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Larson held off a hard-charging Brad Keselowski during the final 10-lap shootout after a slippery three-wide pass to get back in front and win the $1 million prize.

FORT WORTH, Texas — Kyle Larson was back in the NASCAR All-Star race, and got another $1 million by winning it again.

Larson held off a hard-charging Brad Keselowski during the final 10-lap shootout at Texas on Sunday night, after a slippery three-wide pass to get back in front and push Hendrick Motorsports to its second consecutive win, and 10th overall, in the annual non-points race with a seven-figure prize.

Defending All-Star winner and reigning Cup champion Chase Elliott, who started the sixth and final segment out front, didn’t stay there long. Larson pushed his teammate, then got in front on the outside through the fourth turn. They were three-wide while Keselowski pulled ahead briefly at the line before Larson finally got ahead to stay for the last eight laps.

“That last restart worked out exactly how I needed it to. I wanted Chase to not get a good run down the back,” Larson said.

“Thankfully, I think (Keselowski) got to his inside, and I just shoved him down the back and he probably thought I was going to just follow him and I was like, there’s got to be enough grip where we’d be running for one corner,” he said. “It was a little slick up there but I was able to get it and hold him off from there. I can’t believe it.”

There were no points on the line, but Larson went to Victory Lane for the third weekend in a row and the fourth time overall this season.

Keselowski said running second to Hendrick cars these days is somewhat of an accomplishment.

“They’re just stupid fast, and I had him off of Turn 4 but they just have so much speed,” Keselowski said. “He just motored right on back by me, like damn.”

Larson was with Chip Ganassi Racing when he won the 2019 All-Star race, but missed last year’s big event at Bristol while serving a six-month suspension after using a racial slur during the livestream while in a virtual race during the pandemic. That nearly cost him his career, but Hendrick gave him an opportunity this season to get back into the Cup Series.

Second in points with 10 races to go before the playoffs, Larson now only the eighth driver to be a two-time All-Star race winner.

Elliott finished third with Joey Logano fourth, ahead of Ryan Blaney and Alex Bowman. William Byron, Aric Almirola, Kyle Bush and Kurt Busch rounded out the top 10 in the 21-car field.

Hendrick drivers Elliott, Byron and Larson started the final segment 1-2-3. Elliott had moved from third to first during the 30-lap fifth segment that included a required four-tire stop and $100,000 prize for his crew that had the fastest stop.

Byron won the fourth segment, and had the lowest cumulative finish through the first four 15-lap segments. Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney and Alex Bowman finished in front for the first three segments.

Larson, who won the last two Cup races, was on the pole by a random draw and was still in front at the end of the first segment. After a random inversion of the top 12 finishers in that first stage, Blaney was moved from 12th to first to start the next 15 laps.

Blaney stayed in front, even holding on after wiggling because of contact from behind by Ross Chastain, one of three drivers who advanced to the main event from the earlier open qualifying race.

After a full-field inversion going to the third stage, Aric Almirola, who also got in through the qualifying race, went from last to first, but it was Bowman — after getting pushed up from 17th to fifth — in the lead after that 15 laps.

On a hot night deep in the heart of Texas, drivers emerged through the saloon doors on a huge facade during prerace introductions while their cars were rolled through a corral gate. Drivers did their warmup laps while Sammy Hagar performed “I Can’t Drive 55” from the stands, ending right at the green flag.

It was 97 degrees with the sun still shining when the race started, with a heat index of 106 Fahrenheit. The track temperature had been in the mid-140s during the earlier open qualifying race, though there were some areas of shade by time the main event started.

Texas is the third different track in three years for the All-Star race. It was moved last summer from Charlotte, which hosted 34 of the first 35 All-Star races, because of COVID-19 restrictions in North Carolina.

The All-Star race at Texas served as a sendoff and full-circle finish for old-school NASCAR promotor Eddie Gossage, the Texas Motor Speedway president working his last day for Speedway Motorsports.

Gossage, now 62, had considering stepping down for at least two years. He was chosen by Speedway Motorsports founder Bruton Smith to oversee the 1,500-acre complex since its groundbreaking in 1995, two years before the first Cup race at the track that included a big crash in the first turn of the first lap.

He was a young public relations director at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1992 when, during a news conference to promote NASCAR’s first nighttime All-Star race, one of his stunts literally set Smith’s hair on fire. When Smith threw the giant light switch rigged by Gossage to highlight the Charlotte speedway’s new lighting system, sparks flew.

Three decades after he thought he was headed for the unemployment line, Gossage is going out on his own terms. He planned to spend Monday at the pool with his three grandchildren.

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Kimfier Miles, 29, was killed in a mass shooting early Saturday on the South Side that also wounded nine others.

Fearful of the gun violence that’s long plagued her native South Side, Kimfier Miles was careful in how she moved around the city.

But this weekend, the mother of three decided to enjoy a night out with some girlfriends, her cousin Takita Miles told the Sun-Times.

The group headed to a bustling business district on 75th Street, which features well-known restaurants, including Lem’s Bar-B-Q and Brown Sugar Bakery, the latter of which was visited earlier this year by Vice President Kamala Harris.

A week earlier, she heard another gathering along the strip in Chatham had remained peaceful, so Kimfier Miles and her friends felt safe, her cousin said.

“Everyone was confident that it was chill last week, and maybe we can go out and kick it this time. And maybe this is the summer that we can really chill,” Takita Miles said. “But it wasn’t like that.”

Instead, Miles and nine others were wounded when two males opened fire on a group of people about 2 a.m. in the 7500 block of South Prairie, Chicago police have said.

Struck in her leg and abdomen, Miles was rushed to the University of Chicago Medical Center and pronounced dead, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. The others were listed in good to fair condition.

“She was only 29; in the prime of her life,” Takita Miles said. “She hasn’t even experienced life. She just started traveling. It’s unfortunate. It’s really bad.”

A graduate of Kenwood Academy High School, Kimfier Miles was a social butterfly had recently started work at a security firm, but hoped to one day open her own clothing boutique, Takita Miles said.

Her cousin’s three young daughters were always dressed to the nines and their hair neatly styled, she added.

“Most of the time when something like this happens, they always want to portray the victim as this awful person,” Takita Miles said. “But she wasn’t like that. She was humble, her laugh was contagious, she was goofy and she just loved hanging out with her family.”

Miles’ mother has started an online fundraiser seeking $10,000 to cover her funeral expenses. Meanwhile, her family is still searching for answers about her killing.

Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6^th) said he had learned police had obtained video surveillance footage “that seems to have good potential identification of the offenders.”

Takita Miles said she’s concerned her cousin’s killing may result in another “cold case file.”

A spokesman for police declined to provide additional information, but said no arrests had been made as of Sunday evening.

Miles’ cousin said was was also upset that Saturday’s mass shooting hasn’t received the same national attention as attacks elsewhere.

“Our African American community is getting the short end of the stick of everything,” she said. “When it comes to catching serial killers and suspects and mass shooters, we’re definitely treated differently.”

What’s more, she said it feels like the “senseless acts of violence” in Chicago have been “normalized now, like it’s nothing.”

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An Oscar nominee for ‘Network,’ he was an actor whose name moviegoers may not have known but whose face they always recognized.

Ned Beatty, the indelible character actor whose first film role as a genial vacationer brutally raped by a backwoodsman in 1972’s “Deliverance” launched him on a long, prolific and accomplished career, has died. He was 83.

Beatty’s manager, Deborah Miller, said Beatty died Sunday of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles surrounded by friends and loved ones.

After years in regional theater, Beatty was cast in “Deliverance” as Bobby Trippe, the happy-go-lucky member of a male river-boating party terrorized by backwoods thugs. The scene in which Trippe is brutalized became the most memorable in the movie and established Beatty as an actor whose name moviegoers may not have known but whose face they always recognized.

“For people like me, there’s a lot of ‘I know you! I know you! What have I seen you in?’ ” Beatty remarked without rancor in 1992.

Beatty received only one Oscar nomination, as supporting actor for his role as corporate executive Arthur Jensen in 1976′s “Network,” but he contributed to some of the most popular movies of his time and worked constantly, his credits including more than 150 movies and TV shows.

Beatty’s appearance in “Network,” scripted by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet, was brief but titanic. His three-minute monologue ranks among the greatest in movies. Jensen summons anchorman Howard Beale (Peter Finch) to a long, dimly lit boardroom for a come-to-Jesus about the elemental powers of media.

“You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won’t have it!” Beatty shouts from across the boardroom before explaining that there is no America, no democracy. “There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.”

He was equally memorable as Otis, the idiot henchman of villainous Lex Luth0r in the first two Christopher Reeve “Superman” movies and as the racist sheriff in “White Lightning.” Other films included “All The President’s Men,” “The Front Page,” “Nashville,” and “The Big Easy.” In a 1977 interview, he had explained why he preferred being a supporting actor.

“Stars never want to throw the audience a curveball, but my great joy is throwing curveballs,” he said. “Being a star cuts down on your effectiveness as an actor because you become an identifiable part of a product and somewhat predictable. You have to mind your P’s and Q’s and nurture your fans. But I like to surprise the audience, to do the unexpected.”

He landed a rare leading role in the Irish film “Hear My Song” in 1991. The true story of legendary Irish tenor Josef Locke, who disappeared at the height of a brilliant career, it was well reviewed but largely unseen in the United States. Between movies, Beatty worked often in TV and theater. He had recurring roles in “Roseanne” as John Goodman’s father and as a detective on “Homicide: Life on the Streets.”

On Broadway he won critical praise (and a Drama Desk Award) for his portrayal of Big Daddy in a revival of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” a role he had first played as a 21-year-old in a stock company production. He created controversy, however, when he was quoted in The New York Times on the skills of his young co-stars, Ashley Judd and Jason Patric.

“Ashley is a sweetie,” he said, “and yet she doesn’t have a lot of tools.” Of Patric, he remarked: “He’s gotten better all the time, but his is a different journey.”

His more recent movies included “Toy Story 3” in 2010 and two releases from 2013, “The Big Ask” and “Baggage Claim.” He retired soon after.

Ned Thomas Beatty was born in 1937 in Louisville, Kentucky, and raised in Lexington, where he joined the Protestant Disciples of Christ Christian Church. “It was the theater I attended as a kid,” he told The Associated Press in 1992. “It was where people got down to their truest emotions and talked about things they didn’t talk about in everyday life. … The preaching was very often theatrical.” For a time he thought of becoming a priest, but changed his mind after he was cast in a high school production of “Harvey.”

He spent 10 summers at the Barter Theater in Abingdon, Virginia, and eight years at the Arena Stage Company in Washington, D.C. At the Arena Stage, he appeared in Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” and starred in Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman.” Then his life changed forever when he took a train to New York to audition for director John Boorman for the role of Bobby Trippe. Boorman told him the role was cast, but changed his mind after seeing Beatty audition.

Beatty, who married Sandra Johnson in 1999, had eight children from three previous marriages.

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“I don’t mess around with the stuff,” Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks said. “But I would say that is the sticky situation, no pun intended — they don’t know where the line should really be drawn.”

Pitchers have for years used substances to make sure they get a good grip on the ball, and as things like spin rate have become easier to track, many of them are seeing the appeal of finding ways to go beyond grip and have started using substances to increase their spin.

They might have gone too far. Entering Sunday, the major-league batting average was .238, the lowest since 1968.

As a result, the league is planning to crack down on the use of substances that do more than enhance grip. But whether there’s a clear line between what’s allowed and what’s not isn’t yet clear.

“I don’t think there really is, to be honest with you,” Kyle Hendricks said. “I don’t mess around with the stuff, so I don’t know as much about it as some other people, but I would say that is the sticky situation of the whole thing, no pun intended, but they don’t know where the line should really be drawn.”

That’s always been a gray area, and for years the policy in baseball has been for the opposing manager to call out when the other team’s pitcher was using something illegal on the mound.

The problem with that is no manager was going to call out another team’s pitcher if he knew guys on his team were doing it, too.

That is, until Cardinals pitcher Giovanny Gallegos had his hat confiscated on May 26, and manager Mike Schildt voiced his frustration with a situation that had been brewing in baseball for some time and brought it to the national discussion.

“I think it was bound to come out regardless,” Hendricks said. “Because as far as I know, from the start of the year, they’ve been taking baseballs and stuff like that, so I think they just needed a period to gather their info, and see what is really going on, and how bad is this, or what is the problem. And now they’ve gotten enough data, I think, where they realize now something needs to be done about it.”

How new rules would be enforced is still taking shape. Hendricks said he has heard it could be checks in the bullpen, clubhouse, or dugout between innings. Even if it involves in-game mound visits, the main concern for pitchers is that they know what to expect.

“As long as the rules were out there on what it was supposed to be, and this is what’s going to happen, and we know what to expect,” Hendricks said. “If we’re in the dark about it, and things are just being thrown at us, that’s different.”

Not much Chicago spin

The Cubs rank near the bottom of the league in average spin rate and velocity, but that’s of little concern to manager David Ross.

“I think we try to get people out,” Ross said. “I don’t correlate spin rate with outs. I know that it helps. Our guys get outs. I don’t care how hard they throw or what their spin rate is. I like outs.”

Javy reinjured thumb

Javy Baez was a late scratch from Sunday’s lineup. He re-aggravated his right thumb, likely diving for a foul ball in Saturday’s game. Issues with his right thumb kept Baez out of all three games in San Diego June 7-9.

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The Rays looked nothing like a World Series team after back-to-back losses to the Yankees at home in mid-May left them at a dull, dry, disappointing 19-19.

The defending American League champs were looking up at the Blue Jays, Yankees and first-place Red Sox in the East division. The one-run victories they’d feasted on in 2020 were giving way to one-run losses. And no Blake Snell to lead the rotation? Charlie Morton gone, too?

The Rays — who hadn’t been a popular pick to get back to the playoffs to begin with — were total longshots.

But since then? A 23-5 blitz has vaulted them to the best record in the majors at 42-24. Right behind them with the second-best record? The 41-24 White Sox.

Shall we all agree, then, to look at the teams’ series beginning Monday at Guaranteed Rate Field as an ALCS preview? Great, let’s do it.

Gambling sites give the Sox the best odds of any team to win the AL pennant. Generally, the Yankees come next — which is a bit hilarious considering they’re now in fourth place and a whopping 8 1/2 games behind the Rays. Clearly, the world has yet to fully buy into Austin Meadows, Randy Arozarena, Mike Zunino and the rest of a Rays roster that still makes a lot of people ask, “Who?”

The Sox have won four straight and eight of 10, but that’s the sort of thing that’s going to happen when seven games against the sad-sack Tigers are involved. Playing the Rays — perhaps in October, too? — is the real deal. Here’s what’s happening:

MON 14

Cubs at Mets (6:10 p.m., ESPN, Marquee)

The Cubs swept three games between the teams at Wrigley Field in April, but it’s the Mets who have the best home winning percentage (.739) in baseball. A tough four-game set starts tonight.

76ers at Hawks, Game 4 (6:30 p.m., TNT)

Not to tell Hawks coach Nate McMillan how to do his job, but concocting a game plan that involves preventing Joel Embiid from scoring every time down the court would be a good place to start.

Rays at White Sox (7:10 p.m., NBCSCH)

Too soon to give Lance Lynn, tonight’s starter, his first Cy Young award? Probably so. He goes against the Rays’ best, Tyler Glasnow.

Canadiens at Golden Knights, Game 1 (8 p.m., NBCSN)

The Habs have already upset the Maple Leafs and the Jets. Why not keep this crazy ride going awhile?

Jazz at Clippers, Game 4 (9 p.m., TNT)

Utah leads the series 2-1, but star Donovan Mitchell limped off the floor after a Game 3 loss. The never-been-to-the-conference-finals Clippers need any break they can get.

TUE 15

Bucks at Nets, Game 5 (6:30 or 7:30 p.m., TNT)

As if it wasn’t enough for the Nets to be without James Harden (hamstring), now they might also be without Kyrie Irving (ankle). Lots of luck, Kevin Durant (alone).

Islanders at Lightning, Game 2 (7 p.m., NBCSN)

Is that a scent of early-’80s in the air? The Isles — big underdogs entering this series — outworked the host Bolts in the opener of this semifinal series.

Sky at Lynx (8 p.m., ESPN2)

Picking up a pair of much-needed “Ws” against last-place Indiana was nice, but it doesn’t mean the Sky are back in business. This is a much better barometer.

WED 16

Cubs at Mets (6:10 p.m., Marquee)

Just because he’s cruising to yet another Cy Young award and hasn’t given up more than one earned run in any start this season, is Jacob deGrom really that much better than the next guy?

USWNT vs. Nigeria (8 p.m., FS1)

The Nigerians might be overmatched in this Summer Series friendly in Austin, Texas, but the Super Falcons are second to none in the nickname department.

THU 17

Euros: Denmark vs. Belgium (11 a.m., ESPN)

The Danes take on the world’s No. 1-ranked team in Copenhagen in their first game without star Christian Eriksen, who collapsed on the field in cardiac arrest during the tournament opener against Finland before being resuscitated with a defibrillator.

White Sox at Astros (7:10 p.m., NBCSCH)

The Sox haven’t visited Minute Maid Park since May of 2019, back when men were men, the Astros were dizzyingly good and “trash can” wasn’t a punch line.

FRI 18

Marlins at Cubs (7:05 p.m., Marquee)

You’ve got to give the Marlins credit for continuing to pull off an amazing feat: contending for last place despite owning a positive run differential.

SAT 19

Sun at Sky (1 p.m., Ch. 2)

These teams haven’t met since Connecticut bounced the Sky out of the 2020 playoffs. Of course, that was back in the days when “C. Parker” meant Cheyenne, not Candace.

White Sox at Astros (6:15 p.m., Fox-32)

The Astros are no ordinary trash-can bangers. They captured their fourth straight series win Sunday to stay right on Oakland’s heels in the AL West race.

Fire at Crew (6:30 p.m., Ch. 9)

The 1-5-1 Fire haven’t scored more than one goal in a game since the season opener. In other words, the champs in Columbus won’t know what hit ’em.

SUN 20

U.S. Open final round (11 a.m., Ch. 5)

A Bryson DeChambeau repeat? A second U.S. Open title for Dustin Johnson or a third for Brooks Koepka? But forget about those guys. This one’s all about Phil Mickelson, who, at 51, is coming off a stunning win at the PGA Championship but remains — with an almost unbelievable six runner-up finishes in this event — one major shy of a career Grand Slam.

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“The older I get in this game the more I respect and enjoy these moments because you don’t know when you’re going to get them again,” Lynn said.

DETROIT — It has taken right-hander Lance Lynn two and a half months to become a fan favorite.

Pitching to a 1.23 ERA with a 7-1 record in your first 11 starts as a White Sox will do that. Throw in the no-nonsense, attack mentality on the mound sprinkled with eruptions of emotion after clutch outs, an expressed connection to the South Side and, well, that’s the thing love affairs are made of.

“That’s who I’ve always been,” Lynn said in a conversation with the Sun-Times. “That guy who wears his emotion on his sleeve. I’m going to give it everything I have to help the team win. I’ve had that since I was a little kid.

“The other day [against the Blue Jays] it was ‘Let’s effing go,’ trying to get the boys going because we’re in a one-run game and it’s time to add on there. Part of it is to pump the guys up, and they seem to enjoy it. It just kind of comes out.”

It can be traced back to Lynn’s childhood, the trailer park kid who was looked down on, he says, whose big brother never let him win anything or get an easy layup on the basketball court. And it has stayed with Lynn at age 34 as he pitches for a team with World Series ambitions.

Lynn pitched in one as a rookie with the Cardinals in 2011 and has built an accomplished career since but hasn’t pitched in another Fall Classic.

“When you come into a season with a team with this much talent and a chance to win you make sure you get yourself ready to try to get to a whole new level,” Lynn said. “The older I get in this game the more I respect and enjoy these moments because you don’t know when you’re going to get them again.”

Lynn is already telling his wife he’s going to need a golf league to find or a baseball team he can pitch – and hit, he says – for a team when his career is over to feed his competitive monster.

People around the Sox say Lynn is one of the top clubhouse guys they’ve been around. Treating the 26^th guy on the roster like the team’s stars will do that for you.

“It’s simple,” Lynn said. “I grew up in a trailer park in the cornfields of Avon, Indiana. So I’m not better than anyone. Everyone here is the same, enjoying what they do and what they need to do for their careers and their lives. No one is bigger than anyone, and that’s how I was brought up. I refuse to look down on anyone.”

At 12, when Lynn was gaining notoriety as a Little League World series standout on his way to becoming a high school star and first-round draft choice out of Mississippi, he moved away from Avon.

“And from that point on I wasn’t going to treat anyone bad no matter how much success I had,” he said. “It also drove me to prove people wrong. That’s where the chip on the shoulder comes from.”

“The thing I like is his professionalism and mound presence,” manager Tony La Russa said. “He gets it and throws it, and he stands up in tough situations.”

Lynn, who makes his 12th start against the Rays Monday opening a series matching the top two teams in the American League, might be standing on the mound as the AL All-Star Game starter at this rate. He appeared in the 2012 game with the Cardinals and passed on going in 2019 to stay home with family. With his three kids older now, Lynn won’t turn it down this time.

“It would be cool to have that opportunity again,” he said. “If I get that opportunity it would be a dream come true, but it’s not something I’m worried about.”

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The musician, Mac’s co-star in ‘Soul Men,’ teams up with the Chicago comedian’s estate to remind a new generation of his ‘always edgy’ humor.

A biopic of Bernie Mac is in the works from John Legend, the musician who co-starred in “Soul Men” with the late, great Chicago comedian.

It will be “the ‘Soul Men’ reunion you all wanted to see,” Legend joked during a Thursday panel discussion at the 2021 Tribeca Festival.

The singer’s producing partner, Mike Jackson, said Mac’s estate is teaming up with Legend’s production company, Get Lifted, to make the feature film, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“[Mac’s] humor was always edgy but it always had so much heart to it at the same time,” Legend said at the event. “You could tell he was a family man. You could tell that he loved the people he was talking about.”

Mac grew up mostly in Chicago and attended Chicago Vocational Career Academy, where an auditorium is named for him.

Sharing a bill with Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer and D.L. Hughley, he performed in a hugely successful stand-up tour that was captured in the hit film “The Original Kings of Comedy.” His 2001-06 sitcom “The Bernie Mac Show” earned him two Emmy Award nominations, and his other films included “Friday,” “Ocean’s Eleven” and “Mr. 3000.”

Mac died in 2008 after a battle with sarcoidosis, a disease that agitates tissue, particularly in the lungs.

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Treyvon Marks was charged with a felony count of aggravated vehicular hijacking with a firearm.

A 26-year-old man has been charged with a carjacking Friday in South Loop.

Treyvon Marks was charged with a felony count of aggravated vehicular hijacking with a firearm, according to Chicago police.

About 2:10 a.m. Friday, he allegedly carjacked a 30-year-old man in the 200 block of West Harrison Street, police said. About five minutes later, Marks crashed in the 700 block of South Wells Street, and was taken into custody.

He is due in bond court Sunday.

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