Elimination race could be chaotic

It’s elimination time in NASCAR’s playoffs at the reconfigured Charlotte Motor Speedway, where changes to the hybrid road course/oval called The Roval have created uneasiness. The field of 12 will be cut by four after Sunday’s race and Joey Logano, pictured, Daniel Suarez, Austin Cindric and Chase Briscoe are all below the cutline. William Byron is the only driver already locked into the round of eight. Christopher Bell basically only needs to start the race to advance. A championship-eligible driver did not win at Kansas Speedway or Talladega Superspeedway, which took a chaotic turn last week when 28 cars wrecked with five laps remaining in regulation to mark the biggest crash in NASCAR history. Now comes Roval, which Speedway Motorsports created in 2018 as an update to the traditional 1.5-mile speedway fans had grown weary of because of the lack of diverse courses. The Roval now has a pair of “passing zones” that look a lot more like “crashing zones.” “The reconfigure was designed to create more chaos. You’re going to have to convince me otherwise of that,” said Denny Hamlin.

Stewart, Liberty try to bounce back

Breanna Stewart and the Liberty are confident they can rebound from the Game 1 collapse that put them down a game to the Lynx in the WNBA Finals. Stewart said she watched the free throw she missed at the end of regulation which would have won the game for the Liberty a few times to see if anything was off with her form. She came to the conclusion it wasn’t and that sometimes shots just don’t fall. “I’m on to the next, you know, what happened happened, moving forward because this is a series and my team team needs me,” she said. The two-time MVP and her teammates will need to be at their best on Sunday when they face the Lynx in Game 2 of the best-of-five series. “We have to have short-term memory get it out of our system really quick and get ready for another battle,” Stewart said at practice Saturday. “We’re all kind of yearning for another opportunity.” Stewart said a bunch of people reached out to her after the 95-93 overtime loss Thursday including former teammate Sue Bird. They had a common thread in their messaging. “Bounce back,” she said.

Sharks place rookie Celebrini on IR

The Sharks placed rookie Macklin Celebrini on the injured reserve list on Saturday with a lower-body injury. The move came two days after Celebrini made an impressive debut by recording a goal and an assist in an overtime loss to the Blues on Thursday. The 18-year-old Celebrini was picked first overall in June and is being counted on to help spark a rebuild in San Jose. He was hampered in the preseason with a lower-body injury. Coach Ryan Warsofsky said Celebrini is week to week. Players on injured reserve must miss seven days from the last game they played in. Celebrini became the youngest player in NHL history to record two points in the first period of his debut, according to Sportradar, doing it at 18 years, 119 days. Shane Doan held the previous mark of 18 years, 362 days, when he had two points for the Jets against the Stars in 1995. He also scored the second-fastest first goal ever for a No. 1 pick, with his goal 7:01 into the opener trailing only Mario Lemieux, who scored 2:59 into his debut against the Bruins on Oct. 11, 1984. — Associated Press