Sport

Sunday’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway was the first race of the Round of 12 in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, and it served as a turning point in the direction of the championship chase. Martin Truex Jr. won again, which wasn’t much of a surprise, while Chase Elliott remained a contender with yet another second-place finish. Kevin Harvick completed the podium, making…

MLS commissioner Don Garber could jazz up his product without really hurting it. (Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images for NYC & Company) It ain’t broke, but let’s fix it anyway. Although Major League Soccer has made enormous strides over the past two decades, some creative tinkering might woo an even wider American audience and ensure a greater cash flow. I’ve already proposed dumping the Brit-obsessed franchise nicknames, such as F.C. and…

All images via Sonoma Raceway California’s governor declared a state of emergency with several wildfires across the Sonoma and Napa counties Monday, some of which climbed the hills near NASCAR track Sonoma Raceway. After confusion on social media as to whether the track was on fire, the speedway’s president confirmed the facility is OK. Sonoma Raceway is a 2.52-mile road course on the NASCAR circuit in Sonoma, California, which says…

Martin Truex Jr. is originally from New Jersey, but he’s making Charlotte Motor Speedway something of a second home. He won the Coca-Cola 600 last season at the track and came third at this year’s iteration, building something of a reputation here. That he won Sunday’s Bank of America 500, his sixth win this year, only adds to that. Truex was mostly a non-factor in the first two stages of…

NASCAR didn’t want to place Jimmie Johnson in double jeopardy Sunday, so he wasn’t penalized when a crew member replaced a lug nut outside his pit box during the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. “It would have been paramount to him serving two penalties,” said NASCAR spokesman Kurt Colbert. “We allowed it in the interest of safety, too.” The incident happened during a pit stop that resulted…

Health workers spray insecticide to combat Zika-carrying mosquitoes under the bleachers of the Sambódrome in Rio de Janeiro in January 2016. Leo Correa/AP hide caption toggle caption Leo Correa/AP Health workers spray insecticide to combat Zika-carrying mosquitoes under the bleachers of the Sambódrome in Rio de Janeiro in January 2016. Leo Correa/AP In the spring of 2016, there was a frenzy over the threat of Zika virus at Brazil’s Olympic…

RELATED: Full iRacing schedule/results The NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze Series Powered by iRacing heads to the virtual Homestead-Miami Speedway for Tuesday’s Championship 4 finale for the 2017 season. Four drivers, Ray Alfalla, Logan Clampitt, Ryan Luza and Bobby Zalenski, remain in the hunt for the $10,000 first-place prize as $15,000 in prizes are at stake in NASCAR’s premiere eSports series featuring the cars and tracks of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup…

Rain has wreaked havoc with NASCAR’s opening race for the second round of the playoffs. All practice was canceled Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and the start of Sunday’s race has already been moved up an hour to give NASCAR a bigger window to complete the 500-mile event. It’s not the Chamber of Commerce weekend that Charlotte officials had hoped for when they rearranged the schedule. This event has traditionally…

MOUNT SKOKOMISH WILDERNESS, Olympic National Forest — Once common here, martens — sleek, bright-eyed mammals less than half the weight of a small house cat — appear to have virtually disappeared from their mountain redoubts. Or have they? Scientists are trying to find out what is going on with the elusive native of these mountain forests, and why. In the past 16 years, in remote camera surveys in which hundreds…

NASCAR has moved the start of Sunday’s race up one hour to 1:10 p.m. ET because of a strong threat of rain. The Charlotte Motor Speedway race had traditionally been a Saturday night event, but was rained out last year because of Hurricane Matthew. It was held the next day, a gorgeous Sunday in North Carolina. So Charlotte officials this year move the race to Sunday, but rain again is…

Since 1990, the U.S. men’s national team has qualified for the World Cup, the quadrennial soccer spectacle, seven successive times, making it one of only seven countries in the world to do so. This uninterrupted success is due, in part, to the fact that the United States, situated in a region that has few soccer powers, typically faces relatively weak opponents in its qualifying tournament. On Friday, however, in Orlando,…

MOUNT SKOKOMISH WILDERNESS, Olympic National Forest — Once common here, martens — sleek, bright-eyed mammals less than half the weight of a small house cat — appear to have virtually disappeared from their mountain redoubts. Or have they? Scientists are trying to find out what is going on with the elusive native of these mountain forests, and why. In the past 16 years, in remote camera surveys in which hundreds…

As riot police clashed with huge crowds in Barcelona during last weekend’s banned Catalonian independence referendum, the city’s soccer team played a game in front of 98,000 empty seats after closing its Camp Nou stadium amid safety fears. Hours later, Real Madrid kicked off another game to the cheers of supporters waving Spanish flags and placards declaring “Todos somos España” (We are all Spain) and “Viva España!” (Long live Spain!)….

Kyle Busch was the king at pole position in the first round of the NASCAR playoffs (he won it twice in three races and came second last week at Dover), but his streak of excellence came to an end Friday night. None of that is to say that Busch was poor, as he still qualified fourth. But Denny Hamlin, currently seventh in the standings, was better and took the pole…

It’s getting harder nowadays for sports organizations like NASCAR to just stick to sports. Even as they face the challenge of wooing an increasingly diverse and distracted fan base, politics keep trickling in. The issue has been highlighted recently with NFL players protesting during the national anthem. President Donald Trump brought new attention to the controversy when he reprimanded protesting players while praising NASCAR fans who did not kneel. Like…

Kyle Busch was the king at pole position in the first round of the NASCAR playoffs (he won it twice in three races and came second last week at Dover), but his streak of excellence came to an end Friday night. None of that is to say that Busch was poor, as he still qualified fourth. But Denny Hamlin, currently seventh in the standings, was better and took the pole…

It’s getting harder nowadays for sports organizations like NASCAR to just stick to sports. Even as they face the challenge of wooing an increasingly diverse and distracted fan base, politics keep trickling in. The issue has been highlighted recently with NFL players protesting during the national anthem. President Donald Trump brought new attention to the controversy when he reprimanded protesting players while praising NASCAR fans who did not kneel. Like…