NASCAR to feature Chicago street course in 2021 virtual racing serieson March 24, 2021 at 8:15 pm

In NASCAR Cup Series’ 73 years it has never had its drivers compete on a street course but, like many things in our post-pandemic world, that is about to change.

Or at least it will virtually.

NASCAR announced Wednesday its Cup Series drivers will race through the streets of Chicago for its 2021 eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series — a virtual racing exhibition featuring the sport’s most high-profiled drivers.

These drivers will speed through city streets passing by iconic architecture and driving on Lake Shore Drive past Buckingham Fountain and Grant Park.

The race course is possible through a partnership with the city and iRacing, which scanned real streets and avenues to develop the virtual course.

iRacing is the leading virtual racing platform that offers open practice, head-to-head racing, team racing and other competitions. The racing portal designs “officially sanctioned” racing circuits from around the world and replica race cars.

The partnership between NASCAR and iRacing was formed last year after the coronavirus pandemic shut down racing circuits across the country. The two organizations created the Pro Invitational Series.

Last year’s series, broadcasted on FOX and FS1, were ranked as the highest-rated esports TV programs that garnered 6.8 million unique viewers.

NASCAR said that while it won’t race at Chicagoland Speedway in 2021, “running through the heart of Chicago demonstrates the sport’s commitment to engaging fans across the region.”

Once iRacing has completed building Chicago’s new virtual race course it will make it available to customers to test their driving skills.

The Pro Invitational Series will kick off its 2021 season at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Virtual Bristol Dirt on FS1 and the FOX Sports app. The season comprises 10 races.

The series will feature 36 NASCAR Cup Series drivers including Dale Earnhardt Jr. with FOX having the discretion to add up to four additional drivers. The drivers participating in the virtual series have not yet been announced.

FS1 will air the first five races at Bristol, Talladega Superspeedway, Darlington Raceway, Circuit of the Americas and the new Chicago Street Course.

NBC Sports will broadcast the second half of the season with locations to be announced at a later time.

NASCAR to feature Chicago street course in 2021 virtual racing serieson March 24, 2021 at 8:15 pm Read More »

Man dies in Gresham drive-by shooting: policeon March 24, 2021 at 8:41 pm

A 31-year-old man was killed in a drive-by shooting Wednesday in Gresham on the South Side.

About 1:25 p.m., he was standing in an alley in the 8400 block of South Morgan Street when a light-colored vehicle pulled up and someone from inside fired shots, Chicago police said.

The man suffered several gunshot wounds to his body and was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

The Cook County medical examiner’s office hasn’t released details on his death.

Read more on crime, and track the city’s homicides.

Man dies in Gresham drive-by shooting: policeon March 24, 2021 at 8:41 pm Read More »

Software lets compulsive gamblers block themselves from betting siteson March 24, 2021 at 7:07 pm

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Some sports betting companies are offering tools that allow compulsive gamblers to block themselves from most online sites.

Unibet last week announced it was making software from U.K.-based Gamban available to customers in the U.S. The tools allow customers to in effect ban themselves from gambling sites across multiple devices.

On Wednesday, FanDuel did so, as well. The software blocks thousands of licensed and unlicensed gambling sites and is constantly updated to add new ones as they appear.

“Educating customers about the importance of gambling responsibly and within limits is a business imperative and ethically the right thing to do,” said Carolyn Renzin, chief risk and compliance officer with FanDuel Group. “Offering Gamban’s software to those customers signaling they need help adds another layer of protection for our customers, our program, and to the industry.”

“This is a massive moment for the industry and one we’ve been pushing to achieve since the launch of Gamban,” added Jack Symons, Gamban’s co-founder. “As the largest real-money gaming provider in the United States, FanDuel Group is making a statement of intent and throwing down the gauntlet to operators across the industry to offer self-exclusion support for their vulnerable customers.”

Most licensed sports betting and online casino companies already offer ways for compulsive gamblers to either pause or halt their behavior, including “cool-down” periods in which customers can have their accounts suspended for a length of time.

And states including New Jersey offer state-administered self-exclusion lists where gamblers can prohibit themselves from gambling for differing periods, or permanently. While they are on the list, casinos and sports books cannot accept bets from them or send them marketing materials enticing them to gamble.

Unibet’s parent company, Kindred Group said last week that its provision of blocking software to its customers is “an important step for the industry.”

Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling, praised the companies’ moves.

“We strongly support the ability of gamblers to self-exclude through both the operator and on their own personal devices,” he said. “Self-exclusion is one part of what should be a comprehensive network of problem gambling prevention, education, treatment, enforcement, research and recovery services in every state.”

Software lets compulsive gamblers block themselves from betting siteson March 24, 2021 at 7:07 pm Read More »

White Sox closer Liam Hendriks dealing with kidney stoneson March 24, 2021 at 7:14 pm

GLENDALE, Ariz. — White Sox closer Liam Hendriks hasn’t pitched in a week while dealing with a kidney stone issue, but manager Tony La Russa said the hope is to get Hendriks in a Cactus League game in the upcoming final weekend of the spring and be ready by Opening Day on April 1.

“He’s having some pains, looks like a kidney stone, maybe a couple,” La Russa said. “They think it’s close to passing.”

Hendriks threw a bullpen Wednesday. His last appearance in a game was last Wednesday.

“I know from people who’ve had it it’s a very uncomfortable, painful thing to go through,” La Russa said. “It’s a good test of his toughness, but he’s passing it.”

La Russa said there is a good chance Hendriks pitches this weekend.

“If he can make a couple or three appearances … he’s in good shape and he’s experienced,” La Russa said. “If that’s the case, without a setback he’ll be ready.”

Hendriks, the 2020 Reliever of the Year, was signed to a $54 million, four-year contract in the offseason, giving the Sox what shapes up as one of the best bullpens in baseball.

White Sox closer Liam Hendriks dealing with kidney stoneson March 24, 2021 at 7:14 pm Read More »

Confront climate crisis while addressing historic inequities in communities of coloron March 24, 2021 at 7:33 pm

The Sun-Times missed an opportunity in its weekend editorial to remind the leaders in Springfield that any clean energy legislation and utility reforms passed this spring must put working people at the center.

Current proposals lack strong labor provisions that would begin building a cleaner future. Without proactive measures to put union laborers to work, the evidence already exists as to how the private sector will proceed. Of the 28 utility-scale wind projects under construction in the U.S., just seven are union projects and 21 are non-union. Of the current 61 utility-scale U.S. solar projects under construction, just six are using all-union labor. That shouldn’t happen in Illinois.

SEND LETTERS TO: [email protected]. Please include your neighborhood or hometown and a phone number for verification purposes. Letters should be 350 words or less.

In Illinois, we have the chance to do this the right way. By advocating for bold clean energy investments with comprehensive labor standards — through prevailing wages, apprenticeship requirements, labor peace and project labor agreements and responsible bidder requirements — we can address the climate crisis while addressing historic inequities in communities of color. By actively recruiting individuals from historically disadvantaged communities, preparing them for lifelong careers in the clean energy sector, we can ensure that this work will be built locally by highly-trained workers from Illinois to benefit generations to come.

This is the roadmap for us all to move toward a cleaner, fairer future in Illinois. The leaders in Springfield must take the right path forward.

Patrick Briggs, Executive Committee Member of Climate Jobs Illinois

Republican reruns

Sen. Ted Cruz, NRA-Texas, said of the recent mass shootings, “Every time there’s a shooting, we play this ridiculous theater where this committee gets together and proposes a bunch of laws that would do nothing to stop these murders.” Ridiculous theater? What do Cruz and his fellow Republicans propose? Ridiculous reruns of more thoughts, more prayers and more guns.

Bob Barth, Edgewater

Vaccine patience

To Jeffrey Mark, who wrote a letter about his struggle with vaccine availability:

Be patient. I’m in the 80-plus years range and had signed up at numerous places. I go went recently for my first vaccine and already have a date for my second. And the beauty of mine — it’s a location very near where I live. You will get there I’m sure.

Virginia Dare McGraw, Naperville

Confront climate crisis while addressing historic inequities in communities of coloron March 24, 2021 at 7:33 pm Read More »

Ohio State’s E.J. Liddell says he’ll continue speaking out about social-media abuseon March 24, 2021 at 6:30 pm

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State star E.J. Liddell says he’ll continue speaking out against social-media users who direct racist, abusive and threatening messages at him and other athletes.

Liddell was rattled by a social-media rant directed at him after the Buckeyes were upset by Oral Roberts in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday. Ohio State took the threats seriously enough to alert police, and Liddell decided to make them public via a Twitter post that has been liked over 223,000 times, retweeted more than 17,000 times and attracted national media attention.

“I just wanted to use my voice a little bit,” Liddell said Wednesday in a video call with reporters. “I’ve been quiet about it, and I just keep pushing because I have pretty tough skin when it comes to criticism. But that wasn’t constructive criticism — it was just brutal, hardcore. Just didn’t sit right with me.”

The rant at Liddell ended with: “I hope you die”

“I still don’t understand why anybody would come at me like that,” the sophomore forward said. “I definitely haven’t hurt anybody in my life like that for those words to be said about me.”

Liddell said 98% of Buckeyes fans are supportive even in the bad times, but there’s always the other 2%. “Sometimes fans get too high or too low, honestly,” he said. “They act out of emotion.”

Liddell wasn’t the only tournament player to incur the wrath of a fan who felt wronged by his team’s performance.

Illinois center Kofi Cockburn posted a screenshot of a racist Instagram message after the top-seeded Illini were upset by Loyola. Cockburn replied to the screenshot with this comment: “I blame his parents.”

The university said it was investigating.

“A lot of athletes reached out to me and told me they were going through the same thing, and just have a tough skin and keep your head up,” Liddell said. “[Purdue star] Trevion Williams said he’s been getting things like that since his freshman year. And that’s not OK.”

Liddell said he hadn’t considered dropping off social media because with all the pandemic-related restrictions on where players could go and who they could see, social media was their link to the outside world. “If you really think about it, this year social media is our social life,” he said.

Liddell hopes that if enough people talk about this issue, it will begin to get resolved.

“I know I’m not the only one going through things like this, and it’s better to use my voice than stay quiet all the time,” he said. “I feel like if I use my voice and lot of other athletes uses their voice, hopefully this will slow down and in the near future come to an end.”

Ohio State’s E.J. Liddell says he’ll continue speaking out about social-media abuseon March 24, 2021 at 6:30 pm Read More »

Child, woman escape fire by falling from 2nd-floor windowon March 24, 2021 at 6:38 pm

A woman and young child escaped from a burning apartment building in the Clearing neighborhood Wednesday by falling from a second-floor window.

The woman dropped the boy, about 5 years old, from the window to people standing below who broke the child’s fall, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said.

The woman then jumped from the window and suffered several fractures, Langford said.

Firefighters showed up to the blaze about noon at a three-story building in the 6600 block of West 63rd Street, Langford said. The fire, which started on the second floor, was quickly extinguished.

The child and woman were both listed in serious-to-critical condition, Langford said.

The child was taken to Stroger Hospital, where his condition stabilized. The woman went to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.

Child, woman escape fire by falling from 2nd-floor windowon March 24, 2021 at 6:38 pm Read More »

Chicago Bears News: Damien Williams added to running back mixon March 24, 2021 at 6:26 pm

Feb 2, 2020; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Kansas City Chiefs running back Damien Williams (26) runs the ball in for a touchdown during the fourth quarter against the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

The Chicago Bears bolstered their depth at the running back position on Wednesday as the team signed former Super Bowl hero Damien Williams.

Running the ball is something the Chicago Bears need to do better going forward.

Williams was a large factor in the Kansas City Chiefs’ come-back victory against the San Francisco 49ers in the 2019 Super Bowl. Williams rushed for 104 yards in that game and had two touchdowns during the fourth quarter. Williams then opted out of the 2020 season.

The addition of Williams does certainly add to a trend that has been developing throughout the Bears’ off-season. While speaking with reporters earlier this month, Bears’ general manager Ryan Pace praised the coaching staff as being one of the team’s strengths. That concept has played an important factor in how the Bears have operated since the start of free agency. The Bears have targeted players that have familiarity with the coaching staff.

That would be the reason why Andy Dalton is the team’s starting quarterback considering the ties to offensive coordinator Bill Lazor. Williams continues that trend as he is familiar with the head coach Matt Nagy’s offensive system given the Kansas City ties.

One thing is also clear from this signing. The Bears will be emphasizing the run game during the 2021 season. That means that the offense that Bears fans are likely to see in 2021 is likely to be the same offense we saw during the final three weeks of the 2020 season. It will be an offense that is centered around running back David Montgomery with a passing game that consists of play-action and roll-outs.

If the Bears are going to be emphasizing the run game in 2021, then it is important that the team has more than Montgomery at the running back position. Tarik Cohen is returning from an ACL injury that ended his 2020 season prematurely but he has never been considered a between-the-tackles running back. Williams provides the Bears with something that the Bears have never had under Nagy and that is a legitimate backup running back.

The signing of Williams also makes it clear that the Bears are intent on signing offensive players that can compliment Dalton at the quarterback position. It is certain that the Bears don’t believe that Dalton is the quarterback that a team wins because of.

That is the reason why Jimmy Graham is still with the Bears and that is the reason why Allen Robinson will not be traded before the 2021 season starts. Williams is just the latest piece that places Dalton in a position where he just needs to manage the offense and not force the issue.

Chicago Bears News: Damien Williams added to running back mixon March 24, 2021 at 6:26 pm Read More »