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“Following his actions on social media, NASCAR has determined that Gragson has violated the member conduct section of the 2023 NASCAR rule book and has placed him under indefinite suspension,” the organization said in a statement.
Legacy Motor Club released a similar statement, assigning Josh Berry to ride in Gragson’s No. 42 Chevrolet in Sunday’s race at Michigan International Speedway.
I am disappointed in myself for my lack of attention and actions on social media,” Gragson posted on Instagram. “I understand the severity of this situation. I love and appreciate everyone. I try to treat everyone equally no matter who they are. I messed up plain and simple.”
Gragson, a 25-year-old Las Vegas resident, was in his first full season in the Cup series and ranked 33rd in points.
The Huge Irony Here
Gragson is the great-grandson of Oran Gragson, who was the first Las Vegas mayor to hire African-Americans in significant numbers. Mayor Gragson actively supported the NAACP and was an integral part of the Moulin Rouge Agreement, the historic 1960 conclave that ended segregation in Las Vegas casinos.
George Floyd, who was Black, died on May 26, 2020, after white officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and face down in the street, yelling: “I can’t breathe.”
His crime was attempting to pass a counterfeit $20 bill at a convenience store.
In the hours after Floyd’s death, protests erupted across Minneapolis, then across the US, and eventually to more than 2,000 cities and towns in 60 countries as part of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Eight weeks of resulting civil unrest in the US took the lives of 19 and caused between $1 and $2 billion in damages. Following the protests, NASCAR banned the display of the Confederate flag, a common white supremacist symbol, at all its events.
Chauvin was convicted of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and manslaughter in April 2021, and was sentenced to 22.5 years in prison. The Minnesota Supreme Court refused to hear his case on appeal and, though Chauvin reportedly intends to petition the US Supreme Court, it is expected to refuse the case as well.
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By way of an existing relationship with 23XI Racing, the team co-owned by basketball legend Michael Jordan and current Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin, DraftKings will be the official sponsor of Tyler Reddick’s #45 car and Bubba Wallace’s #23 ride in Sunday’s race.
The DraftKings Network logos and high-octane colors will be featured on both the car wrap and Reddick’s firesuit,” according to a DraftKings blog post. “Additionally, DraftKings will be the official sponsor of Bubba Wallace’s No. 23 car for Sunday’s race, with DraftKings logos and colors adorning Wallace’s car and firesuit.”
Gaming companies sponsoring rides in NASCAR’s top series isn’t new. In 2021, BetMGM reached an agreement with Richard Childress Racing (RCR) to be an associate sponsor of that team’s rides.
New Hampshire Ideal Venue
NHMS is the ideal track for DraftKings to make its NASCAR sponsorship debut. The company is based in nearby Boston, and essentially holds a monopoly over sports wagering in the state.
In May, DraftKings’ VSiN, also known as the Vegas Sports Information Network, announced it reached an agreement with Binnie Media, one of the largest radio station operators in New Hampshire. Under that accord, the new VSiN Radio 106.3-FM will feature 24/7 sports and wagering programming. VSiN’s Brent Musburger’s action updates will also air twice daily, Monday through Friday, on eight other sister stations — six FM and two AM.
For the Cup race at NHMS, DraftKings is offering odds of +1800 on Reddick (bet $100, win $1,800) to win. Wallace’s odds of winning, as offered by DraftKings, are +3000 (bet $100, win $3,000).
Reddick’s best finish at the New England track was 10th in August 2020, when he was driving for RCR. In his last three races at NHMS, Wallace’s best finish was third, with a worst showing of 26th.
NASCAR Continues Betting Embrace
While there have been some bumps along the way, NASCAR increasingly embraced regulated sports wagering and its related companies since the fall of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in 2018.
In addition to BetMGM and DraftKings sponsoring rides in the Cup Series this year, gaming companies or venues served as the title sponsors of four races, including three remaining on the schedule.
Two, the Hollywood Casino 400 Presented by Barstool Sportsbook and the South Point 400, are part of NASCAR’s 10-race playoffs. The Hollywood Casino race is held at Kansas Speedway, while the South Point? 400 takes place on October 15 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
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In an interview with Gaming Today’s Brant James, NASCAR Managing Director of Sports Betting Joe Solosky said the economics of a brick-and-mortar sportsbook at the track need to make sense for Penn Entertainment (NASDAQ: PENN), the parent company of Barstool Sportsbook.
Right now, it just doesn’t make sense to build out that retail book at the racetrack,” Solosky said in the interview.
Other Phoenix-area stadiums and arenas are homes to retail sportsbooks. Those include Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and State Farm Stadium, which is the home field for the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals. The home arena for the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and the WNBA’s Mercury also has a FanDuel sportsbook, while a DraftKings retail book is scheduled to open later this year at TPC Scottsdale. The Stadium Course there hosts the PGA Tour’s Phoenix Open.
Phoenix Raceway Calendar Problematic for Penn
Any brick-and-mortar sportsbook located at a stadium or raceway is dependent on the number of events hosted by that venue.
As Solosky noted in the Gaming Today interview, that could be an issue Penn Entertainment is monitoring, because as things stand today, Phoenix Raceway hosts just two Cup Series events per year, and its contract to host the championship race expires next year. The track also hosts ARCA, Craftsman Truck, and Xfinity series races. But those events don’t draw crowds on par with the Cup Series.
That makes for tough comparisons with an MLB stadium or NBA arena, which host 81 and 41 regular season games per year, respectively.
Likewise, Phoenix Raceway hosts concerts. But attendees to those events likely aren’t looking to place wagers. At least not to the level that an operator requires to have a sportsbook open during a concert. Barstool Sports offers mobile sports betting in Arizona, and that footprint wouldn’t be threatened should Penn ultimately decide against building a physical book at the racetrack.
NASCAR’s Betting Ties
Over the past several years, NASCAR has increased its embrace of the casino gaming and sports wagering industries. Today, three Cup Series races are sponsored by casino operators, including Penn. That company sponsored the “Hollywood Casino 400, presented by Barstool Sportsbook” in Kansas last September.Additionally, 19, or more than half, of the points-paying Cup Series races take place in states where sports betting is legal. That includes six of the 10 races that comprise the NASCAR playoffs.
While NASCAR still lags football and basketball, among others, in terms of handle, the motorsport is gaining popularity among some bettors. One reason why is the variety of wagers a bettor can consider on just one NASCAR race. In addition to attempting to properly pick the race winner, bettors can wager on head-to-head props, including whether a driver will finish in the top five or top 10, and manufacturer odds, among others.
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Under the deal, PrizePicks will serve as an official fantasy sports partner of the stock car racing organization, which is celebrating its 75th season this year. The partnership officially begins this weekend at one of the sanctioning body’s biggest events, the Geico 500 at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama.
“We’ve always taken great pride in the fact that a great deal of our marketing and partnerships remain true to our southern roots,” said PrizePicks Cofounder & CEO Adam Wexler in a statement. “Working with NASCAR is the best of all worlds, an organization based in the South with a national footprint that is consistently growing on our platform.”
Busy Time for PrizePicks
The NASCAR deal is the third signed by PrizePicks in roughly a month. The daily fantasy operator has also secured deals with Atlanta United of the MLS and MLB’s Atlanta Braves. Previously, the company has had deals with the Atlanta Falcons and Miami Marlins.
The newest arrangement also comes as PrizePicks sees a significant uptick in fantasy players using NASCAR drivers in their entry forms. According to the company’s release, there has been a 400% increase in players picking drivers over the past year.
PrizePicks has consistently shown itself to be a fantasy platform with a loyal fanbase and wide variety of sports offerings,” said Joe Solosky, NASCAR managing director of sports betting. “This partnership is an opportunity for both organizations to expand and increase engagement with new and existing fans.”
NASCAR, too, is seeing increased engagement online. So far this year, its digital platform has registered 65 million visits, up 7% over the same span from last year.
About PrizePicks
PrizePicks offers daily fantasy sports games. The concept is similar to parlay wagers offered by sportsbooks, with a few differences. Players pick between two and six athletes and a statistic for each athlete – such as starting position in a NASCAR race – and whether the athlete’s performance will be better or worse than a set benchmark. Also, a player’s entry must include athletes from at least two teams.
All major league sports are available on PrizePicks, and there are esports options, such as Call of Duty and League of Legends. Entries can include picks from multiple leagues.
Based on the version of the game the player plays, they win if all of their predictions are correct. A player can also win a smaller amount if they play a game that allows them to miss one pick.
PrizePicks’ offerings are currently available in 30 states, including several like California, Florida, and Texas, where sports betting is currently not allowed. PrizePicks also operates in Canada in all provinces and territories outside of Ontario.
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Thousands of CES attendees packed the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the racing series, which saw nine teams representing 17 universities in six countries compete head-to-head with driverless race cars. Thousands more who weren’t able to attend watched via a live simulcast on the IAC’s Twitch account.
PoliMOVE, winner of last year’s IAC at CES race series, previously set another autonomous land speed world record on April 27, 2022. That’s when it achieved 192.2 mph using an autonomous race car at Space Florida’s Launch & Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.
“Today was a major step forward in speed, in the complexity of the race, and in overcoming challenging head-to-head situations,” Prof. Sergio Savaresi, PoliMOVE team lead, told The Robot Report. “We are very glad for this success, for the contribution of the Indy Autonomous Challenge, and for all the teams in advancing the technology of AI drivers.”
Giving PoliMOVE a run for its money was the Technische Universit?t München (TUM) team from Germany, which won the inaugural IAC event, held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in October 2022. In the final head-to-head competition on January 7, PoliMOVE and TUM made more than a dozen laps around the Las Vegas Motor Speedway track. On the final lap, TUM spun out on the racetrack’s banked first turn.
How Autonomous Racing Works
Each IAC team competes with the same race car, a Dallara AV-21, but programs in their own algorithms for autonomous movement. The car’s processor uses cameras, sensors, radar, and lasers to help make informed decisions about their terrain and opponent within milliseconds.
The autonomous Dallara AV-21 race cars from each team take turns playing the roles of leader/defender and passer/follower. Passes are attempted at speeds that get faster and faster until one or both cars can’t make a pass.
The IAC organizes competitions for university-affiliated teams to compete using fully autonomous racecars at iconic NASCAR tracks. It began as a $1 million prize competition between 31 universities representing top STEM programs from 10 countries.
Next up for the IAC is a June 2023 event at the famous Monza raceway near Milan, Italy, the first road-racing series for the organization.
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That race will be held next February and will be the second tilt of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series schedule, following the Daytona 500. Pala made the announcement on Sunday — the final day of the 2022 NASCAR season.
As a casino that greatly appreciated competitive racing, Pala is thrilled to be the title sponsor of the Pala Casino 400 race in Fontana, and this historic final race at the Auto Club Speedway,” said Pala Casino spokesperson Coley McAvoy in a statement.
The race is scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023. Auto Club Speedway is a two-mile oval that’s hosted at least one Cup Series race annually since 1977, except for 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic. It was home to two races for NASCAR’s top series for a few years, but tepid attendance and boring racing prompted a reduction to one race.
The venue is slated to be turned into a short track in a bid to foster more exciting racing, and there’s ongoing speculation regarding the track’s place on the 2024 schedule.
Pala Also Sponsoring Driver
Pala will also become the latest gaming entity to sponsor a driver, as it will be the primary sponsor of Chris Buescher for the February 2023 race.
Buescher wheels the No. 17 Ford for Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing (RFK Racing). He finished 21st in points this year, notching one victory, three top fives, and 10 top 10s in 34 starts. Pala highlighted the “new partnership” with the driver in the statement, but the tribal casino operator didn’t elaborate on whether that relationship will extend to other 2023 races.
The 2022 edition of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway was sponsored by Wise Power. Chevy driver Kyle Larson took the checkered flag, while Buescher finished 35th after getting into a wreck.
Pala is home to 2,000 slot and video machines and 78 table games, nine restaurants and a pair of lounges.
NASCAR Continues Casino Gaming Embrace
NASCAR has a recent history of cozying up to casino gaming sponsors. The 2022 schedule included three Cup Series sponsored by casinos.
The South Point 400 took place last month in Las Vegas. FireKeepers Casino — a tribal gaming venue — sponsored the August race at Michigan International Speedway, while Penn Entertainment’s Hollywood Casino was the title sponsor of the September race at Kansas Speedway. Officially, that race was renamed the “Hollywood Casino 400, presented by Barstool Sportsbook.”
Those three gaming entities are back for the 2023 season, pushing the number of races sponsored by casinos to at least four with the addition of Pala. That number could grow, as several races are currently without title sponsors, according to the NASCAR schedule.
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On Lap 94 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Wallace rammed his No. 45 Toyota into the rear quarter panel of Larson’s No. 5 Camaro as retaliation for being brushed into the wall when the two drivers were side by side.
After the two drivers exited their cars, Wallace then shoved Larson several times, in addition to a NASCAR official who was trying to separate them.
Larson had been eliminated from the Cup Series playoffs a week earlier. Wallace did not qualify to race for the Cup title. But the crash also caught a piece of Christopher Bell, a member of Wallace’s Toyota camp who had been competing to make the final four. All three drivers were unable to continue the race, and Bell dropped to last in the eight-driver playoff standings.
First On-Track Cup Suspension in 7 Years
Steve O’Donnell, the executive in charge of competition and racing operations, said the suspension was for Wallace’s dangerous actions on the racetrack, not the shoving match afterward.
“When we look at how that incident occurred, in our minds, (it was) really a dangerous act that we thought was intentional and put other competitors at risk,” O’Donnell said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Wallace is the first Cup Series driver suspended for an on-track incident since Matt Kenseth was forced to sit out two races in 2015. John Hunter Nemechek will sit behind the wheel of Wallace’s Toyota in this Sunday’s race at the Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Apology Issued
Wallace issued the following statement on Monday: “I want to apologize for my actions on Sunday following the on-track incident with Kyle Larson and the No. 5 car. I compete with immense passion, and with passion at times comes frustration.”
Wallace – the only Black driver at the top level of NASCAR – said his actions did not reflect 23XI Racing or any of his partners.
“You live and learn, and I intend to learn from this,” his statement said.
His statement did not specifically address causing Larson to crash, however. (Wallace claimed his steering broke when he hit the wall.)
Joey Logano, winner of Sunday’s race and the first driver locked into the championship-deciding finale, said Wallace’s “retaliation is not OK.”
“If he spun (Larson) into the infield, maybe it’s a little better,” Logano said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “But right-rear hooking someone in the dogleg is not OK. I don’t think anyone realizes how bad that could have been. That could have been the end of Kyle Larson’s career. That, to me, was what was on the line. Or, his life.”
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