CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Alex Bowman opened NASCAR's playoffs on defense — not of his style of driving, but of his status in the seat of the No. 48 Chevrolet at Hendrick Motorsports.
The first playoff race was just days away and Bowman spent an entire afternoon insisting rumors he'd be out of the car next season were untrue.
“That rumor has certainly been annoying," Bowman said. “All I can tell you is like what my bosses have told me, and that is that there are no plans to change anything. As far as I know, I’m driving the No. 48 next year. Just focused on trying to be strong the next 10 weeks.”
Despite the assurances from Hendrick Motorsports and a contract that runs through next season, Bowman still had doubters. Then he finished fifth in the playoff opener at Atlanta Motor Speedway, moved into the top 10 in points, and received a public endorsement from boss Rick Hendrick.
“The team is really happy, the sponsor is really happy, so we're good to go,” said Hendrick, who answered “yes” when asked if Bowman would “unequivocally” be in the HMS lineup next year.
That sentiment was backed by Andrea Brimmer, chief marketing officer of Bowman sponsor Ally, who reposted Hendrick's quote on social media “To all the doubters.” She added an emoji that intimates “be quiet.”
Bowman was then 18th at Watkins Glen and ninth Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, where he started on the pole and advanced into the second round of the playoffs. His 120 points scored in the three races was the most among the 16 drivers, and unlike former Cup champions Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr., Bowman avoided playoff elimination.
The reseeding process has him ranked 11th out of 12 drivers and below the cutline as NASCAR heads to Kansas Speedway for Sunday's second round opening race.
“We did what we needed the whole first round of the playoffs, but also we want to be better and continue that through the next round,” said Bowman, who doesn't think the speculation about his future will stop.
“They’ll keep talking. I’m not worried about it,” he said.
The talk seems pointless as Bowman has turned his season around and is one of a handful of surprise drivers to advance into the second round. Although Ty Gibbs and Harrison Burton were not considered title contenders and their first-round elimination was not shocking, the departure of Keselowski and Truex opened up slots to otherwise overlooked drivers.
The field is led into Kansas by Kyle Larson, who obliterated the competition at Bristol by leading all but 38 of the 500 laps Saturday night and winning by more than 7 seconds. Then there's Christopher Bell, a final four participant the last two seasons, regular season champion Tyler Reddick, William Byron, defending Cup champion Ryan Blaney and the usual cast of characters.
The surprises are Bowman, Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric and Daniel Suarez — any of whom could have been picked as first round dropouts based on their season-long performance.
Stewart-Haas Racing has hardly been competitive this season and is closing three of its four teams in November, yet Briscoe has surged in his final months in the No. 14 Ford. He snatched the final spot in the playoff field by winning the regular season finale at Darlington, then rallied from crashing at Atlanta with finishes of sixth and eighth in the next two races.
He dropped to last in the field with the points reset before Kansas, but he's still a contender.
“I don’t think anybody believes this, but I really think we can battle for the championship,” Briscoe said. “And I think these last two weeks show that. We’re hitting our stride at the right time, and with this format, if you can just be good for 10 weeks, then you can be a champion.
"I feel like we’re as strong as any team right now.”
Cindric made it through with consistency, scoring back-to-back 10th-place finishes at Atlanta and Watkins Glen, and then was 13th at Bristol — enough to advance the Team Penske driver.
“I don’t know what the average finish is for the round, but two top-10s and a 13th, that’s what we need to do as a team," Cindric said, "and it’s something we had challenges putting together, but the potential is there. Everything resets, so no reason why we can’t replicate that performance.”
Suarez, despite nearly winning the opener at Atlanta, found himself in trouble at Bristol with a Trackhouse Racing entry that lacked the speed needed to be competitive. He struggled the entire race and, with a 31st-place finish, barely made it into the second round.
But as soon as the race was over, Suarez was already looking toward the second round, which starts at Kansas, then goes to Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama, and the hybrid road course at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
“I think we’re going to be pretty good. I’m really excited for Kansas. I think we can be competitive there,” Suarez said. "A superspeedway, as we all know, anything can happen. And a road course in there, always puts a smile on my face.”
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
Alex Bowman (48) leads Kyle Larson (5) and Martin Truex Jr. (19) at the start of a NASCAR Cup Series auto race, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024, in Bristol, Tenn. (AP Photo/Wade Payne)
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is making his first campaign visit to battleground Georgia since a feud between the former president and Republican Gov. Brian Kemp ended last month with Kemp endorsing Trump.
Trump is speaking Tuesday in Savannah, Georgia, which has one of the busiest ports in the country for cargo shipped in containers. He’s set to reveal incentives for foreign firms to leave other countries and migrate to the U.S. The former president wants to personally recruit foreign companies and to send members of his administration to do the same.
Some Republicans fear Georgia has gotten more politically competitive in the two months since Vice President Kamala Harris launched her presidential bid after President Joe Biden abandoned his reelection efforts. Harris spoke Friday in Atlanta, calling Trump a threat to women’s freedoms and warning voters he would continue to limit access to abortion if elected president.
Trump’s running mate JD Vance is holding a rally later this week in Georgia as well as paying a visit to Macon.
Georgia is one of several presidential swing states that have new or recently altered state laws setting the rules for November's election. In Georgia, election workers will have to hand count the number of ballots cast after voting is completed. In North Carolina, some students and university staff can use their digital IDs to vote. In Wisconsin, ballot drop boxes are newly legal again, although not every voting jurisdiction will use them.
Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.
Here’s the latest:
Donald Trump flubbed the name of Charlottesville, Virginia, while going off script during a speech otherwise focused on economic policy, slamming Vice President Kamala Harris for lying about “Charlottestown.”
The former president was talking about imposing tariffs and other steps he’d take to bolster U.S. manufacturing when he veered off topic and began arguing that he won the recent debate.
“She didn’t say anything except lies like bloodbath, like Charlottestown,” Trump said of Harris.
He didn’t acknowledge the error directly, but quickly added that he was, “finishing this topic, because they’ll say, ‘Oh, he fell into a trap’” -- when in fact he’d already made a conspicuous mistake.
Trump was trying to refer to the deadly 2017 violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, between white supremacists and anti-racist protesters. Trump has faced years of criticism from Harris and other top Democrats for blaming “both sides” for what occurred.
Georgia Supreme Court justices are expressing skepticism that votes for presidential candidates Cornel West and Claudia De la Cruz should count.
Tuesday’s hearing could set the stage for disqualifying the candidate from the Georgia’s ballots. Democrats are trying to prevent others from siphoning votes from Vice President Kamala Harris.
They argue West and De la Cruz failed to qualify because their presidential electors didn’t each submit a separate petition to access Georgia’s ballots.
Lawyers for the candidates say such a ruling would create an unconstitutionally high barrier to ballot access. If justices disqualify West and De la Cruz, their names would likely appear on Georgia’s ballots. But votes for them wouldn’t be counted.
Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris says she supports reforming Senate rules in order to pass a law that would restore abortion protections lost when Roe fell.
The rules are around the filibuster. When a senator wants to prevent a vote on a bill they refuse to yield the floor. And it takes 60 votes to force them to stand down — and that means almost any major bill requires 60 votes to pass. The Senate is split 50-50 and the tie-breaking vote goes to the Vice President. But the rules mean GOP senators could block any effort to reform abortion rights.
Harris said on Wisconsin Public Radio that she favored eliminating the filibuster for Roe, to “get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to put back into law the protections.”
It’s a position President Joe Biden has also supported. He does not support eliminating it all together - just the exception to pass abortion rights.
A new survey finds that around 6 in 10 Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander registered voters have a very of somewhat favorable opinion of Harris, compared to just 3 in 10 for Trump.
AAPI voters are also more likely to believe that she is the candidate who better represents their background and policy views.
The survey from AAPI Data and APIAVote marks an increase in favorability for Harris since October 2023, when an AP-NORC/AAPI Data poll found that about half of AAPI adults had a somewhat or very favorable view of her. Opinions of Trump among this group have remained stable.
Harris is both Black and South Asian American, and has worked to rally AAPI voters in swing states like Georgia where their numbers are growing. But while the poll indicates that AAPI voters are much more likely to see their own cultural identity reflected in her than in Trump — about half of AAPI voters say Harris better represents their background and culture, while only about 1 in 10 say this about Trump — it’s not clear how much this is influencing their perspectives on the candidates.
Trump spoke Monday to a small group of farmers in Smithton in rural Pennsylvania, breaking with his usual campaign form by listening more than he talked.
The former president asked questions and offered a few jokes. But he mostly listened quietly as farmers from the area explained their economic difficulties. Trump also stopped at a market and gave a woman checking out a $100 bill to help pay for groceries — further showing off a softer side.
He reverted back to form during a raucous evening event in Indiana, Pennsylvania, sharply criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris and suggesting without evidence that this year’s contest would be the last election should he lose.
“I don’t like anybody that doesn’t like me, I’ll be honest,” he said before adding, “sounds childish” but “that’s the way it is ... call it a personality defect.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz told a group of about 30 donors focused on climate change that Trump’s energy catchphrase to “drill baby, drill” is “not a solution to things, and the public knows that it’s a cheap, easy thing.”
The Democratic vice presidential nominee, speaking at a midtown Manhattan hotel to an audience that included former presidential candidate Tom Steyer and Hollywood producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, called climate change an “existential threat” but also “an incredible opportunity to grow our economy.”
Walz cited farmers who use their land to generate wind energy in addition to growing crops.
He also praised Harris for casting the tie-breaking vote in the U.S. Senate on the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden’s 2022 law to flight climate change.
Walz is scheduled to speak at a series of fundraisers in New York on Monday.
Doppelgangers have been selected to help prepare for the vice presidential debate next week.
Walz’s mock debates will feature Pete Buttigieg, the U.S. transportation secretary, playing Vance.
Meanwhile, Vance’s preparations include Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer in the role of Walz.
The choices were disclosed by people with knowledge of the candidates’ preparations
Walz and Vance are scheduled to face off on Oct. 1.
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at a farm, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, in Smithton, Pa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Audience members stand and pray before Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump arrives to deliver remarks on the tax code, and manufacturing at the Johnny Mercer Theatre Civic Center, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Savannah, Ga. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
FILE - Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign event Sept. 20, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Katie Mimura, left, and Hisako Kaneko, center, who traveled from Japan to show support for Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump walk outside before a rally at Ed Fry Arena in Indiana, Pa., Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Droke)
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Ed Fry Arena, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, in Indiana, Pa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Audience members stand to say the Pledge of Allegiance before Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump arrives to deliver remarks on the tax code, and manufacturing at the Johnny Mercer Theatre Civic Center, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Savannah, Ga. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
