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William Byron is back in Texas with more big wins since getting Hendrick's 300th there last fall

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William Byron is back in Texas with more big wins since getting Hendrick's 300th there last fall


FORT WORTH, Texas — When William Byron first met Rick Hendrick a decade ago, the teenager who had learned racing on a computer wasn’t all that confident how things would work out as he revealed his goal to drive one day for the NASCAR team owner.

There is certainly no lack of confidence now for Byron, who at 26 is getting race wins for NASCAR’s winningest team, and some significant ones at that. A week after Byron’s 13th career win in a 1-2-3 finish for Hendrick Motorsports at Martinsville as the team marked the 40th anniversary of its first victory, the series is back at Texas, where he led only the final six laps last September to get Hendrick’s 300th victory.

“For me, just felt like a full-circle moment. Just with all the history of Martinsville, with being in the 24 (car) …. talking to Rick on the phone and then going to celebrate with him,” Byron said Saturday.

Byron opened this season by winning the Daytona 500, the record-matching ninth for Hendrick but first since 2014. He also won three weeks ago in the other Texas race in Austin.

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Hendrick teammate Kyle Larson is the points leader going into Sunday’s race at Texas, a 1 1/2-mile track like Las Vegas, where he got his victory this season. He led 99 laps at Texas last fall but got loose and spun into the wall with 85 laps to go. Larson won from the pole in the 2021 fall race there, where he also won NASCAR’s All-Star race there earlier that year.

“It’s always been a really good racetrack for me,” Larson said. “Last year, I just screwed up on one of the late restarts and spun and crashed, but we had a dominant race car that day. Hopefully we’ll have another race car just like it.”

Larson’s 18 wins since joining Hendrick in 2021 include the team’s record-setting 269th victory that year at Charlotte Motor Speedway to pass Petty Enterprises for the most.

Byron grew up in NASCAR’s hotbed of Charlotte, North Carolina, and idolized seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson in the No. 48 car for Hendrick. Now Byron is in his seventh season in the famed No. 24 that Jeff Gordon drove to win four Cup titles and 93 races.

“I was put into Jeff’s car and that was a lot of pressure. And I had to just, we had to, kind of make it our own,” Byron said. “Jeff is a great mentor and a great asset for our team. … He’s made it known when I got in the car that it’s my own.”

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After getting to victory lane for the first time in his 98th start, in 2020, Byron got another win in 2021 and two more in 2022 before a Cup-high six wins last year. His three victories this season are on drastically different tracks — the 2 1/2-mile tri-oval at Daytona, the road course in Austin and that half-mile paperclip at Martinsville.

“I think I started a little bit slower than I wanted to start. I feel like some of that was just chemistry and just learning the Cup Series as a whole, and I probably just didn’t get the most out of those first couple of years that I would like to,” Byron said. “Once we started winning races in the third year, won a race, and then the next year we won another one and really started to win races at places that are difficult to win, I just felt like we started to click.”

The 48-year-old Johnson will race at Texas for the first time since 2020, as a driver-owner in the No. 84 Chevrolet for Legacy Motor Club. Johnson finished 28th at Daytona in his only start so far this season. He has raced 35 times at Texas, where he is the all-time leader with seven wins and 1,152 laps led.

“It’s funny now the way the place drives. Just have a lot of anxiety about Turns 1 and 2,” said Johnson, whose last win here was in 2017, the first year after the track was repaved and reconfigured in those turns. “The previous configuration, that was really the most fun that you can have on a mile-and-a-half, was Turns 1 and 2. So bummed that it’s still not there.”

For the first time in 20 years, the only Cup race at Texas will be in the spring. The track hosted two Cup races each season from 2005-20, but the last three years the lone stop each year was a playoff race in the fall. The track was a spring-only stop from its opening in 1997 through 2004.

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Texas was reduced from 334 laps to 267 last September, the first time it wasn’t scheduled for 501 miles. It is set for 400.5 miles this year, the 44th race at Texas. … Larson, like he was last fall, is listed as the favorite to win Sunday, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.

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AP NASCAR: https://apnews.com/hub/nascar-racing



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Texas’ Justice Carlton has turned baking passion into full-fledged business

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Texas’ Justice Carlton has turned baking passion into full-fledged business


FORT WORTH, TX — When she’s not on the court, Texas forward Justice Carlton is baking cookies. 

If you’re wondering if they’re good, just ask her teammates. 

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“They’re the best thing I’ve ever tasted,” senior Sarah Graves said. 

What started as baking for her teammates and managers for fun has grown into a full-fledged business: J’s Rollin In Dough.

After hours of practice on the basketball court and in the weight room, Carlton spends six hours a day baking cookies to fulfill her orders – or sometimes, simply for fun. 

“Anytime that I get out of practice around 5 I’m so happy because I just go home and bake,” Carlton said. 

Carlton’s love for baking dates back to her childhood. 

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“My mom worked over the summers, so when we were out of school it was so boring,” she said. “But the Easy-Bake Oven and the cake pop machine saved my life.”

Over winter break, she and her mom began discussing the possibility of creating a business of her own. They decided she could use her NIL money to form a limited liability company and obtain her food handlers license, so she did just that. 

In just three months of business, she’s received more than 100 orders and has gained nearly 1,200 followers on Instagram. She takes orders through a form linked in her Instagram bio. 

“It’s funny to see athletes do other things they are passionate about because they put the same focus and intensity into it,” Graves said. “And I can tell she has that for baking.”

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Last month, Carlton baked a batch of cookies for the “College Gameday” staff in hopes of gaining some media attention. The following month, the SEC Network staff ordered a batch at the SEC tournament and tried the cookies on live TV. 

“I used basketball as my platform, which (associate director of communications Jeremy Rosenthal) really helped me do,” she said. “I’ve just kind of been getting my name out there, so that’s been something that’s really fun.” 

The flavors offered are chocolate chip, cookie monster, cookies n’ cream, red velvet, brown butter salted caramel snickerdoodle and her newest flavor, sugar cookie. She also takes requests.

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“She made a banana pudding cookie recently,” freshman Aaliyah Crump said. “I think that one was my favorite.”

While many of her orders come from her teammates, she recently received an order from the Longhorns football team for a team party and for a neuroscience class celebration.

In the future, Carlton hopes to move her business outside of the kitchen and onto the streets. 

“I’ve put all my sales money aside and I want to start a food truck,” she said. “I think I would do something like a Crumbl Cookies on wheels.”

For now, Carlton has turned the oven off while she and the Longhorns prepare to face Kentucky in the Sweet 16 on March 28.

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Ansley Gavlak is a student in the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute.





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Body found in Colombia during search for missing North Texas flight attendant, mayor says

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Body found in Colombia during search for missing North Texas flight attendant, mayor says


Authorities in Colombia say a body has been found during the search for 32‑year‑old Eric Fernando Gutierrez Molina, an American Airlines flight attendant based out of DFW who disappeared last weekend after landing in Medellín with his crew. The city’s mayor posted on X Friday that there is a “very high probability” the body is Gutierrez. The flight attendant had been missing for several days, prompting an extensive search effort in the area. Officials have not yet confirmed the identity of the body.



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How to Watch No. 1 Texas Longhorns Hosting No. 15 Texas A&M in Lone Star Showdown

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How to Watch No. 1 Texas Longhorns Hosting No. 15 Texas A&M in Lone Star Showdown


The Texas Longhorns haven’t slowed down throughout the 2026 season as they now hold a 29-1 record and continue to push the longest winning streak in program history farther along, as the Longhorns’ winning streak now stands at 27 games.

The Longhorns have strung together consistency and dominance over the last weeks of the season, as recently the Longhorns have become the unanimous top team in the country, earning the top spot, ranking as the No. 1 team in the nation.

And now No. 1 Texas will get back to the gauntlet that is SEC play with a conference series against one of its bitter rivals in the dirt edition of the Lone Star Showdown against the No. 15 Texas A&M Aggies. The Longhorns get ready to host, welcoming in the Aggies to Red and Charline McCombs Field with the first game of the series set for Friday, March 27, at 6 p.m. CT.

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How to Watch Texas vs. Texas A&M

Texas Longhorns utility Katie Stewart celebrates after hitting a home run in the fourth inning of a Women’s College World Series. | BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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Who: No. 1 Texas Longhorns and No. 15 Texas A&M Aggies

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What: Lone Star Showdown

When: March 27-29

Where: Red and Charline McCombs Field in Austin, TX

TV/Streaming: Friday on SEC Network+, Saturday on ESPN2 and Sunday on ESPN

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Radio: Longhorn Radio Network 

Meet the Opponent

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Texas A&M Aggies head coach Trisha Ford and Florida Gators head coach Tim Walton shake hands before game. | Matt Pendleton/Gainesville Sun / USA TODAY NETWORK

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The Aggies head into the Lone Star Showdown series with a 23-9 overall record and have found success through their two conference series of the season, with a 5-1 record in the SEC. Away from home, the Aggies have split four of their away games with a 2-2 record on the road.

With the flip of the calendar from non-conference to conference play, the Aggies find a rhythm on the field, taking their conference opener against the then No. 17-ranked LSU Tigers on the road 2-1 and followed that up with a sweep at home against the Kentucky Wildcats, outscoring the Wildcats 26-9 over the three-game series.

The Longhorns batting order will battle against an Aggies pitching staff that heads into the weekend series with a 3.10 ERA and 1.09 WHIP. As a whole, the Aggies pitching staff has recorded 193 strikeouts while holding their opponents to a .225 batting average.

The leader of the Aggies pitching staff is sophomore Sydney Lessentine, as her 72 innings pitched is the most by any other Aggies pitcher. In her 19 appearances this season, Lessentine tallies a 2.43 ERA and .82 WHIP along with 60 strikeouts and holds opponents to a .196 batting average.

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