Texas
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.
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.”
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.
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
In the first of two Elite Eight games on Saturday, the swarming offense of Texas Tech will lock horns with the relentless scoring prowess and swagger of Florida. It also will be a clash of two of the best up-and-coming coaches in the country, Grant McCasland and Todd Golden.
How to watch No. 1 Florida vs. No. 3 Texas Tech
- What: West Regional, Elite Eight
- Venue: Chase Center — San Francisco
- Time: 6:09 p.m. ET, Saturday
- TV: TBS, truTV
- Streaming: March Madness Live
- Watching in-person? Get tickets on StubHub.
Don’t celebrate too early; you never know what can happen. Texas Tech trailed Arkansas by six with 1:10 remaining, but pushed the game to OT and sent the Razorbacks home scratching their heads. Tech beat Arkansas by attacking the offensive glass. Over their last five games, the Red Raiders have averaged 14.4 offensive rebounds per game, including 22 against Arkansas. To beat the Gators, they will need to continue that effort and make 3s.
Both teams can score in bunches and seem to play better when the game is on the line. You won’t see any panic from either squad, as both had to overcome deficits to punch their tickets to the Elite Eight.
Both offenses are among the top five in the country, but Florida has three guards capable of putting up 20 points with ease. How Tech defends them in the pick-and-roll will be crucial.
Tech’s best offense is letting Darrion Williams and/or Elijah Hawkins operate in the pick-and-roll with Big 12 player of the year JT Toppin. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Both teams have future NBA players who could be drafted in the next couple of years, so expect them to show up big. But keep an eye on Texas Tech freshman Christian Anderson. He’s coming off a career-high 22 points and will need to make shots if Chance McMillian (upper-body) is still out.
Florida vs. Texas Tech odds
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(Photo by Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)
MCALLEN, Texas – At least three people have died and hundreds have been rescued following severe storms that moved across the southern part of Texas on Thursday and Friday.
What we know:
According to a report by the Associated Press, officials said the City of Harlingen received more than 21 inches of rain this week, with the heaviest rainfall on Thursday, causing authorities to rescue more than 200 residents. 200 additional people were still waiting to be rescued.
In Alamo, the police and fire department responded to more than 100 water rescues, including people stranded in their vehicles and trapped in their homes, Fire Department Chief R.C. Flores said at a news conference Friday afternoon.
Officials estimated a couple hundred homes in Alamo were flooded by the heavy rainfall.
Weslaco Mayor Adrian Gonzalez said his city was inundated with about 14 inches (36 centimeters) of rain, prompting 30 to 40 water rescues of stranded motorists and residents trapped in their homes by rising floodwaters.
What they’re saying:
“This of course has been a historic and challenging event for the city. But Harlingen is strong. We have faced adversity before and we will get through this together,” Mayor Norma Sepulveda said at a Friday afternoon news conference.
“I assure the public that we are assessing the situation on the hour, every hour. We’re constantly going out, not just in our city,” Flores said. “Just because the storm is over, it doesn’t mean that the emergencies and the disaster is over. We are going to continue to work as long as we need to.”
“It’s a historic rainstorm and it’s affecting all the Valley, not just Weslaco. It’s just so much water in a short period of time,” Gonzalez told reporters at a news conference.
By the numbers:
In neighboring Cameron County, officials asked Gov. Greg Abbott to declare a disaster for the county after more than 17 inches of rain caused significant flooding.
“The rainfall amounts we received have been record-setting, and not in a good way. All county resources are being utilized right now, and we are assisting in all ways possible,” Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr., the county’s top elected official, said in a Facebook post.
Valley International Airport in Harlingen was closed on Friday and all flights were canceled due to area flooding.
“We are working tirelessly to reopen and focused on ensuring safety,” airport officials said in a statement.
Flood warning still in effect
A flood warning was still in effect for portions of South Texas, including Cameron, Hidalgo and Willacy counties, through early Friday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.
“There’s a break from the rain this morning, which will allow flood waters to gradually recede, but we’ll still need to keep an eye on the development of isolated showers and thunderstorms once again this afternoon,” the National Weather Service said on social media. “Any additional rainfall will be quick to cause flooding issues given the heavy rainfall that has already fallen.”
Power Outages
More than 3,400 in several counties in South Texas remained without power on Friday afternoon, according to AEP Texas.
School canceled
More than 20 South Texas school districts and college campuses canceled classes on Friday due to the severe weather and flooding.
PHOTOS/VIDEOS OF SOUTH TEXAS FLOODING
Dig deeper:
Here are some photos and video of the flooding and as well as the damage left behind:
South Texas flooding: Cars drive through floodwaters
Cars were seen driving through floodwaters in South Texas on Thursday, March 27, as the National Weather Service (NWS) said that severe thunderstorms were affecting the region. (Jorge Alberto Galicia via Storyful)
The Source: Information provided by The Associated Press
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