All Times Eastern
South Point 400.
Site: Las Vegas, Nevada.
Schedule: Saturday, practice, 4:35 p.m.; qualifying, 5:20 p.m., Sunday, race, 2:30 p.m. (NBC)
Track: Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Race distance: 267 laps, 400.5 miles.
Last year: Kyle Larson became the first driver to advance to the championship four when he won at Las Vegas. Larson outraced fellow playoff driver Christopher Bell to the line for the victory. Non-playoff drivers Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski and Ross Chastain rounded out the top five.
Last race: Larson closed the playoff's round of 12 this past week with a win at Charlotte's Roval. It was a satisfying triumph for Larson, who had hoped to complete the Indy 500-Coca-Cola 600 double last May before rain in Charlotte prevented him from turning any NASCAR laps. So Larson dominated on the way to his series-best sixth win on the season. Bell was second, followed by William Byron, Austin Cindric and Chase Elliott.
Fast facts: There was drama after The Roval when Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman's car was found to be under weight in post-race inspection and disqualified. The ruling left the No. 48 car out of the playoffs and the only one of the four Hendrick drivers not advancing to the round of eight. ... Larson leads the playoff standings with Bell right behind. Regular-season champion Tyler Reddick is third and William Byron fourth. ... The drivers currently on the wrong side of the cutline are defending champion Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott and two-time champ Joey Logano, who was on the outside until Bowman's disqualification put him back in the playoffs. ... After Las Vegas, the round of eight goes to Homestead-Miami and Martinsville before the final four playoff survivors race for it all in Phoenix next month. ... Larson has won three of the past seven Cup Series races at Las Vegas, including the past two — last October and last March.
Next race: Oct. 27, Homestead, Florida.
Online: http://www.nascar.com
Ambetter Health 302.
Site: Las Vegas, Nevada
Schedule: Friday, practice, 6:35 p.m.; qualifying, 7:10 p.m.; Saturday, race, 7:30 p.m. (CW)
Track: Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Race distance: 201 laps, 301.5 miles.
Last year: Hometown driver Riley Herbst won his first career Xfinity race by nearly 15 seconds in a dominating performance. It almost doubled the previous mark at the track of 8.4 seconds in 2002 when now broadcaster Jeff Burton took the event. Herbst led 103 of 201 in winning for the first time in his 139 career races at the time. Hunter Nemechek was second and eventual Xfinity Series champions Cole Custer was third.
Last race: Sam Mayer won on The Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway in a controversial overtime finish that allowed Mayer to advance in the Xfinity Series playoffs. It came at the expense of Parker Kligerman, who was denied his first career Xfinity Series victory in regulation by a NASCAR scoring call and eliminated from the playoff field. NASCAR ruled Kligerman did not take the white flag when the caution came out and instead called for the two-lap overtime. Mayer moved past Kligerman to win this event for a second straight year.
Fast facts: Xfinity is down to the round of eight with three more races left at Las Vegas, Homestead-Miami and Martinsville to determine the championship four. ... Justin Allgaier leads the series by seven points over defending champion Custer. Austin Hill and Chandler Smith also head into the round of eight among the top four. ... Those racers looking to move up are Mayer, Jesse Love, AJ Allmendinger and Sammy Smith. ... Hill, Mayer and Shane van Gisbergen have three victories apiece to lead the series.
Next race: Oct. 26, Homestead, Florida.
Online: http://www.nascar.com
Last race: Grant Enfinger won the Love’s RV Stop 225 playoff race at Talladega to automatically qualify for the championship finale at Phoenix on Nov. 8. The Alabama native led 34 of 85 laps in his Chevy, including the final nine after a restart before another caution on the final lap. Enfinger won the second stage to earn his first win this season, his 11th career and second at his home track. Playoff driver Taylor Gray was second with Daniel Dye third despite contact with Tyler Ankrum that caused a multicar wreck that brought the final yellow.
Fast Facts: Enfinger’s win was the first for his CR7 Motorsports team and first by a playoff driver in nine Talladega races. … Three more spots are at stake over the next two races of the round of eight. Corey Heim (3,077 points) finished 11th and leads Christian Eckes by one with Ty Majeski 25 back and Rajah Caruth 30 behind. … The series will take a three-week break before resuming at Homestead-Miami Speedway. ... The trucks run at Martinsville on Nov. 1 and Phoenix Nov. 8 to conclude the season.
Next race: Oct. 26, Homestead, Florida.
Online: http://www.nascar.com
Pirelli United States Grand Prix.
Site: Austin, Texas.
Schedule: Friday, practice, 1:30 p.m.; Saturday, qualifying, 6 p.m. , Sunday, race, 3 p.m. (ESPN)
Track: Circuit of the Americas.
Race distance: 56 laps, 191.633 miles.
Last year: Max Verstappen won his 50th career Formula 1 race when he worked through the field after starting sixth and held off Lewis Hamilton over the final laps. Hamilton's second-place finish was wiped out three hours after the race when he and sixth-place finisher Charles Leclerc were disqualified for rule violations with the skid blocks under their cars. It was Verstappen's third straight victory in Austin.
Last race: Lando Norris chipped seven points from Max Verstappen’s lead with a dominating victory at the Singapore Grand Prix from the pole on Sept. 22. It was Norris’ third career victory, all coming this season.
Fast facts: The once unstoppable Verstappen is now only 52 points ahead of Norris with six races left. ... The series moves to Mexico and Brazil the next two weeks, then takes another extended break before resuming in Las Vegas in late November. ... U.S. Grand Prix officials say that Verstappen's extended winless streak — he has not won since Spain in June — has improved ticket sales for this week's race. ... It is Verstappen's longest winless stretch since 2020. ... Leclerc is third in the driver standings, 86 points behind Verstappen.
Next race: Oct. 27, Mexico City, Mexico.
Online: http://www.formula1.com
Last race: Alex Palou claimed his second consecutive IndyCar championship and third in four years at Nashville Superspeedway. Challenger Will Power’s seatbelt came loose minutes into the season-deciding finale. Colton Herta won the Music City Grand Prix for his first career victory on an oval and second win of the season for Andretti Global.
Next race: March 2, 2025, St. Petersburg, Florida.
Online: http://www.indycar.com
Last event: Justin Ashley took the Top Fuel points lead, holding off Clay Millican in the final round to win the Texas NHRA Fall Nationals. It was the fourth win of the season for Ashley and the 15th of his career. Matt Hagan took the Funny Car title in Texas for a second straight year. He defeated veteran hot-rodder Ron Capps in the finals.
Fast facts: The series takes a week off before going to Las Vegas. After two more off weeks, the series concludes with the NHRA Finals in Pomona, California. ... Ashley's Top Fuel victory in Dallas gave him a 44-point lead over Antron Brown. Shawn Langdon is third, Steve Torrance fourth and Tony Schumacher fifth. ... Austin Prock has a 147-point lead over John Force in Funny Car. Force continues his recovery from a horrific racing accident in Virginia this past June, but Jack Beckman is subbing for Force for the final eight events. Beckman had to pull out of last week's finals in Dallas when he woke with vertigo-like symptoms.
Next event: Oct. 31-Nov. 3, Las Vegas.
Online: http://www.nhra.com
Federated Auto Parts, Joliet, Illinois, Friday-Saturday.
Last events: Donny Schatz broke away from Carson Macedo and Buddy Kofoid, who had combined to win 12 of the previous 15 races, on a restart and drove away over the last 10 laps to win the Keystone Showdown. Schatz won for the fifth time this year and the 316th time in his career. Macedo held on for second and Kofoid took third. It was Kofoid's 12th trip to the podium in the past 14 events.
Fast facts: David Gravel finished ninth in Abbottsville, Pennsylvania, and saw his lead over Macedo cut to 72 points with three stops left. ... The series goes to West Memphis, Arkansas, for two races after Joliet, then closes with four days in Concord, North Carolina, for The World Finals.
Next events: Oct. 25-26, Joliet, Illinois.
Online: http://worldofoutlaws.com/sprintcars
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
Alex Bowman drives out of Turn 3 during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing a government shutdown deadline, the Senate rushed through final passage early Saturday of a bipartisan plan that would temporarily fund federal operations and disaster aid, dropping President-elect Donald Trump's demands for a debt limit increase into the new year.
House Speaker Mike Johnson had insisted Congress would “meet our obligations” and not allow federal operations to shutter ahead of the Christmas holiday season. But the day's outcome was uncertain after Trump doubled down on his insistence that a debt ceiling increase be included in any deal — if not, he said in an early morning post, let the closures “start now.”
The House approved Johnson's new bill overwhelmingly, 366-34. The Senate worked into the night to pass it, 85-11, just after the deadline. At midnight, the White House said it had ceased shutdown preparations.
“This is a good outcome for the country, ” Johnson said after the House vote, adding he had spoken with Trump and the president-elect “was certainly happy about this outcome, as well.”
President Joe Biden, who has played a less public role in the process throughout a turbulent week, was expected to sign the measure into law Saturday.
“There will be no government shutdown," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
The final product was the third attempt from Johnson, the beleaguered House speaker, to achieve one of the basic requirements of the federal government — keeping it open. And it raised stark questions about whether Johnson will be able to keep his job, in the face of angry GOP colleagues, and work alongside Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk, who called the legislative plays from afar.
Trump's last-minute demand was almost an impossible ask, and Johnson had almost no choice but to work around his pressure for a debt ceiling increase. The speaker knew there wouldn’t be enough support within the GOP majority to pass any funding package, since many Republican deficit hawks prefer to slash the federal government and certainly wouldn’t allow more debt.
Instead, the Republicans, who will have full control of the White House, House and Senate next year, with big plans for tax cuts and other priorities, are showing they must routinely rely on Democrats for the votes needed to keep up with the routine operations of governing.
“So is this a Republican bill or a Democrat bill?” scoffed Musk on social media ahead of the vote.
The drastically slimmed-down 118-page package would fund the government at current levels through March 14 and add $100 billion in disaster aid and $10 billion in agricultural assistance to farmers.
Gone is Trump’s demand to lift the debt ceiling, which GOP leaders told lawmakers would be debated as part of their tax and border packages in the new year. Republicans made a so-called handshake agreement to raise the debt limit at that time while also cutting $2.5 trillion in spending over 10 years.
It’s essentially the same deal that flopped the night before in a spectacular setback — opposed by most Democrats and some of the most conservative Republicans — minus Trump’s debt ceiling demand.
But it's far smaller than the original bipartisan accord Johnson struck with Democratic and Republican leaders — a 1,500-page bill that Trump and Musk rejected, forcing him to start over. It was stuffed with a long list of other bills — including much-derided pay raises for lawmakers — but also other measures with broad bipartisan support that now have a tougher path to becoming law.
House Democrats were cool to the latest effort after Johnson reneged on the hard-fought bipartisan compromise.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said it looked like Musk, the wealthiest man in the world, was calling the shots for Trump and Republicans.
“Who is in charge?” she asked during the debate.
Still, the House Democrats put up more votes than Republicans for the bill's passage. Almost three dozen conservative House Republicans voted against it.
“The House Democrats have successfully stopped extreme MAGA Republicans from shutting down the government, crashing the economy and hurting working-class Americans all across the nation,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said, referring to Trump's “Make America Great Again” slogan.
In the Senate, almost all the opposition came from the Republicans — except independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, who said Musk's interference was “not democracy, that's oligarchy.”
Trump, who has not yet been sworn into office, is showing the power but also the limits of his sway with Congress, as he intervenes and orchestrates affairs from Mar-a-Lago alongside Musk, who is heading up the new Department of Government Efficiency.
The incoming Trump administration vows to slash the federal budget and fire thousands of employees and is counting on Republicans for a big tax package. And Trump's not fearful of shutdowns the way lawmakers are, having sparked the longest government shutdown in history in his first term at the White House.
“If there is going to be a shutdown of government, let it begin now,” Trump posted early in the morning on social media.
More important for the president-elect was his demand for pushing the thorny debt ceiling debate off the table before he returns to the White House. The federal debt limit expires Jan. 1, and Trump doesn't want the first months of his new administration saddled with tough negotiations in Congress to lift the nation's borrowing capacity. Now Johnson will be on the hook to deliver.
“Congress must get rid of, or extend out to, perhaps, 2029, the ridiculous Debt Ceiling,” Trump posted — increasing his demand for a new five-year debt limit increase. "Without this, we should never make a deal."
Government workers had already been told to prepare for a federal shutdown that would send millions of employees — and members of the military — into the holiday season without paychecks.
Biden has been in discussions with Jeffries and Schumer, but White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “Republicans blew up this deal. They did, and they need to fix this.”
As the day dragged on, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell stepped in to remind colleagues “how harmful it is to shut the government down, and how foolish it is to bet your own side won’t take the blame for it.”
At one point, Johnson asked House Republicans at a lunchtime meeting for a show of hands as they tried to choose the path forward.
It wasn’t just the shutdown, but the speaker’s job on the line. The speaker’s election is the first vote of the new Congress, which convenes Jan. 3, and some Trump allies have floated Musk for speaker.
Johnson said he spoke to Musk ahead of the vote Friday and they talked about the “extraordinary challenges of this job.”
Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Stephen Groves, Mary Clare Jalonick, Darlene Superville and Bill Barrow contributed to this report.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., celebrates as the Senate begins voting on the government funding bill just in time to meet the midnight deadline, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., celebrates as the Senate begins voting on the government funding bill just in time to meet the midnight deadline, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., talks to reporters after passing the funding bill to avert the government shutdown at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., talks to reporters after passing the funding bill to avert the government shutdown at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
The Capitol is pictured in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., emerges from a closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., emerges from a closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., talks with reporters after attending a meeting with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., as the House works on a spending bill to avert a shutdown of the Federal Government, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024, at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)
FILE - President-elect Donald Trump poses for a photo with Dana White, Kid Rock and Elon Musk at UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden, Nov. 16, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., talks briefly to reporters just before a vote on an interim spending bill to prevent a government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. The vote failed to pass. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
