Kyle Larson didn’t mince words after his third All-Star Race victory in the past five years.
“That was an old-school ass whipping, for sure,” Larson said.
Larson turned in a dominating effort to run away with the All-Star Race and earn $1 million Sunday night in the Cup Series’ return to North Wilkesboro Speedway following a 27-year absence.
He became only the fourth driver to win the All-Star Race at least three times. Jimmie Johnson has the most with four victories, while Larson, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt each have three. Larson is the first to win the All-Star Race at three different tracks, with his previous victories coming in Charlotte in 2019 and Texas in 2021.
He celebrated the win with a full lap of burnouts around the .625-mile track as Hendrick Motorsports won its 11th All-Star Race.
But only Larson collected prize money in the winner-take-all event.
Wallace joked he won the “best of the rest.”
“Larson was lights out, so congrats to him,” Wallace said. “They have been hitting it on the head all season, so to run second to them is not a bad thing. But to run second in the All-Star Race sucks because you go home with nothing.”
Larson was unsure if he would finish better than 15th after struggling in the heat races Saturday night.
“I didn’t think there was enough there for [my crew] to get me better,” Larson said.
So when Larson was penalized for speeding on Lap 24 and sent to the back of the field, he figured it was not his night.
But after taking on the new tires, he drove his No. 5 Chevrolet to the front of the field, blowing past 16 cars, including pole sitter Daniel Suarez on Lap 56. Larson went on to build an 11-second lead before the first competition caution at Lap 100.
“Once I was picking people off, I was like, man, is my car that good or is it the tire disparity?” Larson said. “Then I was like, shoot, our car is pretty good. So I tried to lap as many as I could.”
The competition caution didn’t slow Larson, who was never seriously challenged in the second half of the race.
“We had a great car in the long runs, and I was thinking that for sure there was going to be a caution,” said Larson, who also won the Trucks Series race at North Wilkesboro on Saturday. “I got out to a big lead, and I could see everybody’s cars were driving like crap in front of me.”
If fans came to see wrecks, they walked away disappointed.
There was none.
And the only pass they saw for the lead was Larson moving past Suarez in what amounted to yet another short-track snoozer in a season when NASCAR has struggled with noncompetitive races.
“It’s no secret that everybody in the industry, the fans, have been vocal about wanting better short-track racing, so I think what happened tonight goes along with what that narrative has been lately,” Reddick said. “NASCAR is working on it, and we are all going to put our heads together and try to make short-track racing better.”
North Wilkesboro Speedway’s patched-up asphalt track held up fairly well following a week of racing despite not having been paved in more than three decades.
The track, which sat mostly dormant and became overgrown with weeds, was restored with the help of Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith and Hall of Fame driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. for NASCAR’s 75th year anniversary season.
Suarez and Chris Buescher started on the front row for the All-Star Race after winning their 60-lap heats Saturday night, when NASCAR experimented for the first time with wet-weather tires on Cup Series cars.
Suarez dominated early, leading the first 55 laps of the race, while Buescher quickly fell off the pace early, dropping to 10th place after just five laps when he stuck on the outside.
ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the L.A. Rams for ESPN from 2016 to 2018 and the L.A. Angels for MLB.com from 2012 to 2016.
LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani took a 100 mph fastball to his right shoulder blade in the bottom half of Thursday night’s ninth inning, marking the eighth time a batter had been hit in another tension-filled series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres.
Anger filled Dodger Stadium, by which point a sold-out crowd had mostly filed out. Players were ready to spill out of the dugout once more. But Ohtani raised his left hand and vigorously waved off teammates as he made his walk toward first base, clamoring for peace.
The fireworks had already taken place.
A half-inning earlier, Fernando Tatis Jr. took a 93 mph fastball to the right hand by Dodgers rookie right-hander Jack Little. It marked the second time in a span of three days that Tatis and Ohtani had been hit by pitches almost immediately after one another. More notably for the Padres, it marked the fifth time the Dodgers had hit Tatis since the start of the 2024 season, including three times over the past nine days.
Padres manager Mike Shildt walked toward Tatis and yelled in the direction of the opposing dugout. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts ran onto the field and shoved Shildt before being separated. Both bullpens and dugouts emptied, though order was restored before punches were thrown.
By the end of the night, two managers, one bench coach (Brian Esposito) and one pitcher (Robert Suarez, whose pitch hit Ohtani) had been ejected. The Padres held on for a 5-3 victory, and afterward, Padres star third baseman Manny Machado, a central character in this rivalry, said the Dodgers had better “pray” Tatis is not seriously injured.
“They need to set a little candle up for Tati tomorrow,” Machado said. “Hopefully [the scans] comes back negative. That’s not a good spot to get hit. I don’t care who it is, I don’t care who’s on the mound.”
Tatis wore a bandage on his right hand after the game and sounded dejected when asked how he was feeling.
“Not good,” he said.
Initial X-rays were inconclusive, Tatis added. A CT scan will determine the extent of his injury on Friday.
The Dodgers have hit Tatis a total of six times in his career. The 28 other teams have combined to hit him four times, according to ESPN Research.
“Just clean it up,” he said. “I’m here to play baseball.”
The Padres and Dodgers played five tight National League Division Series contests last fall — the Dodgers won the final two games while facing elimination, shutting the Padres out for 24 consecutive innings — but did not meet this season until June. Thursday’s contest marked the seventh time they had played one another in a span of 11 days. The Dodgers took two of three from San Diego last week, then three of four at Dodger Stadium this week — and every game seemed to bring with it some animus.
On Monday night, Dodgers outfielder Andy Pages was plunked in the left elbow guard, screamed in the direction of Dylan Cease, then later said he felt he was hit intentionally, perhaps because the Padres thought he was relaying signs from second base the prior inning. The following night, Tatis was hit by a Lou Trivino sinker to the upper back in the top of the third, and Ohtani got hit in the right leg by a Randy Vasquez fastball in the bottom half, triggering Roberts’ first ejection of the season. Later, Machado took issue with umpires not ejecting Dodgers reliever Matt Sauer when he hit Jose Iglesias in the left wrist after warnings had been issued.
Thursday took the emotions of this series to another level.
Trivino, who also hit Tatis when he led off the game from Petco Park on June 10, struck Bryce Johnson in the knee in the seventh inning. Two batters later, Tatis was brushed back by another Trivino fastball, prompting Shildt to scream in his direction. Tatis getting plunked again two innings later, after Roberts had begun to empty his bench while trailing 5-0, set everything off.
Shildt said he wasn’t sure if it was intentional. By now, he said, that’s beside the point.
“We got a guy who’s getting X-rays right now, is one of the best players in the game, fortunately on our team, and this guy has taken shots, OK?” Shildt said. “And before this series, and I can back this up with complete evidence, the track records speak for themselves — teams that I manage don’t get into altercations like this because teams that I manage don’t throw at people. But also, teams I manage don’t take anything.
“And after a while, I’m not going to take it. And I’m not going to take it on behalf of Tati, I’m not going to take it on behalf of the team, intentional or unintentional. It’s really that simple. That’s how this game is played. And if you want to call that old-school, then yeah, we’ll play old-school baseball.”
Roberts noted that Little, who sparked the benches-clearing incident when his pitch hit Tatis, was making his major league debut.
“Obviously,” Roberts said, “I think anyone knows there was no intent.”
“And so as [Shildt] comes out, and he’s yelling at me and staring me down, that bothers me,” Roberts added. “Because, to be quite frank, that’s the last thing I wanted. I’m taking starters out of the game, trying to get this game over with and get this kid a couple innings. I took that personal. Because I understand the game, and I understand that it doesn’t feel good to get hit.”
Roberts said he believes the Padres intentionally hit Ohtani with a pitch Thursday night, echoing the same sentiments from Tuesday.
“This is a right-handed pitcher going crosscourt to hit Shohei up and in,” Roberts said of the pitch, which came on a 3-0 count. “That’s a hard throw. And I don’t know how many left-handed hitters Suarez has hit with the fastball, but clearly there was intent behind it.”
With the series over, the Dodgers hold a 3½-game lead in the NL West over the second-place San Francisco Giants, fresh off acquiring Rafael Devers. The Padres trailed by five games.
They won’t see the Dodgers again until August.
“We’re going to get after it for the next two months,” Shildt said, “and they’ll be on the schedule two months from now, and we’ll be ready.”
DETROIT — Pittsburgh Pirates reliever Dennis Santana was involved in an altercation with a fan he said “crossed the line” during the second game of Thursday’s doubleheader with the Detroit Tigers, and at one point, he was seen leaping and swiping at the person.
“You guys know me — I’m a calm demeanor type of person,” Santana said after the game through an interpreter. “I’ve never had any issues for any of the teams I’ve played for. This guy crossed the line a few times.”
Santana declined to disclose what the fan said.
“He crossed the line, and I’d like to leave it at that. I’ve never had anything like this happen in my eight years in baseball,” he said.
In videos posted to social media, Santana can be seen pointing out the fan to a police officer before jumping and swinging at the person, who is in the front row above the Pittsburgh bullpen at Comerica Park.
Santana did not complain about how security officers handled the situation.
“My job is as a pitcher, not as security, so I can’t discuss their job,” he said. “I respect them and what they do.”
The fan appeared to be wearing a Tigers hat and a shirt honoring Pirates Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente.
After jumping at the fan, Santana was escorted away by Pirates bullpen personnel and held back by a teammate.
Santana entered the game in the ninth inning, pitching to one batter before the game was delayed by rain. The Pirates won 8-4.
Santana said he discussed the incident with Pirates manager Don Kelly.
“He knows I regret what I did,” Santana said. “You know I’m a professional.”
TAMPA, Fla. — Rays pitcher Hunter Bigge was carted off the field in a frightening scene and taken to a hospital after getting struck in the side of his face by a foul ball lined into the Tampa Bay dugout Thursday night.
Bigge was placed on a backboard and gave a thumb-up before being driven by ambulance to a nearby hospital for tests. He never lost consciousness and was able to converse with first responders, Rays manager Kevin Cash said.
In the top of the seventh inning, Baltimore Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman sharply pulled a pitch into the Tampa Bay dugout on the first-base side, and the ball hit Bigge, a 27-year-old right-hander currently on the 15-day injured list with a lat strain.
Emergency medical personnel quickly arrived to attend to Bigge. After several quiet minutes, as visibly concerned Rays players knelt in the field, Bigge was loaded onto a stretcher and carted off. He received a standing ovation from the Steinbrenner Field crowd.
The ball left Rutschman’s bat at 105 mph, according to Statcast.
The game resumed after an eight-minute delay, and Baltimore held on for a 4-1 victory.
Bigge was selected by the Chicago Cubs in the 12th round of the 2019 amateur draft from Harvard and made his major league debut for them on July 9 last year. He was traded 19 days later to Tampa Bay along with Christopher Morel and minor leaguer Ty Johnson for All-Star third baseman Isaac Paredes.
In 32 career appearances, including one start, Bigge has a 2.51 ERA and one save. This season, he has a 2.40 ERA in 13 relief outings covering 15 innings.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.