THE BULLETIN • SUNDAY, MARCH 14, 2021 B3
MOTOR SPORTS | NASCAR CUP SERIES
Pitchers
A year later, NASCAR reflects on a COVID-changed sport
Continued from B1
BY DAVID BRANDT
Associated Press
AVONDALE, Ariz. — The
big story at Phoenix Raceway
one year ago was the remark-
able recovery of veteran driver
Ryan Newman, who strolled
around the infield sipping a soft
drink just weeks after a horrific
crash in the Daytona 500 had
everyone fearing the worst.
It was an entertaining race
on a beautiful Sunday after-
noon with Joey Logano hold-
ing off Kevin Harvick for his
second win of the season. Kyle
Larson finished fourth, con-
tinuing his rise with Chip Ga-
nassi Racing.
Then came COVID-19, and
everything in auto racing —
and the world — changed.
“Gosh, it doesn’t feel like a
year ago,” driver Ryan Blaney
said.
After 12 long months, it’ll be
a much quieter scene for this
year’s spring race in the desert,
with a smaller crowd, masks,
social distancing and every-
thing else that’s been deemed
necessary for sports to con-
tinue during a pandemic. It’s
a compromise that’s become
somewhat normal, even if it’s
less than ideal.
“I miss a lot,” Logano said.
“Obviously, the fans not being
at the racetrack, the energy that
they bring is second to none,
so that quietness is awful. I like
hearing the cheering, the boo-
Oregon State
Continued from B1
Then there’s Gulbranson, the
big-armed true freshman who
gave OSU a taste of what’s pos-
sible by leading the Beavers on
a touchdown drive during the
final two minutes against Ari-
zona State.
“They get the whole spring,
and all the reps in the spring,”
Lindgren said. “We’ll know
more after the spring. Our plan
right now is to get Ben and
Chance as many reps with the
first two groups as we can.”
In a sense, Lindgren says
2020 wasn’t completely fair for
Nolan and Gulbranson, as nei-
ther got much of last spring to
develop. Spring practice was
cut short after four practices
due to the pandemic. Then
there was the disjointed off-
season, where the 2020 season
was on, then off, then on again
in an abbreviated fashion.
Spring practice gives Lind-
gren and the offensive coaches
15 good days to evaluate No-
lan, a dual-threat type quar-
terback, and the pro-style Gul-
branson.
John Locher/AP
Bubba Wallace, left, congratulates Kyle Larson after Larson won a
NASCAR Cup Series race on March 7 in Las Vegas.
ing and everything in between.
I like that. I like having our
sponsors at the racetrack and
people walking through the
garage thinking it’s the coolest
thing they’ve ever seen when
they see these cars up close.”
NASCAR’s season was
paused for two months after
Logano’s win at Phoenix. The
sport was one of the first in the
nation to return on May 17 in
Darlington, South Carolina,
during a one-day event in front
of no fans.
The slow march to normalcy
continues in Phoenix.
“Hopefully, we’re making
progress on this thing of get-
ting the world healthy again,
but it’s changed the way that
How it plays out heading
into preseason camp is any-
one’s guess. It’s partially based
on how Gebbia bounces back
from his injury, and what hap-
pens this spring between No-
lan and Gulbranson.
“Maybe one of those guys
really runs with it in the spring,
and then we’ve got some deci-
sions, or maybe a competition
potentially,” Lindgren said.
If Gebbia is back to 100 per-
cent, Lindgren said that it’s
possible he heads into camp
with a slight edge, even if No-
lan or Gulbranson shines in
spring ball.
“I do think Tristan was on
an upward trend, and we’re
confident what he can do with
what he can do,” Lindgren said.
In each of coach Jonathan
Smith’s first three years at Or-
egon State, the starting quar-
terback job went down to the
final week of preseason camp.
In 2018, Jake Luton beat out
Conor Blount for the job, and
again in 2019, this time over
Gebbia. Last season, Gebbia
won the starting dual over No-
lan and Nick Moore.
Expect nothing different in
our sport has operated,” Blaney
said. “It’s changed the way ev-
erything has operated, from
sports to businesses and things
like that, and I’m looking for-
ward to the day we can all get
healthy again and put this all
behind us and get back to nor-
mal life.”
Larson’s return
Little did anyone know that
Larson’s fourth-place finish in
Phoenix would be his last race
with Chip Ganassi Racing.
The driver’s use of a racial
slur while participating in an
online race last April cost him
his job, his reputation and his
ability to attract the corpora-
tions that fund a race team.
2021.
“Any time you’ve got some
talented guys in the room, and
they’re all on a level playing
field, got a little taste of game
action … I’d be shocked if
didn’t go to the end,” Lindgren
said
As for the production of
Oregon State’s quarterbacks
in 2020, it was a process. Geb-
bia was the only quarterback
Meegan M. Reid/Kitsap Sun via AP file
Erin Jaske and Scott Sandridge cross-country ski across the Manette
bridge in Bremerton, Washington, on a snowy day in February.
haps — are on a rapid rise, too.
No numbers needed to reflect
that — just meander down any
block or street in any city or
any country.
In New York City, when the
weather is good, people are out
in droves — conjuring images
of Edith Wharton characters
strolling the promenade. It just
so happens there is an Edith
Wharton Walking Tour in New
York. For now, it’s limited to
an online stroll through the
Gilded Age.
It’s the Gliding Age for
cross-country skiing, which
hasn’t seen popularity like this
since the 1970s after waxless
skis were introduced. Equip-
ment is quickly leaving the
shelves. Rentals have been
booming, too.
“Every single day of the week
is like a weekend day,” said
Hodges, who has about 20 kilo-
meters (12.4 miles) of tracks at
the Nordic center in Park City.
“I’m stunned about the seem-
ingly limitless interest right
Keep it cool
Last year’s spring race in
Phoenix was a hot one, with
temperatures pushing close to
90 degrees.
Sunday’s race should be
quite a bit cooler, with a high
around 70 degrees expected,
but the rain that fell in the des-
ert on Friday and early Satur-
day should be gone.
Odds and ends
Reigning Cup champ Chase
Elliott won at Phoenix in No-
vember to clinch his title and
is the 5-1 favorite to win Sun-
day. Kevin Harvick, Brad Ke-
selowski and Denny Hamlin
are all 6-1. Defending race
winner Joey Logano is 8-1
and Michael McDowell at his
home track is 100-1, the same
odds he overcame to win the
Daytona 500. … The Cup Se-
ries has had four different
winners in four races to start
the season but none by active
Cup champions. It is the first
time since 2008 that a former
series champion did not win
in the first four races of a sea-
son. … There have been five
different winners to start the
season 14 times before but not
since 2017. The record is 10
different winners in 10 races
in 2000. … There are seven
former winners at Phoenix
in the field. Harvick leads all
drivers with nine victories at
Phoenix.
on OSU’s roster with a career
FBS start, and that was only
one game. Lindgren said they
knew there would be a learn-
ing curve at quarterback. He
takes a glass-half-full approach
to what he saw.
“We didn’t feel like we played
at the level at that position that
we need to,” Lindgren said.
“But I think those guys learned
a ton, got some good experi-
ence. But we’ve got to play at a
higher level this fall.”
Lindgren said it wasn’t all
on the quarterbacks. OSU lost
seven starters on offense, four
that ended up on 2020 NFL
rosters. The Beavers never
landed on a consistent group
of receivers, and given that,
Lindgren said “we never really
clicked. Then Tristan got hurt
… I never thought we got into
sync passing game-wise.”
The lack of spring football
in 2020 was the biggest setback
in Lindgren’s opinion. It hurt
Gebbia to a degree in building
a relationship with receivers,
but Lindgren said it signifi-
cantly impacted Nolan, as the
JC transfer was trying to learn
OSU’s offense.
“I think we missed some
reps and it showed,” Lindgren
said.
In retrospect, Lindgren said
he wishes they had dialed back
the playbook, particularly
when Nolan took over starting
duties.
“We probably should have
done a little bit less and tried to
get a little bit more detailed on
plays we used,” he said.
now in cross-country skiing.”
Reese Brown, the executive
director of the trade group
Cross Country Ski Areas As-
sociation, envisioned this sort
of surge happening after bikes
— along with other outdoor
equipment — became such
a hot commodity during the
summer.
“We started to see what was
happening with biking and
hiking and this mass flocking
to the outdoors by people who
generally would be running on
a treadmill somewhere,” Brown
said. “That’s when it kind of
switched for us as a industry.
We were like, ‘Wait a second.
This is going to continue.’”
Golf remains on the up-
swing, too, according to an en-
gagement study by the National
Golf Foundation. There were
almost 502 million rounds,
which was the most since 2006
and the biggest yearly increase
since 1997 — the season Tiger
Woods captured his first ma-
jor championship. The number
of active, on-course golfers in
the U.S. grew by half a million
in 2020, the study found, up to
24.8 million.
The sport also grew by dou-
ble digits around the world.
Golf Australia said participa-
tion has increased by up to 15%
since the lockdowns went into
effect, with golf memberships
up by 30% in the 24-39 age
group.
Already popular in Swe-
den, the number of rounds in-
creased a whopping 42%. And
the first 18-hole course open
to the public in Spain, Golf
Olivar de la Hinojosa, saw an
increase of 30% in the num-
ber of rounds played. Grego-
rio González-Irún Velasco,
the general director of a com-
pany that oversees Golf Olivar
and another golf course in the
Madrid community, said golf
schools and driving ranges have
been operating near capacity
for some time.
Ana Fernández de Diego,
a Spanish professional golfer
who owns and teaches at Golf
Vídeo Escuela, said she has
seen unprecedented growth in
the sport.
“Golf is one of the things
that people can do without any
risks now,” she said. “It’s in open
air, with safe distancing, and it
gives you the luxury of not hav-
ing to wear a mask for four or
five hours.”
Tennis courts were popular
as well with nearly three mil-
lion first-time players, accord-
ing to data cited by the United
States Tennis Association
through the Physical Activity
Council’s Participation report.
In all, more than 21.6 million
Americans took the courts in
2020.
“It’s evident that many peo-
ple recognize tennis as the ideal
social-distancing sport,” USTA
CEO Mike Dowse said in a
story on the tennis association’s
website.
Tennis is not alone. Hiking,
anyone?
“This is the new future for
us. The new reality,” Marra said.
“There’s huge opportunity to
build a whole new generation
of land stewards.”
Rick Bowmer/AP file
Continued from B1
From nearly day one of the
pandemic, a myriad of hikers
have been trekking along the
Appalachian Trail, which en-
compasses about 2,200 miles
(3,540.6 kilometers), traverses
through 14 states and sees
about 3 million-plus visitors a
year.
Word of caution before go-
ing: Check the weather reports
and dress accordingly. And
don’t park on someone’s prop-
erty, even if the trailhead lots
are full.
“What’s happened is a whole
bunch of people that never re-
ally recreated outdoors like this,
suddenly discovered the fact
there are these easily accessi-
ble trails not that far from their
backyard,” Marra explained.
“That’s wonderful. But we’re
finding a lot of people are out
there not prepared for just
how rugged this trail is. It’s not
a walk on the bike trail in the
middle of the city.”
Daily walks — “constitu-
tionals” in another era, per-
Homecoming for McDowell
Daytona 500 winner Mi-
chael McDowell will be racing
close to his hometown of Glen-
dale, Arizona, where he grew
up racing karts before moving
to North Carolina to pursue
his NASCAR dreams.
The 36-year-old McDowell
was an unlikely Daytona win-
ner, earning his first Cup vic-
tory in his 358th start.
McDowell returned to his
old kart track in Glendale on
Thursday, where he raced un-
der the lights against local kids
aged 7 to 16. He signed auto-
graphs and brought his Day-
tona 500 trophy for fans to
check out.
Oregon State quarterback Chance Nolan (10) breaks the tackle of Utah
safety Nate Ritchie (6) in December in Salt Lake City. Nolan started
three games for the Beavers in 2020 after Tristan Gebbia was injured
late in a game against Oregon. Oregon State was competitive but lost
all three games.
Outdoors
“It’s both heartening and
a little bit mind-blowing to
think how things are going this
year,” said Richard Hodges, the
Nordic director at White Pine
Touring in Park City, Utah. “It’s
been really fun — a lot of work,
but really fun. All we’re doing is
trying to get people outside to
go play in the snow.”
Outdoor enthusiasts are cer-
tainly stepping outside to play
in whatever environment —
when pandemic restrictions
permit it, of course, and in ac-
cordance with stay-at-home
guidelines. But the numbers
illustrate that many are heeding
the call to the wild:
• 8.1 million more Ameri-
cans went hiking in 2020 com-
pared to ‘19, according to a pre-
view of an upcoming outdoor
participation report from the
Outdoor Foundation, the phil-
anthropic wing of the Outdoor
Industry Association.
• 7.9 million more went
camping last year.
• 3.4 million more partici-
pated in freshwater fishing.
The foundation’s research
also reflected a decline in inac-
tivity for most age groups and
across all income levels. There
was a 52.9% surge in outdoor
participation, an increase from
50.5% in 2018 and 50.7% in
2019.
The upward trend in hiking
doesn’t come as a surprise to
Sandra Marra, the president
and CEO of the Appalachian
Trail Conservancy.
Larson wasn’t sure he’d race
in NASCAR again until Rick
Hendrick took a chance on a
him.
Last weekend at Las Vegas
Motor Speedway, Larson raced
to his first NASCAR victory
since he was reinstated from
a nearly yearlong suspension.
He was hired by Hendrick Mo-
torsports when NASCAR said
the suspension would lift at the
start of this year.
Bubba Wallace, NASCAR’s
only Black fulltime driver, was
one of the first competitors to
congratulate Larson.
“It meant a lot for Bubba to
come to victory lane,” Larson
said. “He’s always believed in
me. That was special.”
There’s even talk about
using six-man rotations for
some teams, including the
Seattle Mariners, who used
the strategy for much of
2020 during the 60-game
schedule.
“Our primary thought
behind it is to preserve the
health and well-being of
our pitchers,” Seattle GM
Jerry Dipoto said. “In an era
where teams are trying to
find a competitive advantage
by throwing their starters for
shorter lengths of time and
just running them harder,
we feel like our advantage,
our competitive advantage
is by keeping our pitchers
healthy and having our best
pitchers pitch over the length
of the season, rather than the
potential dangers of running
them into the injury.”
The Detroit Tigers have
several young pitchers
they’re trying to bring along
slowly and new manager
A.J. Hinch said the six-man
rotation is a possibility.
“We’ve got a lot of guys
that we’re wanting to stretch
out and give a look, and ob-
viously there’s a competi-
tion going on for five or six
spots, depending on what
we go with,” Hinch said.
But the strategy might not
be a great decision for every
team. The five-man rotation
has been a durable staple for
MLB teams over the past 30
to 40 years, even as saber-
metrics have changed many
of the game’s strategies.
The math is fairly sim-
ple. In a five-man rotation,
pitchers make about 32
starts per season. Assum-
ing an average of about six
innings per start, that’s 192
innings through a 162-game
schedule.
In a six-man rotation, the
number of starts goes down
to 27. At six innings a start,
that’s 162 innings in a sea-
son, or 30 less than a pitcher
in a five-man rotation.
Certainly, that means
pitchers get more rest. But
it also means a staff ace isn’t
on the mound as much.
For teams like the Wash-
ington Nationals (Max
Scherzer), New York Yan-
kees (Gerrit Cole) or Los
Angeles Dodgers (Clayton
Kershaw and Trevor Bauer),
that doesn’t seem ideal.
Colorado manager Bud
Black is one who plans to
stick with a five-man rota-
tion if possible.
“A lot of times it’s what we
can condition our players to
do and right now our start-
ing pitchers across baseball
are conditioned to throw
every fifth day,” Black said.
“We can go on and on about
pitch counts and 200 in-
nings and all the things that
go in with that, but we as an
industry have created some
of these standards — good
or bad.”
Teams won’t necessarily
have to go to a six-man rota-
tion to preserve their arms.
There are other strategies
available, including fewer
innings per start or skipping
an occasional start when the
schedule allows.
“I’m not in the logistics
business so for me to try and
gameplan would be above
my pay grade,” Gallen said.
“But there’s things I imagine
you could do throughout
the year. Maybe take a look
at days off or whatever it is,
push a start back.”
The goal is to avoid a sit-
uation where Gallen is shut
down during important
games in September or the
playoffs. The Washington
Nationals took a lot of heat
in 2012 when they decided
to sit young ace Stephen
Strasburg during the play-
offs. He was coming off an
injury the year before and
capped at about 160 innings.
The Nationals — who
won 98 games that year —
ended up losing to the St.
Louis Cardinals in the NL
Division Series. In baseball
careers with finite chances at
postseason glory, it was un-
deniably a lost opportunity.
“That would be the last
time you would want to be
sitting on the sideline,” Gal-
len said.
The flip side? Seven years
later in 2019 the Nation-
als won it all and a healthy
Strasburg was named the
World Series MVP.