I Dig Sports
CONCORD, N.C. – Brad Keselowski kept Roger Penske’s strong Sunday going with another convincing stage victory during the second stage of the 60th annual Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Keselowski used fresh tires to power from 11th to first on a seven-lap sprint to the stage break, taking the top spot away from Alex Bowman on lap 199 and running out to a four car-length win in the stage.
The 2012 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion has now won both stages so far in Sunday night’s race, leading 73 of the first 200 laps on NASCAR’s longest night.
Bowman, who has finished second in the last three Cup Series races, finished second to Keselowski and hopes to break his bridesmaid curse with a victory at the checkered flag that really counts later on.
“We started off pretty bad tonight; we were way too tight,” Bowman admitted. “Greg and the guys have made some really good adjustments to make it better, though, and we’re closer to where we need to be. Right now, we’re a bit free in and a little tight off, but we’re much better and I think we have a shot.”
Kyle Busch crossed the stripe in third, followed by Chase Elliott and polesitter William Byron, giving Hendrick Motorsports three of the top five positions in the stage.
Kevin Harvick, Ryan Blaney, Kurt Busch, Joey Logano and Kyle Larson completed the points-scoring drivers inside the top 10 at the second stage break of the night.
Three cautions, all for tire failures, dotted the second stage. Chris Buescher hit the wall in turn four on lap 127, Denny Hamlin tagged the barrier in turn two at lap 161 and Ryan Preece made contact in turn one with 12 laps to go before the second stage break of the night.
Following the caution flag being displayed, the field was brought down pit road and parked on pit road – just before the start/finish line – on lap 201 for a 30-second moment of remembrance in honor of Memorial Day and the armed service members who have given their lives in service to the United States.
Stage 1 Sidebar: Blown Tire Forces Early Charlotte Exit For Jones
Stage 1 Report: Keselowski Tops Opening Stage Of Coca-Cola 600
SPEED SPORT IndyCar Correspondent Bruce Martin recaps all the action from the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
CONCORD, N.C. – After hitting the wall during the first quarter of Sunday’s 60th annual Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Martin Truex Jr. rallied back to win the third stage of NASCAR’s longest race.
Truex had a back-and-forth battle with Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch just past the midpoint of the 100-lap segment, but took the lead at lap 260 and paced the final 41 laps for his second stage win of the season.
The Mayetta, N.J., veteran and 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion is seeking his second Coca-Cola 600 victory in the last four years.
“It’s kind of amazing, really,” said Truex of his stage win. “I don’t know what this thing looks like, but it was pretty bad after (hitting the wall), so I wasn’t sure what we’d have. I feel like we have a pretty good car now, though, so I guess that’s why you never give up on it. We’ve worked hard, the guys have done a good job and now we’re in position to make something happen.
“We’ll see where this last 100 laps goes, but it’s a special night and hopefully we can get a special win.”
After caution-laden stages to kick off the night, the only yellow flag of stage three waved at lap 251, when Truex tagged Bayley Currey around and sent the No. 52 Chevrolet into the inside wall off turn two.
Truex received no damage, however, and continued on to take the lead shortly thereafter.
Busch finished second at the stage break, 4.239 seconds back, followed by Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney and Kurt Busch.
Alex Bowman, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Joey Logano, Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin completed the points-scoring drivers in the top 10 at the third and final stage break of the night.
Brad Keselowski, who topped the first two stages, found himself mired in traffic after pit stops and ended up a distant 14th with 100 laps still to run.
Stage 1 Sidebar: Blown Tire Forces Early Charlotte Exit For Jones
Stage 1 Report: Keselowski Tops Opening Stage Of Coca-Cola 600
Stage 2 Report: Keselowski Edges Bowman In Second Stage At CMS
INDIANAPOLIS – The winner of the Indianapolis 500 is often the best driver with the strongest car.
On Sunday, Team Penske’s Simon Pagenaud had both.
His victory in Sunday’s 103rd Indianapolis 500 completed a month of May sweep at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the second-straight year. He joins teammate Will Power as the only drivers to win the IndyCar Grand Prix and the Indianapolis 500 in the same season.
The victory was the 18th Indianapolis 500 win for Team Penske and his third in the last five years.
Pagenaud led 116 laps – the most of any driver in an Indianapolis 500 since Dario Franchitti led 155 laps in 2010.
However, the Frenchman had another driver that was fighting for the title of best in the field. That was Alexander Rossi of Andretti Autosport, who turned Sunday’s race into an epic duel to the checkered flag.
Because of that, the 2019 Indianapolis 500 will go down as another great race in a long line of fantastic finishes at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
There were 29 lead changes in the race, an impressive number with the current Dallara chassis, although below the drafting days of the Dallara DW 12 chassis with the rear wheel pods.
Pagenaud pitted on lap 169 with a flawless final stop. Rossi pitted one lap later and was in and out after just nine seconds.
On lap 178, Rossi passed Pagenaud for the lead. Moments later, a huge crash in turn three involving Graham Rahal, Bourdais, Charlie Kimball, Felix Rosenqvist and Zach Veach brought out the red flag for 18 minutes.
During the red flag, Rossi radioed to his crew that he was, “Angrier than any other driver.”
When green flag racing resumed, there were 13 laps left and Rossi was determined to win. The battle between Rossi and Pagenaud was epic.
On lap 187 Rossi was the leader and Pagenaud passed him for the lead on the frontstretch. Rossi returned the favor to regain the lead in turn one on the next lap. One lap later, Pagenaud passed Rossi on the frontstretch.
At that point, Rossi decided to stay as close to Pagenaud’s rear as he could, waiting for the right moment to make what he hoped would be the race-winning pass.
With two laps remaining in the race, Rossi made the pass for the lead in turn one. But he couldn’t build a large enough gap over Pagenaud.
On lap 199, Pagenaud passed Rossi for the win in turn three. Next time by was the white flag and the lap after that, Pagenaud took the checkered flag in the Indianapolis 500 for the first time in his career by just .2086 of a second.
“We were able to get him back,” Pagenaud said. “Quite frankly I wasn’t really worried about getting back, I was just worried about the rhythm, when to get him back to finish first. There was a lot of planning, a lot of brake drafting, as well. It was a lot of fun, and obviously my teammates,
“I think about Juan Montoya, I think about Helio Castroneves, I think about Josef and Will (Power), and I think about Gil de Ferran, especially Rick Mears, as well, they’ve been teaching me so well the intricacy of driving on an oval, and I applied it today, and it worked.”
As Pagenaud celebrated the victory to the cheers of the huge crowd, Rossi spoke about his determined battle.
“We had the superior car, we just didn’t have it at the end,” Rossi said. “It’s going to be hard to get over, but it was a great day. Earlier in the race, there were a lot of lapped cars that wouldn’t move over. Fortunately, it didn’t make a difference in the end result.
“Blocking is disrespectful, but we will take care of that another day.”
Pagenaud kept his cool and knew he had better straight-line speed and horsepower when it mattered the most at the end of the race.
“Today was about attacking,” Pagenaud said. “We had our strategy meeting this morning, and we decided we were going to attack, we were going to control the day, and we were going to take our fate in our own hands. Destiny is what we decided to control.
“It was pretty cool. Obviously, everything played for us really well. The stars, like I’ve been saying, have aligned this month, incredibly, but especially today.”
Takuma Sato, the winner of the 101st Indianapolis 500 in 2017, was third followed by Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden and 2018 Indianapolis 500 winner Power.
After a winless and woeful 2018 season, Pagenaud has turned into a fighter this month of May at Indianapolis. It’s like someone flipped the switch and the driver from France is racing like a champion again.
“I think it’s fate, quite frankly,” Pagenaud said. “Obviously in racing you need a little bit of luck on your side. You need everything to go your way. So, it did today. I could do nothing wrong, quite frankly. Sometimes I can’t do anything right.
“That doesn’t mean I lost my talent, that doesn’t mean my team is not doing a good job. It’s just you have to accept that there’s a little bit of mystery out there that you can’t control. All you can do is the best you can and extract the best out of yourself in every situation. “
“The rest, it sorts itself out.”
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia -- The Rouyn-Noranda Huskies beat the Halifax Mooseheads one last time to win their first Memorial Cup.
Peter Abbandonato scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period and Rouyn-Noranda beat Halifax 4-2 on Sunday night in the winner-take-all major junior hockey finale.
Felix Bibeau, Joel Teasdale and Vincent Marleau also scored for the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League champion Huskies, and Samuel Harvey stopped 23 shots. Samuel Asselin and Raphael Lavoie scored for the Mooseheads.
Rouyn-Noranda beat Halifax in six games in the QMJHL final to win the President's Cup and edged the Mooseheads 4-3 on Wednesday night in the final round-robin game in the four-team tournament.
In the semifinal Friday night, Rouyn-Noranda beat the Ontario Hockey League champion Guelph Storm 6-4.
Kevin Na drew a line in the sand, and ultimately that proved to be the best recipe for success at the Charles Schwab Challenge. Here's how things ended at Colonial, where Na won by four shots for his second win in less than a year:
Leaderboard: Kevin Na (-13), Tony Finau (-9), Andrew Putnam (-8), C.T. Pan (-8), Jonas Blixt (-7)
What it means: Na started the final round with a two-shot lead, and he estimated after the third round that he needed to reach 12 under to put the tournament away. That prediction proved prophetic, as Na walked up the final fairway at 12 under with a victory assured before adding a final birdie putt for a little extra style. It's the third career victory for Na, but his second in less than a year after halting a lengthy victory drought last summer at The Greenbrier.
Round of the day: Na rocketed up the leaderboard with an 8-under 62 in the second round, but it was a clinical dissection of a historic venue Sunday that made the difference. Na made six birdies against two bogeys en route to a 4-under 66, widening his lead with four birdies over his first seven holes to signal to the other contenders that he had no plans to come back to the field.
Best of the rest: Putnam got his first career victory last summer in Reno, and he added another top finish with a closing 66 that gave him the clubhouse lead at one point. Putnam got off to a hot start, playing his first seven holes in 4 under, and added two more birdies coming home to notch his best result since a runner-up at the Sony Open in January.
Biggest disappointment: The putting magic ran out for Jordan Spieth. After riding a historic hot streak on the greens en route to a tie for second through three rounds, Spieth nearly went birdie-free before rolling in a 15-footer on the final green. Spieth shot a 2-over 72 that dropped him into a tie for eighth, eight shots behind Na's winning total, as his search for his first win since the 2017 Open continues.
Shot of the day: The Horrible Horseshoe of Nos. 3-5 has derailed many rounds at Colonial, but Na played it in under par thanks to a 32-foot make on the par-3 fourth. After stuffing a wedge on his second hole, Na made the lengthy putt to reach 2 under on his round and put a little distance between himself and the other players trying to chase him down.
Quote of the day: "When I was standing on the first tee, I looked at that wall and in my head I engraved my name on it." Na, who now joins the wall of champions that sits next to the first tee at Colonial.
Na gifts caddie 1973 Dodge Challenger after Colonial win
Caddie Kenny Harms has had Kevin Na's back for more than a decade, almost to a fault as evidenced by Saturday's round at Colonial.
So when Na broke through for the third PGA Tour victory of his career, he made sure his caddie knew the loyalty hasn't gone unnoticed.
Along with the $1.3 million winner's check, Na also received a restored 1973 Dodge Challenger for his victory at the Charles Schwab Challenge - which he immediately gifted to Harms.
"I don't know how my caddie convinced me to give him the car, but he's a good salesman I guess. He sold me into it," Na said after carding a final-round 68 to secure the four-stroke victory. "But I'm more than happy to give it to him. He deserves it."
Kevin Na wins a restored 1973 Dodge Challenger for his victory @CSChallengeFW, but he knew before walking off the final green he's flipping the keys to caddie Kenny Harms. "We're like brothers, and I'm more than happy to give it to him."
— Will Gray (@WillGrayGC) May 26, 2019
Na and Harms have been working together for 11 years, and the two had apparently come to an arrangement before this week's event started regarding the muscle car that was proudly displayed not far from the 18th green, an arrangement Na had no problem making good on, with one caveat - he wanted to rev the engine first:
With the win Kevin Na gets this 1973 Dodge Challenger car! pic.twitter.com/IRtx83wyOZ
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 26, 2019
He promised to give it to his caddie. pic.twitter.com/CyhIwLPP3Q
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 26, 2019
But first ... pic.twitter.com/FzQJVqEKOW
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 26, 2019
And it gets better. Not only did Na and his caddie have a deal before the event started, but Harms even called the victory in an Instagram post at the beginning of the week:
"I love you, man."
Over a decade of being friends, Kevin Na gave Kenny Harms a bonus he won't soon forget. ?#LiveUnderPar pic.twitter.com/O9hd3a326J
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 27, 2019
Gillis makes Champions cut after flying home, opts to WD
Cut sweats are few and far between on the PGA Tour Champions, but Tom Gillis ended up on the right side of one this week at the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship. Unfortunately for Gillis, he didn't come to that realization until after boarding a plane and flying home.
Gillis shot 9 over for 36 holes in difficult conditions at Oak Hill, and when he walked off the course Friday afternoon that total left him three shots off the projected cut line at the over-50 major. So he packed up his things, headed to the airport and flew from Rochester to his home in Michigan.
As Gillis told the Detroit News, he realized once he landed in Detroit that the cut line had actually ballooned to 9 over, meaning he had made it on the number. Faced with a choice of withdrawing or hopping back on a plane and returning for two more rounds in upstate New York, Gillis decided to stay in Michigan to celebrate Memorial Day with family at his lakeside home.
"I wasn't going back," Gillis said. "It was more about spending the weekend with family."
Gillis, 50, never won during a lengthy PGA Tour career but did have a pair of notable runner-up finishes: he was second at the 2012 Honda Classic behind Rory McIlroy, and he lost a playoff to Jordan Spieth at the 2015 John Deere Classic.
Gillis received unofficial, last-place money for his Oak Hill withdrawal. He has made six starts this year on PGA Tour Champions, withdrawing three times and topping out with a T-21 finish at the Mitsubishi Electric Classic.
Suh keeps USC alive at NCAAs; Penalty ends up costing South Carolina
FAYETTEVILLE, S.C. – Upon stepping out of scoring Sunday evening at Blessings Golf Club, USC senior Justin Suh started jumping up and down while screaming, “Let’s go!” About a half hour before, South Carolina retreated to the parking lot in silence.
Two different moods highlighted the closing moments of the third day of stroke play at the NCAA Championship.
Suh’s closing par on the par-4 18th hole put the finishing touches on a 4-under 68 that sealed the Trojans’ ticket to Monday’s final round as the 15th-place team at 36 over. Just two shots back, the Gamecocks saw their season come to an end in heartbreaking fashion – two days before freshman Ryan Hall was handed a three-shot penalty for slow play, which proved to be the difference.
“It hurts,” South Carolina head coach Bill McDonald said. “We had a lot of golf to play and we didn’t play well. The three strokes are big now, but it happened in the first round and we had plenty of time to make up for it.”
USC, the ninth-ranked team in the country, was just one shot better than South Carolina after the first 18 holes, shooting a disappointing 16 over, and equaled that score a round later.
“I can’t say that I was sure we were going to be fine,” USC head coach Chris Zambri said.
Zambri’s substitution backfired as Kyle Suppa shot 80 in place of Sam Kim, but the gritty Trojans hung tough. Kaito Onishi shot 74 despite triple and double bogeys. Issei Tanabe was 4 over after three holes and 5 over at the turn before carding a 4-under 32 back nine.
And Suh, the All-American standout, made just one bogey as he delivered the late heroics to keep USC’s season alive. Suh hit 6-iron from 206 yards to 35 feet at the par-3 17th hole. At the time, he didn’t know where the Trojans stood.
“I noticed Zambri in a good mood, though, so I knew we were close,” Suh said.
Suh cashed in the lengthy birdie putt, and after hitting his approach to 25 feet at the finishing hole, Zambri came to him and said, “All you need on that is good speed.”
That’s when Suh knew he needed only par. He lagged closed and tapped home the short putt to ignite his teammates and coaches standing nearby.
“He’s been the most amazing player that I’ve ever coached,” Zambri said. “I’m not surprised.”
Now, the Trojans will have to regroup for another charge on Monday. They’ll enter the final round just eight shots back of eighth-place Clemson. The top eight teams after Monday make match play, which begins Tuesday.
USC will tee off in the early groups beginning at 11 a.m. Tuesday, alongside Cal and Auburn, two teams that ballooned Sunday morning only to see the field come back to them. The Bears are seven back of eighth while the Tigers are six behind.
“We get a chance to live one more day,” Auburn head coach Nick Clinard said. “The winds the supposed to blow, and hopefully we’ll go out and post a number and see what happens. They have some fight left in them and they’re going to go out tomorrow with something to prove.”
South Carolina will return Monday for Will Miles to face off against Georgia’s Trent Phillips and UNLV’s Justin Kim in a three-for-one playoff at 9:15 a.m. for the ninth individual spot in the final round. It will be a bittersweet morning.
For much of the season, pace of play is loosely enforced in college golf. There are no checkpoints. There is no timing. No penalties are handed out.
But when the postseason begins, things are different. Penalties are handed out after the second missed checkpoint. Four of them have been assessed so far this week, though none were more costly than the one given to the Gamecocks.
South Carolina freshman Ryan Hall went out in the first group Friday morning and his group missed three of the four checkpoints. Time par is 5 hours, 5 minutes on a 7,550-yard demanding Blessings layout, and Hall’s group finished their rounds just three minutes over. Hall and LSU’s Nathan Jeansonne were each penalized three shots. Texas A&M’s Dan Erickson was not.
“There were multiple times where the two of them (Jeansonne and Stachler) had times over 45 seconds,” said NCAA committee chair Brad Hurlbut.
South Carolina head coach Bill McDonald understands the rules in place, but he also believes the system is flawed.
“I respect the rules officials and everyone involved in the tournament and what they’re trying to do, but I’ve been around this game a long time and I believe things should be looked at with common sense and equity,” McDonald said “I don’t fault the people involved at all. I just wonder was the system, what happened to us, applied to the rest of the field?”
McDonald said he walked 16 holes with Hall on Friday. He said players were running between shots and he was raking bunkers to help speed things up. He also noted that Hall’s group was more than a hole ahead of the group behind them and had caught up to a group that teed off on the opposite side.
“You do all you can, but it is difficult because they don’t see it all year,” McDonald said. “… There were bad times and missed checkpoints, [but] there were bad times and missed checkpoints in every round we played, every group I walked with.
“My point is, if we got three shots on that, why aren’t there shots flying all over the place?”
That is a fair question and one many coaches have asked. Unfortunately, it won’t be answered in time to save South Carolina’s season.
Johnny Russell scored a hat trick to help Sporting Kansas City snap a seven-match winless streak with a 3-2 victory over the visiting Seattle Sounders on Sunday.
The teams combined for three goals in eight minutes of the second half, after SKC led 2-0 at the break.
Russell got the first goal in the 29th minute on a low, left-footed line drive from just outside the box. Nicolas Hasler got possession with a nifty steal in his own half. He fed Yohan Croizet in the right flank. Croizet battled Kim Kee-hee for the ball, finally winning control and feeding Russell in the perfect position for his fifth goal of the year, placed in the far left corner.
Russell got the brace in the first minute of first-half stoppage time. Ilie Sanchez fed him unattended 15 yards past midfield on the right side. Russell worked his way toward the goal, dribbling through four defenders before firing another left-footer past Seattle keeper Stefan Frei from just outside the 6-yard box.
Raul Ruidiaz pulled one back for Seattle in the 63rd minute. Kelvin Leerdam put a nice spin move on Matt Besler in the box to get in behind, pulling SKC keeper Tim Melia away from the goal. Leerdam fed Ruidiaz, who blasted it into the net.
Russell answered just five minutes later. Kelyn Rowe found him unmarked on the right side of the 18-yard box. Russell bent a first-touch left-footer past Frei for his first hat trick as a member of SKC.
Seattle (7-2-5, 26 points) wouldn't go away quietly. Leerdam scored on a header off a corner kick in the 71st minute, the first goal Sporting have conceded on a set piece this season.
Sporting Kansas City (3-4-5, 14 points) entered 0-3-4 in their last seven MLS matches, while Seattle had been unbeaten in their last six (2-0-4).
Sporting may be without Besler again. In his second match since missing four matches with a strained left hamstring, he went down in the 78th minute with another apparent hamstring injury.
Phone: (800) 737. 6040
Fax: (800) 825 5558
Website: 
Email: 
