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NEWTON, Iowa – Fresh off an ARCA Menards Series victory at Madison Int’l Speedway on Friday, Chandler Smith will start from the pole in his NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series debut.
Smith earned the top starting position by virtue of owner points after a washout of Saturday’s scheduled qualifying session due to early-afternoon storms at the seven-eighths-mile Iowa Speedway.
Piloting the No. 51 Safelite Auto Glass Toyota Tundra for Kyle Busch Motorsports, the 16-year-old Georgia native will lead the field to green in the M&Ms 200 presented by Casey’s General Stores.
Smith hopes to add a Truck Series win to the four ARCA victories he’s accrued over the past year and a half, giving himself an early birthday present in the process. He turns 17 on June 26.
Joining Smith on the front row for Saturday night’s race will be driver points leader Grant Enfinger, whose No. 98 ProtectTheHarvest.com Ford F-150 rolls off second for ThorSport Racing.
Canadian Stewart Friesen and Enfinger’s teammate, Matt Crafton, roll off third and fourth, respectively.
Part-time NASCAR modified driver Kyle Benjamin completes the top five on the grid in the Niece Motorsports No. 45, followed by defending series champion Brett Moffitt, Ben Rhodes, Johnny Sauter, Austin Hill and Harrison Burton.
Kansas winner Ross Chastain, who recently switched his series declaration from Xfinity Series to Truck Series points, starts 19th in his pursuit of a second win this season and a ticket into the playoffs.
The M&Ms 200 presented by Casey’s General Stores takes the green flag at 8:30 p.m. ET, with live coverage on FOX Sports 1, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.
LINEUP: NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series; Iowa Speedway; June 15, 2019
- Chandler Smith
- Grant Enfinger
- Stewart Friesen
- Matt Crafton
- Kyle Benjamin
- Brett Moffitt
- Ben Rhodes
- Johnny Sauter
- Austin Hill
- Harrison Burton
- Todd Gilliland
- Sheldon Creed
- Raphael Lessard
- Tyler Dippel
- Brennan Poole
- Austin Wayne Self
- Jordan Anderson
- Spencer Boyd
- Ross Chastain
- Trey Hutchens III
- C.J. McLaughlin
- Gus Dean
- Natalie Decker
- Mason Massey
- Jesse Little
- Riley Herbst
- Chad Finley
- Juan Manuel Gonzalez
- Norm Benning
- Tyler Hill
- Tyler Ankrum
- Jennifer Jo Cobb
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JOLIET, Ill. — Rain has been the big winner so far this year on the DIRTcar Summer Nationals Hell Tour, and Mother Nature dealt another wet hand to the dirt late model tour on Saturday.
Wet weather forced the postponement of Saturday night’s scheduled event at The Dirt Oval at Route 66 Raceway. The event has been rescheduled for Monday, July 1.
With the exception of Brian Shirley’s win at Kankakee County Speedway on Thursday, three of the first four tour events have been hampered by rain – Peoria Speedway last Wednesday (now set for June 26), Sycamore Speedway on Friday (a rescheduled date for the 40-lap feature to be announced soon) and now Route 66.
By virtue of his victory at Kankakee, Shirley – a two-time Summer Nationals champion – leads the early points standings over Frank Heckenast Jr., Rusty Schlenk, 2010 Nationals titlist Jason Feger and Ryan Unzicker.
Fayette County Speedway in Brownstown, Ill., is next up on the Hell Tour slate with a $5,000-to-win main event scheduled for Sunday, June 16.
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It rained on the St. Louis Blues' parade, but nobody seemed to mind.
Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets of downtown St. Louis and braved the rain Saturday to cheer on the Stanley Cup champs, who concluded the festivities with a packed rally beneath the Gateway Arch.
The Blues ended one of sports' longest championship droughts Wednesday by beating the Boston Bruins 4-1 in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, the first title for a franchise that joined the NHL 52 years ago.
The long-awaited championship stirred strong emotions in St. Louis, a city still smarting from the departure of the NFL's Rams in 2016. The loss of the football team seemed to strengthen fans' bonds to the Blues and their beloved baseball team, the Cardinals.
"I'm so happy for the city and the fans here,'' Blues interim coach Craig Berube said. "They deserve it. But more than anything I'm so happy for our players, because of how hard they've played, the character and leadership coming through, winning that Cup.''
Among the masses were NHL Hall of Famer Brett Hull, actor Jon Hamm and superfan Laila Anderson, who is battling a life-threatening autoimmune disease and served as a good-luck charm during the postseason run.
"I'm just glad I could help them," Anderson said. "I don't know what I do, but I'm just glad the whole city supports me so much."
Ryan Korte, a 56-year-old letter carrier from the St. Louis suburb of Belleville, Illinois, said he wasn't sure he would ever get to see the Blues win the Cup.
"I was starting to wonder," Korte said as he waved a towel while standing on a ledge, straining to see the parade. "A lot of disappointments. They've had some good teams, and they always let us down."
Not this time.
"This is bigger than the World Series," Korte said.
That may sound strange in St. Louis, which has long been considered a baseball haven thanks to the Cardinals' 11 World Series titles. It sure looked like a hockey town on Saturday, though, as fans shouted, "Let's Go Blues!" and danced to "Gloria," the 1982 Laura Branigan hit that became the Blues' unofficial victory song.
"These guys won the Stanley Cup for this city!" Hull said. "There is nothing more they have to do! So instead of saying, 'Let's Go Blues,' we're gonna say, 'We Went Blues! We Went Blues! We Went Blues!'"
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O'Reilly: Winning title 'still hasn't sunk in'
Ryan O'Reilly reflects on winning the Stanley Cup title with the Blues during their championship celebration.
Forward Ryan O'Reilly, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP, carried the Stanley Cup to fans lining Market Street to let them touch it.
"I was saying this earlier during the parade ... I said this is a city of amazing hockey fans, amazingly nice people, and amazing drinkers as well," O'Reilly said. "They can handle their stuff. It's awesome; I love it."
"The Blues have an amazing fan base," said Michael DeHeer, 52, of St. Louis. "This place is ready to explode."
It has been quite a journey since the Blues joined the NHL in 1967 as one of six expansion teams that year that doubled the size of the league. The original six teams were kept in one division, and the six new teams in another, ensuring that an expansion team would play for the Stanley Cup.
The Blues loaded their roster with aging veterans, and it paid off: They played for the Stanley Cup in each of their first three seasons. They didn't win a game, though, going a combined 0-12 in those three series.
What followed was a 49-year stretch in which the Blues didn't make the Final -- a drought made even more remarkable because the team missed the playoffs only nine times during that span.
This year's season didn't start out promising, as a sluggish start got coach Mike Yeo fired in November.
Berube took over as interim coach -- a title he still holds, though the interim tag is expected to be lifted soon. Improvement didn't come immediately; the Blues were last in the standings on Jan. 3, the middle of the season. Days later, an unheralded rookie goaltender named Jordan Binnington was called up. He won his first game in a shutout.
Soon, with Binnington taking over as the lead goalie, the Blues went on a franchise-record 11-game winning streak and stayed hot through their playoff run.
Binnington, known for his calm demeanor, finally let loose Saturday.
"You want to see some f---ing emotion?'' he asked the rally crowd. "We're Stanley Cup champions, baby!
"This has been an incredible day. There's thousands of people out here -- and you guys have waited a long time, so this is incredible. Thank you for sharing this with us."
The Blues joined a list of other sports franchises to recently end long championship droughts. The Chicago Cubs' win in the 2016 World Series ended a 108-year run of futility. The Philadelphia Eagles won the 2018 Super Bowl, their first championship in 58 years. Last year's Stanley Cup winners, the Washington Capitals, won for the first time since joining the NHL in 1974.
"It's awesome; I've never seen anything like it in my life," Berube said. "Best fans in the league, for sure. I mean, what an incredible experience to be down here today in the parade; it's unbelievable. I'm so happy for the city and the fans here; they deserve it. But more than anything, I'm so happy for our players, because [of] how hard they played, [the] character and leadership coming through, winning us a Cup."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Reed brushes off Friday club snap, says it was 'no big deal'
Published in
Golf
Saturday, 15 June 2019 09:35
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – With a majestic show of force over his right knee next to the 18th green Friday night, Patrick Reed authored one of the visual highlights of the 119th U.S. Open.
Reed’s heated club snap gained plenty of online traction in the hours after his second round at Pebble Beach, where a series of miscues from short range caused the former Masters champ’s blood to boil. He didn’t speak to reporters after the emotional close to his second round, but given a few hours to cool off he spoke about the incident following a 1-over 72 in Round 3 that left him at 3 over for the week.
In Reed’s mind, the club snap was cathartic – and undeserving of further scrutiny.
“To me, it’s no big deal,” Reed said. “It was comical after watching it afterwards. But it wasn’t comical having to go through hitting poor wedge shot after poor wedge shot, especially when I pride myself on my short game and being able to get up and down.”
Reed’s issues on the 18th hole Friday began when his 6-iron attempt to extract his ball from the rough barely went 100 yards. From there he found a greenside bunker, bladed it over the green, missed the green again coming back and flubbed another chip from the thick grass.
It was at that point that his 61-degree lob wedge met its untimely demise.
“Oh yeah, it deserved it. There’s a reason why I call it '61 and done,' and that’s why it’s done,” Reed said. “We always call it '61 and done' because it usually gets me out of jail all the time. It kept me in jail on that one.”
Reed used his 57-degree sand wedge for his sixth shot, and eventually rolled in a short putt to make the cut on the number. While social media lit up with slow-motion video of his visceral outburst, he believes it pales in comparison to some other on-course sins.
“I mean, at the end of the day, I got my anger out. I didn’t do anything to the golf course, I didn’t say any obscenities or anything like that. It was a split-second and I moved on,” Reed said. “You have Sergio (Garcia) with what he did on the greens (in Saudi Arabia). I’ve seen multiple guys tear up golf courses, slam clubs. I mean, Rory (McIlroy) threw his club in the water on 8 at Doral (in 2015). You had Lucas Bjerregaard send his driver in the water here. It happens.
“The thing is, things like that probably shouldn’t happen, but at the end of the day as long as you respect the golf course, as long as you’re not doing anything that is damaging the golf course or damaging the players that you’re playing with, I’d rather let it out than keep it in.”
Reed couldn’t recall the last time he broke a club in anger on the golf course, though he did note that he had three club shafts break on commercial flights over the last year. He regularly travels with three lob wedges in case one gets damaged during play, and he put one of those backups into his bag for the third round – albeit for a far different reason.
“To basically miss the green from 20 yards and then basically advance the ball 3 inches from 6 feet off the green, it’s not normally how my short game is,” Reed said. “But that’s what a U.S. Open, and rough like this, will do to you.”
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PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Tiger Woods had a familiar accessory when he showed up for the third round of the U.S. Open: more kinesiology tape.
The athletic tape was once again visible on the base of Woods’ neck during his Saturday 71 that left him outside the top 20 at Pebble Beach. Over the past year and a half Woods has used the tape to provide more support, especially when it’s colder and his reconfigured spine doesn’t loosen up.
When asked whether he was dealing with an injury, or if the tape was merely precautionary, he replied: “When it’s cold like this, everything is achy. It’s just part of the deal.”
Woods revealed this spring that he was dealing with a strained neck, leading him to withdraw before the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He won the Masters two starts later.
Was the ailment related?
“It’s all the same,” he said. “It’s been like that for years. The forces have to go somewhere. And if they’re not in the lower back, they’re in the neck. And if not, they’re in the mid-back. And if not, they go to the knee. You name it.”
Cool, damp weather like they’ve had the past few days at Pebble Beach doesn’t help Woods’ 43-year-old body, either. Though he doesn’t show the same lethargy that was present when he missed the cut last month at the PGA, Woods has also looked stiff in the 50-degree temperatures.
Woods said that’s to be expected.
“My back impacts every shot I play – it’s just part of the deal,” he said. “Let me put it this way: I feel every shot I hit. I think that’s always going to be the case from here going forward.”
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TT Postscript: Tiger (71) fights Pebble and his body to a draw
Published in
Golf
Saturday, 15 June 2019 12:35
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Tiger Woods fought Pebble Beach and his body to a draw Saturday, with a five-birdie, five-bogey 71. It was an admirable effort, but we can all skip ahead to Royal Portrush. Wrapping up Tiger’s U.S. Open with 18 left to play:
• Go ahead and put a bow on it. He was going to need something seriously special to get back in this tournament. Two bogeys in his first three holes turned Saturday into little more than a long walk.
• I give him credit. It was cold out. He had kinesiology tape on his neck again. He clearly didn’t have it. And he never lost focus for five hours. He could have packed it in. He could have gotten pissed off and started taking chances. Instead, he scraped it around and birdied two of his last three holes to end the day where he started it: even par. It was a classic Tiger round, just not one of his classics.
• Speaking of that tape, a bad back doesn’t sound like a lot of fun: “When it's cold like this everything is achy. It's just part of the deal,” he said. “The forces have to go somewhere. And if they're not in the lower back, they're in the neck, and if not, they're in the mid-back, and if not, they go to the knee. You name it. ... Let me put it this way, I feel every shot I hit. I think that's always going to be the case from here going forward.”
• The aches were evident in his iron play. A few lasers but more than a few approaches left short. He found only 11 of 18 greens. He looked like a guy who was cold and a little stiff, which apparently he was.
• The putts he made at Nos. 5 and 16 were very golf-y. He’s missed a half-dozen birdie looks from inside 10 feet the last two days, but he gets a couple 25-footers to go. “Today, I made one putt at 16 which was just trying to keep the ball on the green,” he said.
• You have to think Tiger and the cold just aren’t going to mix anymore. The guy was sweating through a half-dozen shirts a round last summer but partial dehydration seems better for his body than a marine layer.
• Let’s end on a lighter note:
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Midfielder Duane Holmes has been dropped from the U.S. CONCACAF Gold Cup roster because of a reoccurrence of a left quadriceps strain, and he has been replaced by midfielder Djordje Mihailovic.
The U.S. Soccer Federation announced the change Saturday, four days after the Americans replaced injured midfielder and defender Tyler Adams with Reggie Cannon.
Holmes made his U.S. debut on June 5 in an exhibition against Jamaica.
- CONCACAF Gold Cup: All you need to know
- Full Gold Cup fixtures schedule
Coming off a 1-0 loss to Jamaica and a 3-0 defeat to Venezuela, the U.S. opens its Gold Cup title defense against Guyana on Tuesday at St. Paul, Minnesota, in the Americans' first competitive match since the October 2017 loss at Trinidad and Tobago that ended a streak of seven World Cup appearances.
The U.S. face Trinidad on June 22 at Cleveland and complete group play against Panama on June 26 at Kansas City, Kansas.
The revised roster:
Goalkeepers: Sean Johnson (New York City), Tyler Miller (Los Angeles), Zack Steffen (Columbus).
Defenders: Reggie Cannon (Dallas), Omar Gonzalez (Atlas, Mexico), Nick Lima (San Jose), Aaron Long (New York Red Bulls), Daniel Lovitz (Montreal), Matt Miazga (Chelsea, England), Tim Ream (Fulham, England), Walker Zimmerman (Los Angeles).
Midfielders: Michael Bradley (Toronto), Weston McKennie (Schalke, Germany), Djordje Mihailovic (New England), Christian Pulisic (Chelsea, England), Cristian Roldan (Seattle), Wil Trapp (Columbus).
Forwards: Jozy Altidore (Toronto), Paul Arriola (D.C.), Tyler Boyd (Vitoria Guimares, Portugal), Jonathan Lewis (Colorado), Jordan Morris (Seattle), Gyasi Zardes (Columbus)
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Roger Martinez scored an outstanding goal as Colombia beat Lionel Messi's Argentina 2-0 in a Copa America Group B opener on Saturday that burst into life after a sluggish start.
In a match that feature a plethora of stars such as Messi, Sergio Aguero, Radamel Falcao, and James Rodriguez, it was Martinez who put Colombia up with a booming strike in the 71st minute.
The loss puts Argentina in an early hole at the tournament where they have finished runners-up in four the past five editions. For Messi, it adds more pressure as the Barcelona star tries to win his first senior trophy at the international level.
- Copa America: All you need to know
- Full Copa America fixtures schedule
Martinez's stunning strike came in the 71st minute and Martinez's fellow substitute Duvan Zapata made sure Colombia took all the points by pouncing from close range to knock in a cross from Jefferson Lerma 15 minutes later.
Colombia had looked stronger in the first half but Argentina were a different beast when Rodrigo de Paul replaced Angel di Maria immediately after the interval and Messi was able to find space to cause some problems.
Messi wasted the best chance of the game before Martinez's piledriver broke the deadlock when he skewed a rebound wide from close range, and also went on a thrilling solo run into the area but could not get a shot away.
A mass brawl ensued when Messi was cut down by Colombia's Juan Cuadrado in the second half while Argentina midfielder Leandro Paredes fizzed two shots at goal.
A goal from Lionel Scaloni's side looked imminent but Colombia's usual talisman James Rodriguez split their defence with an impressive long pass to Martinez, who came on early in the game after Luis Muriel was forced off injured.
Martinez's stunning strike floored Argentina and although they came back with a couple more attempts, they never looked like scoring.
Colombia top Group B with three points ahead of Qatar's meeting with Paraguay on Sunday.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
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Don't do this, Afghanistan. There is another way.
There are alternatives to letting chaos overwhelm you. There are brighter timelines, waiting to be seized, in which dysfunction does not define your World Cup. Your opponents, South Africa, might be battling demons from their past. Elsewhere, the likes of Sri Lanka are groaning under the weight of their galactic-scale ineptitude - their manager having recently complained to the ICC about pitches, the team bus, hotels, training facilities, and probably about the photo on his official accreditaiton making him look chubby when all the other managers look sharp and handsome. But there is no reason to follow these established sides down the moronic paths they have picked out for themselves. You can be better. You should at least try.
In this World Cup so far, though, perhaps you have been the most defective outfit, saved only from more intensive media scrutiny by low expectations. Twice in two matches now, oppositions have shellacked Afghanistan with the ball, then punched the lights out with the bat. A trend has developed - a hopeful opening stand ended by a shot of breathtaking daftness, followed by a middle order that falls over like rows of library shelves crashing into each other, before the lower order looks as if it is rolling up its sleeves and readying itself for a fight, before promptly turning heel and fleeing the moment they see the size of the other guy.
WATCH on Hotstar (India only) - Full highlights
But there can be a universe in which Hazratullah Zazai does not spot a bouncer from the uber-quick Kagiso Rabada, and hole out attempting to clear the one deep fielder on the leg side, at deep square leg. The success percentage of that shot is so poor, it is possibly lower than the number of teams the ICC is planning to admit to their next World Cup. There can be a future match, in which wickets three, four, five, six and seven don't fall in the space of eight runs, multiple batsmen basically tripping over each other in their race back to the pavilion. Only Rashid Khan, with his 35 off 25, gave the innings some semblance of professionalism.
Then there is the selection. Maybe folks who make these decisions feel that normal rules don't apply to Afghanistan. It's not hard to see why they might. This team has risen to compete at a 10-team World Cup when 20 years ago, there was really no such thing as Afghan cricket. This is plainly astonishing. That Afghanistan are the only nation at the tournament not to have either borne or applied the yoke of the British empire also makes them exceptional.
But not so exceptional, that, you know, basic logic does not apply. You inexplicably drop your tournament top-scorer - a batsman who hit Afghanistan's only half-century against Australia, and made the team's best score in another game - and you should expect to weaken your top order. Najibullah Zadran's replacement in this match was Asghar Afghan, the jilted captain (its own little controversy). Instead of a batsman who has twice given substance to Afghanistan's innings this tournament, you had one who hit his fifth ball back to bowler Imran Tahir.
Captain Gulbadin Naib's justification was that Asghar was the senior player, and that he commanded a place in the top order the moment he became fit again. Okay, but Afghanistan had failed to make 200 in two matches on the trot. When you have a buffet of misfiring batsmen to choose from, why drop the guy in form? What next from the shooting-yourself-in-the-foot playbook? Batsmen have to hold the bat with their teeth? Bowlers have to do "the worm" to the bowling crease instead of running up? Fielders have to fill their pants with rocks to weigh themselves down?
These are not serious suggestions, by the way, Afghanistan. You don't have to do any of this.
On the field, Afghanistan engaged in yet more shambolism. Asghar failed to account for the spin on a ball coming to him at third man, toppled over like grain silo when he tried to correct his course, and ended up not getting a hand on the ball, which dribbled mockingly past him to the boundary. Rahmat Shah misjudged the trajectory of a ball at midwicket, ran in for a catch that he might not have made with five-metre long hands, and ended up letting the ball skid over the rope. There were more misfields, overthrows, on-field gesticulating, and a general air of despair over the performance.
After four matches, Afghanistan are now the only team without a victory. Some of this was expected, but their meekness over the last two games was not. In addition to the losses, there has also been a controversy over Mohammad Shahzad's exit from the World Cup, and rumours that administrative interference is contributing to all this on-field bungling. Their campaign is teetering, but it doesn't have to be this way. They don't have to fall spectacularly to pieces on cricket's biggest stage, like Sri Lanka in 1999, or India and Pakistan in 2007, or England in 2015, 2007, 2003, 1999 and so on.
The established cricket world tends toward farce. The bigger nations are either sacking coaches with every new moon, having their boards strung up in the courts for serious breaches, alienating vast swathes of their own populations by embracing elitism, facing serious credibility problems in the aftermath of cheating scandals, or fighting constantly with their own players. Afghanistan don't have to follow suit. But right now it seems like they are.
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Colombia put Messi, Argentina in early Copa hole
Published in
Breaking News
Saturday, 15 June 2019 18:08
Roger Martinez scored an outstanding goal as Colombia beat Lionel Messi's Argentina 2-0 in a Copa America Group B opener on Saturday that burst into life after a sluggish start.
In a match that feature a plethora of stars such as Messi, Sergio Aguero, Radamel Falcao, and James Rodriguez, it was Martinez who put Colombia up with a booming strike in the 71st minute.
The loss puts Argentina in an early hole at the tournament where they have finished runners-up in four the past five editions. For Messi, it adds more pressure as the Barcelona star tries to win his first senior trophy at the international level.
- Copa America: All you need to know
- Full Copa America fixtures schedule
Martinez's stunning strike came in the 71st minute and Martinez's fellow substitute Duvan Zapata made sure Colombia took all the points by pouncing from close range to knock in a cross from Jefferson Lerma 15 minutes later.
Colombia had looked stronger in the first half but Argentina were a different beast when Rodrigo de Paul replaced Angel di Maria immediately after the interval and Messi was able to find space to cause some problems.
Messi wasted the best chance of the game before Martinez's piledriver broke the deadlock when he skewed a rebound wide from close range, and also went on a thrilling solo run into the area but could not get a shot away.
A mass brawl ensued when Messi was cut down by Colombia's Juan Cuadrado in the second half while Argentina midfielder Leandro Paredes fizzed two shots at goal.
A goal from Lionel Scaloni's side looked imminent but Colombia's usual talisman James Rodriguez split their defence with an impressive long pass to Martinez, who came on early in the game after Luis Muriel was forced off injured.
Martinez's stunning strike floored Argentina and although they came back with a couple more attempts, they never looked like scoring.
Colombia top Group B with three points ahead of Qatar's meeting with Paraguay on Sunday.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
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