Sports

12:08 AM ET Associated Press MARTINSVILLE, Va. — William Byron took the lead on pit road after Stage 2 stops and held it pretty much the rest of the way at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday night to become the first repeat winner this season in NASCAR’s Cup Series. Byron needed to hold off a challenge

5:40 PM ET Associated Press NEW YORK — Mo Donegal rallied to win the $750,000 Wood Memorial on Saturday at Aqueduct on the last weekend of major prep races for the Kentucky Derby. Ridden by Joel Rosario, Mo Donegal ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:47.96. Trainer Todd Pletcher tied “Sunny” Jim Fitzsimmons for most Wood

8:00 AM ET Tim KavanaghESPN.com Close Tim Kavanagh is a senior NHL editor for ESPN. He’s a native of upstate New York. Three weeks from Saturday, all eight first-round matchups in the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs will be set. At this point, the Florida Panthers have clinched a spot (and are on their way to

8:00 AM ET CLEMSON, S.C. — Like him or loathe him, Dabo Swinney doesn’t mind speaking his mind, nor does he ever spend much time trying to be somebody he’s not. Entering his 14th season as Clemson‘s head coach and 20th season overall, Swinney has steered the Tigers to the top of the college football

1:23 AM ET The 2022 MLB season is here! Thursday’s Opening Day action didn’t disappoint, and Friday kept the party going with clutch performances, mascot antics and more. The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox wrote another chapter in their historic rivalry, with Josh Donaldson providing the walk-off win in extra innings. The Detroit

8:04 PM ET Associated Press MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Chase Elliott won the pole Friday for the Saturday night race at Martinsville Speedway. The defending NASCAR Cup Series champion and current co-leader turned a fast lap at 96.151 mph in the new Next Gen cars to end co-leader Ryan Blaney’s string of three consecutive poles. Blaney

4:00 AM ET Love it or loathe it, VAR is now an established part of the modern game, and this very week marks the fifth anniversary of the first time a top-flight professional league match was overseen by the video assistant referee system. That milestone moment in soccer history took place on April 7, 2017

8:00 AM ET IAN GARRY WAS a student at Dublin Institute of Technology in early 2017, studying retail and service management. He was just 19 years old, but after one year in college, he knew university was not for him. The Ireland native, inspired by the exploits of Conor McGregor, knew his real vocation in

1:02 PM ET AUGUSTA, Ga. — Tiger Woods arrived to work with a leg full of rods and plates and screws, carrying his pain around like a physical thing, talking a lot about endurance. That pain is his constant companion now. He said he plans on playing this year’s Masters, with a belief he can

7:47 AM ET When Jennifer Han got the call in 2021, she knew this was not going to be easy. Not even close. The opponent — undisputed lightweight champion Katie Taylor — was very talented. There was also her own situation. Han had given birth to her second child, Nolan, months before. She said she

12:58 AM BST ESPN staff Perth has won the right to host the opening Test between the Wallabies and England, while the Wallaroos will commence their Rugby World Cup preparations with Tests against Japan and Fijiana in Queensland. Rugby Australia on Tuesday unveiled the fixtures for its opening Test series of 2022, with international rugby

8:00 AM ET With one week to go in the NBA’s regular season, only three postseason seeds are locked in: The Phoenix Suns will have the top seed in the Western Conference playoffs, the Memphis Grizzlies will have the second and the LA Clippers are locked into eighth. The other 17 seeds remain up for

6:28 PM ET D’Arcy MaineESPN.com Iga Swiatek left no doubt about her spot atop the game and Carlos Alcaraz and Taylor Fritz earned the biggest titles of their burgeoning careers. If there’s one thing we learned during the Sunshine Double in Indian Wells and Miami over the past month, it’s that the future is very

10:42 AM ET Running back Frank Gore said he plans to sign a one-day contract with the San Francisco 49ers and retire as a member of the team that drafted him. “We’re still trying to figure out when I’m going to do my one-day contract. To sign, do my retirement,” Gore said on the SFNiners

11:31 PM ET Associated Press ARCADIA, Calif. — Bob Baffert won the sixth race at Santa Anita on Saturday, sending the Hall of Fame trainer out a winner two days before his 90-day suspension begins. Baffert was in the winner’s circle with Shaaz after the $72,000 race. He was joined by Hall of Fame jockey

12:35 PM ET New York Mets right-hander Max Scherzer is dealing with hamstring tightness and said he isn’t sure whether he will be ready to pitch when the regular season starts next week. Scherzer told reporters that he first felt the issue a few days ago and that it flared up while preparing to pitch

7:59 AM ET Tim KavanaghESPN.com Close Tim Kavanagh is a senior NHL editor for ESPN. He’s a native of upstate New York. Saturdays on the NHL schedule are typically jam-packed, and there’s no deviation from that trend today. But three particular matchups are worthy of special attention as the rush to the 2022 Stanley Cup

1:13 PM ET DOHA, Qatar — For Qatar, the World Cup draw Friday is the bell signaling the last lap of a race that began more than two decades ago. That’s when the Gulf state — poor in square miles, population and (back then) name recognition, but rich in per capita GDP and ambition —

3:34 PM ET Associated Press HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. — Simplification will be the morning-line favorite at Gulfstream Park for Saturday’s $1 million, Grade 1 Florida Derby, one of the last big prep races for the Kentucky Derby. Simplification was given 5-2 early odds. White Abarrio was narrowly installed as the second choice at 3-1. Simplification

8:00 AM ET “An almost playoff game and you decide to turn down points because something called analytics says it’s smart,” Mike Lombardi, a writer, broadcaster and former NFL general manager, tweeted last December. “You deserved to lose last night — more proof each game is different and each situation is a stand-alone. No chart