NASCAR playoffs roll into Talladega with cloud of lawsuit hanging over sport.

TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) — It's most fitting that NASCAR this weekend races at Talladega Superspeedway, sight of one of the first major disputes between drivers and the top stock car series in the United States.

It was at the Alabama track's 1969 debut race when the NASCAR-despised Professional Driver Association led by Richard Petty deemed the track too dangerous and not ready for competition.

The PDA wanted to postpone the race, NASCAR founder Bill France said no and things quickly turned contentious. So 36 of NASCAR's regulars boycotted the event, but France made sure the show went on without them.

And now here we are, 55 years later, back at Talladega with the France family again under challenge. This time from only two teams — the Michael Jordan-owned 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports — who this week filed an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR over its charter system.

The two organizations are the only ones among 15 that refused to sign the take-it-or-leave-it agreement NASCAR dropped on the owners 48 hours before last month's playoff opener. They filed suit Wednesday against NASCAR, which is in the thick of the playoffs with six races remaining starting Sunday at Talladega.

“It's obviously the biggest story in the sport currently, and probably one of the biggest stories in a long time,” Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson said.

And so instead of the focus being on Sunday's middle race of the round of 12, where drivers need to secure their spot in the standings ahead of next week's elimination race at Charlotte, the talk is centered on the brewing legal battle.

Denny Hamlin, the three-time Daytona 500 winner who co-owns 23XI Racing with Jordan, said the lawsuit won't distract him from trying to win his first Cup Series championship. In fact, he's more motivated than ever. Hamlin is ranked fifth in the standings and a two-time Talladega winner.

"Make no mistake, the competitor in me, you don’t think I don’t want to come out here and win this weekend more than any?” Hamlin bristled Saturday. "That’s what I fuel myself on, making the 18-footer on hole 18 to win the match. Like, I live for those moments.

“Anyone that knows me personally will tell you that these moments, you’ll typically get more out of Denny, because I hate to lose and certainly will not justify any excuses to losing.”

Hall of Fame team owner Richard Childress confirmed to Fox Sports that NASCAR dropped the more than 100-page charter agreement — which is essentially the revenue sharing model — on Richard Childress Racing at 6:37 p.m. on Friday night Sept. 6, with a midnight deadline to sign it "or we'd lose our charters.

“I didn't have a choice because we had to sign,” Childress told Fox Sports. “We've got over 400 employees, contracts, and I've got to take care of my team.”

Michael McDowell won his fifth pole of the season on a superspeedway Saturday to give Front Row Motorsports — the other team in the antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR — the top starting spot at Talladega.

McDowell is not in the playoffs.

He has won six poles this year starting with Atlanta Motor Speedway in the second event of the season. McDowell was also the fastest qualifier in NASCAR's return to Atlanta, as well as both Talladega races and the August race in Daytona. His sixth pole was at Gateway outside St. Louis and that is not a superspeedway.

The record for most consecutive superspeedway poles is held by Bill Elliott, who won six straight at Talladega from 1985 through 1987. Elliott won two of those six races.

McDowell turned a lap at 183.063 mph to lead a Ford driver sweep in qualifying. Austin Cindric qualified second for Team Penske and McDowell teammate Todd Gilliland qualified third.

Kyle Busch, who is desperately trying to keep his streak of winning at least one race a year for a 20th consecutive season, qualified fourth in a Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing.

Ryan Blaney, the reigning Cup Series champion and Penske teammate with Cindric, was fifth and followed by teammate Joey Logano and RCR driver Austin Dillon.

Hamlin was the highest-qualifying Toyota driver at eighth.

Tyler Reddick won Talladega in the spring as part of his march to the regular-season championship. But as he heads into Sunday's race, he's below the cutline for elimination and struggling to understand what happened to his 23XI Racing Toyota.

Reddick has an average finish of 19th through the first four races with one top-10 finish and 21 stage points. He was 25th last week at Kansas Speedway, where he won a year ago.

“Yeah, at this point it’s definitely a head-scratcher,” Reddick continued. “I feel like all of us coming off of the regular season, I felt no change in what I was doing. I don’t think anyone on this team has either. We just haven’t been putting together good races. We haven’t had speed; we haven’t been able to get stage points. It’s been tough.”

Reddick vowed to race Talladega on Sunday as he normally would and has no concern that NASCAR will be scrutinizing him because his race team is suing the sanctioning body.

“Not worried at all,” Reddick said.

NASCAR has supplied a new part to teams ahead of Sunday's race as part of an aerodynamic change designed to stop cars from going airborne.

The change is intended to increase the speed required for the cars to lift off. Josh Berry flipped in August at Daytona International Speedway, the same race where Michael McDowell went airborne but did not flip.

One week earlier, Corey LaJoie flipped at Michigan International Speedway.

The new parts add a rocker skirt to the side of the cars, while fabric was added to the inside of the right roof flap. The right-side roof rails were extended two inches with polycarbonate.

Talladega is a 2.66-mile oval with 33-degree banking.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Tyler Reddick (45) has his tires changed on pit road during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Colin E. Braley)

Denny Hamlin (11) leads Chase Briscoe (14) and Christopher Bell (20) during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024, in Bristol, Tenn. (AP Photo/Wade Payne)

FILE - Kyle Busch interacts with spectators while walking down a runway during driver introductions before a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Aug. 24, 2024, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File)

FILE - 23XI Racing co-owner Michael Jordan stands in the pit area during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway, Sunday, April 21, 2024, in Talladega. Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File)

Christopher Bell (20), Kyle Busch (8), William Byron (24), Tyler Reddick (45), Joey Logano (22) and Ryan Blaney (12) head down the front straightaway after a caution flag during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Colin E. Braley)

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis told Vatican bureaucrats on Saturday to stop speaking ill of one another, as he once again used his annual Christmas greetings to admonish the backstabbing and gossiping among his closest collaborators.

A wheezing and congested sounding Francis, who just turned 88, urged the prelates instead to speak well of one another and undertake a humble examination of their own consciences in the Christmas holiday season.

“A church community lives in joyful and fraternal harmony to the extent that its members walk in the life of humility, renouncing evil thinking and speaking ill of others,” Francis said. “Gossip is an evil that destroys social life, sickens people’s hearts and leads to nothing. The people say it very well: Gossip is zero.”

“Beware of this,” he added.

By now Francis’ annual Christmas address to the priests, bishops and cardinals who work in the Vatican Curia has become a lesson in humility -– and humilitation -- as Francis offers a public dressing down of some of the sins in the workplace at the headquarters of the Catholic Church.

In the most biting edition, in 2014, Francis listed the “15 ailments of the Curia,” in which he accused the prelates of using their Vatican careers to grab power and wealth. He accused them of living “hypocritical” double lives and forgetting — due to “spiritual Alzheimer’s” — that they’re supposed to be joyful men of God.

In 2022, Francis warned them that the devil lurks among them, saying it is an “elegant demon” that works in people who have a rigid, holier-than-thou way of living the Catholic faith.

This year, Francis revisited a theme he has often warned about: gossiping and speaking ill of people behind their backs. It was a reference to the sometimes toxic atmosphere in closed environments such as the Vatican or workplaces where office gossip and criticism circulate but are rarely aired in public.

Francis has long welcomed frank and open debates and even has welcomed criticism of his own work. But he has urged critics to tell it to his face, and not behind his back.

Francis opened his address Saturday with a reminder of the devastation of the war in Gaza, where he said even his patriarch had been unable to enter due to Israeli bombing.

"Yesterday children have been bombed. This is cruelty, this is not war," he said.

The annual appointment kicks off Francis’ busy Christmas schedule, this year made even more strenuous because of the start of the Vatican’s Holy Year on Christmas Eve. The Jubilee is expected to bring some 32 million pilgrims to Rome over 2025, and Francis has a dizzying calendar of events to minister to them.

After addressing the Vatican prelates, Francis issued a less critical address to the Vatican’s lay employees who gathered in the city state's main audience hall along with their families. Francis thanked them for their service and urged them to make sure they take time to play with their children and visit grandparents.

“If you have any particular problems, tell your bosses, we want to resolve them,” he added at the end. “You do this with dialogue, not by keeping quiet. Together we’ll try to resolve the difficulties.”

It was an apparent reference to reports of growing unease within the Vatican workforce that has been called out by the Association of Vatican Lay Employees, the closest thing the Vatican has to a labor union. The association has in recent months voiced alarm about the health of the Vatican pension system and fears of even more cost-cutting, and demanded the Vatican leadership listen to workers’ concerns.

Earlier this year 49 employees of the Vatican Museums — the Holy See's main source of revenue — filed a class-action lawsuit in the Vatican tribunal complaining about labor woes, overtime and working conditions.

Unlike Italy, which has robust labor laws protecting workers' rights, Vatican employees often find they have fewer legal recourses available to them when problems arise. Employment in the Vatican however is often sought-after by Italian Catholics: Aside from the sense of service to the church, Vatican employment offers tax-free benefits and access to below-market housing.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Pope Francis arrives to exchange season greetings with Vatican employees, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis exchanges season greetings with Vatican employees, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis exchanges the season's greetings with Vatican employees, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis arrives to exchange the season's greetings with Vatican employees, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis exchanges the season's greetings with Vatican employees, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis delivers his blessing as he exchanges season greetings with Vatican employees, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis exchanges the season's greetings with Vatican employees, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis meets with Italian pilgrims participating in the Camino de Santiago, in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis tries a skullcap received by faithful during the weekly general audience at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)