ATLANTA  Following the NBA’s lead, the NASCAR Cup Series plans a five-race, bracket-style tournament in the middle of the 2025 season, beginning with a night race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The competition, which features a $1 million reward for the winner, is part of a new media rights agreement that includes TNT.

The Atlanta-based cable network will air all five races in the tournament, beginning with a 400-mile race in its home market on June 28, 2025.

“Next year, having $1 million on the line, that’s for sure going to be a goal before the season starts and something that you and your team strategize around,” Larson said. “I am looking forward to it. The summer months get boring. It’s not dull, although it does become repetitive. “You lose some excitement.”

NASCAR planning in-season tournament in 2025, with opening race in Atlanta

Atlanta will host the inaugural tournament event, which has produced some of NASCAR’s most dramatic races since the circuit was reconfigured with more banking. The rest of the 36-race program will be released later.

Brandon Hutchison, president and general manager of the Atlanta track, stated that the venue was ready to offer racing after dark after being slated for two-day events this season. Receiving the first event of the new in-season tournament was a bonus.

“We have heard our fans loud and clear,” Hutchison stated. “We understand they wanted the night race back. We were overjoyed to even be able to consider giving it to them. Then, with TNT as a hometown broadcast partner, a home track, and the first season of the in-season bracket tournament in NASCAR history, we believe that June 28, 2025, will be a very exciting moment to be at Atlanta Motor Speedway.”

This season, the NBA introduced a competition that is based on in-season tournaments held by soccer leagues all over the world. The Los Angeles Lakers won the first event in December, defeating Indiana in a championship game hosted in Las Vegas.

NASCAR planning in-season tournament in 2025, with opening race in Atlanta

The NASCAR tournament will include the top 32 drivers from three seeding races, which will be staged soon before the Atlanta event and aired on Amazon Prime.

The drivers will be paired in head-to-head contests based on seeding, with the victors moving on to the next round in a bracket-style similar to the NCAA basketball championships.

The number of competitors will be decreased to 16 for Race 2, followed by the quarterfinals in Race 3, the semifinals in Race 4, and the final in Race 5.

“There has never been a better time to be a motorsports fan, and this new, first-ever in-season tournament will add a new competitive dynamic to NASCAR’s summer race weekends,” said Craig Barry, executive vice president and chief content officer of TNT Sports.

Hutchison stated that the Atlanta track will continue to hold two races in 2025; however, the full calendar is still pending.

This season, the 1.54-mile oval in suburban Hampton hosted the second points race of the year on Feb. 25 — a week after the Daytona 500 — with Daniel Suarez edging Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch in a three-way photo finish.

The NASCAR playoffs will begin with Atlanta’s second race in 2024 on September 8. Next year, the race will be moved to the in-season tournament rather than the playoffs.

NASCAR planning in-season tournament in 2025, with opening race in Atlanta

Denny Hamlin described the competition as “such a win for our sport and drivers” in a post on X, the social media platform that replaced Twitter. He playfully continued, “I’ll collect my $1 million royalty next season.”

Larson believes the tournament will be a much-needed pick-me-up during the summer slump.

“I think this bracket, or whatever you want to call it, is going to add a lot of excitement and more storylines,” he stated. “So I love it.”

SOURCE – (AP)

Spring, Texas – Simone Biles isn’t “cured.” Let’s start there.

A cure indicates finality. The ultimate and final victory.

If the gymnastics superstar had learned anything in the three years since those odd, unsure days in Tokyo when she prioritized her mental health and personal safety over her chase of additional Olympic gold, it is that the battle to defend oneself never truly ends. Only partially won.

It’s a lesson she learned in front of the entire world in Japan when Biles arrived as the face of the Summer Games only to withdraw from many competitions, including the team final because her body just stopped doing what her brain told it to do.

At that moment, Biles blamed “the twisties.” On the surface, she was correct. However, they emerged from something deeper and more difficult to define.

“She can’t even explain it (and) the doctors she sees probably can’t either,” said Laurent Landi, who has been coaching Biles with his wife Cecile since 2017. “It was a traumatic event that occurred at a horrible moment for her, and she was unable to deal with it. It’s as simple as this. She couldn’t function. “She couldn’t be a gymnast at the time.”

She can now, but the journey to this point — Biles will compete for the first time in 2024 at this weekend’s U.S. Classic — has been rough. It has taken a new perspective, at times a literal mother’s touch, and ongoing attention to work on herself, which she now realizes has no expiration date.

Biles tried to take all of the extra attention before Tokyo in stride. She portrayed a sense of normalcy. It was only a facade. Her pent-up emotions and aggressions eventually drove her to “crack.”

Biles was in therapy before Tokyo but had interrupted treatment before traveling abroad. With millions watching, she went off the floor at the Ariake Gymnastics Center after a misplaced vault in the women’s team final and contacted her family, who had stayed from home in Texas because of COVID-19 restrictions imposed for the games.

Simone Biles Is Stepping Into The Olympic Spotlight Again. She Is Better Prepared For The Pressure

Nellie Biles answered the phone and heard her daughter exclaim through tears, “Mom, I really cannot do this.” “I’m lost; I can’t do this.”

So she didn’t. Biles withdrew from a few finals before returning to win bronze on the balance beam, a medal she considers one of the most meaningful of her career. As terrible and frightening as the experience was, it was necessary because it taught Biles that mental health is something she cannot ignore.

“I couldn’t run away from it, you know,” Biles told The Associated Press. “I just acknowledged it and stated, ‘Hey, this is what I’m going through. This is the assistance that I am going to receive.”

Help has driven Biles back to the top of her sport, with another Olympics on the horizon. Help manifests itself in various ways and often from unexpected locations

Biles is confident she is in a better place this time, thanks partly to weekly Thursday meetings with her therapist, which have become an immovable part of her schedule.

Biles went into a practically empty arena last fall in Antwerp, Belgium, for podium training before the world championships, her first team competition since Tokyo. Something about the scene triggered, as Nellie Biles describes it, “a PTSD moment.” Biles dashed off the floor to gather herself after being triggered by an unexpected event.

There were more tears. Increased anxiety. More calls. More reassurance.

“She almost didn’t go back out there,” Nellie Biles explained.

After being “a little bit hesitant,” Biles pushed through, thanks in part to the decision to meet with her therapist, which she rarely did close to competitions before commencing practice for the U.S. Classic in Chicago last summer

The US women were given the afternoon off, and some went to a chocolate factory. Biles opted to remain behind and FaceTime her therapist instead.

“I know how important it is for me to stay present, mindful and not be too anxious,” she stated. “So yes, we will keep that up.”

There were other home comforts in Belgium. Specifically, her family.

Every day, Nellie Biles went to Simone’s hotel room and braided her daughter’s hair for 30-45 minutes, which was a first.

“My daughter is (27) and I know (she) can braid her hair,” Nellie Biles remarked. “But it’s just that touch and closeness. It is that connectedness. It was just what she needed, and it worked.

The meet concluded in the same way that many others had during Biles’ decade-long reign at the top: with a fistful of medals packed in her suitcase for the return flight home, setting the stage for a potentially momentous Olympic year.

Before Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and Tokyo in 2021, the idea of Olympic history threatened to—and occasionally did—overtake her.

Simone Biles Is Stepping Into The Olympic Spotlight Again. She Is Better Prepared For The Pressure

It does not anymore. Life has, thankfully, gotten in the way.

One year ago, Biles married Jonathan Owens, the current Chicago Bears safety. The two are constructing a home in the Houston suburbs that will be completed (hopefully) in late summer or early fall

In some ways, she resembles many other 20-something brides in Biles’ orbit. For example, former Olympic teammate MyKayla Skinner had a daughter last September. A part of Biles thinks, “That’s what I should be doing.”

Instead, she’s “still flipping out here,” still making her way to the Biles family’s gym, the World Champions Centre, and practicing with other Olympic hopefuls, many of whom are nearly a decade younger and grew up idolizing her.

Why does she keep putting herself through this? Well, that’s the most important issue of all.

“I think everything I’ve been through, I want to push the limits,” she stated. “I want to see how far I can get. I want to see what I’m still capable of so that when I retire from this sport, I can be fully satisfied with my career and say I gave it my best.”

She is well aware of what may happen this summer that the millions captivated by what happened in Tokyo — from the crowds who cheered her on to the social media haters who labeled her a quitter or worse — would tune in to see if she cracks again.

Those closest to Biles believe she is better prepared for whatever may arise

“She knows something like (Tokyo) can happen because it did happen,” Landi stated. “So it’s just like, ‘OK, I’m going to be careful, I’m going to follow the same protocol every time and then I’m going to avoid (the pitfalls)’ and that’s all you can do.”

Is it the last time? She will not say. That is too far ahead. She does not frequently use the phrases “Paris” or “Olympics” in her chats. This may appear to be purposeful, but it is not. It’s just something she does.

“It’s not like I think that ‘Olympics’ is a plague and I’m trying to avoid it or trying not to say it,” she stated. “I just think there are other things I have to get to before that.”

The U.S. Classic, which takes place this weekend in Connecticut, will feature 2020 Olympic champion Sunisa Lee and 2012 Olympic champion Gabby Douglas. The United States Championships are later this month, and the Olympic Trials start in late June.

Simone Biles Is Stepping Into The Olympic Spotlight Again. She Is Better Prepared For The Pressure

One turn, routine, rotation, and encounter at a time. With all of her tools, including her therapist, at the ready.

“I feel very confident with where I’m at mentally and physically, that (Tokyo) is not going to happen again just because we have put in the work,” she stated.

There is also something greater at risk here: a message sent by Biles to others. It’s OK to not be OK. It is acceptable to make yourself vulnerable and to be open and truthful about the process, no matter how messy it becomes.

She says she’s lost track of how many people have told her, “Because of you, I’m getting the proper help that I deserve.”

It can be jarring in certain ways. She never intended to become the face of this movement, but it happened anyway.

If Biles retreats to Tokyo rather than face her troubles full on, those folks may lack the guts to ask for something they desperately need. That’s a blessing from the recent Olympics that far transcends any medal.

“As unfortunate as it (was) … it’s exciting because I know that by speaking out it’s helping other people,” Biles stated. “And that’s what I’ve always wanted to do, inside this sport and outside this sport.”

So, she’ll salute the judges on Saturday and return to the spotlight.

No, she has not been cured. She is better, though, even if she is still a work in progress, as are so many others who found the strength to say “me too” after witnessing the biggest star in the American Olympic movement open up about her troubles with so much at risk

This is the true lesson of Tokyo. It was vital, no matter how difficult it felt at the time.

“It’s good that it happened,” Biles stated. “Because I don’t think I would have got the proper help that I need (without it).”

SOURCE – (AP)

EDMONTON, Alberta — Evan Bouchard scored the game-winning goal with 38.1 seconds left to help the Edmonton Oilers defeat the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 in Game 4 of their second-round playoff series on Tuesday night.

The win tied the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series at two apiece, with Game 5 scheduled for Thursday night in Vancouver.

The Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl opened the scoring on a power play in the first period, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored late in the second.

Bouchard Scores Late Winner, Oilers Edge Canucks 3-2 To Tie Playoff Series At 2 Games Apiece

Conor Garland and Dakota Joshua scored third-period goals for the Canucks, who lost their first away game of the playoffs.

Calvin Pickard made 19 saves in his first NHL playoff start, and Arturs Silovs stopped 27 of 30 shots for Vancouver.

Pickard, 32, replaced Stuart Skinner, who gave up four goals on 15 shots in Edmonton’s Game 3 loss on Sunday.

“(Pickard) looked like a guy who had played 100 playoff games,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Composed, really solid, seeing the puck really well.”

Pickard signed with Edmonton as a free agent in July 2022, his 13th professional season. He has spent most of his career with the American Hockey League affiliate, Bakersfield Condors.

He was promoted to the NHL team’s backup job in November when the Oilers demoted struggling goaltender Jack Campbell to the AHL.

Backing up has yet to result in consistent ice time. Pickard’s last appearance before taking over for Skinner was on April 18.

Knoblauch claimed he was impressed with the goaltender even when he wasn’t playing.

“Continually, his starts have been solid, no matter how long he sat, a week, two weeks,” the trainer stated. “We have a lot of confidence in him and he came up big tonight.”

Pickard said that maintaining composure during Tuesday’s game was difficult.

“I was trying to channel my emotions as much as I could,” he stated. “Obviously it’s difficult; it’s a high-risk game. Obviously, this is a big game for us. But I felt at ease from the beginning.”

Bouchard Scores Late Winner, Oilers Edge Canucks 3-2 To Tie Playoff Series At 2 Games Apiece

Connor McDavid cut a blazing pass to Draisaitl, who fired a one-timer past Silovs from the bottom of the right faceoff circle. The goalie got his glove on the shot, but it bobbled and bounced into the net, giving the Oilers a 1-0 lead at 11:10.

Draisaitl’s point streak now spans all nine of Edmonton’s postseason games. With eight goals and 12 assists, he leads the league with playoff points.

The Oilers pushed harder in the second period but were again hampered by Silovs.

With less than a minute remaining in the second period, the Oilers had a two-on-one opportunity due to a failed hit.

Mattias Ekholm picked up a stray puck in the neutral zone, and when Juulsen attempted to knock him off, the veteran defenseman passed to Nugent-Hopkins. With 39.8 seconds left in the period, the centerman sprinted up the ice and shot over Silovs’ stick, giving Edmonton a 2-0 lead.

Garland finally got a puck past Pickard 6:54 into the third period, blasting a shot from the top of the slot that trimmed Vancouver’s deficit to 2-1.

The Canucks removed Silovs with 2:38 remaining in favor of an extra attacker, and the Canucks capitalized.

Brock Boeser retrieved a feed from Quinn Hughes, waited a moment for his chance, then fired at the Edmonton net, and the ball rebounded in off Joshua’s skate with 1:41 remaining in the third

The Oilers refused to give up, and with 38.1 seconds remaining, Bouchard fired a shot that pinged off Silovs’ stick for his fourth playoff goal.

Silovs, a rookie, delivered another strong performance, according to Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet.

Bouchard Scores Late Winner, Oilers Edge Canucks 3-2 To Tie Playoff Series At 2 Games Apiece

Others on the team showed up differently, he noted.

“We’ve been a resilient group all year,” Tocchet remarked. “But we need five or six guys to get started here. This is the Stanley Cup playoffs. I don’t know whether some of these men thought it was playoffs. We can’t play with twelve guys. “We need to figure it out quickly.”

Canucks defenceman Carson Soucy received a one-game penalty for cross-checking Connor McDavid after the final buzzer in Game 3. Noah Juulsen took his place in the lineup.

SOURCE – (AP)