But suddenly he can’t buy a break. MORE: Keselowski, Gordon try to clear the air | Dale Earnhardt Jr. wrecks out Busch has now fallen out of four consecutive races after blowing an engine in Sunday’s race at Michigan. Busch had finished 30th, 33rd and 31st in the previous three races, all because of wrecks. Sunday, he was 40th and last. “You’re on fire, bro, hang on to it,” spotter Tony Hirschman said on team radio....
Busch has been unable to put back-to-back positive performances together of late. He followed a sixth-place finish at Homestead with a 32nd place finish at Talladega, a fifth-place finish at Pocono with a 38th place finish at the same track and a sixth-place finish at Indianapolis with a 21st place finish at Kentucky last weekend. Busch, never afraid to vent, sounded off about his frustrations this week and acknowledged his bewilderment at his inconsistency....
Busch remained fifth in the series standings, 37 points behind leader Matt Kenseth, who finished third at Charlotte, and 33 points behind Jimmie Johnson, who finished fourth. “It’s good to finish top five but it certainly stinks,” Busch said. “We’re not good enough. It’s frustrating, man. I’m beating myself up every week trying to figure out what I’ve got to do to be better, and I don’t know what it is....
And it still wasn’t enough to get Busch into the third round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. MORE: Earnhardt eliminated | Winners & Losers | Newman too low | Keselowski’s big win Busch’s team spent nearly 50 laps in the garage fixing the car after Busch was run into from behind as part of a chain-reaction accident, relegating him to a 40th-place finish and ninth in the Chase standings....
Luck prevented Busch from getting wrecked. He wound up in the infield grass, having to rock his car to get out of the turf and back onto the asphalt. MORE: Chase for the Sprint Cup field update | Chris Buescher’s early problem With four wins, Busch is safely in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. But his Michigan mishap marked the second consecutive week that Busch spun out. He was a lap down after bringing his car into his pit stall for examination....
Now he’ll look to build on that success. Next up: Sunday’s night’s Southern 500 at Darlington. MORE: Darlington schedule | Throwback schemes Michigan was Larson’s first Cup victory in his 99th start. Not only did he win, but he went locked into the 16-driver Chase field. The 10-race championship series begins Sept. 18. Larson’s win was good for both the driver and the sport. NBC analyst Steve Letarte, a former crew member and chief at Hendrick Motorsports, said Larson, 24, fulfilled the expectations pressed upon him in this, his third full Cup season....
The Chip Ganassi Racing driver had an uphill climb to earn an automatic bid to the Saturday night finals in the biggest sprint midget-car race of the season, which has more than 300 drivers attempting to make the field at the Spirit Expo Center in Tulsa. MORE: Kurt Busch’s bizarre court testimony | Crewmen sues MWR | Former GM sues Kyle Busch Following the wreck in the heat race, Larson had to finish in the top four of his first two feature events, and then in the top three of the A-main for an automatic bid to the championship race Saturday....
So when his name was at the center of a trade-rumor frenzy last month, and even into this month, Lowry did what he could to ignore it. But Lowry is well aware of the looming NBA trade deadline, which strikes six weeks from tomorrow. MORE: Celtics trade Crawford, Brooks in three-team deal | Knicks bench J.R. Smith again “If something would have happened, it would have happened,” Lowry said on Wednesday afternoon....
Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder’s decision on Friday removes a line of attack prosecutors had hoped to use during the trial scheduled for November to show that Rittenhouse was a “chaos tourist” drawn to Kenosha “like a moth to a flame,” as Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger described him in court. Schroeder was considering several other requests Friday, including whether jurors will be shown a video that prosecutors say shows Rittenhouse talking about wanting to shoot people....
He’s an effervescent 23-year-old with a penchant for highlight-reel goals. And he’s setting this year’s World Cup alight, just as he did four years earlier. Kylian Mbappe has found the net five times so far in the competition. Each goal has been complete with his signature celebration: Mbappe tucks his hands beneath his armpits in delight before being swarmed by a mob of his navy-clad teammates. It’s a dance that was perfected in Paris and has since spread across the beautiful game....
No, this version of James, post-Ohio return, post-Cleveland championship, is downshifting, letting his teammates take up some slack. And he is going to make sure point guard Kyrie Irving blossoms in his place. MORE: Must-see opening night photos That was what the season-opening blowout of the Knicks indicated. James finished with 12 assists as part of a triple-double (19 points, 11 rebounds), and Irving was on the converting end of four of those assists....
Things went from bad to OK to worse in a matter of days. The drama started with reports that Kyrie Irving and the Nets were not on the same page regarding contract negotiations, and that led to a series of rumors that Irving may leave Brooklyn. Irving put an end to those rumors momentarily when he elected to pick up his $37 million player option for the 2022-23 season. That decision didn’t calm things down for long, though, as Kevin Durant formally requested a trade the next day....
“We’re still the team to beat honestly, regardless of what anybody else says," Irving said Thursday. “‘[Pundits are talking about] what we need and what we don’t need and what we need to get better at. Us internally, we know we have to improve on a lot of things, but we’ve just got to handle business as professionals and continue to get better." He was asked to clarify if he meant team to beat in the East, or in the NBA....
Irving, who has missed Brooklyn’s past four games for “personal reasons,” was seen at the virtual event along with former New York gubernatorial candidate and “Sex and the City” actress Cynthia Nixon. Aboushi tweeted out a screenshot from the call, which showed the six-time All-Star in attendance under the name “Kai Irving.” MORE: Why does Irving keep missing games? The event began at 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday. The Nets and Nuggets tipped off at the Barclays Center around 7:30 p....
Members of the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) union were told to avoid sharing images of vacations in a leaked private Facebook group to avoid controversy with parents, Fox 11 Los Angeles reported Monday. “Friendly reminder: If you are planning any trips for Spring Break, please keep that off of Social Media. It is hard to argue that it is unsafe for in-person instruction, if parents and the public see vacation photos and international travel,” the post said....
Sporting News presents its inaugural Five by Five, a quick recap in which we'll try to figure out exactly what we just saw by looking at five key moments during the game for each team: For the host Dodgers . . . 1. Los Angeles placed its faith in Ryu to start Game 3, and he rewarded that faith early and often. After lasting just three innings in his NLDS start at home against the Braves, Ryu walked Carlos Beltran with one out in the first inning but soon calmed himself down (he admitted nerves played a role in that first start) and averted a potential disaster....
Something felt different though as the Galaxy introduced Curt Onalfo as the team’s new coach on Tuesday. The man being called the best man for the job of replacing Arena smiled for the cameras and even did a little dance as some Galaxy fans cheered his name, but that still didn’t stop his appointment from being met with a collective “ho hum” around the league. Onalfo doesn’t have an MLS Cup on his head coaching resume, or any trophies for that matter....
‘Madrid would be crazy to meet Alli price!’ The leaders suffered a 2-1 defeat to Valencia on Wednesday that has given some hope to Barcelona and Sevilla in the race for the title. Sevilla can go top if they win the derby against Real Betis on Saturday, while defending champions Barca will take their place if they beat Atletico Madrid on Sunday before Madrid meet Villarreal. Madrid still have the advantage of a game in hand over their closest rivals, but Zidane has called on his players to expect teams to be fired up to face them....
The Canady Islands Volcanology Institute showed images of the balls of lava, which it called “volcanic bombs,” being hurled hundreds of meters from the crater. Two weeks ago, the volcano on the Cumbre Vieja ridge first erupted, but subsided for several days last week. Now, volcanic activity has picked up again, becoming more explosive as the volcano erupted again on October 1. For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below:...
