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COLUMBIA, S.C. — Darlington Raceway president Kerry Tharp is retiring after a nearly two-decade NASCAR career.

Tharp and NASCAR announced his decision to leave after this season on Thursday. Tharp moved from having little interest in the sport — “I’d change the channel if it were on TV,” he said — to become its chief voice for a decade and a top-level executive at the track “Too Tough To Tame” since 2015.

“It’s a great run,” Tharp told The Associated Press. “I just had this feeling that it was to experience another chapter in our lives.”

Tharp, 66, will oversee the Southern 500 and the start of NASCAR’s playoffs on Sept. 3.

Tharp was thrilled with Darlington’s latest throwback weekend a month ago where the sport celebrated its 75th anniversary at the Goodyear 400. The September race marks the fourth straight year NASCAR’s 10-event postseason opens at Darlington.

“The last eight years, giving me the opportunity to become a race president?” Tharp said. “That’s unheard of.”

It certainly was an unlikely ascent for Tharp, who spent 26 years in college sports communications. He came to South Carolina in 1985 and became point man as the Gamecocks joined the Southeastern Conference in 1992 and hired coach Lou Holtz for six seasons from 1999-2004.

In early 2005, Tharp drew the interest of NASCAR and joined the organization that April. Soon enough, he was at the microphone moderating drivers’ media sessions and answering questions from the press. Not that it came easily.

Tharp remembers his first race at Talladega when while searching for parking spot, he cut off a golf cart ridden by soon-to-be-NASCAR champion Tony Stewart. Tharp got both barrels from Stewart, known at times as a quick-tempered driver.

“He let me know what he thought about me, both verbally and visually,” Tharp recalled.

Tharp’s easygoing style soon made him a popular personality among NASCAR insiders. He drew chuckles from media members when he’d “roll into” driver interviews and frequently banter with race winners who liked ribbing Tharp. Many hardcore NASCAR fans have seen Tharp on screen, an authoritative face in the background of Will Ferrell’s racing spoof, “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.”

Tharp was assured the footage wouldn’t make the movie, but Ferrell saw him at a screening and said, “You’re in the movie!”

“People could see that was back when I had hair,” Tharp joked.

Tharp drew on the path set by his late boss and mentor, Jim Hunter, Darlington’s one-time president who became NASCAR’s chief spokesman in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Hunter mentored Tharp on blending the demands of the media with those of NASCAR, competitors and race teams.

In 2015, Tharp got a call from Joie Chitwood III, then head of Daytona Raceway about leading Darlington. “Joie, I haven’t been president of anything since my senior year in high school,” said Tharp, who was class president at Waggener High in Louisville, Kentucky.

Tharp enhanced Darlington’s history as NASCAR’s oldest superspeedway. He held throwback weekends celebrating the sport’s past at the Southern 500 from 2015-20, an event that moved to May when track received a second racing weekend before the 2021 season.

Chip Wile, Tharp’s predecessor as Darlington president and NASCAR’s current Chief Tracks Operating Officer, said: “We’re beyond grateful for Kerry’s service to Darlington Raceway.”

Tharp and his crew may have faced its biggest task in 2000 as Darlington was selected for NASCAR’s return to racing after a two-month stoppage due to COVID-19. The track hosted two Cup Series races in less than a week as the first sport back into competition.

Tharp may be most proud how everyone at NASCAR performed to give race fans and others a respite from the coronavirus.

“Bringing live sports back during the pandemic,” he said. “That’s something I’ll never forget.”

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Reds’ Burns fans 1st 5 hitters in his MLB debut

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Reds' Burns fans 1st 5 hitters in his MLB debut

CINCINNATI — Rookie Chase Burns became the first starting pitcher in the expansion era to strike out the first five batters he faced in his major league debut.

He was not able to carry the momentum through the rest of the game.

The 22-year old Cincinnati Reds right-hander, the second overall pick in last July’s amateur draft, allowed three runs over five innings Tuesday night in a 5-4, 11-inning win over the New York Yankees.

Burns struck out his first five batters before Jazz Chisholm Jr‘s single. He gave up six hits and struck out eight, the seventh Cincinnati starter to have at least that many in his first career start.

“We watched for everything,” Reds manager Terry Francona said of Burns. “He didn’t get too excited. I think he enjoyed the competition. There’s a lot to like.”

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Burns also joined the Yankees’ Al Leiter and Tampa Bay’s Wade Davis as the only pitchers since 1961 whose first six outs in their debuts were strikeouts. Both gave up a run during the first two innings.

Burns struck out seven of the his first 10 hitters and allowed only one hit until Ben Rice led off the fourth by connecting on a hanging slider that went 413 feet and two-thirds of the way into the right field sun deck at Great American Ball Park.

Aaron Judge followed with a base hit. Burns retired the next two hitters, Chisholm got aboard with a single and Anthony Volpe hit a two-run triple when center fielder TJ Friedl made an ill-advised dive and the ball got by him.

“I think he’s a good pitcher,” Francona said. “I don’t think him giving up a couple runs is going to make somebody fold. If that was the case, we wouldn’t have brought him up.”

Burns averaged 98.1 mph with 48 fastballs, topping out with a pair at 100.1 mph in the first inning. He threw 24 sliders, eight changeups and one curveball. New York was 1-for-9 with six strikeouts in his first time through the order and 5-for-9 with a triple and home run the second time through.

Burns threw 53 of 81 pitches for strikes. His first big league pitch was a 98.4 mph fastball to Trent Grisham that just caught the inside corner of the plate. He got Judge to chase a 91.1 mile slider for the third out in the first inning.

“I guess you have to say Judge. I have watched him. He’s a big dude and one of the best hitters in the game,” Burns said when asked if any one strikeout stood out more than the others. “It was probably my favorite one.”

Burns fell behind 3-0 on three of the first 10 batters before ending up with strikeouts, and started 11 of 21 batters with strikes and induced 12 swing and misses. He is the fifth first-round selection from last year’s draft to reach the majors, joining Athletics first baseman Nick Kurtz, Royals outfielder Jac Caglianone, Angels second baseman Christian Moore and Astros outfielder Cam Smith, who was selected by the Cubs before going to Houston in the Kyle Tucker trade last December.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Latz’s no-hit bid could land him in Texas rotation

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Latz's no-hit bid could land him in Texas rotation

BALTIMORE — Jacob Latz might have earned a spot in the Texas Rangers‘ rotation.

Manager Bruce Bochy says he’ll consider it.

“Of course,” Bochy said. “He’s a weapon whether he starts or he’s in the bullpen, but he’s stretched out. You’ve heard me say he’s got starter’s stuff.”

Latz took a no-hitter into the seventh inning Tuesday night against Baltimore, and although the Rangers blew a four-run lead, they recovered to win 6-5 in 10 innings. Latz set career highs in innings pitched (six-plus) and pitches (88) and lowered his ERA on the season to 3.22.

“I don’t know the plans going forward. I was kind of just trying to soak it all up today,” Latz said. “It was just a lot of fun out there.”

In his third career start and second of the season, Latz didn’t allow a hit until Ramon Laureano singled to center to start the bottom of the seventh. A walk later, Latz was removed, but a 4-0 Texas lead didn’t last much longer.

Chris Martin came on and gave up homers to each of his three batters — Gary Sanchez, Ramon Urias and Ryan O’Hearn — and left with the Rangers down 5-4. But a sacrifice fly by Jonah Heim the following inning tied it, and Evan Carter slid home safely on Sam Haggerty‘s grounder in the 10th.

Latz walked three and struck out four — including the last three hitters of the fifth inning. His previous longest outing in the majors was Thursday, when he threw 5 2/3 innings of relief in a loss to Kansas City.

“That’s one of the better jobs in all of baseball — to be a starting pitcher,” Latz said. “I’m not going to say I don’t want to be a starting pitcher. Obviously I do. I’m comfortable either way obviously. If it’s in the rotation, it’s great.”

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Pirates remove Cruz after he loses track of outs

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Pirates remove Cruz after he loses track of outs

MILWAUKEE — Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Oneil Cruz said he lost track of the outs when he didn’t run out a double-play grounder, a move that led to his removal in his club’s 9-3 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night.

The Pirates trailed 7-3 and had a runner on first with one out in the seventh when Cruz grounded into a 6-4-3 double play. Cruz slowed down after the Brewers got the force play at second, and he said afterward he believed that was the third out of the inning.

Pirates manager Don Kelly removed Cruz in favor of a defensive replacement in the eighth inning and said it was due to Cruz’s “energy and effort going down the line.” Cruz said after the game he understood Kelly’s decision.

“DK had all the rights to do what he did, and I’ll back him up on that,” Cruz said through an interpreter. “It was my fault because I thought there were two outs in that situation. That’s why I let off running to first base.”

Kelly said he explained to Cruz the reason for the benching.

“We talked,” Kelly said. “He knows the expectation. Right there, I feel we fell a little short.”

When he was asked whether Cruz would be back in the starting lineup Wednesday, Kelly was noncommittal.

“We’re going to sit down and talk, and we’ll figure that out,” Kelly said.

Cruz, 26, has batted just .156 (12-of-77) with 31 strikeouts this month after having a productive start to the season that included owning a .911 OPS in early May and hitting a 122.9 mph homer against the Brewers on May 25. That homer was the hardest-hit ball since Statcast started tracking that data in 2015.

Cruz is now hitting .208 with a .321 on-base percentage, a .404 slugging percentage, 13 homers, 31 RBIs and 26 steals in 71 games.

“He’s struggling at the plate right now,” Kelly said. “It’s difficult when you’re going through that and trying to figure it out. He’s working hard to do that. That’s one thing we’ve got to be mindful of, is not letting that offense carry over to defense and base running, and the energy and effort that we’re giving on any other aspects of the game as well.”

Cruz said his hitting slump “had nothing to do with what happened today” and isn’t impacting his focus on the basepaths or in the field. But he also said he appreciated Kelly’s instructions to him and noted how he can learn from veteran teammates Andrew McCutchen and Tommy Pham.

“They’re a really good example,” Cruz said. “They always run hard. They always go out there to do their 100%. That’s a teaching point for me. I accepted the way DK came to me and explained it and presented it to me.”

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