I Dig Sports
CONCORD, N.C. — The sharp end of next year’s World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series season got a big boost this week with the announcement that New Mexico’s Vado Speedway Park will host the tour’s Jan. 2-5 opening act.
The Outlaws will be the first major sanctioning body to invade the state-of-the-art, three-eighths-mile clay oval, a fitting beginning for the facility and for the series as it launches into the new decade.
“We are excited to be the inaugural big event sanctioning body at Vado Speedway Park. It’s an incredible facility and really is exciting from our perspective,” said World Racing Group President and Chief Operating Officer Tom Deery. “It’s also heartwarming that they selected us to christen the track; it’s definitely something that is appreciated by all of us and we hope to put on a great show for the track and for the fans in January.”
The Battle at the Border is an event that World Racing Group officials hope will be much more than just a different locale.
Deery noted that racing at Vado will offer a new flair for drivers as they kick off 2020, as well as offer a stronger bridge between the end of the previous season and the beginning of the new one by shortening the offseason by a full month.
“This new event will certainly give a different feel to the start of the new season,” Deery noted. “Any of our industry observers recognize that this has really become a 12-month-a-year sport, whether you’re talking about sprint car racing or late model racing, largely in part because of all the special events that are happening now.
“In the past, we’ve started the season before the DIRTcar Nationals, with the Winter Freeze at Screven (Motorsports Park) — so it’s not a move that’s unprecedented, by any means,” he added. “It’s been something we’ve experimented with and done in the past. It’s just different now because it’s a few weeks ahead of the usual dates for the Screven races.
“With the ability now to connect with race fans and the desire of our fans to not be disconnected for a couple of months, this gives us a great opportunity to keep that fan relationship strong and present a couple of really great shows.”
The Battle at the Border becomes the fourth major January auto-racing event on the docket for next year, joining the 14th annual Wild West Shootout for dirt late models at Arizona Speedway, the 34th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals for midgets at Oklahoma’s Tulsa Expo Raceway and the recently-announced Sunshine Nationals at Florida’s Volusia Speedway Park.
While it was once a month for teams to rest, rebuild and recharge, January has now become one of the busiest racing months on the calendar.
“If you look around, you see the success that has swirled around the Arizona races (the Wild West Shootout) in January, the success of the Chili Bowl (Nationals) and now, the enthusiasm we have with the Sunshine Nationals at Volusia … to have an event in January is not so much of an oddity anymore,” Deery explained. “It’s really something that gives us a chance to highlight our sport to a lot of people who may not always be able to access it at a weekly track somewhere else, but this may give them an opportunity to view it or go to a more friendly climate for a race.”
Deery hopes the Vado event allows the World of Outlaws late model field to tap into a previously-untouched fan base for the series, with next year’s inaugural event becoming the platform to grow the tour’s popularity on the West Coast and beyond.
“Part of the beauty of the January date for this event is that it really is an event that will stand on its own,” Deery said. “We don’t have to worry about booking it or logistical travel or other things like that. That allows us to visit more far-reaching places like New Mexico and come to markets that perhaps we haven’t been able to broach in the past. The New Mexico area is unique, as well, because there are a lot of race fans who have been in that part of the world who have been there for either the two tracks there — El Paso and Las Cruces — or are there for this new facility at Vado Speedway Park.
“We’ve got a built-in customer base there, and then you have all the folks who spend their winters in the Southern climates who just want to see some great racing,” he continued. “It’s just a good mixture and a great opportunity.”
MARTINSVILLE, Ind. – Clint Bowyer Racing driver Don O’Neal will miss multiple Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series races as he recovers from an off-track knee injury.
The injury was suffered at Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney, S.C. on June 14. O’Neal underwent surgery on Wednesday and has begun the recovery process.
“Don O’Neal has been a longtime member of the CBR family and we are cheering him along for a speedy recovery,” said team owner Clint Bowyer. “I know Don is disappointed in this setback, but he will be back at the track very soon.”
In O’Neal’s absence, two-time Lernerville Speedway track champion and recent Firecracker 100 preliminary night winner Michael Norris will pilot the No. 5 DeKalb/Crawford Outdoor Rocket during LOLMDS events at Tazewell (Tenn.) Speedway and Kentucky’s Florence Speedway this weekend.
Clint Bowyer Racing confirmed Norris in a Twitter post released on Thursday.
Fitting the seat and getting ready to roll this weekend @Tazspeedway and @FlorenceSpdwy. Good luck @TheCrusherKid. pic.twitter.com/zpjqK5HAtY
— Bowyer Dirt (@bowyerdirt) June 27, 2019
The team has confirmed that the No. 5 will continue to compete in the hunt for the 2019 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series owner’s championship, though a long-term plan beyond the upcoming weekend has yet to be announced.
O’Neal, a mainstay on the LOLMDS and the 2014 series champion, is expected to be out of action for eight to 12 weeks while he recovers.
LEXINGTON, Ohio – The Indy Pro 2000 Championship presented by Cooper Tires and the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship wrapped up a two-day test Thursday at the 2.258-mile, 13-turn Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Thirty drivers participated in the outing as the championship battles in both Road to Indy presented by Cooper Tires ladder series continue to intensify.
Exclusive Autosport’s Danial Frost, 17, was on point in Indy Pro 2000, posting the fastest time overall with a best lap of 1:16.2167 (106.654 mph) in the No. 68 Den-Jet Entry.
Frost, who lies fourth in the championship and only seven points out of third, has impressed in his rookie season to date, with a win and three additional podiums in the first five races.
He is rebounding from a difficult stretch last weekend in Road America, where he failed to finish both races.
“I’m really happy with getting the quickest time overall during the official Indy Pro 2000 test at Mid-Ohio,” said Frost. “Obviously, we are still looking for time to gain however the crew and I worked hard and developed our car very well over the two days. We are looking very competitive for when we get back in July.”
Current Indy Pro 2000 points leader Rasmus Lindh of Juncos Racing claimed bragging rights on the first day of testing, posting the fastest time in two of the three sessions to top the charts, and ended up second overall by only a tenth of a second to Frost.
Kyle Kirkwood of RP Motorsport USA followed up a superb performance with a pair of race wins at Road America to emerge third on the speed charts, followed by Parker Thompson of Abel Motorsports and Kirkwood’s teammate Ian Rodriguez.
While the sixth and final test session was canceled due to a severe thunderstorm which blanketed the area, it was newcomer Jak Crawford of DEForce Racing who turned heads in USF2000 by setting the bar with the fastest overall lap of 1:21.3106 (99.972 mph) aboard the No. 52 RE/MAX entry.
Crawford, 14, made his USF2000 debut in May at the Indianapolis Grand Prix and has three top-six finishes to his credit in five starts.
“I feel good about our speed,” said Crawford. “We spent time developing the car for what I like. It should help going forward. I’m excited where we are now. Thanks to DEForce Racing for taking the time to develop the car and Scott Speed for spending the first day with me. I look forward to working more with him in the future.”
Hot on Crawford’s heels were championship points leader Braden Eves of Cape Motorsports and current series runner-up and recent race winner Hunter McElrea of Pabst Racing, who set the fastest time overall Wednesday.
The trio were separated by .0362 seconds, with another newcomer in Francisco “Kiko” Porto, also of DEForce Racing, only a further .055 seconds in arrears. Pabst Racing’s Colin Kaminsky was another .0788 seconds back to complete the top five.
The St. Louis Blues have re-signed defenseman Carl Gunnarsson to a two-year, $3.5 million contract, the team announced Thursday.
Gunnarsson would have become an unrestricted free agent on Monday.
Gunnarsson, 32, has 28 goals in 581 career games, but one stands out above the rest. Gunnarsson scored in overtime of Game 2 to knot the Stanley Cup Final, which St. Louis went on to win over the favored Boston Bruins.
Gunnarsson had clanged a shot off the pipe late in the third period of Game 2. He confirmed that, during the intermission before the OT, he told Blues coach Craig Berube that he just wanted another chance. The conversation took place at the urinals.
Before the big goal, it was a trying season for the Swede. He played in only 25 regular-season games as he recovered from ACL surgery. He then missed time in the playoffs with another lower-body injury.
Gunnarsson is coming off a three-year, $8.7 million contract. He also played five years for Toronto.
Hurricanes buy out final year of Marleau's contract
The Carolina Hurricanes announced Thursday that they have bought out the final year of veteran forward Patrick Marleau's contract.
Marleau, 39, will be free to sign with any team beginning Monday. He had one year and $6.25 million left on a three-year deal he originally signed with Toronto.
The buyout was expected after Carolina had taken on Marleau's contract in a trade with the Maple Leafs last week.
Because Marleau signed as an over-35 player, the full $6.25 million hit will count against the Carolina cap.
Marleau, a three-time All-Star who ranks fifth all time in NHL games played (1,657), had 16 goals and 21 assists this past season. Among active players, he ranks second in goals (551), fifth in assists (615) and fourth in points (1,166).
Lashley fires career-best 63 as first alternate to take early lead in Detroit
DETROIT – Nate Lashley knows what it feels like to be the odd man out.
Last week’s Travelers Championship field filled up with Lashley on the outside looking in, sitting at first alternate and failing to receive a tee time. He started on the wrong side of the bubble this week at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, where he got to Detroit early for an unsuccessful bid to Monday qualify his way into the 156-man field.
But Lashley eventually caught a break, moving up again to first alternate and ultimately snagging the last spot in the field when David Berganio withdrew Wednesday. Lashley then made the most of his opportunity, shooting a career-best 63 to take an early two-shot lead at 9 under.
“When you’re first alternate it’s not a whole lot of fun, that feeling of only missing getting in the event by a spot, by one person,” Lashley said. “We’ll see how it goes tomorrow. Hopefully I can go out there and play like today, play relaxed golf and have some fun.”
Lashley earned his PGA Tour card for the first time in 2018 after more than a decade as a pro, and this season he is playing with conditional status. The 36-year-old has four top-25 finishes in 14 starts this season, highlighted by a T-8 finish at the Puerto Rico Open.
But he’s in position for bigger things this week in Detroit after an opener that featured an even split between birdies and pars, including five circles over his final six holes.
“Obviously I made a lot of putts,” Lashley said. “I putted well, I drove it pretty well. I hit it really well on the back nine, but at 9 under you’re kind of doing everything well.”
Lashley would love to contend for a maiden Tour victory, or even snag one of two tickets to The Open that are up for grabs this week. But his goals are more immediate, as he started the week 132nd in season-long points with his 2020 status still hanging in the balance. After riding both sides of the bubble the last two weeks, he’s well aware of what each birdie and par save can do for his long-term prospects.
“Hopefully I can play well this week and continue to play well and lock up my card and go from there,” he said.
Lashley leads as Woodland, DJ slow to start at Rocket Mortgage Classic
Detroit Golf Club celebrated its PGA Tour debut with a birdie-fest Thursday at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, but not everyone got the invite, including the recent U.S. Open champion. Here’s where thing stand after the first round in Detroit:
Leaderboard: Nate Lashley (-9), Ryan Armour (-8), Nick Watney (-8), Charles Howell III (-7), Talor Gooch (-7), Chez Reavie (-7), Stewart Cink (-7), Rory Sabbatini (-7), Adam Schenk (-7), Chase Wright (-7)
What it means: Coming off a T-28 finish at the U.S. Open, Nate Lashley is having another strong week. He failed to Monday-qualify into this week’s event in the Motor City, but he got in the field via the alternate list. He followed with a 9-under 63 to get his week started.
Round of the day: Lashley’s 63 marked a career-best round for the 36-year-old Tour pro. He went bogey-free and birdied five of his final six holes.
Best of the rest: Armour started his day on the back nine and birdied five of his first seven holes. He has just three top-10s since winning the 2017 Sanderson Farms Championship. Watney matched Armour with a bogey-free 65 of his own in the late wave. The 38-year-old hasn't won on the PGA Tour since 2012.
Last week’s Travelers winner, Chez Reavie, was part of a group of 65s.
Biggest disappointment: Competing for the first time since his U.S. Open victory, Gary Woodland shot 1-over 73. He bogeyed six of his first 11 holes but was able salvage a respectable score with four birdies in his final six holes.
Main storyline entering Friday: Can Woodland and others, such as Dustin Johnson, get back on track and make the weekend? Johnson, who has made 20 straights cuts on Tour (just three behind Tommy Fleetwood and Hideki Matsuyama for the longest active streak), carded an even-par 70 as his putting struggles carried over from Pebble Beach and he double-bogeyed two par 3s.
Shot of the day: Rickie Fowler opened with a 4-under 68, a round that included this slam-dunk eagle at the par-5 17th hole.
Even after opening 68, Reed's putter still cold despite store visit
DETROIT – After polishing off a bogey-free 68 to open the Rocket Mortgage Classic, Patrick Reed made a beeline from the scoring trailer to the putting green at Detroit Golf Club.
There’s work still to be done for the former Masters champ, despite an opening-round score that most in the field would covet. Reed was solid from tee to green, never truly threatening a dropped shot. But the birdie chances that others found so plentiful were hard to convert on the greens, as Reed’s 6-footer on the third hole proved to be his longest made putt of the day and one of only three makes outside the 3-foot range.
While he’s inside the top 35 on the leaderboard, Reed lost more than a shot and a half to the field with putter in hand.
“I felt like I putted pretty well, the ball just didn’t want to go in the hole. And that’s kind of been the case recently,” Reed said. “You feel like you’re going to break your knees with all the knee-jerking because the ball looks like it’s going in, but it just doesn’t want to go in.”
Reed finished T-30 last week at the Travelers Championship, but upon arrival in Detroit Monday he made a quick detour with hopes of solving his putting woes. But rather than visit a private club or instructor, he walked into a local Club Champion store, which offers club-fitting options to the public.
According to Reed, the draw to that specific store was their Science and Motion (SAM) putting lab, and it’s something he’s done before when on the road for long stretches of time.
“I went just to check to make sure that my specs were right,” Reed said. “For me personally, the best way to do it is if I can find a SAM lab. Club Champions have those, and those have high enough cameras and stuff that you can actually see what’s going on. So you can tell by that rather than machines, since every machine has a different variance. But cameras don’t really lie.”
Reed’s store visit confirmed that his putting specs were on point, but that extra bit of confirmation didn’t translate into any additional makes during Thursday’s opener. Still without a top-10 finish in 2019, he’s optimistic that things will turn around on the greens sooner rather than later as he continues a stretch of four starts in as many weeks.
“It feels really, really close. I just need one day of the ball to fall,” Reed said. “And once the ball starts falling, they’ll come in bunches and you’ll start seeing low numbers.”
In first start as a major champ, Woodland (73) claws back from dead last
DETROIT – Gary Woodland’s first round as a major champion finished as he had hoped – but only after starting with disaster.
Woodland nearly holed his final approach shot Thursday at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, tapping in and smiling at greenside fans as he scooped his fourth birdie over his final six holes. But that rally still left him with a 1-over 73 on a day when most of the field bettered par, as the U.S. Open champ at one point found himself in last place among the 156-man field before bouncing back.
“I was off from the start,” Woodland said. “Probably had the best warm-up session of the year, was great on the range. My timing was off. I was probably really excited to play today, I was excited to be out there. … I was just quick.”
Woodland spent two days after the U.S. Open doing a cross-country media tour, and he didn’t get on the ground in Detroit until Tuesday afternoon. Still receiving congratulations for his major victory at every turn, he admitted his game plan may have taken a hit because of his whirlwind itinerary.
“I definitely didn’t get prepared as much as I like to, but that’s no excuse,” Woodland said. “Timing was just off, but I can fix that. I’ll go home and get some rest and we’ll be back at it early in the morning.”
Woodland bogeyed his very first hole, and after making only four bogeys over 72 holes en route to his breakthrough win at Pebble Beach he stumbled to four straight bogeys on Nos. 8-11 to drop to the bottom of the pack.
He steadied things from there, sparking a turnaround with a birdie on No. 13, and there’s still hope that Woodland can build on his late momentum and play his way back into the mix. But with the cut line likely in the range of 4 under, he realizes there’s work to be done if he’s going to avoid an early exit in what is expected to be his final start before The Open.
“It’s definitely out there,” he said. “Obviously you saw 9 under out there today, and there’s four par-5s that I can get home to. Drive the ball in play and attack from there.”
DJ not ready to pack it in after struggling on par-3s at Rocket Mortgage Classic
DETROIT – Famous for carving up the longest holes on a given tournament venue, Dustin Johnson was undone by the shortest ones during his opening round at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
Johnson birdied each of his final two holes to finally get under par at Detroit Golf Club, but on a day when 9 under took the lead and most of the field broke par, a 1-under 71 didn’t do him any favors. Johnson’s issues stemmed from two par-3s, where errant shots led to difficult pitches and ultimately double bogeys. Johnson needed two swipes to get over a greenside bunker on No. 11, then faced an awkward bunker shot on No. 5 after short-siding himself off the tee.
“Two par-3s I made two doubles, and that’s just unacceptable,” Johnson said. “Had myself in a poor position and then didn’t make it any better after that. But other than that it was an OK round, just the two par-3s, the two doubles. If I par those two holes, it’s a decent day.”
Johnson rallied down the stretch, including a chip-in birdie from behind the green on the par-5 17th. As the pre-tournament favorite and the only player in the field ranked inside the top 10 in the world rankings, Johnson isn’t ready to pack it in despite his opening-round struggles with iron in hand.
“I mean, I felt good with the golf game,” Johnson said. “I think come out tomorrow morning and shoot a good score, I’ll be back in this tournament.”
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