Kyle Larson celebrates his return with first win since suspension
DeChambeau wins Arnold Palmer; Ernst takes third LPGA title
LAS VEGAS » Kyle Larson is back in NASCAR and back in victory lane.
On Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Larson raced to his first NASCAR victory since he was reinstated from a nearly yearlong suspension. He ran just the first four races last season, then lost his job for using a racial slur while playing a video game early in the pandemic.
He worked all last year on rebuilding his image and was hired by Hendrick Motorsports when NASCAR said the suspension would lift at the start of this year.
“Thanks Mr. H. for believing in me,” Larson radioed to boss Rick Hendrick after crossing the finish line.
He then celebrated his first career on an intermediate track with a smokefilled burnouts. Bubba Wallace, NASCAR’s only Black fulltime driver, was the first competitor to congratulate Larson at his car.
Larson’s move to Hendrick was expected to be electric.
Larson is considered one of the top talents in NASCAR but won just six times in six seasons with Chip Ganassi Racing. Paired with mighty Hendrick, everyone suspected Larson would at last reach his full potential.
The victory came in his fourth race in the No. 5 Chevrolet and gave Hendrick back-to-back victories. William Byron won last week at HomesteadMiami Speedway, so Hendrick has two of its four drivers locked into the playoffs just one month into the new season.
ORLANDO, FLA. » The long ball helped Bryson DeChambeau outlast Lee Westwood on Sunday in the Arnold Palmer Invitational, only the key shots were as much with his putter as his driver.
DeChambeau holed a 40foot birdie putt on the front nine and a 50-foot par putt early on the back nine. He closed it out with a nervy
5-foot par putt for a 1-under 71 and a one-shot victory over the 47-year-old Westwood.
It matched the low score of the day, one of only three rounds under par in the toughest final round at Bay Hill in 41 years.
DeChambeau and Westwood were never separated by more than one shot over the final 15 holes, a fascinating duel of generations that came down to the last shot. LPGA TOUR » Austin Ernst won the Drive On Championship for her third LPGA Tour title, pulling away to beat fellow former NCAA champion Jennifer Kupcho by five strokes at Golden Ocala.
Tied for the lead with Kupcho after each of the first two rounds and a stroke ahead entering the day, Ernst closed with a
2-under 70 to finish the wire-to-wire victory at
15-under 273.
Kupcho, coming off a closing eagle Saturday, had a double bogey and three bogeys in a 74.
Following sisters Jessica and Nelly Korda in the first two events of the year, Ernst gave the United States three straight victories to open a season for the first time since 2007.
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. » By the time Rick Pitino got to town, the coronavirus was already there.
When Iona hired the Hall of Fame coach last March 14, there was no celebration for the new biggest man on campus. The more noteworthy arrival in the New York City suburb that week was the National Guard, sent in by Gov. Andrew Cuomo when he set up a “containment zone” that closed schools and banned large gatherings within a one-mile radius of a synagogue just down the street that was the center of one of the earliest COVID-19 outbreaks in the U.S.
Nearly a year later, the virus never fully let go of its grip around Pitino’s program.
Forced to stop four times this season because of virus issues — including one 51-day hiatus that sidelined them longer than any team in the country — the Gaels come out of their latest pause hoping to put together a good ending to a frustrating season starting Tuesday at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament.
“It hasn’t gone well for us because we’ve missed two months of practice and games. We’re trying to make the best of it in very difficult times,” Pitino said. “We probably have been hit harder than any program in the nation. That being said, I’m very proud of our guys because they’ve hung in there. They’ve been basically in jail four different times for 14 days.”
Though it’s the best time of year in college basketball, Pitino never wanted this March Madness. He advocated for the season to be pushed back from its November start to February, culminating with the NCAA Tournament being played in May, when perhaps enough people would have been vaccinated to have a safe and realistic season.
Maybe that would have given him belief in more postseason success, the kind he enjoyed at Kentucky and Louisville.
Now, forget playing like his teams did in the SEC or Big East tournaments. He doesn’t even believe the Gaels can play as well as they did when they last took the court on Feb. 20.
“Honestly, I don’t. I don’t believe that, but we’re going to make the best of it,” Pitino said.
Iona had just completed a good run under Tim Cluess, who made six NCAA Tournament appearances and won five MAAC Tournament titles in nine seasons before stepping down for health reasons, when it hired Pitino. The Gaels hoped things might be even better under the first coach to win national titles at two schools (Kentucky, Louisville) and the first to take
three schools (Providence) to the Final Four.
And Pitino hoped the job could help repair a reputation that was tarnished when Louisville fired him in 2017 while being investigated as part of a federal corruption probe.
But this season never got off the ground.
An 11-game nonconference schedule that was to include a trip to the Bahamas was scrapped entirely after the NCAA
determined the season wouldn’t start until Nov. 25. Iona set up a new slate of six nonconference games, only to cancel four of them after its initial pause of activity in November.
Iona twice had cancelations on the day of games in December, the latter on Dec. 29 followed later that night by a positive test within its program, necessitating another twoweek pause.
It had been almost a year since the Flyers played in front of fans at Wells Fargo Center due to coronavirus restrictions.
Longtime season ticket holder Tim Raudabaugh of Ridley Township attended the game. The man is such a diehard Flyers fan he took his day-old bride Kathy to a game at the old Spectrum, followed by a nightcap at the adjacent Ovations club, where on a good night you would be lucky to run into as many Flyers icons past and present as he did.
Flyers games just bring out the best in Raudabaugh, who along with 3,099 other fans, attended the grand reopening of Wells Fargo Center to watch the Flyboys take on the Washington Capitals Sunday. The Caps prevailed, 3-1.
Television
didn’t
offer
Raudabaugh what he has missed more than anything but his wife in this age of COVID – being part of it.
“This is our first real time out since the coronavirus,” Raudabaugh said on the way to getting back in his seats. “This is really all we did before the coronavirus. It’s good to be back.”
Just then, an usher walked by and greeted Raudabaugh and his wife with a “Welcome back.” They knew each other from game days. It was like a family reunion that Raudabaugh hoped would include some of the season ticket holders who sat around him before the NHL shut down and shut out fans.
“Just to be able to see all the guards and the people you used to see all the time, we’re all friends,” Raudabaugh said. “It’s going to be good to get together again. I’m yapping the whole game at home just like I do here. But this is the place I wanted to be. My seats are right behind the bench. I just had to be here.”
In another area of Wells Fargo Center, Sean Couturier’s most loyal fan, Jaclin Dreisbach of Norwood, was rocking his jersey and reveling in the camaraderie of fellow fans checking out the decorations.
The Flyers made sure their faithful knew how much they were missed with an enormous “WELCOME BACK FLYERS FANS” string of letters arching over the escalators in the concourse, as well as balloon arches here and there.
Dreisbach snapped away with her cell phone, along with other patrons.
“It’s amazing,” Dreisbach said. “I’m not a season ticket holder but I come to games all the time, so I’m really excited to be back. It’s just not as fun watching it on TV. I love being here. The atmosphere is everything. It’s really awesome to be back.”
Dreisbach had a lot more energy than the Flyers in the second period. After Joel Farabee gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead in the first period, bringing the crowd to its feet, the Capitals bounced back in the second frame with two goals in the last five minutes, the first by Alex Ovechkin.
It took a little of the edge off the first concessions in almost a year, the offerings ranging from tantalizing fresh-smelling hot dogs to soft pretzels.
Ushers, bag checkers and support personnel applauded the waves of Flyers fans walking through the doors and into the concourses. It didn’t take long for the Flyers’ cheer to be heard.
Wells Fargo Center Senior Vice President of Arena Operations Phil Laws, who resides in Chadds Ford, said the building was scheduled to accommodate almost 4,000 people Sunday night,
including players, support staff, media and 3,100 fans. A far cry from the 19,689 attendance at the last event here, a 2-0 loss to the Boston Bruins on March 10, 2020.
This game was just a beginning for the Flyers and their fans, who go together like peas and carrots.
Raudabaugh always will remember his honeymoon. And, of course, he’ll recall the post-game party at Ovations, where he met a starstudded cast of the always approachable Flyers. It’s
a memory that contrasts these unapproachable, mask-it times of the coronavirus.
“It was amazing,” Raudabaugh said. “We went to the game and went to Ovations after the game. We met Rick Tocchet and Derrick Smith, and ‘Proppy’ (Brian Propp), afterward. Who did they play? I don’t remember. It was the day after our wedding.”
Once a Flyers fan, always a Flyers fan.
On this Sunday night, the long wait was worth it.