MOTOR SPORTS
All-Star Race set for July 15
NASCAR's All-Star Race will be a midweek event July 15 at Charlotte Motor Speedway as part of a new revision to the schedule that runs through the first weekend of August. NASCAR already has rescheduled races through June 21 and the update released Thursday begins the next weekend at Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania. The track will host ARCA, the Truck Series, two Cup Series races on consecutive days, June 27-28, and the Xfinity Series. NASCAR will then move to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a July 4 weekend event combined with the IndyCar Series. Then it is on to Kentucky Speedway, the All-Star Race and then Texas Motor Speedway. Kansas Speedway will host the Cup Series for a Thursday night race July 23. New Hampshire will host the Cup Series on Aug. 2 in the final event announced in this latest revised schedule. NASCAR canceled eight points races in the Cup Series and the All-Star Race during a 10-week shutdown for the coronavirus pandemic.
FOOTBALL
Brees issues apology
Drew Brees now realizes he'd fallen out of touch. His contemporaries drove that home when they pilloried him this week for repeating a long-held conviction he'd always felt comfortable expressing. In the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, Brees repeated his opposition to kneeling during the national anthem. And the biting backlash that followed prompted the Saints' star quarterback to issue a public apology Thursday in which he acknowledged he totally "missed the mark. I recognize that I should do less talking and more listening," Brees wrote in the apology posted on social media. "When the black community is talking about their pain, we all need to listen."
BASEBALL
Players reaffirm pay stance
Baseball players reaffirmed their stance for full prorated pay, leaving a huge gap with teams that could scuttle plans to start the coronavirus-delayed season around the Fourth of July and may leave owners focusing on a schedule as short as 50 games. More than 100 players, including the union's executive board, held a two-hour digital meeting with officials of the Major League Baseball Players Association on Thursday, a day after their offer was rejected by Major League Baseball. MLB last week proposed an 82-game season with an additional sliding scale of pay cuts that would leave a player at the $563,500 minimum with 47% of his original salary and top stars Mike Trout and Gerrit Cole at less than 22% of the $36 million they had been set to earn. Players countered Sunday with a plan for a 114-game regular season with no pay cuts beyond the prorated salaries they agreed to on March 26. That would leave each player with about 70% of his original pay.
BASKETBALL
Wake Forest adds transfer
Wake Forest has added East Tennessee State transfer Daivien Williamson to the men's basketball roster, rejoining new Demon Deacons Coach Steve Forbes. The school announced Williamson's addition Thursday. He would have to sit out one year as a transfer unless he receives a waiver from the NCAA and has two years of eligibility remaining. Williamson played two seasons under Forbes, who left East Tennessee State in April to replace fired Coach Danny Manning. It also marks a homecoming for the 6-2 guard, who played in high school in Winston-Salem and was an Associated Press prep all-state pick for North Carolina in 2018. Williamson started every game last year, averaging 10.4 points, 2.6 assists and 2.0 rebounds to help East Tennessee State win 30 games while sweeping the Southern Conference regular-season and tournament titles.
Sports on 06/05/2020