Also check out our comprehensive betting preview . RATING, DRIVER ODDS PRAC 1, QUALIFIED, FALL CMS*, KANSAS* Joey Logano 4/1 5th, 4th, 1st, 1st 2014 winner at Texas with fifth-place average in past five; he is the current ‘it’ driver. Kevin Harvick 4/1 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 16th No wins in 25 Texas starts, but runner-up in past two; using winning Dover chassis this week. Brad Keselowski 9/2 1st, 1st, 9th, 9th 2012 runner-up here, third last fall and in fifth April; ninth or better in all nine races on 1....

MORE: Driver-by-driver odds breakdown Harvick had the fastest 10-consecutive lap average during the final practice session on Friday, while also laying down the third-fastest lap in the early session. Already rated as the driver to beat prior to practices, Harvick was upgraded when the team revealed he was going to use the same chassis that led 224 of the 312 laps at Phoenix. Neither of the practice sessions are comparable to the conditions the drivers will see at night, so it is quite possible for someone who didn’t fare well Friday have the conditions come to them, or vice-versa, where a driver who was set-up perfectly Friday have the conditions move away from them....

At Kansas Speedway Kansas City, Kan. Lap length: 1.5 miles (Car number in parentheses) 1. (29) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 187.526 mph. 2. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 187.48. 3. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 187.162. 4. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 186.233. 5. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 186.168. 6. (88) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 186.072. 7. (20) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 185.893. 8. (27) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 185.874. 9. (99) Carl Edwards, Ford, 185....

Owned and operated by the city of Charlotte, the NASCAR Hall of Fame opened in May 2010 and lost approximately $5.3 million over its first four years. With attendance stabilizing at about 170,000 per year — “conservative” projections in 2006 were 400,000 annually — the Hall has lost $1.4 million and $1.6 in its last two fiscal years. In hoping to find a cash-flow structure that will allow the Hall of Fame to break even, the Charlotte City Council voted Monday to alter how the $192 million facility is funded....

Cup Series cars will be racing on dirt for the first time in more than half a century when the green flag drops for the Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Monday. The last Cup dirt race was Sept. 30, 1970, at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in Raleigh. Here’s everything you need to know about the Food City Dirt Race at Bristol, including lineups for the heat races, rule changes and modifications to the cars....

The 25-year-old won his first pole of the season Friday at ISM Raceway in Avondale, Ariz., outside Phoenix. He will start up front for Sunday’s Monster Energy Cup Series TicketGuardian 500. DRIVERS FIGHT: Suarez, McDowell clash in qualifying Chase Elliott will start second. Kyle Busch will be fourth and Kevin Harvick eighth. Kurt Busch did not make it to the final round of qualifying and will start 16th. NASCAR AT PHOENIX: Odds, prediction, sleepers...

The team says that crew chief Dave Winston recently fell victim to the attack — and began a journey that led to a sponsorship arrangement. MORE: 10 to watch at Sonoma | Starting lineup Computers used by Winston were recently infected by ransomware, according to the team’s website, and those who launched the problem demanded that the team pay a ransom within 48 hours, or its data would be lost....

Emergency responders are on the scene to help people who report injuries after Tuesday morning’s severe weather storm, while officials attempt to assess the damage caused. Tennessee Emergency Management Spokeswoman Maggie Hannan announced the death toll has jumped to 19 as rescue efforts continue, The Tennessean newspaper reported. Chief of Police Steve Anderson said two people killed in Nashville were hit by debris on McFerrin Street—a woman died on the scene, while a man died after arriving at a local hospital....

One of those players is Johnson’s former teammate and fellow wideout, Nate Burleson. Burleson, who is retired, shared the field with Johnson from 2010-13, and formed a close bond with the then-young receiver. Tuesday, Burleson posted a touching message on his Instagram account in remembrance of Johnson. In addition to Burleson, former Lions quarterback and Johnson teammate Dan Orlovsky sent out a few tweets about the 30-year-old’s retirement. A photo posted by Nate Burleson (@nateburleson) on Mar 8, 2016 at 8:20am PST

Diaz posted on Twitter that he was told he “tested with elevated levels that [UFC says] might be from some tainted supplements.” Join DAZN and watch more than 100 fight nights a year He went on to say he wasn’t going to try to keep the test quiet — as the UFC allegedly suggested — and be branded a cheater because of it. “I’m not gonna make it out to NYC for fight week next week because they say I tested with elevated levels that they say might be from some tainted supplements,” Diaz wrote....

President Donald Trump and his allies have criticized pollsters, suggesting results have been off or even “fake”—while claiming that polling showing major leads for Joe Biden could have suppressed turnout of Trump voters. Silver, who is editor-in-chief of FiveThirtyEight, recently said while 2020 polling errors were “worse than average” he does not believe there is evidence polls are becoming less accurate. “There’s not actually much evidence that polls are becoming less accurate,” he said in a recent tweet, in response to MSNBC host Chris Hayes suggesting it was a “bad combination” that polling is becoming “more common and accessible and also less accurate....

Silver was criticized on Twitter after the predictions made for the election fell short. Verified users used their platforms to ask why the editor-in-chief’s model and its polls were still taken seriously. According to Pew Research, while polls can be useful they and can be “accurate in identifying Americans’ preferred candidate” they can fail to identify the winner of an election. This can be for a number of reasons such as poll methodology, bias, and more....

Smith, a rising senior at Trinity Christian School in Fayetteville, N.C., told ESPN he has cut his school list to Kentucky, North Carolina, Louisville, Duke, Wake Forest and N.C. State. MORE: Young players impress on national stage |Active college coaches, Hall of Fame bound “I felt it was the right time to cut my list,” Smith said. “It was getting too much with all the messages, and I try to return all the messages, but it got to be too much....

Where do avocados come from? Avocados originally came from Mexico and Central America, but are now grown and exported all over the world. The original name of the berry is slightly controversial. According to Reader’s Digest, the indigenous Nahua of Mexico and El Salvadore called avocados “āhuacatl,” which also means “testicles.” Since 1995, consumption in the U.S. has grown from 360 million pounds to 2.45 billion pounds in 2018, according to Department of Agriculture data, illustrated below by Statista....

Farrow told The Late Show’s Stephen Colbert Wednesday night that in the process of researching his new book Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators, he saw for the first time “any journalist has seen it, a master list of all the historical dirt that was about Trump in the AMI archives.” The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist said the list was titled, “Killed stories about Donald Trump,” and contained “about 60” stories that AMI acquired and buried in a practice known in the media industry as “catch and kill....

It is easy to look at the tearing down of a Confederate flag, the burning of a pharmacy or the dismantling of a statue, and question the motives—to see these as distractions from the “real” work of ending racism. However, America’s yet to be fully processed and acknowledged trauma sits neatly in every falsified textbook, in every classroom lecture and segregated housing community, in every hospital room death where infant mortality rate disparities loom large and still unchecked, and in every murder of a Black or brown man, womxn, Trans or non-binary individual at the hands of those sworn to serve and protect....

Major brands including Chipotle and Dunkin’ are also celebrating Nurses Day by offering nurses free and discounted food, while Crocs is giving away thousands of pairs of shoes. Find out below what deals and discounts nurses and healthcare workers can treat themselves to this Nurses Week. National Nurses Day Deals Biggby CoffeeChipotleCrocsDunkin’FreebirdsIke’s Love and SandwichesInsomnia CookiesMcAlister DeliMrs. FieldsStaples Biggby Coffee Today, Biggby Coffee is giving nurses with a medical ID a free 16-ounce drink, as well as a retractable badge holder while supplies last....

Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State and Texas all jostled for the top spot with impressive hauls in this cycle, though the Bulldogs took the No. 1 spot in those rankings, knocking Alabama from atop the rankings for the first time since 2011. MORE: NSD 2018 tracker Using 247Sports’ Composite rankings, Sporting News breaks down one big thing for every top-10 recruiting class of 2018: 1. Georgia Five-stars: QB Justin Fields, RB Zamir White, T Cade Mays, DE Brenton Cox, G Jamaree Salyer, LB Adam Anderson, CB Tyson Campbell One big thing: Georgia took the No....

That proved not to be the case. The visiting Nationals took a commanding 2-0 series lead in a 12-3 drubbing of the Astros in World Series Game 2. Justin Verlander gave up two very early runs to Anthony Rendon — as in, with no outs yet in the game — when the NL MVP candidate mashed a two-run double to left field. Washington didn’t look back after that, scoring 10 more runs against Verlander, Ryan Pressly, Josh James and other Astros relievers....

Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday the alliance will double the number of deployed troops and send them to Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia. He will be making further announcements Thursday about reinforcing the alliance’s eastern flank, NPR journalist Teri Schultz said on Twitter. NATO armed forces have been providing humanitarian aid to Ukraine’s bordering countries while closely monitoring Russia’s military activities. Member nations have imposed harsh economic sanctions on Russia but are avoiding any military action to prevent triggering the NATO treaty’s Article 5, which states that an attack against one of the allies is considered an attack on the entire alliance....