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NBC Sports
12-05-2025
- Automotive
- NBC Sports
NASCAR Cup playoff standings after 12 races shows who has work to do
The NASCAR Cup All-Star Race takes place just before the halfway point of the regular season — 14 races remain until the playoffs begin — but this weekend's event provides a good point to asses what has taken place this year. Kyle Larson leads the points, has scored the most playoff points, and led the most laps in the 12 races before Sunday night's exhibition event at North Wilkesboro, but is that enough? Maybe not. Dominance early in a season isn't always rewarded with a Cup title. Consider: Larson took the points lead from teammate William Byron after winning last weekend's race at Kansas Speedway, the third victory of the season for Larson. No driver leading the Cup points after 12 races has gone on to win the championship that season since Martin Truex Jr. in 2017. Dustin Long, Larson has scored a series-best 23 playoff points (15 points via his three wins and eight points via his eight stage victories). No driver with the most playoff points after 12 races has gone on to win the Cup title that season since Kyle Busch in 2019. Take a look at the other end of the playoff picture. Seven drivers have claimed playoff spots with a win, leaving nine spots remaining. Drivers that made it on points in the Next Gen era (since 2022) had an average of 349.3 points after 12 races. Chase Elliott (378), Ryan Blaney (362) and Tyler Reddick (357) are the only drivers above that point through 12 races this year. Of the six drivers who made the playoffs on points since 2022, three of them were in the top five in points after 12 races (Martin Truex Jr. was second in 2024, Kevin Harvick was fifth in 2023 and Blaney was third in 2022). Elliott is fourth in the season standings and Blaney is fifth ahead ahead of the All-Star Race. Only one of the six drivers who made the playoffs on points since 2022 were outside the top 10 after 12 races. Bubba Wallace was 18th in points after 12 races. He averaged 21.0 points per race in the first 12 races. His performance picked up afterward. He averaged 26.2 points per race in the final 14 races of the regular season that year to earn the final playoff spot. Among those outside the top 10 in the points and winless this year are: Ross Chastain (11th in the standings), Chris Buescher (12th), Chase Briscoe (13th), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (15th), Ryan Preece (16th), Kyle Busch (18th), John Hunter Nemechek (19th) and Carson Hocevar (20th). When looking ahead, also consider the schedule. Six of the remaining 14 races in the regular season will be held at either a road course or a drafting track. The road courses are Mexico City (June 15), Chicago Street Race (July 6), Sonoma (July 13) and Watkins Glen (Aug. 10). The drafting tracks are Atlanta (June 28) and the regular-season finale at Daytona (Aug. 23). Here is a look at the playoff standings after 12 of 26 races in the regular season (those highlighted in yellow are in a playoff spot via a win):
Fox Sports
08-04-2025
- Automotive
- Fox Sports
AUTO RACING: Hamlin goes back-to-back with victory in Darlington and F1's Verstappen gets first win
Associated Press All Times Eastern NASCAR CUP SERIES Food City 500 Site: Bristol, Tennessee. Schedule: Saturday, practice, 2 p.m., qualifying, 3:05 p.m.; Sunday, race, 3 p.m. (FS1). Track: Bristol Motor Speedway. Race distance: 500 laps, 266.5 miles. Last year: Leading a race-high 163 laps, Denny Hamlin took the win over teammate Martin Truex Jr. in a race that saw a record-breaking 54 lead changes. Last race: Hamlin earned his second consecutive win in Darlington, holding off William Byron after a perfectly executed pit stop. Next race: April 27, Talladega, Alabama. Online: NASCAR XFINITY SERIES SciAps 300 Site: Bristol, Tennessee. Schedule: Saturday, practice, 11:30 a.m., qualifying, 12:35 p.m., race, 5 p.m. (CW). Track: Bristol Motor Speedway. Race distance: 300 laps, 159.9 miles. Last year: The last race which took place in 2020, saw Noah Gragson claim an overtime victory after battling it out with Briscoe and Jones in a two-lap shootout. Last race: Brandon Jones took the checkered flag in Darlington, earning him his first win in 98 races and sixth of his career. Next race: April 19, Rockingham, North Carolina. Online: NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES Weather Guard Truck Race Site: Bristol, Tennessee. Schedule: Friday, practice, 3:35 p.m., Qualifying, 4:30 p.m., race, 7:30 p.m. (FS1) Track: Bristol Motor Speedway. Race distance: 250 laps, 133.25 miles. Last year: Christian Eckes earned his first win of the season, maintaining the lead after passing Kyle Busch with 92 laps to go. Last race: Daniel Hemric who led a race-high 149 of 200 laps, secured the victory in Martinsville after a late-race pass of teammate Tyler Ankrum. Next race: April 18, Rockingham, North Carolina. Online: FORMULA ONE Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix Site: Sakhir, Bahrain. Schedule: Friday, practice, 7:25 a.m., practice, 10:55 a.m.; Saturday, practice, 8:25 a.m., qualifying, 10:55 a.m.; Sunday, race, 10:55 a.m. (ESPN2). Track: Bahrain International Circuit. Race distance: 57 laps, 191.5 miles. Last year: Max Verstappen led every lap, securing a commanding victory from the pole in his 55th career F1 win. Last race: Verstappen held off the surging McLaren team earning him his first win of the season and fourth straight Japanese Grand Prix. Next race: April 20, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Online: INDYCAR Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach Site: Long Beach, California. Schedule: Friday, practice, 6 p.m., Saturday, practice, 11:30 a.m., qualifications, 2:30 p.m.; Sunday, warmup, Noon, race, 4:30 p.m. (FOX). Track: Streets of Long Beach. Race distance: 90 laps, 177.1 miles. Last year: Stretching his fuel out for the last 34 laps, Scott Dixon took the win edging Colton Herta by less than a second. Last race: Alex Palou stays perfect going 2-for-2 for the season after passing pole sitter Pato O'Ward with 10 laps to go in Thermal. Next race: May 4, Birmingham, Alabama. Online: NHRA DRAG RACING NHRA 4-Wide Nationals Site: Las Vegas. Schedule: Friday, qualifying, 9:30 p.m.; Sunday, qualifying, 11 a.m., race, 6:30 p.m. (FS1). Track: The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Race distance: 1/4 mile. Next race: April 27, Concord, North Carolina. Online: WORLD OF OUTLAWS World of Outlaws Illini 100 Practice Site: Farmer City, Illinois. Track: Farmer City Raceway. World of Outlaws Illini 100 Site: Farmer City, Illinois. Track: Farmer City Raceway. World of Outlaws Federated Auto Part Spring Classic Site: Pevely, Missouri. Track: I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park. Next events: April 18-19, Knoxville, Iowa. Online: _____ AP auto racing:
Washington Post
08-04-2025
- Automotive
- Washington Post
AUTO RACING: Hamlin goes back-to-back with victory in Darlington and F1's Verstappen gets first win
All Times Eastern Food City 500 Site: Bristol, Tennessee. Schedule: Saturday, practice, 2 p.m., qualifying, 3:05 p.m.; Sunday, race, 3 p.m. (FS1). Track: Bristol Motor Speedway. Race distance: 500 laps, 266.5 miles. Last year: Leading a race-high 163 laps, Denny Hamlin took the win over teammate Martin Truex Jr. in a race that saw a record-breaking 54 lead changes.
Associated Press
08-04-2025
- Automotive
- Associated Press
AUTO RACING: Hamlin goes back-to-back with victory in Darlington and F1's Verstappen gets first win
All Times Eastern NASCAR CUP SERIES Food City 500 Site: Bristol, Tennessee. Schedule: Saturday, practice, 2 p.m., qualifying, 3:05 p.m.; Sunday, race, 3 p.m. (FS1). Track: Bristol Motor Speedway. Race distance: 500 laps, 266.5 miles. Last year: Leading a race-high 163 laps, Denny Hamlin took the win over teammate Martin Truex Jr. in a race that saw a record-breaking 54 lead changes. Last race: Hamlin earned his second consecutive win in Darlington, holding off William Byron after a perfectly executed pit stop. Next race: April 27, Talladega, Alabama. NASCAR XFINITY SERIES SciAps 300 Site: Bristol, Tennessee. Schedule: Saturday, practice, 11:30 a.m., qualifying, 12:35 p.m., race, 5 p.m. (CW). Track: Bristol Motor Speedway. Race distance: 300 laps, 159.9 miles. Last year: The last race which took place in 2020, saw Noah Gragson claim an overtime victory after battling it out with Briscoe and Jones in a two-lap shootout. Last race: Brandon Jones took the checkered flag in Darlington, earning him his first win in 98 races and sixth of his career. Next race: April 19, Rockingham, North Carolina. NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES Weather Guard Truck Race Site: Bristol, Tennessee. Schedule: Friday, practice, 3:35 p.m., Qualifying, 4:30 p.m., race, 7:30 p.m. (FS1) Track: Bristol Motor Speedway. Race distance: 250 laps, 133.25 miles. Last year: Christian Eckes earned his first win of the season, maintaining the lead after passing Kyle Busch with 92 laps to go. Last race: Daniel Hemric who led a race-high 149 of 200 laps, secured the victory in Martinsville after a late-race pass of teammate Tyler Ankrum. Next race: April 18, Rockingham, North Carolina. Online: FORMULA ONE Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix Site: Sakhir, Bahrain. Schedule: Friday, practice, 7:25 a.m., practice, 10:55 a.m.; Saturday, practice, 8:25 a.m., qualifying, 10:55 a.m.; Sunday, race, 10:55 a.m. (ESPN2). Track: Bahrain International Circuit. Race distance: 57 laps, 191.5 miles. Last year: Max Verstappen led every lap, securing a commanding victory from the pole in his 55th career F1 win. Last race: Verstappen held off the surging McLaren team earning him his first win of the season and fourth straight Japanese Grand Prix. Next race: April 20, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Online: INDYCAR Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach Site: Long Beach, California. Schedule: Friday, practice, 6 p.m., Saturday, practice, 11:30 a.m., qualifications, 2:30 p.m.; Sunday, warmup, Noon, race, 4:30 p.m. (FOX). Track: Streets of Long Beach. Race distance: 90 laps, 177.1 miles. Last year: Stretching his fuel out for the last 34 laps, Scott Dixon took the win edging Colton Herta by less than a second. Last race: Alex Palou stays perfect going 2-for-2 for the season after passing pole sitter Pato O'Ward with 10 laps to go in Thermal. Next race: May 4, Birmingham, Alabama. NHRA DRAG RACING NHRA 4-Wide Nationals Site: Las Vegas. Schedule: Friday, qualifying, 9:30 p.m.; Sunday, qualifying, 11 a.m., race, 6:30 p.m. (FS1). Track: The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Race distance: 1/4 mile. Next race: April 27, Concord, North Carolina. Online: WORLD OF OUTLAWS World of Outlaws Illini 100 Practice Site: Farmer City, Illinois. Track: Farmer City Raceway. World of Outlaws Illini 100 Site: Farmer City, Illinois. Track: Farmer City Raceway. World of Outlaws Federated Auto Part Spring Classic Site: Pevely, Missouri. Track: I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park. Next events: April 18-19, Knoxville, Iowa. _____
New York Times
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The most overplayed March Madness commercials of all time, ranked best to worst
When March Madness rolls around, you can expect three things: shocking upsets, last-second thrillers and commercials replayed so often that you want to throw your remote at the TV. The title for Most Annoying NCAA Tournament Commercial has become a competition of its own in recent years, and we're here to talk about the most memorable contenders. The phenomenon has become more prominent over the past decade, as CBS/Turner gave fans the ability to watch every game, setting up the experience of switching channels throughout the day and getting hit with the same commercials endlessly across the same handful of networks. Advertisement No commercial is meant to be watched 75 times in a four-day span, but the NCAA Tournament makes one wonder whether ad agencies realize people will be pounded over the head with their commercials. By the time the nets are cut down and 'One Shining Moment' has played, you welcome the sweet release of leaving some commercials behind. But not all of them. Some of them are actually good! So I'm here to rank the most overplayed March Madness commercials of years past from best to worst, with a few leftover thoughts at the end. To fit the criteria, the commercial must be most associated with tournament time. The second requirement is that it's still available on YouTube. Before we look back at the commercials that left a stain on our souls, we're going to start with a few good ones. FRENCH VANILLA. ROCKY ROAD. This one is still a banger. Like most Geico commercials, the ad has nothing to do with insurance, and when everyone got bombarded with this in 2021, the national mood went from enjoying it to hating it, like most overplayed commercials. But we came around to loving it again, so much so that a limited edition ice cream was released that fall. I can't help but appreciate the effort here. The rhymes. The dancing. The way the daughter leaves the room when the dad starts grooving. The chocolate sauce at the end. Any time the country can appreciate Tag Team, that gets a thumbs-up. This might be the most controversial placement on the list, as one of the first overplayed and annoying NCAA Tournament commercials of the social media era. With the benefit of hindsight, we didn't appreciate what we had. It's a catchy country jam that had different versions, including one with NASCAR Michael Waltrip and Martin Truex Jr. lip-syncing. I like the self-awareness that my auto parts salesman knows he's not a doctor, but he knows cars. The worrying face he shows at the 0:18 mark before revealing the air filter is concerning, and the mustachioed customer isn't sold at the beginning. But he quickly comes around and joins in on the song. Advertisement It has its detractors, but this ad would prove to be far less annoying than what came in the ensuing years. When we think of the 2006 NCAA Tournament, we think of Florida's title, George Mason's run to the Final Four and this Applebee's commercial. Like the two previous entrants on this list, a catchy song makes an overplayed commercial tolerable. This remixed version of the 'Gilligan's Island' theme is perfectly fine. This one came before the social media era, but it was one you and your friends couldn't stop singing for months. Was this overplayed? God, yes. Was it terrible? I say no. This got the nod as the most annoying March Madness commercial of 2021 (the same year as 'Scoop, There It Is'), and I think it's because the commercial was so basic. The song, 'Opportunities' by Pet Shop Boys, is a classic 1980s anthem, but the commercial uses that one chorus part over and over and over. It also makes no sense. The driver is not making money from insurance. He's saving money. Insurance is making money from him. That's the business. Why is the hood ornament singing? So many questions. This one comes down to your opinion of Darude's 'Sandstorm.' If you're a normal human being, it gets very annoying, very quickly. But if you're a college football fan who immediately thinks of South Carolina football, you feel differently. 'Sandstorm' will always get me hyped. I'm not embarrassed to admit this commercial convinced me to get Wendy's during last year's tournament. It was only a buck, after all. You also have to credit the commercial for knowing how annoying it all is, as the cashier says, 'I'm hearing that song in my sleep.' I am too, and that means another South Carolina touchdown. As a side note, if you've never done it before, please look up the Genius lyrics for 'Sandstorm' and enjoy a good laugh. Advertisement This where the rankings take a sharp turn for the worse. The problem here starts with the product. If people's first reaction to your flavor is, 'Wait, what?' you're already behind the 8-ball. Why not Orange Coke? Why add it to Vanilla? What is going on? Then, the commercial itself is full of screeching cars, a grating thing to hear over and over. I can't stop thinking about how many oranges that truck lost in the process of this drive. And at the end, the woman doesn't open the can before drinking it. That kind of little thing bothers me in commercials and TV shows. This marketing campaign flooded social media with sponsored posts from CBS Sports personalities and athletes. How did it all work out? Well, marketing agency Grafik measured three times as many negative mentions as positive. The most popular words associated with it were 'annoying' and 'stop.' Orange Vanilla Coke was discontinued in 2022. It is not missed. This was impossible to get out of your head. I already feel bad for making you listen to it. Another one that was just ahead of Peak Social Media, so some may have forgotten it. It's better left that way. This commercial is annoying within five seconds. College basketball fans had to hear it for 30 seconds at a time, dozens of times. The concept is limiting, too. Polls say 80 percent of Americans have a phone case. It would've saved this woman some worry and saved us from seeing this irritating ad. This was the one that started the real trend, the one that really caused panic when it came on TV, because we knew what was coming at the end. That fateful line. 2012 was the second year of the CBS/Turner deal, so this was one of the first ads shown nonstop across multiple channels. I actually had to watch it a few times to remember what the point was. Oh, that's right. Pandora radio in a Buick. Before Spotify, kids, there was Pandora. So all of these singers are watching this woman go into the dry cleaners from their tour buses. To this day, when I see a dry cleaners, I say it like the Gregorian chanting monks from this commercial. Dry clea-ner-er. Advertisement But it ends with that line. That outfit. Those glasses. That Neon Trees singer. 'Everybody Talks' was a hit in 2011, rising to No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. But the way 'It started with a whisper!' hit you in this commercial and never stopped over three weeks of the NCAA Tournament was unbearable. Neon Trees is still together and apparently put out an album last year. It's been 13 years since this commercial. It started with a whisper. It ended with me never wanting to hear them again. If Shai Gilgeous-Alexander doesn't win the NBA MVP this year, I like to imagine this commercial will be why. I still hold it against him. And the entire Oklahoma City Thunder organization, for that matter. Every part of this commercial is baffling. Why does it include two NBA players most casual fans didn't know at the time? Why doesn't it tell those fans who they are? Why does it let them sing off-key for a painfully awkward amount of time? Why did Chet Holmgren and SGA agree to this? Why did this commercial continue into the NHL and NBA playoffs later that year? I saw this commercial so many times before even realizing it was for AT&T. I have AT&T internet and considered switching services because of it. The Carmelo Anthony/TJ Ford/Kendrick Perkins draft suit commercial by AT&T that same year was so much better. It was fun. Why couldn't that one be played more often? No. We had to get 'What A Pro Wants'. It was unfathomably bad. It's not just the worst March Madness commercial of all time, it's one of the worst commercials, period. Honorable mention: Don't Let Me Go (Apple, 2024), Chris Webber (Burger King, 2014), Greg Anthony March Monotony (LG, 2012), Peter Frampton joins band (Buick, 2012), Darius Rucker TenderCrispBaconCheddarRanch (Burger King, 2005) I didn't want to overload this list with recency bias, so Apple's horrible autotune 'Don't Let Me Go' ad is an honorable mention. That said, it does feel like we're getting more of these badly overplayed commercials than ever before. I couldn't find video of the Greg Anthony 'March Monotony' commercial, so it doesn't make the list. The reason a guy is screaming his head off for seeing Chris Webber at a sports bar in 2014 is unclear. The Darius Rucker BK commercial wasn't annoying — it was just good and memorable. And it would end up kick-starting his country music career a few years later. How about that? Lifetime Achievement Honor: Charles Barkley, Spike Lee, Samuel L Jackson (Capital One) There wasn't any single commercial from this group that stood out among the best or worst, but you can always count on seeing this trio way too much. Sometimes, they're funny (In The Annapolis). Sometimes, they're bad. But to group it all together, they deserve this honor for always showing up and being… fine. If I missed any other 'classics,' let me know in the comments. Putting this together took a few hours of research and reaching back into parts of my brain I'd locked away. Finding video of older commercials is harder than you might think. Which ad will take the crown in 2025? Could the new AT&T 'Thunderstruck' commercial with SGA, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams that aired during the selection show be the one? By the end of Thursday night, we'll probably have an idea. In the meantime… SPRINKLES! (Photo courtesy of GEICO)
