William Byron earns pole position for Daytona 500
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – William Byron, at 21 years old, earned the pole position for next Sunday’s Daytona 500.
Driving the No. 24 car made famous by Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon, Byron turned a lap at 194.304 mph to edge teammate and 2018 pole sitter Alex Bowman by fewer than two-tenths of a second. Bowman came in at 194.153 mph.
Byson and Bowman locked in the 1-2 positions on the front row for the Great American Race, set for 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 17. The rest of the positions will be determined during Thursday’s Cam-am Duels.
“It’s been a great offseason. We’re prepared. We’re ready,” Byron said. “This is kind of the first step of our process together, so hopefully it goes well next Sunday. We can kind of chill out throughout the Duel races and learn a little bit.
“I’m looking forward to it. This is awesome.”
Byron’s strong showing on an overcast, misty Sunday at Daytona International Speedway secured the pole position for Hendricks Motorsports for a record fifth straight year.
“This is the deal, sitting up front at Daytona,” Hendricks said.
In fact, the top four finishers race for the iconic owner, whose drivers now have won nine poles, trying Petty Enterprises for the most during the sport’s most famous race.
“It just shows how well everyone is working together,” Bowman said.
Veteran Jimmie Johnson, a two-time winner of the 500, finished third, a spot ahead of 22-year-old Chase Elliott. Elliott won the pole in 2016 and 2017.
Coincidentally, Byron now works with Johnson’s longtime crew chief Chad Knaus. Johnson and Knaus
It was a successful run at home for the Kings.
The Kings closed a season-long, six-game home stand with a 117-104 victory over the Phoenix Suns on Sunday at Golden 1 Center.
Sacramento never trailed and led by as many as 25.
Rookie big man Marvin Bagley III scored a career-high 32 points to lead the Kings (30-26). Five other players were in double figures.
The Suns (11-47) attempted to rally in the fourth quarter but could only get as close as 13. Devin Booker led Phoenix with 27 points.
Sacramento went 5-1 in front of its fans. The loss was to the Houston Rockets on Wednesday, the day the team traded Iman Shumpert
OAKLAND – Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry are really good at playing basketball. Durant scored 39 points on 16-of-24 shooting, despite going only 1-of-7 from distance. Klay Thompson had 29 points on a 11-of-21 clip overall and 6-of-13 mark from the perimeter. Curry added 25 points while going 9-of-18 from the field and 5-of-10 from distance.
Technically, Demarcus Cousins made a pair of foul shots to give the Warriors a 120118 lead with 5.4 seconds left. Then, Heat guard Dion Waiters missed a 28-footer at the buzzer. But the Warriors (40-15) collected their 15th win out of the past 16 games mostly by leaning on their top scorers.
After the Warriors committed two costly turnovers. Durant drilled his first 3 of the night to tie the game at 118 with 44 seconds left. Though Curry went 1-of-4 from the field and Justin Jackson in separate deals, which brought Harrison Barnes and Alec Burks to the Kings.
“To go 5-1 on this home stand is terrific,” coach Dave Joerger said of the Kings, who are 19-11 at home this season. “We had some special performances over this home stand and again tonight by Marvin Bagley, who’s finding his way.”
It will be a while before Kings fans see their team play at home – 17 days to be exact. It’s the longest period between home games this season, one day longer than when the Kings went on a season-long, six-game trip last month that started in Charlotte and ended against the Los Angeles Clippers.
Sacramento has one more game before the All-star break, Wednesday against the Nuggets in Denver. After the break, the Kings play three road contests before returning home Feb. 27 face the Eastern Conferenceleading Milwaukee Bucks.
Entering Sunday with a one-stroke advantage, Langer birdied five of his first seven holes in the final
on contending.
“As an organization here, we’re really lucky,” Longoria said. “This organization spends money. We’re never going to have to worry about trying to put the best product on the field. But as players, the fear is that there’s other organizations that don’t care about that. That are potentially tanking.”
Many members of the team’s core are optimistic the club will rebound from back-to-back losing seasons if players are able to stay healthy and maintain consistent production levels. But even manager Bruce Bochy acknowledged that an offense that has finished second-to-last in runs scored in each of the past two years is incomplete.
“There’s still some moves that will be made before the season starts,” Bochy promised.
Upon his hiring in November, Zaidi was given the freedom to overhaul the Giants’ roster as he sees fit. The former Dodgers general manager promised a methodical approach, but as the season draws near, Giants fans and players are growing restless. in the first quarter, he went 8-of-14 the rest of the way. And after allowing Durant and Curry to handle most of the workload through the first three quarters, Thompson scored 14 fourth-quarter points.
The Warriors achieved this offensive utopia by ensuring balance in shot attempts to Durant (24), Thompson (21).
The Heat (25-29) featured Josh Richardson (37), Waiters (24), Justise Winslow (22) and Dwyane Wade (10) logging double figures. They combined to go 18of-43 from 3-point range.