No. 4 Central survives upset scare Reddick on pole for NASCAR race in Kansas City
Miami Central’s season-opening stunner against Bradenton IMG Academy was a long distant memory by the time halftime rolled around of its first showdown with a South Florida opponent this season.
Booker T. Washington, far from the national rankings and just starting to try to get back to its once-standard place among the top teams in Miami, had Central on the ropes with a flurry of takeaways and a half of mostly mistake-free play.
It was a challenge coach Jube Joseph knew his Rockets would get eventually and he was eager to see how they’d respond.
With a two-minute drill and one crucial fourthdown conversion, Central gave it to him to tie the score right before halftime and set itself up for a 36-19 win at Traz Powell Stadium.
“I saw my kids fight through adversity,” Joseph said. “You need some types of game like that.”
From there, the Rockets (2-0) never trailed again. They started the second half with a stop and a score, and then another one and it was enough to keep the Tornadoes (2-1) at bay. Central outscored Booker T. Washington, 23-6, in the second half, surviving an upset scare from a program seemingly back on the rise.
The Rockets needed more than a full quarter to finally spring to life on offense and even then it was only a temporary awakening. The Tornadoes threw all they had at Central and it had the Rockets actually trailing until the final moments of the second quarter.
After Central running back Jonathan Harris broke loose for a 42-yard touchdown run with 10:13 left in the second quarter, Booker T. Washington responded with 13 consecutive points, scoring one touchdown after a fumble by Rockets quarterback Dylan Tulloch and then another after Tornadoes coach Tim “Ice” Harris sprung a surprise onside kick on
Central.
The Tornadoes’ next kickoff went out of bounds, so Central needed to go just 60 yards on its two-minute drill, and Rockets quarterback Keyone Jenkins delivered, shaking off a first-quarter interception with a clutch second-quarter drive.
Jenkins, who’s orally committed to the FIU Panthers, went 3 of 4 for 54 yards on the drive — including a 19-yard pass on fourth-and-10 — and capped it by throwing a touchdown to Central wide receiver Cataurus Hicks with 7.7 seconds left in the half.
Hicks scored two touchdowns. Jenkins threw three. Once the Rockets started to take care of the ball, they seized control, as is expected of the No. 4 team in MaxPreps’ national rankings.
“Once we got things together for ourselves, we were unstoppable,” Joseph said. “We’re our biggest threat. We’re our biggest enemies.”
Jenkins and Hicks linked up again on Central’s first drive, but the Rockets settled for a field goal on the second and Booker T. Washington got the lead down to 22-19 with 9:35 left.
On the Rockets’ final drive, Harris sealed the win with his second 42-yard touchdown.
Tyler Reddick will start from the pole in the NASCAR Cup Series playoff race at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City.
Reddick leaned on his extensive background driving dirt late models to ride the rim around the mile-and-a-half track on Saturday. He stopped the clock in 29.899 seconds, denying Joey Logano a second straight pole.
“It took off fast. I was really happy with the car,” Reddick said. “It definitely likes the top two or three grooves of this race track, but just really happy with the entire performance of our team today.”
It’s the first time that Reddick, who is fifth in the playoff standings, has earned the pole on an oval.
“I’m really excited about that,” he said, “and it’s crazy — I think my first Xfinity pole came here, too.”
The drivers who made the final round had to contend with changing conditions — the first few qualifying laps were made under cloud cover, while the sun began peeking out for Austin Cindric and remained out the rest of the session.
They also had to decide whether to ride the far outside groove or a line that was slightly lower on the track.
Christopher Bell, who opted for the rim, was the fastest in the first group of five with a lap of
30.057 seconds. And he was pleased with the time for Joe Gibbs Racing, telling his team over the radio, “That’s all I got, buddy.”
It was enough to start alongside Alex Bowman on the outside of the second row.
Bowman took a slightly lower line around the track and posted a time of 29.964 seconds before Logano overtook him down the back stretch and carried enough speed through Turn 3 and Turn 4 to set a new best time of 29.936.
“I thought we had a pretty good lap,” Logano said. “Our car was tighter than it was the first run. It was so good the first run that we didn’t want to adjust too much. We picked up a lot from practice and laid down a pretty good lap.”
Just not quite as good as Reddick, who landed the No. 8 of Richard Childress Racing up front.
The top five starting spots belong to playoff drivers with Ross Chastain rounding it out. Bubba Wallace qualified sixth, ahead of three more playoff drivers in Kyle Larson, Cindric and
William Byron. Chris Buescher will start 10th.
The rest of the playoff field has some ground to make up. Austin Dillon will start 11th with Chase Briscoe in 13th, Kevin
Harvick behind him, and
Daniel Suárez in 15th.
Ryan Blaney qualified 17th with Kyle Busch in 20th, Chase Elliott in 22nd and Denny Hamlin 25th.
XFINITY SERIES
Noah Gragson outran the rain and Justin Allgaier to win the rainshortened NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Kansas Speedway.
Gragson survived a two-lap shootout to win the second stage, after which the race was considered official. He used a great restart after the race’s first caution to assume the lead and held the advantage when rain caused the caution flags to come out with eight laps left in the stage.
After some back-andforth, NASCAR called the race official. Gragson won for the 10th time in the series, fifth time this season and second straight week after a dramatic victory at Darlington. Before Saturday, Kansas Speedway was the only track where he failed to record a top-10 finish.
Allgaier finished second, followed by points leader Ty Gibbs. The Xfinity Series regular season will conclude next week at Bristol.
FORMULA ONE
Charles Leclerc will be looking to reignite the Formula One championship race on his home track after clinching pole position for Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix in Monza.
Runaway points leader Max Verstappen will again have to try and fight his way to the front after being among the many drivers to be hit with grid penalties.
Leclerc — who said he risked everything at the end — set the fastest time on his last lap in Saturday’s qualifying and knew he would start at the front of the grid even before Verstappen crossed 0.145 seconds slower, meaning the Ferrari driver secured pole on merit and not just because of his rival’s grid penalties.
Despite starting the season brightly, Ferrari has had a difficult campaign full of errors. Leclerc, who trails Verstappen by 109 points in the standings, admitted it was a “surprise” to top qualifying.
Verstappen is bidding for a fifth consecutive win and a first appearance on the iconic Monza podium. The reigning champion had a more daunting task at the Belgium GP two weeks ago, when he was again among several drivers to be hit with grid penalties and started 14th but surged to victory.
Verstappen’s starting position on Sunday — with all the different penalties for various drivers — was not immediately clear. Verstappen himself said he thought he would be starting seventh.