamlin tweeted that he plans to appeal the penalties, which came after he acknowledged on his podcast his intent to wreck Chastain.
Hamlin tweeted that the contact with Chastain was “common, hard racing.”
He said Saturday that he will continue to tell the truth despite many believing it was his admission, not his action, that brought on the penalties.
“I’m always going to continue to be me,” Hamlin said, adding that he has talked with Chastain and likes the idea of inviting him onto the podcast. “It’d be good to have an open, honest conversation.”
Hamlin said he believes the dispute with Chastain has been settled and won’t continue on the track. Asked why he believes the feud is over, Hamlin said, “just taking each other’s word.”
PENSKE POWER
In an outcome that was similar to Hendrick drivers qualifying in the top three spots to open the season in Daytona, Team Penske had the three fastest qualifiers for Sunday. Logano took the pole with a speed of 177.374 mph, followed by Austin Cindric and Ryan Blaney.
“I’m hoping it’s transferrable to the race,” Logano said of Ford’s dominance in qualifying. “… This is kind of our wheelhouse when you come to superspeedways.”
CHILLY QUALIFYING
After rain Friday wiped out qualifying for Saturday’s NASCAR truck and Xfinity races, temperatures were in the 40s for Cup qualifying. The first driver on the track, B.J. McLeod, immediately lost control of his Chevrolet, leading to a spin that challenged the theory a cool track would generate more grip for tires.
“It probably was a little bit more interesting than a lot of us expected with cars spinning out and hitting the wall,” Logano said. “Nobody really knows what they have for handling yet.”
DEFENDING HENDRICK
Chad Knaus, vice president of competition for Hendrick Motorsports, said Friday that his team was not trying to work outside the rules. Knaus described the louvers as “a component we’ve all come to the conclusion it is not correct and we’ve all tried to work … to get it fixed because we’ve done that with other parts.”
Knaus said all NASCAR teams have worked together on the Next Gen cars, which debuted in the Cup Series in 2022.
“That’s the thing I think we’ve all prided ourselves on in the garage is that there’s been a tremendous amount of give and take as we’ve tried to learn how to race this car and work together,” Knaus said.
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Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff Writer
The San Diego Padres have acquired second baseman Luis Arraez in a trade with the Miami Marlins for reliever Woo-Suk Go and prospects Dillon Head, Jakob Marsee and Nathan Martorella, the teams announced Saturday.
The Padres also received nearly $7.9 million in cash considerations, leaving them responsible only for the major league minimum salary for Arraez.
The transaction represents the first significant move for the Marlins since Peter Bendix took over as the team’s president of baseball operations in November after Kim Ng departed. It marks the beginning of the Marlins’ teardown of an underachieving roster that has produced the third-worst record in the majors at 9-25 with a minus-61 run differential after reaching the postseason in 2023.
On the other side, it’s another aggressive deal for A.J. Preller, the leader of the Padres’ front office since 2014. Arraez, one of the sport’s best contact hitters, will give the Padres a needed left-handed-hitting weapon after Juan Soto was sent to the New York Yankees in December. San Diego is 17-18 with a plus-6 run differential.
“It’s really amazing — that guy is a baller,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said about Arraez after the Padres’ win Friday night. “He’s probably the closest to Tony Gwynn right now, so looking forward to seeing him in our lineup. … The guy’s a pure hitter, and I can’t wait for him to help us.”
Miami is paying San Diego $7,898,602 of the $8,491,398 remaining for the final 149 days of Arraez’s $10.6 million salary. That left his cost to the Padres at $592,796 — exactly a prorated share of the $740,000 minimum.
Arraez, 27, was the Marlins’ best player, an All-Star and batting champion each of the past two seasons. This season, he is batting .299 with a .719 OPS in 33 games, all started at second base. He also has extensive experience at first base.
“When a guy like that is taken out of the lineup or potentially traded, you feel it, because he’s such a good kid and one of the leaders in that clubhouse,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said, “so there’s definitely a shock value.”
Arraez is expected to start games as the Padres’ designated hitter, but the club plans to cycle through the DH spot. Jake Cronenworth, Xander Bogaerts and Manny Machado could also get at-bats there. Bogaerts has been the club’s starting second baseman.
Go spent seven seasons in the Korean Baseball Organization before signing a two-year deal with a mutual option worth $4.5 million guaranteed during the offseason. The 25-year-old right-hander appeared in 10 games for Double-A San Antonio, posting a 4.38 ERA across 12⅓ innings after failing to make the Padres’ bullpen out of spring training.
Head was the Padres’ first-round pick (25th overall) last year out of high school. The 19-year-old center fielder is batting .237 with a .683 OPS and three stolen bases in 21 games in low-Class A.
Martorella is batting .294 with an .820 OPS in 23 games in San Antonio. The Padres selected the 23-year-old first baseman in the fifth round of the 2022 draft. Marsee, a 22-year-old outfielder, has spent the season in San Antonio batting .185 with two home runs. He was a sixth-round pick in 2022 out of Central Michigan.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff Writer
NEW YORK — Yankees ace Gerrit Cole threw off a mound Saturday morning for the first time since being shut down in mid-March, checking off another box in his road back from an elbow injury.
Cole took the mound in the Yankees’ bullpen at 10:40 a.m., hours before New York took on the Detroit Tigers at Yankee Stadium. He said he threw 15 pitches, 13 for strikes and all fastballs. He said the pitches averaged 89 mph.
“It was exciting,” Cole said. “This was a good day for me. I was fired up.”
Cole, 33, started the season on the 60-day injured list after being diagnosed with nerve irritation and edema in his pitching elbow following one spring training outing. The reigning American League Cy Young Award winner is eligible to come off the injured list May 27, but the Yankees have declined to share a timetable for Cole’s return.
On a scale from 1 to 10 — 10 being game ready — Cole reported he is “somewhere between 1 and 5.” He said how his body responds over the next 48 hours will decide when he throws off a mound again.
Cole’s injury was a significant blow to a club with championship-or-bust aspirations, but the Yankees’ starting rotation has been one of the best in the majors and a primary reason for the team’s 21-13 start. The rotation’s 3.43 ERA through Friday ranked ninth in the majors. Its 183⅔ innings pitched ranked fourth.
Luis Gil, Cole’s rotation replacement, logged the best start of his young career Wednesday, holding the explosive Baltimore Orioles scoreless on two hits over a career-high 6⅓ innings. Gil, 25, has recorded a 3.19 ERA in 31 innings across six starts despite leading the American League with 20 walks.
Earlier this week, Yankees manager Aaron Boone said neither the team’s nor the rotation’s success will impact Cole’s timeline. Asked whether the overall success has made his absence more “palatable,” Cole was unsure.
“I don’t really have anything unpalatable to compare it to,” Cole said. “You know what I’m saying? So I’m just kind of like, just like everybody else, just glad we’re playing well.”
Also on Saturday, the Yankees reinstated infielder Jon Berti from the 10-day injured list and designated former first-round pick Taylor Trammell for assignment.
Berti, 34, has been out of the Yankees’ lineup since April 10 with a left groin strain. The Yankees had selected Trammell off waivers from the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 18, and he collected 1 hit, 1 walk and 2 runs in five games with New York.
Field Level Media contributed to this report.
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