Archive for the ‘NASCAR’ Category

How was your week

Posted: August 29, 2020 by Sports Time Radio in Auto Racing, NASCAR, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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The NASCAR regular season ends tonight in Daytona Beach Florida with the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

14 of the 16 playoff spots have been filled. Matt DiBenedetto is currently in the 15th position and William Byron is currently in the final playoff spot. In his final season Jimmie Johnson is 17th in the standings, but he’s just 4 points out of a playoff spot. Will it be these three driver that take the last two playoff spots? Or will it be a driver outside of the playoff race that wins the race and automatically qualify for the playoffs?

If there’s a first time winner tonight DiBenedetto can clinch a playoff spot by picking 51 points in tonight’s race while Byron and Johnson would both need help to clinch a playoff spot. If there’s a repeat winner tonight then DiBenedetto 47 points to get into the playoffs while Byron would need 52 points to qualify for the playoffs.

There are also 17 drivers that could get into the playoffs with a win as well as an 18th driver who would get into the playoffs with a win and a good points day to get into the Top 30. While a driver automatically qualifies for a playoff spot he as to be in the Top 30 points to claim that playoff spot.

Johnson is the sentimental favorite since he’s retiring after this season. He’s a two time Daytona 500 winner with both of those wins coming when he swept both races at this track in 2013. Johnson is a seven time cup champion and tonight he is going to try and get into the playoffs for the 16th time they NASCAR started this format in 2004. Are you rooting for Johnson to win the race and make the playoffs?

Kevin Harvick starts on the poll for tonight’s race. Harvick was awarded the poll using the new formula NASCAR has. He’s how it breaks down: 50% of it comes from your finish in the last race. 35% comes from where you stand in owner pints and the final 15% comes from where your fastest lap from the last race ranked. Harvick just so happened to finish 1st in all of those categories.

Here’s what the rest of the Top 10 looks like. Martin Truex Jr. starts 2nd, Joey Logano starts 3rd, Brad Keselowski starts 4th, Aric Almirola starts 5th; William Byron starts 6th, Jimmie Johnson starts 7th, Alex Bowman starts 8th, Ryan Blaney will start 9th with Denny Hamlin starting 10th.

In last nights Xfinity race teammates worked together and had success doing it to a certain extent.

All three Kaulig racing drivers Justin Haley, Ross Chastain and A.J. Allmendinger where having great success working as a three car team in the draft and towards the end of the race they where sitting 1, 2 and 3. Haley was in the 3rd and was doing a solid job of blocking and holding off the oncome field. Austin Cindric and Chase Briscoe managed to dislodge Haley from the 3rd spot and started to make their way to Chastain and Allmendinger. Since Chastain was in 2nd place it now became his responsibility to try to hold off the oncoming field. As Cindric and Briscoe closed in they ended up giving Chastain a big push and instead of protecting Allmendinger he decided that he was going to try and pass him and go for the win. Unfortunately for Kaulig Racing Allmendinger either decided to block Chastain or just pull back in front of him to get to the finish line for the win. In this case Chastain got their to quickly and ended up turning Allmendinger and wrecking both cars. Cindric was also caught up in this last lap crash. Through it all Haley who had been able to get himself back into the draft around 7th or 8th position after he was passed found his way to the finish line and ended up winning the race.

Haley and Chastain who ended up finishing 6th are full time drivers for Kaulig racing while Allmendinger races part time for the team. Chastain alluded to that in his post race comments. “It doesn‘t matter how many races each of us run,” Chastain said referring to Allmendinger‘s part-time schedule. “We‘re supposed to go for the win. Team rules are the last 10 laps and we all stay committed. I hate that Justin go shucked out there with five to go. “But coming to the checkered; what am I supposed to do? Finish second? Not this guy.”

Allmendinger ended up finishing 15th pretty much took the high road in his post race comments. “It‘s the way it is,” Allmendinger said. “I don‘t know. I try to take care of my teammates, but it is what it is and it was going for the win. Ross is going for the championship and going for the win there. I saw him get low and thought maybe he would take care of me a little bit considering I was there. But he‘s going for the win. It is what it is and just disappointing because we were going to have another one-two-three Kaulig finish at Daytona. “It‘s racing. And congratulations to Justin Haley for getting a Kaulig Racing Chevrolet into Victory Lane. That‘s the most important thing.”

It was still a good night for Kaulig Racing as they swept the all stages of last nights race. Haley won Stage 1; Allemendinger won Stage 2 while Haley won the race.

You have to wonder with the success teammates had working together last night if will see that in tonight’s NASCAR. Bryon, Johnson and Bowman start 6th, 7th and 8th; so they’ll have an opportunity to work together right at the start of the race. Of course Byron and Johnson are both racing for one of those two playoff open playoff spots; so you have to wonder how long they’ll work together.

It would seem that teammates like Logano and Keselowski would be interested in working together since they’ve had quite a bit of success do it, but to be fair when it comes down to the end of the race we could see some strange pairings working together.

If you come across this blog before the race starts let me know who you think wins the race. As for me I’ve always liked the underdog in these type of races; so I’m going with John Hunter Nemechek as my pick to win.

Don’t forget to listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast. The podcast airs live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the live edition of the podcast just head on over to TuneIn.com and you can listen any time you want.

Feel free to look me up on Twitter @Burketime

 

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How was your week

Posted: August 8, 2020 by Sports Time Radio in Auto Racing, golf, NASCAR, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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For the second time this season NASCAR is going to have a doubleheader weekend. Now it’s not a baseball style doubleheader where both games are played on the same day. A doubleheader in NASCAR means that there’s a cup series race today and then another cup series race tomorrow. Both races are at the Michigan International Speedway. Today’s race is the FireKeepers Casino 400 while tomorrow’s race is the Consumer Energy 400.

NASCAR was the first sport to return during the Covid-19 outbreak and to make up for the missed races they’ve been having races on days that we’re not use to seeing them. While we’ve been getting the Sunday races like we’re use to there have also been races held on Wednesdays, Saturdays and then due to weather Monday.

NASCAR did have a doubleheader earlier in the season at Pocono Speedway the on June 27th and 28th. These two races where on the NASCAR schedule to be run as back to back even before the season was stopped do to the Covid-19 outbreak, but it was still interesting to watch.

At the Pocono Speedway doubleheader Kevin Harvick won the Saturday race while Denny Hamlin was victorious in the Sunday race.

With 6 races left until the playoffs start there are 10 drivers who have won a race and qualified for a playoff spot. Hamlin leads all drivers with 5 wins this season, but there are some names that we’re not always use to seeing in victory lane, but they’ve found a way to win a race this season and they’ll be in the playoffs.

Rookie Cole Cutster, Austin Dillion and Alex Bowman have found their way to victory lane and have taken one of the available playoff spots. Is it possible will see another driver or maybe two that we’re not use to seeing win a race find their way into the playoffs? Even of that doesn’t happen as of now there are only six playoff spots available for drivers to get into the playoffs on points. Could we see some of the drivers that we’re use to seeing in the playoffs not race for a title this season.

Heading into this weekend Aric Almirola, Kurt and Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer, Matt DiBeneditto and William Bryon would make it into the playoffs on Points, but rookie Tyler Reddick is just  points out of a playoff spot. In his last season Jimmie Johnson finds himself 25 points out of a playoff spot. Now if NASCAR was simply going by points like they use to Austin Dillion would be holding on to the last playoffs spot and Cole Custer wouldn’t even be in the playoffs, but since they both have wins they’re in.

So who do you think wins this weekend in Michigan? Will we see a driver who’s already won a race get another win? Or will one of those drivers looking for a win this season get one?

In other NASCAR news it was announced on Thursday that Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) won’t be resigning Erik Jones. Jones has been the driver of the #20 car since joining in 2018.

Jones is just 24 years old and is in his fourth season in the cup series. Jones spent his first season in the cup series driving for the now defunct Furniture Row Racing before moving over to JGR. Those two racing teams had an alliance with each other and after his rookie season Jones took over the #20 car for JGR.

Jones won the Gander Truck series championship in 2015; which was his first season in that series. Jones was moved up to the Xfinity series for the 2016 season; he won four races in what turned out to be his only season in the Xfinity series. As a cup series rookie Jones finished 19th with five Top 5 finishes. In 2018 Jones picked up a win as well as picking up nine Top 5 finishes. Jones finished 15th in 2018. Last season Jones picked up another win and improved his Top 5 finishes with 10. Through 20 races this season Jones has five Top 5 finishes and is 19th in the points standings.

Jones 2018 win came at Daytona International Speedway while his win last season was at Darlington Raceway.

The Professional Golfers Association (of America) is holding the first “major” golf tournament of the season the PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco California.

Through two rounds Haotong Li is the leader at 8 under par. Behind Li there are six golfers tied at 6 under par. They are Justin Rose, Daniel Berger, Jason Day, Tommy Fleetwood, Brooks Koepka and Michael Lorenzo-Vera.

Tiger Woods is playing this weekend. He had a solid first round shooting two under par, but he had his issues yesterday shooting two over par. Woods did make the cut and is tied for 44th place heading into the 3rd round. Phil Mickelson also had his issues shooting to over par on Thursday, but bouncing back a little bit yesterday shooting one under par. Mickelson also made the cut and is tied for 60th place heading into today’s 3rd round.

Li is 25 years old and is ranked 114th in the world. Li has seven tour wins, but none have been on the PGA tour. He has two wins on the European Tour, two wins on the OneAsia Tour and three wins on the PGA Tour China. Li’s best finish in a PGA major tournament was when he tied for 16th at the 2018 U.S. Open.

I’m not sure how people if ay have Li hanging on through the final two rounds to win the PGA championship, but if you like to root for the underdog then you’ve got a golfer to cheer for. He’s got quite a few top golfers just two strokes behind him and it will be fun to see if Li can stay atop the leaderboard or if there someone on the course today who’s going to make a run.

Who do you think will win the PGA championship? Do you think Tiger Woods can comeback from eight strokes down and win?

Remember to listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast. It airs live on BlogTalkRadio Monday thru Friday, but if you miss the live version of the podcast just head on over to TuneIn.com and you can listen whenever you’d like.

Feel free to look me up on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: May 20, 2020 by Sports Time Radio in Auto Racing, baseball, NASCAR, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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Where you one of the almost six and a half million people who tuned in to watch the NASCAR race on Sunday? I was, but to be fair I’m a fan  of NASCAR; so I would’ve watched anyway. This ended up being the most watched non-Daytona 500 race in three years.

Kevin Harvick picked up the win Sunday at the Darlington Speedway in The Real Heroes 400. Harvick led 154 laps on Sunday including the most important one the last one. Alex Bowman led 41 laps and ended up coming home in 2nd. Kurt Busch finished 3rd while Chase Elliott was 4th with Denny Hamlin coming in 5th to round out the Top 5.

Now if you wanted to watch Sunday’s NASCAR race and maybe forgot it was on or you just plain missed it you won’t have to wait long to get a chance to watch another race. Why is that? Well the next NASCAR race is tonight. The drivers and their teams stayed at Darlington Speedway for tonight’s race. They’ll run the Toyota 500 tonight on the same track that they raced on this past Sunday.

Ryan Preece starts on the pole tonight with Ty Dillion joining him on the front row starting 2nd. Joey Logano starts 3rd; Clint Bowyer will start 4th and Ryan Blaney rounds out the Top 5 starting 5th.

The Top 20 finishers from Sunday’s race were inverted to set the starting lineup for tonight. Drivers lining up in positions 21 through 39 are there as that is where they finished in Sunday’s race.

Due to the possibility of inclement weather NASCAR officials have moved the start time of tonight’s race up. The race was originally scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. Central time. The decision was made to move the stat time of the race up to 5:00 p.m. Central time to try and get the entire race in. The race airs live on FS1 tonight.

The Xfinity race which was originally scheduled to be run yesterday was moved to Thursday because of weather. The Xfinity race will start at Noon tomorrow.

This is the second race at Darlington Speedway in a four day span. This is also just the 6th race of the NASCAR season. This is also the first time since July 4th 1984 that there is a NASCAR race on a Wednesday. That last Wednesday NASCAR race was at Daytona and it was won by Richard Petty. That was Petty’s 200th and final win of his NASCAR career.

While I don’t expect as many people to be watching tonight’s race as they had on Sunday, but it will be interesting to see how many people they do get to watch. Will you be one of those people watching tonight?

Last week the owners in Major League Baseball sent a proposal to restart the season to the players union. I wasn’t surprised when there was some complaining right out of the gate by some players. That’s to be expected because there always is someone who doesn’t like something in these kind of negotiations, but other than the complaints we really haven’t heard anything on if they’ve made any progress on getting the season started.

Now the plan was to get the season restarted on July 4th weekend, but there was also talk of having a spring training that would last about two weeks. Now I don’t think it would take too long for a player to get ready to go back to spring training, but the fact that there’s been no news at all has to be concerning. To be honest I didn’t dig to deep looking for news; so it’s possible there has been some rebuttal  by the players union and would have to guess that the two sides have at least been in contact with each other, but who knows.

Now if you’re a baseball fan or maybe just have casual interest in the game of baseball I’m sure that you’ve heard the incredibly stupid rant that Blake Snell went on while he was on Twitch. I’ve talked about that a couple of times on the Sports Time Radio podcast; so I don’t want to get into it here again, but I do want to look at this from another angle.

Now Snell was crying about not getting all of his money while he’s already been paid $286,500 this season without playing a game and I’m under the impression that most if not all major league baseball players have gotten some type of pay. Now they’re being paid by owner who aren’t having any income come in; so they’re looking at taking big financial losses this season.

Since this involves millionaires and billionaires most people understandably don’t care about this, but there’s a group of players that should care greatly about this and they should want the season to be restarted and the owners to start making money. That group is any player that is going to be a free agent after whatever the 2020 season turns out to be.

Mookie Betts is going to probably be the top free agent on the market this coming off season. Now Betts is in line of a big pay day and could possibly be set to get a contract in the $300 million dollar area like Bryce Harper and Manny Machado did when they hit the free agent market.

Now if an owner loses hundreds of millions of dollars this season like it appears that they’re projected to; are they really going to be doing that much spending in the off season? Now I know that immediately the players union will cry collusion and in most case they’re correct, but will that be the case this coming off season.

Right now the proposal has teams playing just one game over a half a season. Also remember there have been a lot of people who have been either laid off or have lost jobs do to this pandemic. How are ticket sales going to be? Do you think that ballparks will be full right out of the gate? Or is it going to take a little time until people will be able to afford to buy tickets to the games?

This is going to be an interesting situation that players like Snell don’t have to deal with and clearly wasn’t thinking about when he shot his mouth off online. I’m sure his soon to be free agent union brothers are just thrilled that he wants to get all his money when they’ll be looking for there’s in the off season.

Tune in to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but remember that the podcast is also available for you to listen to on TuneIn.com.

I’m out there on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week

Posted: May 16, 2020 by Sports Time Radio in Auto Racing, football, NASCAR, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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As we hopefully get closer to having sports to watch again I’m interested to now how you spent your time during this pandemic.

I’ve noticed that every television station that shows sports; even the stations that just air sports on he weekend have been showing replays of old events. They’ve shown some kind of game, matches, tournaments or in some cases tournament matches. Have you been watching these?

There’s no real reason for it, but I just don’t enjoy these at all. I’ll stop on one for a few minutes here and there, but they just don’t hold my attention. I’ll try to catch a great play or something of importance that happened in that game, but if I don’t find that play or series it’s just fine. I don’t know if it’s the fact that I know the outcome of the game or what, but I just haven’t enjoyed watching these games.

Now if you’re watching these I’d like to know what you’ve found interesting or what makes you continue to watch. Maybe it’s just one sport that you’re tuning into or maybe you’re someone who covers a large spectrum of sports. Either let me know what you’ve found of interest or maybe you’ve noticed something that you didn’t see the first time you watched the event.

With everything sports wise kind of being shutdown and with me not paying a ton of attention I was kind of caught off guard when I realized that Dak Prescott still hasn’t signed his franchise tag contract with the Dallas Cowboys.

With the franchise tag Prescot would make a little over $31 million dollars this season and then would have the opportunity to go back on the free agent market at the end of this coming season. Now of course the Cowboys could use another franchise tag on him and hold onto him for another season as they try to work out a long term contract.

As of now there’s still plenty of time for these two sides to work out a deal to keep Prescott in a Cowboys uniform for a long time, but can they get that done. It seems as though the two sides have been far apart salary wise and right now it doesn’t seem like Prescott isn’t give anything back on his side.

As negotiations go on Prescott will have another option. He can hold out. Now we’ve seen multiple players go this route, but so far Le’Von Bell is the only one that’s held out for an entire season. Could a hold out by Prescott get the Cowboys to move their salary offer higher than what it is now?

Don’t forget the Cowboys just dealt with one of their top skill position players holding out. Ezekial Elliott didn’t report to Cowboys camp last July as he wanted a new contract even though he had two years remaining on the contract he had. Elliott’s hold out lasted about five weeks, but it worked. Dallas signed him to a new 6 year $90 million dollar deal on September 4th.

Even though the Cowboys went 8-8 last season and missed the playoffs Prescott had what was probably his best season. Prescott threw for 4902 yards and 30 touchdowns; both career highs. He also attempted more passes 596 and completed more passes 388 than any other season.

Prescott may have a good case for expecting the Cowboys to give him a big contract. In four seasons with the Cowboys Prescott has never missed a start and the team hasn’t had a losing record with him as their starting quarterback.

Dallas made a coaching change after last season; so this will be the first time in his career that he’ll have to learn a new offense, but he’s going into an offense of a head coach that has a proven track record of having a quality offense in Mike McCarthy. If last season showed that Prescott was on the upswing in his career his numbers might improve even more than they did last season under McCarthy.

It’s difficult to determine what the value of a quarterback is because there’s so much around them that decides if they’re going to be successful or not. Somehow the Cowboys are going to have to try and figure out where Prescott fits salary wise among those quarterbacks.

With Prescott’s situation in flux this may explain why the Cowboys went out and signed veteran Andy Dalton to be Prescott’s back up. If Prescott does make the decision to hold out Dalton gives them a proven NFL quarterback who has started in the NFL. If the Cowboys wouldn’t of signed Dalton they’d be looking at Cooper Rush as their starting quarterback.

Weigh in here. What do you think happens between Prescott and the Cowboys. Does he get a new contract? Does he end up playing this coming season under the franchise tag? Or does he hold out?

The Cowboys should be a contender in the NFC East and some people may see them as the favorite to win that division. The Cowboys are looked at as a 20-1 gamble to win the Super Bowl. That gives them the 6th best odds to win the Super Bowl overall and they’re the 4th best pick in the NFC.

The New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and San Francisco 49ers are the teams that are ahead of the Cowboys odds wise. All three of those teams odds are set at 12-1.

The starting line up for tomorrow’s NASCAR race The Real Heroes 400 at Darlington Raceway has been set.

Brad Keslowski will start on the pole. He’ll be joined by Alex Bowman on the front row. Matt DiBenedetto and Kyle Busch will start in the second row.

Now NASCAR didn’t hold qualifying for this race. The line up for this race was done by random draw. The draw aired live on Fox Sports 1 Race Hub show. Here’s how the draw was structured. Positions 1 thru 12 where determined by a random draw from charter teams in those positions in team owner points. Positions 13 thru 24 where done by a random draw among charter teams in those positions in owner points. Positions 25 thru 36 where done by a random draw among charter teams in those positions in owner points. While positions 37, 38, 39 and 40 will be filled out by open; non-chartered teams in order of owner points.

This will be the first Monster Energy Series NASCAR race since March 8th. If you’re interested in watching this race it will air live on Fox at 2:30 p.m. Central time.

I hope you’ve been listening to the Sports Time Radio podcast. It airs live on BlogTalkRadio.com; so check it out over there, but if you miss it there head on over to TuneIn.com and you can listen whenever you want to.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Lets call it Wednesday

Posted: May 13, 2020 by Sports Time Radio in Auto Racing, baseball, NASCAR, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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We’ve waited patiently for sports to return and finally on Sunday we’re going to get one of our sports back. NASCAR returns this Sunday at Darlington Raceway.

Now there will be no fans in the stands for this race or for any race in the foreseeable future, but these races still count in the standings. Now be honest with me; if or when you watch a NASCAR race do you notice the fans?

The NASCAR season was just four weeks old when it was shutdown due to the Covid-19 outbreak; so lets’ recap.

Joey Logano has two wins while Alex Bowman and Denny Hamlin each have a win. You shouldn’t be surprised that Logano was also the points leader with those two early season wins. Kevin Harvick was 2nd in points with Bowman 3rd, Chase Elliott in 4th and Hamlin rounded out the Top 5.

Now I myself am a NASCAR and while I understand that there are a lot of people who don’t enjoy the sport and see it as cars just going around in a circle, but don’t try to say that these drivers aren’t athletes. Now I doubt that any of the drivers I just mentioned in the Top 5 could dunk a basketball, hit a 100 mile per hour fastball, catch or throw a touchdown pass or score a goal on skates and that’s fair. Now just go ahead and flip the script. How many NBA, MLB, NFL or NHL players could drive a car going close to or over 200 miles per hour?

Now if you are a NASCAR fan get ready to have these race come at you fast and furious. Not only will there be a NASCAR race at Darlington on Sunday, but they’ll be back there on Wednesday May 20th for a night race. Then the NASCAR series moves to Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday May 24th for the Coca-Cola 600. Then they’ll stay at Charlotte Motor Speedway for another Wednesday race on May 27th. The series gets a little bit back to normal as the series shifts to the Kansas Speedway on Sunday May 31st for the Kansas 400. The races then go back to a week to week event as the next scheduled race is the FireKeepers Casino 400 on June 7th at the Michigan International Speedway.

So we’re going to get five NASCAR races in 15 days and a total of six NASCAR races in 22 days before their season returns to a more normal schedule.

Darlington will be an interesting track for the drivers to come back to. It’s called “the Lady in Black” or the Track too tough to Tame”. What helps give it these nicknames is the shape of the track as it’s more of an oval configuration than any other track on the NASCAR circuit. Humorously the story goes that one of the reasons the track got this shape was it had to be configured around a minnow pond at one end that the owner refused to move. That leads to the track having different banking. It’s 25 degrees in Turn 1 & 2, but it’s 23 degrees in turns 3 & 4. This can make t difficult for teams to set up the car for this track.

Darlington is always a fun race to watch and I’d like to know if you’ll be watching? and do you think that this race will get a better television ratings than it normally would since it’s the first sporting event returning?

Now the other sport that has suggested a plan for starting it’s season has been Major League Baseball. The owners have sent a proposal to the Players Union for approval to get this season in.

Now like you I’m not really interested on if the owners are trying to sneak anything past the players in this proposal. All I want to know is when the season is going to start and how many games are they going to play.

Well what I’ve heard and none of this is official is that the teams would return to spring training in mid-June with the season starting the weekend of July 4th. What I’ve seen is that the season will be 82 games long. There where a couple of other things that I thought where interesting that are suppose to be in this proposal. The playoffs would expand from 10 to 14 teams and the DH would become universal. I didn’t hear how big the major league roster would be, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they ended up being 29 players which was discussed earlier.

Like I mentioned this isn’t official as the players and the players union have to agree on this and I’m sure there will be some bantering back and forth before an actual deal gets done, but I was just happy to hear then talking about the baseball season actually starting.

I’m under the impression that once the National League starts using the DH that it’s going to become a permanent fixture in baseball. There was already a lot of talk about it becoming permanent in the next collective bargaining agreement; so maybe the National League will just get started on using it a couple of seasons earlier than planned.

Let me know what you think of the DH being used in not only this shortened season, but also how or what you think about the DH becoming permanent throughout baseball. Is it or will it be good or bad for the game?

Now I’m not a big fan of just an 82 games schedule. I would’ve liked to seen them try to play over 100 games. I don’t believe that 82 games is going to be enough to find out who the best team actually. Now maybe the expanded playoffs will help that situation play out, but I’m not sure that whoever is crowned World Series champion at the end of this shortened season can actually say they where the best team in baseball.

Please share your thoughts with me about the 82 game season. Do you like it? Or would you have like to see them come up with a different number? Or do you think they should’ve just cancelled this season?

Don’t forget to check on the Sports Time Radio podcast. Sadly we’ve missed quite a few podcasts due to me getting sick, but when we’re on check out BlogTalkRadio.com for the live podcast. The podcast also airs on TuneIn.com; so if you miss it look for us there.

Remember to look me up on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week

Posted: May 2, 2020 by Sports Time Radio in Auto Racing, baseball, basketball, hockey, NASCAR, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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Since there aren’t any sports being played right now I like to flip through article titles online and see if anything catches my attention. This kind of helps me keep up with what’s going on in sports without having to read every single article out there.

While flipping through articles yesterday I ran into one that caught my attention and while I didn’t go through and read the entire thing I  enough of it to get the idea of the article and wonder why.

This article went on to explain that the NHL is planning on returning and finish it’s regular season and playoff for this season. This didn’t make ay sense to me, but as I continued looking into this it was also said that the NHL would be willing to push back the start of next season to finish this one. This article also mentioned that the NHL would have no problems playing games in July or August if they had to. Now I know that the playoffs don’t generally end into early June, but imagine regular season games in July or August.

Once I saw the story in the NHL I went through to see if I could find any new on what the NBA might be planning. I didn’t see anything new on how the NBA might try and finish out it’s regular season and playoffs, but I did see that the NBA has decided to postpone the draft lottery and scouting combine. The actually draft itself had already been moved back until late June.

With the NBA making these moves and postponements it makes me think that the NBA is planning to do the same thing that the NHL is going to do and they’ll try to play the rest of their regular season games as well the playoffs.

Now I don’t think I would have any issues if the NHL and the NBA came back and went right into the playoffs. I could fully understand each league wanting to be able to crown a champion, but at first I didn’t understand why they’d want to come back and play regular season games.

Then it hit me; there’s only one reason that the NHL and the NBA would want to come back and play regular season games; they want that television money. Remember the NBA has a very lucrative deal with ESPN and TNT to televise their regular season and playoff games and while I’m sure that the NHL’s deal with NBA isn’t quite as lucrative I’m sure they’d like to get whatever money they have coming in that contract.

You could also throw Major League Baseball into this mix as they’ve already said that they’re planning on playing as many regular season games as possible. Why would they want to do that: television money.

At least when they start playing MLB games again it will actually be baseball season, but how many people are going to be interested in watching NHL and NBA games in the summer or possibly even in the fall.

To be fair if you’re the first league to come back and start playing games you’d probably draw huge ratings. With as hard up as people are to watch sports I’m sure they’d take anything new to watch. Just look at how well the NFL draft just did in the ratings. Now imagine how well and actually live sporting event would do in the ratings. To be honest I’d probably even tune into an NBA game just to watch sports.

I would really like to get your opinion on this. Would you watch an NHL or NBA regular season game if they came back to play them in July or August? Would it make you more interested to watch these games if your favorite team was in the running to possibly win the title?

Do you like the idea of the NHL and NBA coming back to play regular season games? Or would you like to see them come back and go directly into the playoffs? Or at this point would you like to see hem just end their seasons with no champions and move onto next season?

I would be very interested in what you’d like to see the NHL and NBA do. As I mentioned before I wouldn’t have any issues if they came back and went straight into the playoffs, but I have no interest in any NHL or NBA regular games being played.

As we’re talking about sports returning it looks as though NASCAR will be back on May 17th. NASCAR is planning on running this 400 mile race at Darlington Speedway in South Carolina with no fans.

What may be even more interesting about this is NASCAR is planning on this being the first race of 11 races that they’ll run in seven days. Yes, you read that right; 11 races in seven days.

These races will take place at two different tracks. Darlington Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina.

NASCAR has decided to run races here because South Carolina has relaxed coronavirus restrictions and Charlotte, North Carolina; is following suit.

After the May 17th race the NASCAR’s schedule includes a 200-mile Xfinity Series race at Darlington Raceway on May 19 and a 500 kilometer contest at the South Carolina track the following night. NASCAR will then shift to Charlotte for a 600 mile Cup Series race on May 24; with a 300 mile Xfinity Series competition the following day. A 200 mile Gander Trucks race on May 26 and a 500 kilometer race at Charlotte Motor Speedway the next night.

NASCAR, which did not announce any dates past May 27, but it intends to run a full 36 race NASCAR Cup Series slate this year. It also plans to keep its 10 race postseason format and tracks involved unchanged.

Do you like this idea NASCAR has come up with? I guess more importantly; will you be watching any or all of these races?

Don’t forget to listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast. The podcast airs live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the podcast live all you have to do is head over to TuneIn.com and you can listen whenever you want to.

Don’t forget that you can also find me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week

Posted: February 22, 2020 by Sports Time Radio in Auto Racing, football, NASCAR, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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I know that I’ve mentioned a time or two here that the three of us who host Sports Time Radio Dan the Man, Schaumburg Stu and myself all live in the Chicago suburbs. I understand that from time to time we’ll get caught up with a sports story that might not seem mainstream, but has a Chicago angle. This story however while maybe not the biggest sports story is significant enough to be considered a large story. You’ll have to let me know what you think.

There’s been a rumor that the Chicago Bears have been quietly looking for a quarterback and it appears that they are interested in David Carr of the now Las Vegas Raiders.

Now for this to happen the Bears and their general manager Ryan Pace are going to have to admit that Mitchell Trubisky is a bust. Pace not only spent the 2nd pick in the 2017 draft on Trubisky they actually traded up a pick to get him. Some how the San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch convinced Pace that there where teams willing to trade up ahead of the Bears and select Trubisky. The Bears gave up a 1st round, a 3rd round and a 4th round pick in the 2017 draft along with a 2018 3rd round pick just to move up that one spot and select Trubisky. That’s a lot to give up to move up just one spot in the draft, but if you where getting a franchise quarterback it could possibly be worth it.

Pace had already announced that Trubisky would be the Bears starting quarterback next season. In three seasons with the Bears Trubisky has started 41games and has a winning record at 23-18. After what looked like a breakout season in 2018 Trubisky regressed last season and that’s when the questions started.

Now looking at the situation this might not only be a question about Trubisky, but a question about Pace himself. In the four years Pace has handled the draft for the Bears he’s selected Kevin White at #7 in 2015, Leonard Floyd at #9 in 2016, Trubisky at #2 2017, Rouan Smith at #8 in 2018 and in 2019 the Bears didn’t have a 1st round pick as it was traded to the Raiders as part of the Khalil Mack deal. The Bears 2020 1st round pick is also owned by the Raiders; so the Bears won’t have a 1st round pick unless they make a trade for one.

White played three season with the Bears and caught 25 passes. The Bears released White after the 2018 season. He went to training camp with the Arizona Cardinals, but didn;t make the team and was out of the NFL last season.

Floyd was looked at as a pass rush specialist and the Bears where hoping he’d post large sack numbers for them. It looked like they might be right as Floyd had 7 sacks as a rookie, but since then Floyd’s sack totals have continued to go down. Last season Floyd had just 3 sacks.

Smith looks like he might be the best of all the 1st round picks Pace has made. Smith played in 12 games last season and was still the team leader with 101 combined tackles and assists. He also had an interception and 2 sacks.

You have to wonder if Trubisky was never going to be a franchise quarterback and it was Pace who made a poor call on taking him as early as they did. Is I the quarterback that needs to be replaced? Or is it the general manager that needs to go?

If the Bears do decide to make a change at quarterback is Carr the answer? In 6 seasons with the Raiders Carr has started all but two games for them. Carr’s record hasn’t been very good though as the team is 39-55 in those starts.

Even though the Raiders went 7-9 Carr had a solid season. He posted the highest career completion percentage of his career at 70.4%. He threw 21 touchdowns and 8 interception while throwing for the second most passing yards in his career 4054.

After looking at Carr’s stats from last season you have to wonder why the Raiders would be as interested as they seem t be in moving on from Carr. I know there are rumors that the Raiders are interested in Tom Brady, but is it really the best idea to move on from a soon to be 29 year old quarterback for a 42 year old quarterback.

If you’re the Bears would you rather have Carr or Trubisky as your quarterback? Then as far as the Raiders go would you prefer to have Carr or Brady as your quarterback?

The NASCAR season move into week two of their season and the best news they received this week was Ryan Newman walking out of the hospital after the crash he had at the end of the Daytona 500 last week. As of now there is no timetable for Newman to return to the #6 car; so for this week in Las Vegas Ross Chastain will be behind the wheel of the Rousch Fenway Racing Ford.

Chastain has 72 career starts in the NASCAR Cup Series with one top-10 finish. He has five total wins at the NASCAR national series level and was part of the Championship 4 field in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series in 2019. His first career national series win came in 2018 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Chastain is the full-time driver of the No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet in the Xfinity Series for the 2020 season.

Qualifying for the race is this afternoon in Las Vegas, but in final practice last night Jimmie Johnson had the fastest posted speed at 179.432 m.p.h. Clint Bowyer, Aric Almirola and Kevin Harvick all posted speeds over 179 m.ph. in final practice.

Martin Truex Jr. looks to be the top pick among fantasy players this week. Harvick along with Brad Keslowski, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch are also favorites among fantasy players this week.

The Sports Time Radio podcast airs live Monday through Friday on BlogTalkRadio.com. If you miss out on hearing the podcast live just head on over to TuneIn.com and you can listen to the podcast whenever you’d like.

Don’t forget that you can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

 

 

How was your week

Posted: November 17, 2018 by Sports Time Radio in Auto Racing, basketball, NASCAR, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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Tomorrow is the final race of the NASCAR season. The Ford EcoBoost 400 will be run at Homestead-Miami Speedway with NASCAR crowning a new champion at the end of the race.

16 drivers started off with a chance to win the title, but now it’s down to four. Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick are the four drivers left with a chance to win the Monster Energy Series championship.

Truex Jr. is the defending series champion, so he’ll be looking to become the first repeat champion since Jimmie Johnson did it in 2009-2010. Those were the final two championships of 5 in a row that Johnson won. Adding to the intrigue of another championship for Truex Jr., is the fact that his team, Furniture Row Racing, will be shutting down after tomorrow’s race. Truex Jr. has one win this season. He won the 5th race of the season at California. Can Truex Jr. get his second win of the season which would lead to his second championship tomorrow? Back to back titles could be a fitting way for Truex Jr. to send Furniture Row Racing owner Barney Visser off. 

Kyle Busch was the 2015 Cup champion when the series was headed up by Sprint. Busch was also the regular season champion for this season. Busch won 8 races this season including last week’s race at ISM Raceway in Phoenix Arizona. Busch drives the #18 car for Joe Gibbs Racing. Will Busch be the driver picking up his second NASCAR championship at the end of tomorrow’s race?

Kevin Harvick also has one Cup championships as he claimed the title back in 2014. Harvick also won 8 races this season including the 3rd, 4th and 5th race of the season. Harvick won two weeks ago at the Texas Motor Speedway for the second consecutive season. Harvick will be trying to pick up his second championship driving the #4 car for Stewart/Hass Racing.

Joey Logano is the only one of the final four drivers looking for his first championship. Logano drives the #22 car for Team Penske. Logano has two wins this season with one of them coming three weeks ago at the Martinsville Speedway. Logano made three appearances in NASCAR’s top series as an 18 year old in 2008 before joining Joe Gibbs Racing full time in 2009. There was a lot of hype for Logano as he picked up the nickname “Sliced Bread” and if he can pick up the first championship of his career it show that even though it’s taken a while people knew what they where talking about.

Who’s your pick for tomorrow’s race? Do you have Logano getting his first championship? Can Truex Jr. send his team out with a championship? Or will it be Harvick or Busch picking up the second championship of their careers?

Heading into tomorrow’s race Denny Hamlin will be the driver who starts on the pole as he claimed that spot with a speed of 173.863 mph. As for the four championship drivers Busch will start right next to Hamlin as he qualified 2nd. Truex Jr. will be the driver starting right behind Hamlin as he’ll start 3rd tomorrow. Logano will be position right behind Truex Jr. as he’ll start 5th while Harvick is a little farther in 12th.

 

Jimmy Butler made his second appearance and his first at home for the Philadelphia 76ers and had better results than game one.

Butler scored a team high 28 points on 12 of 15 shooting as the 76ers picked up a 113-107 victory over the Utah Jazz. Butler added 7 assists, 3 rebounds and 3 steals to his stat line in 37 minutes.

Butler’s first game with the 76ers didn’t go as well as they lost 111-106 to the Orlando magic. Butler scored 14 points in 32 minutes of play. He shot 6 of 12 from the field with 4 rebounds and 2 assists.

As Butler finds his role with the 76ers you have to think the addition of a veteran two-way type of player that Butler is, will help this team. Is it enough to get the 76ers though the Eastern Conference and into the NBA Finals? Only time will tell.

Now in Friday night’s Philadelphia win, there was an interesting statistic on the Utah side of the box score.

Donovan Mitchell of the Jazz took 35 shots in the game and while it’s not unusual for an NBA player to take a lot of shots what makes Mitchell’s stat line interesting was the fact that he didn’t have an assist in the game.

Mitchell scored 31 points in the game going 13 of 35 from the field, but just 1 of 11 from behind the 3-point line. While he might not of had an assist in the game Mitchell did have 4 steals and grabbed 2 rebounds.

This was the first time a player had 35 shot attempts with no assists since Carmelo Anthony did it for the New York Knicks on January 24th 2014. Anthony had 62 points n that game. Antoine Walker of the Boston Celtics also had a 35 shot no assist night back on January 7th 1998. Now nobody has taken so many shots with no assist and scored fewer points then Mitchell since Elvin Hayes. Back on February 8th 1969 Hayes scored 28 points going 13 of 40 from the field with no assists. Hayes also grabbed 24 rebounds in that game.

Mitchell’s coach and teammates had no issues at all with him taking 35 shots, but Mitchell himself didn’t seem to thrilled saying “I took 35 shots. That can’t happen. Zero assists, that’s not who I am, that’s not how I play. I know I’m still being aggressive, but I have to be smart.”

The loss dropped the Jazz to a game under .500 at 7-8. It was also Utah’s second loss in a row, but they’ll have a chance to get back to .500 and end that short losing streak tonight as they take on the Boston Celtics at TD Garden Arena tonight.

Just 15 games in it’s tough to tell how the Jazz season will go, but they were a playoff team last season. They won their first round match up against the Oklahoma City Thunder before being knocked out of the playoffs in the second round by the Houston Rockets.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but don’t forget that he podcast is also available for you to listen to any time you want at TuneIn.com.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week

Posted: September 29, 2018 by Sports Time Radio in Auto Racing, basketball, NASCAR, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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I wanted to start off today’s post with a question. What is a Roval?

Here’s an official description I found. The Charlotte Roval is the first new track on the Monster Energy series since Kentucky Speedway joined the circuit in 2011. The Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval is a daunting, new 13 turn 2.4 mile road course incorporating part of the infield, but all 400 feet of Charlotte’s 1.5 mile oval on which drives will race 500 kilometers over 130 laps.

The race is the Bank of America 500 is it is the first road course race in the 58 year history of the Charlotte Motor Speedway. This race is also the final race in the first round of the Monster Energy NASCAR Series playoffs. This race is also the first road course in the 14 year history of the playoffs. This is also the first Monster Energy NASCAR race held I September at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

There have been some big time names to try out the track including the likes of Jeff Gordon, Mario Andretti, Max Papis, A.J. Allmendinger and Jeff Burton. It appears as though the track set up got positive reviews from those drives as they used terms like it could entertain fans and challenge the drivers and their crews.

NASCAR has updated the chicane penalties for Sunday’s race. These new penalties are more or less specific for turns 11 and 12 along with turns 15, 16 and 17 and address what NASCAR calls shortcuts. Here’s how NASCAR worded the new penalties.

Should a driver cut the course in the Turn 11-12 chicane, the penalty would require drivers to come to a full stop in the restart zone alongside Turns 15-17. If a driver cuts the Turns 15-17 chicane, they would be required to stop on the apron off the racing surface before the start-finish line.

Now after this race there will be four drivers eliminated from the playoffs. Clint Bowyer finds himself just 4 points out of the playoffs while 7-time series champion Jimmie Johnson finds himself 6 points away from advancing. Eric Jones and Denny Hamlin are the other two drivers out of the playoffs heading into tomorrow’s race. Jones is 21 points out while Hamlin is the farthest away from getting into the second round at 29 points out.

Kyle Busch and Brad Keslowski have won races in the first round of the playoffs and have automatically advanced into the second round. Martin Truex Jr. has also advanced as he has enough points to move forward. It also appears that Kevin Harvick will move into the second round as he is currently 57 points to the good. After that those other eight spots can go to any of the drivers who are still in the playoffs.

Will the Roval favor any of these drivers? Or is it going to be a learning experience to start with the race turning into a shoot out at the end.

The drivers are actually on the Roval right now practicing. Daniel Hemric has the best time so far, but championship contenders Johnson, Truex Jr, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson all right behind him. Johnson actually just ran the fastest time on the Roval on the updated practice times.

Do you have one of the four drivers that are currently out of the playoffs getting a win today and advancing? You know that Dan the Man is rooting for his driver Clint Bowyer to find a way to advance. Or do you see someone else getting a win at the Roval?

Kevin Durant is one of the best players in the NBA and there are people who have sad that he’s the best player in the league ahead of LeBron James. I think we’d all agree on Durant’s talents, but it’s when he starts to talk or tweet that seems to be his downfall.

Durant actually used the words “pure hate” as the reason he doesn’t win any regular season NBA awards.

Durant was appearing on Bay Area sports-radio station 95.7 The Game when he was asked whether he’d had a goal last season of being named the league’s defensive player of the year. He replied, “You know they’re not gonna give me anything. Even if it’s on the fence, I have to be clear-cut better than everybody, for me to even get a look.”

Remember that Durant is talking about regular season awards. He’s actually been named finals MVP theses last two seasons the Warriors won the championship. Durant has actually won three of the last four finals MVP as he won it four years ago when Golden State won the title then.

Durant is actually a solid defender and the his size and athletic ability he can guard every position on the floor. Of course the Warriors are known for their offense and you have to wonder if maybe that hurts Durant’s candidacy for Defensive Player of the Year.

Now I don’t watch a lot of NBA games and with the fact that the Warriors play on the west coast I don’t get to see a lot of their games. Now I have to tell you when I do get to see one of their games I’m not exactly watching Durant play defense. I can’t be the only one; can you honestly tell me that when you watch a Warriors game you’re watching Durant play defense.

Now there’s a lot that goes into being a great defender, but looking at some basic Durant stats he averaged 7.1 defensive rebounds per game, 1.19 blocks per game and 0.71 steals per game. While those are all very good numbers; none of them led of team. Last season DeAndre Jordan and Andre Drummond led with 10.9 defensive rebounds per game. Victor Oladipo was the league leader in steals with 2.36 per game. Paul George (2.04) and Eric Bledsoe (2.01) where the only other players in the NBA to average over 2 steals a game. As for blocks Anthony Davis was easily the league leader with 2.57 blocks per game. Davis was 0.72 blocks per game better than anyone else.

That’s kind of how the numbers line up, but like I mentioned there’s more that goes into playing defense than just numbers. Where do you rank Durant as a defensive player?

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but don’t forget that you can listen to the podcast any time you want at TuneIn.com.

You can also follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: September 12, 2018 by Sports Time Radio in Auto Racing, football, NASCAR, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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With the NFL season starting last week; so did our yearly pick contest. Schaumburg Stu and I got off to a solid start going 11-5. Mr. Fantasy went 9-7 in Week 1 while Dan the Man had his struggles getting out of the gate a 6-10. Just one week in Dan ha plenty of time to get back into it.

Week 2 of the NFL season kicks off on Thursday night with an AFC North match up as the Baltimore Ravens at the Cincinnati Bengals. Both teams are 1-0 after Week 1 of the season, but they got their in different ways.

Cincinnati found itself down 23-17 heading into the 4th quarter against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. The Bengals then ran off 17 straight points capped off by an 83 yard fumble return by Clayton Fejedelem to put the Colts away 34-23.

The Ravens on the other hand had the biggest bow out of Week 1 as they easily beat the Buffalo Bills 47-3. The three points was the lowest number of points given up in Week 1 and it brought back some memories of the old Ray Lewis led Ravens defenses.

With just one week in the books we have to try to figure out if the Ravens where as good as they looked on Sunday or are the Bills just going to be that bad this season. Then with the way the Bengals ended the game you have to wonder if that’s what their team will look like or if they’ll be more like the team that struggle early on against the Colts. Cincinnati does have the advantage of being at home, but for me I’m going to take the Ravens to start the season off 2-0.

One of the most disappointing teams in Week1 was the Pittsburgh Steelers who ended up in a tie with the Cleveland Browns. While the Steelers where disappointing James Connor wasn’t.

Connor was the NFL’s top rusher for Week 1 as he racked up 135 yards on 31 carries and added 2 touchdowns. Connor also caught 5 passes for 57 yards. Connor did have 1 fumble which he lost, but as still the top running back from Week 1.

Of course Connor was in the starting line up because Le’Von Bell never reported to the Steelers and there have been no reports of Bell planning on reporting this week. By skipping the game Bell forfeited just a little under $900,000 dollars in game pay.

Of course money is the issue where all of this lies. Bell wants a long term deal and while the Steelers don’t seem to have an issue with giving him a long term deal; it’s the money that’s the hold up. Bell wants to be paid right around $20 million dollars a season which would be about $5.5 million dollars more than Todd Gurley and remember Gurley just signed a new contact before this season. I would be surprised to see the Steelers set the market like that for a running back; so if Bell isn’t willing to lower his contract demands this may be a long hold out.

As long as Bell reports to the Steelers by Week 11 I believe it is; he’ll get credit for this season and be able to go into free agency when it’s over. Bell is 26 years old and has played for the Steelers for 6 seasons. Bell is clearly one of the top running backs in the NFL, but would a team be willing to commit $20 million dollars a season on a running back. On average running backs have shorter career than any other position in the NFL; so it makes sense for Bell to try to cash in while he can, but are his salary demands too high?

Bell wants to factor in that he is a quality receiver as well as a top running back, but I’m not sure that teams will go in for that. Bell did have 85 catches last season, but there’s no way of knowing how many of those where actually meant for Bell or if they where just check down throws. Now a catch is still a catch, but there is a little bit of a difference when you’re the primary receiver.

Oddly the biggest detriment to Bell being paid could be James Connor. If Connor goes out and has a good 11 weeks it will make Bell look more like a product of the Steelers offense rather than a top running back. Also with the way Connor played this Steelers will be in no hurry at all to pay Bell; so it’s a bit of a double-edged sword for Bell. Does he or would he root against a player on his own team to help his own cause?

Heading into Week 2 the Steelers have left Bell completely off if their depth chart for their game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

The 10-race NASCAR playoffs start this Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Right now there are 16 drivers chasing the Cup. Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr, Brad Keslowski, Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Eric Jones, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Austin Dillion, Aric Almirola, Jimmie Johnson and Alex Bowman all have the chance to win the title right now.

The field gets cut to 12 drivers for the 2nd round. Then the field drops to 8 drivers in round 3 and then it goes down to the final three drivers at Homestead Miami Speedway to crown a champion.

This season has been dominated by the big 3 of Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. and with the bonus points each driver has received this season they have an easier path as long as they don’t have any on track issues to advance in the playoffs.

Will we eventually see Kyle Busch, Harvick or Truex Jr. raising the cup at the end of the season or is there someone else in the field that you think could win it all? Maybe you like the hot driver as Keslowski has won the last two races heading into the playoffs. Is it possible one of the younger racers (Elliott, Jones or Larsen) surprise everyone and grab the title and don’t forget that even though he didn’t win a race this season Johnson is in the field and he has 7 title to his credit; the last being not that long ago in 2016.

Who’s your pick to win it all?

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but don’t forget that you can listen to the podcast any time you want at TuneIn.com.

Feel free to look me up on Twitter @Burketime

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