Sport

Welcome to The South Week at The Ringer. For the next several days, we’re celebrating — and reporting on — the richness of the region. You’ll find stories from all over the map, exploring topics such as the enduring legacy of Confederate monuments in Richmond and Montgomery, the evolution of Charleston barbecue, and the intersection of faith and football in Lubbock. We’re also ranking the best Southern rap albums, imagining the André 3000 mixtape…

Love him or hate him, Kyle Busch is one of the most important figures in NASCAR today. The 2015 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion swept the weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, reaching victory lane in all three national tours last week, but he also earned vicious jeers every step of the way. It was a reminder that NASCAR fans simply don’t like the 32-year-old. Sure, his success…

x Embed x Share CLOSE Court Jeske talks about the future of pro soccer in Nashville. Joey Garrison Buy Photo First Tennessee Park, home of the Nashville Sounds, lies just south of the Germantown neighborhood.(Photo: George Walker IV / The Tennessean)Buy Photo Nashville Soccer Club, the city’s United Soccer League expansion club set to begin competition next year, will play its 2018 inaugural season at First Tennessee Park, home of the minor league…

Welcome to The South Week at The Ringer. For the next several days, we’re celebrating — and reporting on — the richness of the region. You’ll find stories from all over the map, exploring topics such as the enduring legacy of Confederate monuments in Richmond and Montgomery, the evolution of Charleston barbecue, and the intersection of faith and football in Lubbock. We’re also ranking the best Southern rap albums, imagining the André 3000 mixtape…

Caption Close Charlotte, N.C. Fans turn to sports for entertainment, a respite from the stress of the real world. They say they don’t want politics mixed in with sports, they just want to enjoy the show. NASCAR lost the luxury of staying above the fray two years ago when chairman Brian France said he didn’t want Confederate flags at racetracks anymore. His announcement was in response to a deadly church…

Hey, congrats to NASCAR for keeping their promise to Kyle Busch and Toyota. I was skeptical, but when Kyle won last night’s race I knew NASCAR really came through for him. Toyota has to be overjoyed as well. Finishing 1, 2, 3 and 4. Wow! That ‘special package’ NASCAR is allowing Toyotas to have is really paying off, especially to big wigs of NASCAR who are…

BRISTOL, TN – AUGUST 19: Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M’s Caramel Toyota, celebrates after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on August 19, 2017 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images) Even before Kyle Busch was handed a broom and playfully swept off the top of his racecar late Saturday night, polishing off a week in…

Fans turn to sports for entertainment, a respite from the stress of the real world. They say they don’t want politics mixed in with sports, they just want to enjoy the show. NASCAR, unfortunately, cannot sit on the sidelines and simply watch the cars go round. The top racing series in the country lost the luxury of staying above the fray two years ago when Chairman Brian France said he…

BRISTOL, TN – AUGUST 19: Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M’s Caramel Toyota, celebrates after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on August 19, 2017 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images) Even before Kyle Busch was handed a broom and playfully swept off the top of his racecar late Saturday night, polishing off a week in…

Fans turn to sports for entertainment, a respite from the stress of the real world. They say they don’t want politics mixed in with sports, they just want to enjoy the show. NASCAR, unfortunately, cannot sit on the sidelines and simply watch the cars go round. The top racing series in the country lost the luxury of staying above the fray two years ago when Chairman Brian France said he…

After another successful application of the PJ1 TrackBite traction compound at Bristol Motor Speedway over the weekend, NASCAR is interested in implementing the substance at other venues this season and beyond. That is the claim of NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, Scott Miller, who addressed the topic on Monday morning during a radio segment on SiriusXM’s “The Morning Drive.” “We’re looking at it at some other places,…

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Walk around the sprawling campsites at the Bristol Motor Speedway here in the green hills of Tennessee, and you know you’re deep in Trump country. Cars buzz around this half-mile track, practicing for the night NASCAR races here. National Rifle Association signs are omnipresent, as the track hosts the only race in NASCAR’s top circuit with NRA branding. A pop-up city of RVs sprawls outside the speedway,…

BRISTOL, TN – AUGUST 19: Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M’s Caramel Toyota, celebrates after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on August 19, 2017 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images) Even before Kyle Busch was handed a broom and playfully swept off the top of his racecar late Saturday night, polishing off a week in…

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Walk around the sprawling campsites at the Bristol Motor Speedway here in the green hills of Tennessee, and you know you’re deep in Trump country. Cars buzz around this half-mile track, practicing for the night NASCAR races here. National Rifle Association signs are omnipresent, as the track hosts the only race in NASCAR’s top circuit with NRA branding. A pop-up city of RVs sprawls outside the speedway,…

The No. 72 car of Cole Whitt, which Frankie Kerr crew chiefs for. Photo credit: Sean Gardner/Getty Images NASCAR crew chief Frankie Kerr was underneath a 3,300-pound race car Friday evening after it fell on him. ESPN reports that the crash broke his shoulder blade and severely bruised his sternum and ribs. The very next day, Kerr, 56, strolled into Bristol Motor Speedway in a sling to work a 500-lap race….

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Officials with Chip Ganassi Racing and driver Kyle Larson announced a two-race sponsorship with credit card processor First Data on Monday at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. First Data, whose corporate headquarters are located in Atlanta, will be the primary sponsor on Larson’s No. 42 Chevrolet for upcoming Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races at Talladega Superspeedway and Martinsville Speedway. First Data and Martinsville Speedway officials recently…

Two Major League Soccer expansion clubs first took the field in March 2017, both bearing the moniker United. One in Minneapolis, the other in Atlanta – a city in that lower-third of the American map which, conventional wisdom holds, stands in stark opposition to the globalist concerns of either American coast, and could therefore never deign to care about a sport as preposterously effete as soccer, where flopping is rewarded….

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Walk around the sprawling campsites at the Bristol Motor Speedway here in the green hills of Tennessee, and you know you’re deep in Trump country. Cars buzz around this half-mile track, practicing for the night NASCAR races here. National Rifle Association signs are omnipresent, as the track hosts the only race in NASCAR’s top circuit with NRA branding. A pop-up city of RVs sprawls outside the speedway,…

Two Major League Soccer expansion clubs first took the field in March 2017, both bearing the moniker United. One in Minneapolis, the other in Atlanta – a city in that lower-third of the American map which, conventional wisdom holds, stands in stark opposition to the globalist concerns of either American coast, and could therefore never deign to care about a sport as preposterously effete as soccer, where flopping is rewarded….

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Walk around the sprawling campsites at the Bristol Motor Speedway here in the green hills of Tennessee, and you know you’re deep in Trump country. Cars buzz around this half-mile track, practicing for the night NASCAR races here. National Rifle Association signs are omnipresent, as the track hosts the only race in NASCAR’s top circuit with NRA branding. A pop-up city of RVs sprawls outside the speedway,…