Sports
Portland IndyCar: McLaughlin wins, Power stretches points lead
From pole position, Team Penske-Chevrolet’s McLaughlin launched away from pole with teammate Power firmly in his slipstream, but Christian Lundgaard was haunting them, and went around the outside of Power into second, while Pato O’Ward, the highest started on the harder Firestone primaries, passed Alex Palou to grab fourth ahead of the Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda.
Behind Palou, David Malukas bounded up to sixth ahead of Felix Rosenqvist, and Andretti Autosport’s primary runners Colton Herta and Alexander Rossi.
One driver struggling to get his tires up to temperature was Josef Newgarden who slipped from his penalized eighth place down to 11th by Lap 4, behind Graham Rahal.
By Lap 6, McLaughlin had a three second lead over Lundgaard, with Power running a further 1.1sec adrift but 1.7sec ahead of O’Ward, who was working hard to keep his harder-tired car ahead of the menacing-looking Palou and Malukas. Scott Dixon had made his way up to 14th, but Ganassi teammate Marcus Ericsson slipped to 19th.
Dixon, who had started on primaries, pitted on Lap 13, while Newgarden stopped a lap later. Perhaps surprisingly, Palou also pitted at the end of Lap 15, as did Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet.
Power pitted from third at the end of Lap 17 and took on a set of scuffed reds, while O’Ward pitted a lap later to take on his first set of reds.
McLaughlin went to Lap 21 before pitting, with Lundgaard stopping a lap later, but a slight delay on the refueling and some strong out-laps from Power meant he emerged behind the #12 Penske.
McLaughlin’s lead over the yet-to-stop Ericsson was five seconds by Lap 28 of the 110, with Power having to work hard not to get too close to Ericsson whereby he might burn up his tires but also keep Lundgaard in his mirrors. RLL’s great Dane was five seconds clear of O’Ward, who had 2.3sec margin over Palou.
That early stop for reds had worked out well for Newgarden who was now seventh ahead of Rahal, Herta and Rossi, while early stopping had also seen Dixon move up to 11th, barely holding off VeeKay.
Ericsson finally pitted at the end of Lap 31, but the tactic hadn’t worked out well, and he was down in 18th, where he started. Meanwhile Power now had a near-eight-second deficit to McLaughlin, and was 1.4sec ahead of Lundgaard, who was being gradually gained on by O’Ward.
By Lap 40, the major track action was the squabble between Palou, Newgarden and Rahal over fifth place, and on Lap 42 down the back straight Newgarden made a very clean move into Turn 10 to snag fifth, leaving the Ganassi driver struggling to fend off Rahal. His efforts succeeded for just a lap, as the RLL driver zoomed past him at the exact same place. Palou then pitted.
Up front, Power had shaved the margin to McLaughlin down to 5.5sec, and had stretched his margin over Lundgaard to over six seconds, and the #30 RLL car was now less than a second ahead of O’Ward.
Newgarden pitted from fifth on Lap 45, the same lap as Dixon, the pair of them taking on scrubbed reds. A lap later, Lundgaard pitted to get off his worn reds to grab a set of primaries.
McLaughlin and Power stopped as they completed Lap 47 to grab primary tires, and they were followed in by O’Ward, whose AMSP team got him out ahead of Lundgaard who was struggling to get his black primaries up to temp. Now O’Ward was on reds again, and he would endeavor to close the eight second margin to Power, although he’d have to also pass the again late-stopping Ericsson who was also on the softer alternates. Ericsson would pit on Lap 54.
Unlike his teammates, Newgarden was on reds and was making the most of them, hustling up onto the tail of Lundgaard, and he calmly outbraked him into Turn 1 on Lap 55 to claim fourth.
On Lap 60, five past half distance, McLaughlin’s lead over Power was 4.9sec, but the pair were being reeled in by O’Ward and Newgarden, 2.2 and 4.3sec adrift respectively.
Lundgaard was a further five seconds back, and a similar distance ahead of teammate Rahal who had Rossi filling his mirrors, with Dixon, Herta and VeeKay close behind. Palou was losing time in 11th, reporting something amiss at the rear of his car.
On Lap 67, O’Ward was within one second of Power, and Newgarden was only two seconds behind. Having drawn within 4.4sec of McLaughlin, Power was briefly stymied by the lapped Jimmie Johnson but by diving past the #48 Ganassi car at Turn 1, Power bought himself some breathing room as O’Ward couldn’t zap Johnson until the back straight, and Newgarden gained on him.
However, the alternates now looked no better than the primaries, O’Ward and Newgarden started losing a tenth or two from Power who was now four seconds behind McLaughlin.
Rossi was the first driver in the Top 10 to make his final stop at the end of Lap 77, and Lundgaard, Dixon, VeeKay and Palou followed suit a lap later. Sadly Lundgaard stalled it as he tried to leave.
McLaughlin, Power, O’Ward, Newgarden, Rahal and Herta stopped next time by, and the remained in that order, but in condensed form. McLaughlin had lost time on his in-lap when Rosenqvist emerged ahead of him from his final stop, and so by the time the top four emerged, McLaughlin’s margin over Power was only 1.4sec. Newgarden, interestingly, had picked primaries for his last stint: would this pay off in the closing laps?
Power had got McLaughlin’s lead down to 1sec when the first caution of the day flew, as VeeKay misjudged a lapping maneuver on Johnson approaching Turn 1, tucking back in ahead before he had cleared the Ganassi car. Instead he squeezed Johnson into the wall, breaking the NASCAR legend’s suspension so he slithered into the Turn 1 run-off.
Following the rash of stops, Rossi had moved up to fifth ahead of Dixon, Rahal, Herta and VeeKay, while Lundgaard’s stalling had dropped him to 10th, although still ahead of Palou.
On the Lap 90 restart, O’Ward tried to outbrake Power into Turn 1, but instead nudged into the Penske, wheel-to-wheel. Right behind them, Dixon had ducked past Newgarden and Rossi as they fought over fourth, Newgarden regretting his choice of primaries. Then as O’Ward lost momentum from his failed pass on Power, Dixon was now on his tail as they exited Turn 3. The AMSP driver moved hard right into Turn 4 to block Dixon and curb his momentum, so was ordered by Race Control to relinquish the spot to the six-time champion.
Behind them, Newgarden lost places to Rossi, Herta, Rahal and Lundgaard, but regained a spot when Lundgaard had to pit. He had been battling with Rossi who had dropped a wheel off the track but when he tried to outbrake the Andretti driver into Turn 1, he ran long and collected a signboard in the runoff, necessitating a pitstop.
On Lap 100, with 10 to go, McLaughlin held a 1.6sec lead over Power, who had 0.9sec ahead of the remarkable Dixon, up from 16th on the grid. O’Ward, who had suffered sidepod damage when he bashed into Power, was now five seconds behind Dixon, and had Rahal, Herta and Rossi stacked up behind him.
With three laps to go, the top three were equidistant, 1.3sec apart, with O’Ward still working hard to grab fourth from the wounded O’Ward. Power did his best to close down the gap, but was thinking big picture, keeping a prime title rival Dixon behind him.
McLaughlin scored his third win of the year by 1.2sec, with Power 0.4sec ahead of Dixon who could be satisfied by a brilliant drive.
O’Ward clung onto fourth ahead of Rahal, Herta and Rossi, while Newgarden eighth ahead of the impressive Callum Ilott of Juncos Hollinger Racing, and Rosenqvist.
Ericsson and Palou finished 11th and 12th, Palou now unable to retain his championship. O’Ward, too, has now been eliminated.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A jury in U.S. District Court ordered the NFL to pay nearly $4.8 billion in damages Thursday after ruling that the league violated antitrust laws in distributing out-of-market Sunday afternoon games on a premium subscription service.
The jury awarded $4.7 billion in damages to the residential class and $96 million in damages to the commercial class. Since damages can be tripled under federal antitrust laws, the NFL could end up being liable for $14.39 billion.
The lawsuit covered 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses in the United States who paid for the package of out-of-market games from the 2011 through 2022 seasons on DirecTV. The lawsuit claimed the league broke antitrust laws by selling its package of Sunday games at an inflated price. The subscribers also say the league restricted competition by offering “Sunday Ticket” only on a satellite provider.
The NFL said it would appeal the verdict. That appeal would go to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and then possibly the Supreme Court.
Should the NFL end up paying damages, it could cost each of the 32 teams approximately $449.6 million.
“We are disappointed with the jury’s verdict today in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit,” the league said in a statement. “We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy, which features all NFL games broadcast on free over-the-air television in the markets of the participating teams and national distribution of our most popular games, supplemented by many additional choices including RedZone, Sunday Ticket and NFL+, is by far the most fan friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment.
“We will certainly contest this decision as we believe that the class action claims in this case are baseless and without merit.”
The trial lasted three weeks and featured testimony from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
“Justice was done. The verdict upholds protection for the consumers in our class. It was a great day for consumers,” plaintiffs attorney Bill Carmody said.
During his closing remarks, Carmody showed an April, 2017, NFL memo that showed the league was exploring a world without “Sunday Ticket” in 2017, where cable channels would air Sunday afternoon out-of-market games not shown on Fox or CBS.
The jury of five men and three women deliberated for nearly five hours before reaching its decision.
Judge Philip S. Gutierrez is scheduled to hear post-trial motions on July 31, including the NFL’s request to have him rule in favor of the league because the judge determined the plaintiffs did not prove their case.
Payment of damages, any changes to the “Sunday Ticket” package and/or the ways the NFL carries its Sunday afternoon games would be stayed until all appeals have been concluded.
The league maintained it had the right to sell “Sunday Ticket” under its antitrust exemption for broadcasting. The plaintiffs said that only covers over-the-air broadcasts and not pay TV.
Other professional sports leagues were also keeping an eye on this case since they also offer out-of-market packages. A major difference though is that MLB, the NBA and the NHL market their packages on multiple distributors and share in the revenue per subscriber instead of receiving an outright rights fee.
DirecTV had “Sunday Ticket” from its inception in 1994 through 2022. The league signed a seven-year deal with Google’s YouTube TV that began with the 2023 season.
The lawsuit was originally filed in 2015 by the Mucky Duck sports bar in San Francisco but was dismissed in 2017. Two years later, the 9th Circuit, which has jurisdiction over California and eight other states, reinstated the case. Gutierrez ruled last year the case could proceed as a class action.
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — The U.S. Olympic team is one of a handful that will supply air conditioners for their athletes at the Paris Games in a move that undercuts organizers’ plans to cut carbon emissions.
U.S. Olympic and Paralympic CEO Sarah Hirshland said Friday that while the U.S. team appreciates efforts aimed at sustainability, the federation would be supplying AC units for what is typically the largest contingent of athletes at the Summer Games.
“As you can imagine, this is a period of time in which consistency and predictability is critical for Team USA’s performance,” Hirshland said. “In our conversations with athletes, this was a very high priority and something that the athletes felt was a critical component in their performance capability.”
The Washington Post reported earlier this month that Germany, Australia, Italy, Canada and Britain were among the other countries with plans to bring air conditioners to France.
Olympic organizers have touted plans to cool rooms in the Athletes Village, which will house more than 15,000 Olympians and sports officials over the course of the games, using a system of cooling pipes underneath the floors.
The average high in Paris on Aug. 1 is 26 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit). The objective is to keep the rooms between 23-26 degrees (73-79 degrees Fahrenheit). The rooms will also be equipped with fans.
“I want the Paris Games to be exemplary from an environmental point of view,” Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has said about the plans for the Olympics.
According to the International Energy Agency, fewer than 1 in 10 households in Europe has air conditioning, and the numbers in Paris are lower than that. The study said that of the 1.6 billion AC units in use across the globe in 2016, more than half were in China (570 million) and the United States (375 million). The entire European Union had around 100 million.
The Olympics mark the most important stop on the athletic careers of the 10,500-plus athletes who will descend on Paris, which has led some high-profile countries to undercut environmental efforts for the sake of comfort.
“It’s a high-performance environment,” Australian Olympic Committee spokesman Strath Gordon explained to The Post.
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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers seemed determined to keep playing. And playing. And playing.
The teams opened their Eastern Conference final playoff series with Florida’s 3-2 victory in four overtimes early Friday, with the game ranking as the sixth-longest game in NHL history.
Matthew Tkachuk’s goal came at the 19:47 mark of the fourth OT to end this one, which marked the 15th four-overtime game in NHL history and the longest game in franchise history for each team.
The longest game in NHL history came on March 24, 1936, when the Detroit Red Wings beat the Montreal Maroons 1-0 in the sixth overtime on Mud Bruneteau’s goal at 116 minutes, 30 seconds of extra play.
Florida’s previous record for longest game was 104:31 in Game 4 of the 1996 Stanley Cup final against Colorado. Carolina’s previous record was 114:47 for Game 3 of the 2002 Stanley Cup final.
The only good news for the teams is they had an extended break before this series began. Carolina closed out New Jersey exactly a week earlier, while Florida eliminated Toronto a day later.
But this game ended roughly six hours after Thursday night’s puck drop, and the teams have a Game 2 in less than 48 hours.
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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
