Negotiations are under way for a new title sponsor, and it appears likely an announcement will come in early fall. That’s the word from NASCAR executive Steve Phelps. MORE: 10 drivers to watch at Daytona | Denny Hamlin defends losing to Tony Stewart Dale Earnhardt Jr. and cohorts will look over their shoulders and see a new sponsor in 2017. (Getty Images) Speaking on a SiriusXM show, Phelps laid out in rather general terms how the talks were going....

Drivers hit the track for the season’s second road race. Their mission: relearn the twisting 2.45-mile course. MORE: Can Tony Stewart return to the old ‘Smoke’? | Kasey Kahne feeling Kyle Busch heat Road race aces again were favored to win, starting with defending champion AJ Allmendinger. Jeff Gordon is a four-time winner on the track, and once again he is making his final appearance on a Sprint Cup course....

His father, Charlie, was a high school coach, a lifer who ran his program during the winter and basketball camps during the summer. Huggins grew up around all the great coaches his father knew and admired, listening to their stories and ideas and strategies. He played the game from playgrounds to high school to three seasons with the West Virginia Mountaineers, when he became known for a competitive ferocity that might have been matched in the years since, but never exceeded....

Asensio gave Madrid an early lead but, inspired by veteran winger Joaquin, Betis struck twice in four minutes to take a 2-1 advantage into the break. But Madrid, on the back of a 3-1 win at Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, roared back with three goals in a 15-minute salvo after the break to take control. Sergio Ramos headed home the leveller before Asensio and Cristiano Ronaldo struck, with Karim Benzema wrapping up the win in stoppage time after Sergio Leon hit a third for Betis....

“The only player that I am waiting for a decision on is Ashley Young,” said Jose Mourinho in January. “He is a player I would love to keep. I am not happy at all if he leaves, but he’s the only player that I was informed there is a possibility of him leaving.” Young had been reduced to little more than chief dressing room DJ at the time and looked destined for a move to China....

Then a curious thing happened. Officials at both SK Telecom and the South Korean government discovered that they’d underestimated the system. The transmission speed of the SK Telecom network is 144 kilobits per second. That makes it not only the speediest wireless network in the world at the moment–but also fast enough to qualify (just barely) as 3G, under standards set by the International Telecommunications Union. “After some debate, we’ve concluded that our new telecom service is 3G,” says Suh Long Suk, a director at South Korea’s Ministry of Information and Communication....

The National Committee of Asian American Republicans announced the endorsement in a press release. Its support for the Democratic nominee is a shift from 2016, when the group backed President Donald Trump’s first White House bid. The group originally endorsed former Florida Governor Jeb Bush during the Republican primaries and then Trump in the general election. “It is OK that you voted for Trump in 2016, most conservatives did; we wanted an outsider to rattle the system,” the group said....

Dylan Muriano, an 8th grader at Walter Reed Middle School, said he was sent out of class by one of his teachers after coughing while swallowing water, reported Fox LA. When he was given the all-clear by the nurse, he returned to class and asked the teacher why he was not sending other students out every time they coughed. “I asked him if he sent me out because I was Asian and he responded with nothing,” Muriano said....

The Oilers goalie, understandably, would take major issue with anyone who’d imply that he’s not going all-out to win games. Scrivens is one of the smartest guys in the league, so he could easily be talking about an actual debate. Either way, he’s pissed, and it’s understandable. The reason it’s coming up: Edmonton is, again, horrendous, and there are two fantastic prospects at the top of the draft. Connor McDavid and, to a lesser degree Jack Eichel, are franchise-altering players that should have fans of currently bad teams kinda-sorta hoping that they lose the rest of their games....

The vehicle Buchanan offered that steamy afternoon was himself-he was on the verge of mounting a fifth-column challenge to the president in the Republican primaries. A scant three years after Bush’s election, he told his guests, the Reagan Revolution was over; its inheritor had betrayed “the most successful political movement of the second half of the 20th century.” His record had been a series of surrenders, from higher taxes to racial quotas....

A South Korean court found Bae guilty in October 2018 of assaulting Seul-Gi Kim on New Year’s Eve 2017. Bae was accused of choking, slapping and kicking her, according to multiple reports. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced Wednesday that Bae had been suspended for violating the Minor League Baseball Player Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy. But Kim told The Athletic she believes Bae should be released....

Houston attorney Mark Lanier in U.S. Bankruptcy Court filed the lawsuit, and while an exact amount has yet to be listed in the suit, damage claims may climb well into the nine figures, including $550 million for the teams’ network equity lost from 2010, when CSN Houston was valued at $700 million. In 2014 the network was sold to DirecTV Sports Networks and AT&T Teleholdings for $1,000. MORE: Astros de-throne King Felix | 50 years of Astros logos, unis | Grading Astros’ broadcast booth...

Houston has proven time and again this postseason that not only is its inning far from over, but if anything, it is even more dangerous. That was the case yet again on Wednesday in Game 5 of the ALCS. The Astros drove in five runs with two outs to help propel the team to a commanding 9-1 win and a 3-2 series edge against the Red Sox. MORE: Explaining the mysterious light in Red Sox-Astros ALCS Game 5...

Houston will be universally picked to finish at the bottom of the American League West this season. In future years, though, that may not be the case. The Astros’ long, carefully planned rebuild has the team pointing in the right direction—even if the process is a little painful. In their first season in the tough AL West, the Astros lost a major league-worst 111 games. SN POWER RANKINGS: Astros come in at No....

After a tense week of games, in which the Astros recovered from being down 2-1 by winning twice in Philly before sealing the title at Minute Maid Park in front of their home crowds, 73-year-old Baker was ready to party. Amid the wild celebrations in the locker room after the game, there was a moment for the beloved manager to take on a beer luge, with his team urging him on to drink....

The 86-year-old aced the par-3 12th hole for his second career hole-in-one. He smacked his 3-wood low onto the green on the 121-yard hole and watched as his ball trickled in. MORE: Check out this expanded College Football Playoff “I never hit the ball very high,” Bowden said Tuesday, via The Tallahassee Democrat. “I rolled it in the gap and it went right in. I had already walked away. I saw it rolling towards the hole and thought, ‘Oh boy, I have a good shot....

Of the 100 people shot, 18 were killed, the police department said. The total surpassed the number of shootings throughout last year’s July Fourth weekend, which saw 70 wounded and 17 killed, including a 7-year-old girl and 14-year-old boy. Police Superintendent David Brown attributed the influx of shootings to the court system, which discharges people charged with violent crimes from custody on electronic monitoring. “The courts releasing people charged with murder back into the communities…is creating an unsafe environment for all of us,” Brown said during a news conference....

The explosion occurred at Westlake Chemical’s Petro Complex 2 Unit located at LA Hwy 108 and LA Hwy 27 in Sulphur at around 11 p.m. Local media originally reported that six people had been hurt in the incident. However, Trooper Derek Senegal, of the Louisiana State Police, later told Newsweek that at least five contract employees were transported to an area hospital for treatment. He said he could not elaborate on the condition of the injured employees or extent of the injuries they sustained....

As the high court returns next week for the 1992-93 term, Thomas will get more opportunities to distinguish himself for jurisprudential acumen. The court’s docket-one-third complete-includes cases on criminal rights, free speech, capital punishment and abortion protests. Those are ideological tinderboxes, and Thomas has shown great willingness to light a match to them. But his burden continues to be Sisyphean: to erase the public’s memory of him left by his lurid Senate confirmation hearings....

Durkin was inexperienced as a head coach because it was his first time holding the title, chairman James Brady said. Durkin needed more guidance, and the school would give it to him, Brady said. Durkin was “unfairly blamed for the dysfunction in the athletic department,’’ Brady said. MORE: DJ Durkin to return for game against Michigan State Durkin was getting a second chance, Brady said. But “there will be no third chance for any of those involved to get this right....