After All-Star Race victory, Christopher Bell focuses on a second Coca-Cola 600 win in a row
Christopher Bell walked into Victory Lane a year ago, arriving before his car when the Coca-Cola 600 was called due to rain.
So began an up-and-down 12 months that sees Bell return to Charlotte Motor Speedway after his first All-Star Race win last weekend and looking to defend his Coke 600 title this weekend.
Only Kyle Larson has won more Cup races than Bell since last year's 600. Larson has seven victories. Bell has five points wins and the All-Star triumph.
But Bell and his Joe Gibbs Racing team also went winless in the final 18 races of last year and missed making the Championship 4 after he had made the race in 2022 and 2023. He said last year that he felt 'cheated' by Chevrolet teams that he said 'fixed and manipulated' the finish of the Martinsville playoff race, preventing him from making the Championship 4 a third consecutive year.
He's rebounded to win three of the first 12 points races this season.
Dustin Long,
The past year also has seen growth from Bell and his No. 20 team.
'In the last 12 months, I do feel like I've done a great job at maturing as a driver and finishing races off, where throughout the early part of my career and really not even just NASCAR, like even going back to dirt track races, my achilles heel was I would beat myself at certain times,' Bell said after his All-Star Race win.
'Really the last 12 months, (crew chief) Adam (Stevens) has been on me hard about just making sure that I beat that tendency. And I don't think you'll completely beat it, but I have been able to see myself mature in that stage of just taking what's coming to us and getting to the checkered flag, and that really shows this last two months or so.'
That maturation, Bell said, wasn't as much of a factor in his late-race duel with Joey Logano to win the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro but in other situations this season.
'If I have pace in my car, I have done well at finishing races off,' Bell said. 'It's whenever I'm the one that's falling back or I have the slower car, I would get myself in trouble, I would spin out, I would hit the wall, I would wreck trying to overextend myself whenever it wasn't my day.
'Certainly the last couple at Texas and Kansas and Darlington, those races are the ones that come to my head.'
Bell finished second at Kansas, third at Darlington and ninth at Texas.
He was strong early in the season, winning at Atlanta, Circuit of the Americas and Phoenix in consecutive weekends.
Nate Ryan,
The key was taking advantage of particular situations in those races.
'Last year we just weren't able to capitalize the second half, maybe last two-thirds of the season,' Stevens said. 'There were a tremendous number of races where we had race-winning speed, and for whatever reason, a lot of them didn't work out.
'You have to go through the calendar individually to pick them all apart, and that's frustrating when you're in the middle of it. You want to win, and Bell wants to win immensely. So it's frustrating for myself. It's frustrating for the team. Our conversion rate was low. And this year our conversion rate has been extremely high on top of being competitive.
Building on his success this weekend at Charlotte also will have challenges.
'I've definitely been surprised about just lacking pace on the intermediate tracks, like at the end of last year, we did really well at the intermediates, and was one of the strongest contenders, and then the last couple of weeks, week-in and week-out, we just haven't been there yet,' Bell said.
'Hopefully, we make gains on it. I feel like Kansas was a little bit better than what we had at Texas and Darlington, so if we can make another step like that going into Charlotte, maybe we will be contending for the win, but we are definitely lacking a little bit at this point in time.'
Watch highlights from the NASCAR Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where Kyle Larson traveled from the Indianapolis 500 in an attempt to complete "The Double."
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Miami Herald
an hour ago
- Miami Herald
Padres' Machado is on the verge of 2,000 hits. Could he be the last player to reach 3,000?
One night in April, after another line drive moved him closer to a rare milestone, Manny Machado heard a fellow member of the San Diego Padres raise a theory. Machado, the team's franchise third baseman, professes to have forgotten who said it. But the idea has stuck in his head. Maybe it was the fact that the club had just faced the Houston Astros and Jose Altuve, who reached 2,300 career hits Wednesday. Maybe it was Machado's proximity to hit No. 2,000. Maybe, more than anything, it was the audacity of it all. If Machado were to eventually reach 3,000 hits, could he be the last to ever do it? 'It does sound crazy,' Machado said, 'but at the same time, you kind of see how the game is going right now.' Machado, who turns 33 next month, finds himself on the doorstep of an increasingly exclusive club. There are four active players -- Freddie Freeman, Altuve, Andrew McCutchen and Paul Goldschmidt -- with at least 2,000 hits. Machado, with only 19 more hits, will make it five. Yet as recently as two decades ago, there were 27 such players. This downward trend might only be accelerating. Pitchers are pairing unparalleled velocity with a greater understanding of how to manipulate spin and ball flight. The contact hitter is not extinct, but home runs and uppercut swings still drive team success and nine-figure contracts. While extreme shifts are now outlawed, defenses continue to pursue optimal positioning. 'It's hard to hit the ball,' said Luis Arraez, the Padres' first baseman and a three-time batting champion. In 2025, the leaguewide batting average remains under .250 for a sixth consecutive year. If the season were to end today, the average on balls in play would mark a 33-year low. Arraez, 28, who has 915 career hits, secured the National League batting title last year with a mere .314 average. As players in their late 30s, McCutchen and Goldschmidt are long shots to even come close to 3,000 hits. Altuve was once considered a leading candidate, but he is showing signs of decline. Freeman is hitting as well as ever, but, like Altuve, is racing against time. Machado, meanwhile, has a chance to achieve something none of those decorated veterans did: become the 55th player to record 2,000 hits before age 33. He also has a $350 million contract that runs through 2033 and came with the understanding that he would provide the bulk of his production on the front end. So far, Machado, a six-time All-Star, has delivered few indications of offensive slippage. He spent much of the last three years playing through tennis elbow and then the lingering effects of reparative surgery. He still completed 2024 as the only active big leaguer to have hit at least 28 home runs in nine consecutive full seasons. Now, he is batting .320 with a seemingly healthy elbow and some of the best underlying numbers of his career. In a recent 3-2 loss to the San Francisco Giants, he lined an opposite-field single and pulled a two-run drive to become the 33rd player with 350 home runs by age 32. He was 3 for 5 with five runs batted in an 11-1 win against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday. 'It feels good to just be somewhat normal and be able to get some good swings out and not really be on the training room table every single day,' Machado said. Mike Shildt, the Padres' second-year manager, said he was seeing more 'consistency and clarity' from Machado. 'I just see a guy that's really comfortable where he's at, trusting the guys around him and not making the situation bigger than it is,' Shildt said. 'Just putting a good stroke on it, which is one of the best right-handed swings I've seen.' The team's hitting coach, Victor Rodriguez, added: 'He's healthy. He's not searching. He's not trying to feel how he can be comfortable. He's comfortable. And you see Manny sometimes get out of it, but the next day he's really focusing on getting back to the big part of the field and being himself.' Machado has been that guy from the beginning. On Aug. 9, 2012, when he was 20, he skipped over Triple-A and landed in a playoff chase with the Baltimore Orioles. In his second at-bat, he tripled into the right-center gap for his first career hit. In time, Machado turned consistent doubles power into 30-homer seasons. He won a Platinum Glove in 2013, given to the best overall defensive player in each league, and settled in as one of the finest defenders of his generation. After two knee operations cost him time early in his career, he demonstrated what would become another defining quality. Since 2015, Machado has started more major league games than anyone else. His only trip to the injured list over the last decade came in 2023, when a fractured hand forced him to miss two weeks. His durability reminds Los Angeles Angels Manager Ron Washington of Adrián Beltré, the third-base contemporary Machado most admired until Beltré retired in 2018. 'Injuries never stopped Adrián Beltré from playing,' said Washington, who managed Beltré for four seasons with the Texas Rangers. 'Adrián Beltré made other people want to be everyday players. There's a lot of guys that couldn't play every day, but because they were around Adrián Beltré, they'd think they could play every day. 'That's the kind of player that Manny Machado is. He makes everybody else want to come on the field and play.' As the games have piled up, so have the hits. Machado reached 1,500 hits in 2022, becoming the sixth third baseman to cross that threshold by age 29 -- and the first since Beltré in 2008. He has batted at least .275 in every season since his rookie campaign, and his gap-to-gap approach holds up in offense-suppressing venues. Given their continuing performances, Machado and Freeman, the Dodgers' metronome of a first baseman, appear to be the safest current picks to eclipse 3,000 hits. Both have supplied all-fields production in eerily similar fashion. Since the Statcast era began in 2015, Machado's batted-ball profile breaks down as follows: 37% to the pull side, 37% up the middle and 25% to the opposite field. The same goes for Freeman, who at 35 is leading the NL in batting average. 'Manny and Freddie, they came from a different era with a different philosophy and a different skill set on how to approach hitting, and they've been able to survive,' Shildt said. 'And yeah, their talent's extraordinary, but it's not so extraordinary that other people can't follow it. But the industry, including the amateur level, is tripled up where you're just devaluing the hit. It's not valued as highly.' A little more than three years have passed since Miguel Cabrera, an all-fields slugger Machado studied closely, became the 33rd and most recent player to enter the 3,000-hit club. Freeman and Altuve, with perhaps a handful more seasons, could approach elite territory around their 40th birthdays. Even Machado is far from a guarantee. Of the 10 players this century to reach 2,000 hits by age 32, five -- Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Beltré, Albert Pujols and Cabrera -- went on to attain 3,000. Victor Rodriguez, who worked as Cleveland's assistant hitting coach before the Padres hired him, suggested that 2,500 hits would be enough to earn Guardians third baseman José Ramírez entry into the Hall of Fame. (Ramírez, 32, has 1,581.) Washington, whose career in professional baseball began in 1970, said he could envision a world in which Machado winds up being the final player to amass 3,000 hits. 'It's not the pitching, it's the players,' Washington said, adding, 'You need pure hitters to reach that.' Future applicants will also need the kind of longevity Machado is tracking toward. Twenty-eight of the 33 members of the 3,000-hit club played in at least 20 big league seasons. Only one, Ichiro Suzuki, arrived in the majors after his 23rd birthday. Twenty-six made their debuts before turning 22. Sitting at his locker on a recent afternoon, Machado pointed out that the number of players who have ever reached the major leagues -- now almost 23,500 -- would not quite fill half of Petco Park. He marveled at that fact, as well as his proximity to 297 players who have crossed a lofty threshold. 'It's going to be pretty cool, man,' Machado said. 'Obviously, it always takes you back to that first hit. You kind of reflect on how that was your childhood dream, to get a hit in the big leagues. And now you're pushing 2,000, which is crazy.' He also considered a certain theory. Maybe one day the likes of Padres center fielder Jackson Merrill and Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. will have the opportunity to disprove it. Maybe future legislation will help swing the game back in favor of hitters. Maybe, if Machado does not do it, someone else will. Actually, he sounded certain of it. 'I'm pretty sure it will continue,' Machado said. 'We're going to be seeing a lot of great players come through the minor leagues and be really good baseball players and break a lot of records.' Still, as Machado marches toward his 2,000th hit and an even greater milestone, his career already puts him in rare territory. He could end up among the last -- if not the very last -- of his kind. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Copyright 2025
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Devin Williams set to re-enter as Yankees' closer, but with a supporting cast
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San Francisco Chronicle
3 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Pickard saves the day for Oilers in a backup role in 5-4 OT win over Panthers in Game 4 of Cup Final
A flat and undisciplined start by the Edmonton Oilers left coach Kris Knoblauch no choice but to turn to Plan B — as in backup goalie Calvin Pickard — a mere 20 minutes into Game 4 of their Stanley Cup Final series against Florida. With no disrespect to starter Stuart Skinner, who had little help in allowing three goals on 17 shots, it was the wakeup call the Oilers needed on Thursday night. Pickard stopped 22 of 23 shots and the Oilers overcame a 3-0 first-period deficit in a 5-4 overtime win over the Florida Panthers to even their Stanley Cup Final series at 2. 'Unfortunate for Stu to be pulled there. Didn't give him many opportunities,' Knoblauch said. 'We needed to change things up, and the change was great the way he played.' Pickard improved to 7-0 this postseason and has put himself in position to take over the starting duties for Game 5 with the series returning to Edmonton on Saturday. 'I felt for him today,' Pickard said of Skinner, who was also yanked in Game 3 after allowing five goals on 23 shots in an eventual 6-1 loss. 'He came ready to play today, made some big saves early. We just didn't have it as a team early.' That changed when the Oilers responded by scoring three times in outshooting the Panthers 17-10 in the second period in what amounted to a near historic comeback. Edmonton became the first road team to rally from down three to win a Cup final outing since the Montreal Canadiens against the Seattle Metropolitans in 1919. Only six teams have come back from down three in the final in NHL history, the last time in 2006. Though Pickard allowed Sam Reinhart's bad-angle goal to force overtime with 20 seconds left in regulation, the 10-year journeyman enjoyed numerous standout moments before Leon Draisaitl sealed the win 11:18 into the extra frame with his NHL single-postseason record fourth overtime goal. No save was bigger than the one Pickard made some seven minutes into overtime, when Sam Bennett's shot from the slot caught the top of the goalie's glove and caromed off the crossbar. 'I felt it hit my glove. I looked in my glove and didn't see it in there. And then I heard some big cheers and I'm like, 'Oh, this couldn't have gone in,'' Pickard said, not knowing what happened until he watched the replay on the scoreboard. 'Yeah, good save and good bounce, too.' Another key save came 12 minutes into the second period on the third shot Pickard faced and with Edmonton trailing 3-1. Jake Walman's giveaway in his own end, led to Florida's Anton Lundell driving in alone only to have Pickard kick out his right pad to make the initial stop and then smother the rebound. 'I think that save kind of got me going,' Pickard said. The same could apply to the Oilers, who responded with Darnell Nurse's goal about 80 seconds later, and Vasily Podkolzin tying the game at 3 with 4:55 left in the period. 'It's hard to describe the situation that he gets put in sometimes,' Draisaitl said of Pickard. 'He's coming in, he's cold. It's not easy, and he makes those stops at the key moments that we really need them,' he added. 'He's been nothing but spectacular for us.' ___
