Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr was the hot topic on Friday even as Kyle Busch won the pole at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia.
Busch is to start in front today in the second race of the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup season after edging Ryan Newman in a close battle.
Busch overcame handling problems in the first two rounds of qualifying to win the pole with a lap of 184.652mph (297.17kph) in the third round. Busch won his 28th career pole and his first at Atlanta. Busch beat Newman’s 187.419mph.
Photo: AFP
Wallace is to start 19th, in the middle of the 36-car field. Much of the talk remained on his second-place finish in last week’s Daytona 500.
Wallace was the first black driver in the Daytona 500 field since 1969. The second-place finish was the highest for a black driver and any rookie.
Today he will be the first black NASCAR Cup racer in an Atlanta race since Bill Lester finished 38th in 2006.
Ryan Blaney, who will start 26th, said that last week Dale Earnhardt Jr was so worried about Wallace that he arranged for Blaney to provide counsel for the rookie.
“He was like ‘Hey, I need you to go call Bubba and calm him down because I think he was getting overwhelmed with all the media and the pressure that was kind of being thrown upon him and we haven’t even gotten started yet,’” Ryan Blaney said.
Blaney, who is friends with both Earnhardt and Wallace, said he encouraged Wallace to enjoy the “well-deserved opportunity.”
Blaney said the second-place finish proved Wallace “dealt with it really well.”
Kevin Harvick qualified third, followed by Daniel Suarez.
Defending champion Brad Keselowski qualified fifth.
Austin Dillon, coming off the win at Daytona, will start 25th.
Defending NASCAR Cup champion Martin Truex will start 35th after his car did not pass inspection. As a penalty, car chief Blake Harris was suspended for the weekend and a 30-minute practice was enforced yesterday.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB