Tag: Michigan

Chargers claim RB Hassan Haskins off waivers

The Chargers submitted one waiver claim following NFL cutdown day, adding Hassan Haskins.

The Chargers submitted one waiver claim following NFL cutdown day, adding running back Hassan Haskins.

By claiming Haskins, Los Angeles has to add him directly to the 53-man roster, which means someone will be waived.

Before joining the Bolts, Haskins spent the past two seasons with the Titans, whom he was selected by in the fourth round of the 2022 NFL draft.

In his rookie season, Haskins rushed 25 times for 93 yards (3.7 yards per carry) and caught 11 passes for 57 yards.

Special teams was his calling card, however. Haskins was a kick returner and returned 19 kicks, averaging 21.8 yards per return. He was also second in special teams tackles with 13.

Last season, Haskins spent the entirety of it on injured reserve.

Haskins played for Jim Harbaugh at Michigan from 2018-21. He finished his collegiate career with 2,324 rushing yards and 30 touchdowns.

With the Chargers, Haskins will primarily serve as a core special teamer. This move was likely made after Nick Niemann was placed on injured reserve to start the season.

Top-rated 2025 Michigan guard recruit schedules visit to Notre Dame

Will the Irish get him?

[autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag] is entering his second season as Notre Dame coach. He’s waiting for the one recruit that really could make an impact. If everything goes right, he might have just found his guy.

Trey McKenney is a four- or five-star recruit depending on which site you look at. According to 247Sports, the Michigan shooting guard is the state’s top-rated player in the 2025 recruiting class. While it’s been known for a while now that he would be visiting the Irish, he finally has set a date with them along with all the other schools he’s visiting:

The fact that McKenney is visiting the Irish last means they’ll have a chance to save the best presentation for last. As of right now, On3 has him most likely to pick Michigan State. A lot can happen over the next few months though, and Irish fans will be anxious to see if it works out for their team.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

2026 three-star Michigan running back recruit to visit Notre Dame

Would he intrigue you?

Chances are you haven’t heard of running back recruit [autotag]Jayden Terry[/autotag].

He’s currently the 14th-ranked 2026 recruit in Michigan per 247Sports. He’s only a three-star recruit, but he clearly has interest in Notre Dame.

The interest is so great that the 5-foot, 1-inch and 185-pound back will be visiting campus for the Irish’s home opener against Northern Illinois.

What’s interesting about visiting during this particular weekend is that the Irish will be playing a team from the Mid-American Conference, which is where most of Terry’s current offers are from.

Notre Dame themselves have not extended him an offer yet, but they currently only have two commits in its 2026 class, so maybe he’ll eventually be an option.

 

Terry is about to play his junior season at Grandville. As a sophomore, he ran for 1,713 yards and 24 touchdowns on 207 carries. He ran for at least 100 yards in eight of his 10 games and also had three receptions for 151 yards and two more touchdowns.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Mid-race crash, late shifts shake up NASCAR points battles in Michigan

Both of NASCAR’s most consequential regular season points battles took a big swing with five laps left in Stage 2 of Monday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway. Kyle Larson, who entered the race with the regular season points …

Both of NASCAR’s most consequential regular season points battles took a big swing with five laps left in Stage 2 of Monday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

Kyle Larson, who entered the race with the regular season points lead, was racing inside of the top 10 on one of the race’s many chaotic restarts when he got loose in the middle lane and spun.

Larson’s No. 5 Hendrick Chevrolet backed into the outside wall in the direct path of Bubba Wallace, who clattered into the Californian and sustained significant front-end damage to his No. 23 23XI Toyota. At the same time, a stack-up behind Larson led to more crashes that included Chris Buescher, Joey Logano, Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe and Todd Gilliland.

The crash knocked Logano, Larson, Bell and Gilliland out of the race. Buescher, Wallace and Briscoe continued on, but saw the rest of their runs hampered by damage.

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“Restarts are difficult here, with the side-drafts and all that,” Larson said after being cleared at the infield care center. “I was just trying to get all I could, try to funnel to the top. I just moved up, got too close to whoever was outside of me and sucked myself around.

“Bummer. We had an extremely fast car. I hate that I screwed that up for our team, as well as the others that got collected in it.”

Monday’s crash was critical to both the regular season championship and playoff bubble. Larson had just a five-point advantage on Tyler Reddick for the points lead heading into the race, with Chase Elliott one point behind Reddick in third.

Reddick went on to win the race, taking five playoff points and surging into the championship lead by 10 points. Elliott narrowly avoided the crash but faded to 15th in the final overtime. He now sits in second, with Denny Hamlin 28 points behind Reddick in third after salvaging a ninth-place finish. Larson’s crash dropped him to fourth, 32 points back.

Wallace had entered Michigan with a three-point edge on Buescher and Ross Chastain at the playoff bubble, with Buescher holding the last provisional playoff spot on a tiebreaker. Despite suffering damage, Buescher went off-strategy and rallied forward in double overtime to salvage a sixth-place finish. Wallace limped home 26th with his damage, while Chastain was spun in the opening overtime and dropped to 25th.

“It was a good call to do something different, had at least right-side (tires) there. We were able to pass a ton of cars,” Buescher said afterward. “Wild, but a heck of a way to salvage a day that should have been better.”

The result is a 16-point edge for Buescher, with Chastain one point clear of the cutline and Wallace one point down and out of the provisional playoff field. Martin Truex Jr. (+77) and third-place finisher Ty Gibbs (+39) have a cushion and should be safe if they can avoid any issues over the next two weeks.

Two races remain for both championship fights. An unpredictable trip to Daytona International Speedway is up next, with the regular season wrapping up at the challenging Darlington Raceway.

Busch hoping to gain momentum from strong Michigan showing

The quest for 20-straight winning seasons is ongoing for Kyle Busch – but his Richard Childress Racing team showed it might be getting closer in Michigan. After running in the top 10 for a good chunk of the race, Busch parlayed a two-tire strategy …

The quest for 20-straight winning seasons is ongoing for Kyle Busch — but his Richard Childress Racing team showed it might be getting closer in Michigan.

After running in the top 10 for a good chunk of the race, Busch parlayed a two-tire strategy during his final stop in Stage 3 into a fourth-place finish in Monday’s FireKeepers Casino 400, earning his first top-five since Dover Motor Speedway in April.

It was a much-needed result for the driver and team, ending a torrid streak of difficult weekends dating back to Darlington Raceway in May. At the time Busch was 12th in points and looked like a playoff contender, but a stretch of 11 races with a 24.0 average finish — including five DNFs — saw the two-time champion drop to 18th in the standings and well out of playoff reach without a win.

Monday’s two-tire call was made to give Busch a shot at a victory. He’s won at least one Cup race in every season dating back to 2005. For a moment, it looked like Busch might just continue the streak. He emerged with the net lead after the short stop, narrowly leading William Byron and Tyler Reddick. But Busch couldn’t hold on, losing the top spot before pit stops cycled through and fading into the back of the top five.

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“I wish I’d came out with about an eight-second lead,” Busch joked. “That might have helped a little bit. We didn’t quite have that gap.”

The Nevadan ultimately took advantage of the double-overtime finish to rise back to fourth, paying off a solid weekend for his team with one of its best finishes of the year. It wasn’t a perfect weekend, but was easily the best the No. 8 team’s looked in months.

“Just needed a little bit more out of the Lucas Oil Chevrolet,” Busch said afterward. “We just kind of missed a tenth at each end, not quite being able to wrap the corners as fast as I needed to (in order) to be able to run 0.00s and teens. I think I was running 0.30s.

“Overall, just a net positive on the weekend and being better speed, up front and having a shot, anyways. We ran top 10 all day. Really good call by Randall [Burnett, crew chief] and the guys to get us that two tires, get us more track position and just try to hold them off as best as we could.“

Moving forward, Busch will do all he can to score another win and push his streak to 20-straight years with a victory — particularly in the next two weeks, when it could land him back in the layoffs.

The goal: Build off the Michigan momentum and keep running to expectation.

“This is how we would expect to run,” Busch said. “This is how we want to run. We want to run up front, top 10s, and have opportunities to excel. If I had to say, (we had) maybe a seventh- or eighth-place car today, and we got a fourth out of it. Good pit calls helped us to do that, and just making a couple good moves on those late restarts that got us that.

“Nothing can translate from today into Daytona or Darlington — setup wise, vehicle dynamics, that sort of stuff. But (we’ve got) good momentum rolling in the right direction. Just keep that going.”

Byron, Gibbs make gains in Michigan

William Byron and Ty Gibbs were close to getting their NASCAR Cup Series seasons back on track with a win at Michigan on Monday. In the end, the pair got trapped battling each other while Tyler Reddick drove away, but their results were a step in …

William Byron and Ty Gibbs were close to getting their NASCAR Cup Series seasons back on track with a win at Michigan on Monday. In the end, the pair got trapped battling each other while Tyler Reddick drove away, but their results were a step in the right direction.

Byron was running a distant second to Reddick when Martin Truex Jr. slid up into the wall late and pushed Monday’s rain-postponed race to overtime. He took the bottom of the front row for the ensuing restart and muscled his way to a narrow lead with help from a pushing Brad Keselowski before another caution flew.

That positioned Byron to pick the outside, preferred lane for the final restart. He had Keselowski behind him again, too. But the Hendrick Motorsports star lost the top spot to Reddick through Turns 1 and 2 after Keselowski slowed behind him — an issue Keselowski said was tied to his engine briefly shutting off.

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“I’ll relive that restart and what lane to choose overnight, for sure,” Byron admitted afterward. “It seems like always, as the leader, you want to take the top. But I’ve gotten beat twice here by the bottom and I had the lead on the bottom, barely, over (Reddick). But he had a better car than us, so he was a little bit faster. “

In search of his first win, Gibbs fired off behind Reddick for both of the final two restarts. He nearly followed Reddick past Byron and through to second in double overtime but couldn’t quite clear his No. 24 Chevrolet off Turn 2 and ended up falling back to third. The pair stayed in second and third for the final lap, crossing the line within a second of Reddick as he scored his second win of 2024.

“I feel like we were in contention, for sure,” Gibbs said. “I needed to get up sooner off (Turn) 2 to clear the No.24. Just missed it by a little bit, then after that it takes a lap to get wound back up after you lose momentum.”

Byron could have used the victory to add to his playoff point total going in to the postseason. He has three wins, but entered Michigan seventh in points and unlikely to catch many of the drivers ahead of him for regular season bonus points. His three wins all came in the opening eight races of the year. Since then Byron’s struggled to find consistency, with as many finishes outside of the top 20 (five) as he has in the top five.

“Second sucks, but (I’m) really proud of the effort,” Byron said. “We’ve been trying to put weeks together like this, and this is a really good step. Everyone did a great job on the team. Strategy was awesome. Car was awesome all day. I’m really proud of the team.”

Gibbs’ top five was more consequential, helping the sophomore make big strides toward his first Cup Series playoff appearance. He’d entered Michigan 19 points up on the cutline. Aided by issues for the three drivers behind him, the 2022 Xfinity Series champ left the Irish Hills with a 39-point cushion.

With two rounds left before the playoffs — including a wild card at Daytona International Speedway — Gibbs was happy to see his playoff advantage grow.

“It definitely is good to have a good points day,” Gibbs said. “Definitely wish we could have won and locked ourselves in, because winning usually takes care of about everything. But I’m thankful to be here and thankful to have a good day.”

Reddick romps through double-overtime for Michigan win

Certainly, the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway was not lacking in action or drama. 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick claimed his second victory of the season – seventh of his career – while the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series playoff …

Certainly, the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway was not lacking in action or drama. 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick claimed his second victory of the season — seventh of his career — while the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series playoff standings shifted dramatically yet again in Monday’s weather-delayed double-overtime finish to the race.

Reddick’s No. 45 Toyota pulled away from William Byron’s No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet on the second overtime restart — holding off Byron and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs to claim the win by a slight 0.168s and break a nine-race winning streak at the historic two-mile track for Ford.

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“Just great teammate and a fantastic push from Ty Gibbs, the Toyota racing family tries to take care of each other,” said Reddick, who immediately dedicated his win to longtime family friend and late model racing legend Scott Bloomquist, who was killed in a plane accident this week.

“The last couple days have been tough, but this really helps. This win goes to him [Bloomquist] and his family and friends, and all that meant a lot to him. It’s always tough when someone you care about passes away.

“We did a really good job today,” he said of the win. “I think we were the last car on the lead lap starting stage three today so good effort for us.”

Byron, a three-race winner and the 2024 Daytona 500 champion, second-guessed the decision to start his Chevrolet alongside Reddick on the high-side of the front row on that final restart after starting on the bottom lane previously.

“I will re-live that restart and what lane to choose overnight for sure,” Byron said. “It seems like always as the leader you want to take the top, but I’ve gotten beat twice here by the bottom and I had the lead on the bottom barely over him.

“But he had a better car than us — he was a little bit faster. Second sucks, but really proud of the effort. I feel like we’ve been trying to put weeks together like this and this is a really good step.”

Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch finished fourth and led 24 laps in the race, one of his better showings of the season. The two-time series champion still sits more than 100 points out of the playoff standings and is trying to extend a record 19-year winning streak in the series but Monday’s showing marks his second consecutive top-five finish – answering a fourth-place at Richmond last week.

Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing teammates, owner-driver Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher were fifth and sixth place — the top finishing Fords. Keselowski was hoping to win at his home-state track for the first time in 28 starts there. For Buescher that sixth-place finish may have felt a little like a win after two days of dramatic ups and downs.

It improved his place in the championship standings to 15th out of the 16-drivers currently playoff eligible — now 16 points up on the cutoff line. Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain moved into the 16th and final position — only a single point ahead of Reddick’s 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace.

Chastain, who brought out a caution flag in the first overtime, had been 12 points to the good inside the Playoff standings taking the first overtime green flag.

It was indicative of the non-stop action from Sunday’s green flag and red flags to Monday’s checkers. The race resumed Monday on lap 52 and so did the aggression with 16 different race leaders and 26 lead changes in all.

On Sunday, polesitter, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin spun out while trying to pass Wallace for the lead early. His No. 11 JGR Toyota was largely undamaged despite a slide through the infield grass and he ultimately battled his way back up through the field Monday to secure an impressive ninth-place finish.

Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, who led the NASCAR Cup Series championship points standings coming into the race, was sidelined early after triggering a seven-car accident on lap 116 after misjudging a pass on Wallace as well.

The defending Michigan winner Buescher, Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell, Joey Logano and Todd Gilliland were all involved in the incident in varying degrees. Although Larson, Bell, Logano and Gilliland’s cars were sidelined, Buescher’s Mustang was able to continue with an assortment of challenges. His team called him in for two new tires on the final caution period and he was able to race back to that sixth-place finish.

Larson’s miscue had a major effect on the regular season championship with race winner Reddick now taking the lead by 10 points over Chase Elliott, who led laps but finished 15th.

Hamlin’s race recovery moves him into third place, 28 points back and Larson has dropped to fourth place, 32 points behind Reddick with only two races remaining to decide who will earn the regular season title and receive that all-important 15-point playoff bonus.

“Had an extremely fast car so hate I screwed that up for our team as well the others out there that got collected in it,” said Larson, driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. “Just trying to get what I could, get some stage points and just lost it.”

Rookie Zane Smith finished seventh, followed by Daniel Suarez, Hamlin and rookie Carson Hocevar.

The NASCAR Cup Series returns to competition in Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway (7:30pm ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Buescher is the defending race winner.

RESULTS

Texans Mock Draft: Houston lands long-term DT prospect

The Houston Texans build up their defensive line in the latest mock draft from The Draft Network.

It’s never too early for draft season as The Draft Network, where teams always remain on the clock.

For the Houston Texans, TDN has the reigning AFC South champions bolstering its interior defensive line come Thursday night in April 2025.

According to the latest mock draft, the Texans make the playoffs but fall short in the divisional round once more. Perhaps one of the main issues is their depth at defensive tackle.

TDN fixes that woe heading into Year 3 of the Stroud by targeting a member of the 2024 national champion Michigan roster in defensive tackle Kenneth Grant. 

Another herculean-level athlete out of Ann Arbor, Kenneth Grant is a massive man who moves like one of much smaller stature. In today’s game where vertical push from the interior is a must, Grant fits the script as a future three-down IDL. – TDN’s Ryan Fowler 

Grant is one of two returning defensive linemen from the Wolverines’ top-ranked run defense in 2023. Albeit a tad oversized at 339 pounds, DeMeco Ryans love interior pass rushers who can win with finesse and speed over brute strength like Grant.

Last season, Grant shined in both double teams and one-on-one matchups defending the run against Big Ten opponents. His lower-body strength is stable enough to anchor his positioning and hold runners for minimal gain.

Grant also is a serviceable pass rusher, recording four sacks and 11 QB hits. While speed is the selling card, the 6-foot-6 defensive tackle can also win with legit power.

Adding Grant alongside Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson Jr. could provide the best pass-rushing trio since the J.J. Watt, Whitney Mercilus and Jadeveon Clowney days. Houston elected to pass up on other defensive tackles in the draft in favor of defensive back help.

Kamari Lassiter and Calen Bullock look like promising pieces for the long haul on the back end. The Texans must address the front-end talent for more stability in the defensive trenches.

Rain postpones Cup Series at Michigan to Monday at 11am ET

The remainder of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway has been postponed until 11am. ET Monday due to intermittent rain and diminishing daylight. For the second-straight year, rain delayed the start of NASCAR’s annual …

The remainder of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway has been postponed until 11am. ET Monday due to intermittent rain and diminishing daylight.

For the second-straight year, rain delayed the start of NASCAR’s annual Cup race at Michigan. One of many scattered showers arrived just as the field was a lap away from the green flag at 3:25pm ET. A window opened up for the race to start 90 minutes later, but heavier showers were on the way.

The field ultimately completed a quarter of the scheduled distance before being red flagged on lap 52 of 200. NASCAR briefly waited out the storm, but ultimately elected to postpone to Monday with a poor forecast and only a couple hours of remaining daylight to work with. Michigan doesn’t have lights to race into the night.

USA Network will carry coverage of the resumed race on Monday, along with MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Ryan Blaney won the opening stage on Sunday over Chase Elliott, William Byron, Bubba Wallace and Chris Buescher. Kyle Larson led the first 34 laps before losing the top spot to Wallace in a battle that also included Denny Hamlin. Wallace was leading on lap 39 when Hamlin spun, bringing out a caution. Blaney was among those that stayed out while Wallace and others pitted.

Elliott holds the lead as of the stoppage over Martin Truex Jr., Wallace, Alex Bowman and Tyler Reddick. Kyle Busch, Larson, Ross Chastain, Chase Briscoe and Joey Logano complete the top 10.

Allgaier cruises to win in Michigan as competitors clash behind

Justin Allgaier used pit strategy and a fast No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet to take the lead of Saturday’s Cabo Wabo 250 at Michigan International Speedway with 16 laps of regulation remaining and then held off the field in two laps of overtime – …

Justin Allgaier used pit strategy and a fast No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet to take the lead of Saturday’s Cabo Wabo 250 at Michigan International Speedway with 16 laps of regulation remaining and then held off the field in two laps of overtime – before a caution came out ending the race for an accident mid-field.

Allgaier pit for fuel seven laps later than the next six front-runners at the time, returned to the track and ultimately – methodically — picked each car off to claim the late lead. He took the white flag signaling one lap remaining and a few moments later one of the late-race leaders Carson Kvapil hit the wall in what became a chain reaction melee involving Chandler Smith and Kyle Sieg, whose car flipped end-over-end. Sieg was able to quickly climb out of his car and walked to the waiting medical crew.

 

Meanwhile Allgaier took the yellow and checkered flags just ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing’s Sheldon Creed, JGR’s John Hunter Nemechek, Our Motorsports’ Anthony Alfredo and JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith.

It’s the sixth consecutive top-10 finish in as many races for the 38-year-old Allgaier, who with the win – the 25th of his career – is now 10th on the NASCAR Xfinity Series all-time win list moving ahead of his team owner, NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr.

A bright rainbow hung in the sky as the field sat on pit road just before the overtime re-start as NASCAR track workers dried the famed two-mile Michigan track after the second brief rain shower of the day.

Tasked with rallying again, Allgaier proved his muster, ultimately passing his teammate Sammy Smith on the restart and then holding off both JGR teammates Creed and defending race winner Nemechek for his second victory of the season.

“Just cannot say thank you enough to this team and all these guys standing right here,” Allgaier said. “It’s been an incredible week. We did not show up at [the last race in] Indianapolis like we wanted to and these guys have worked tirelessly through this break.

“It’s truly special, winning at Michigan.”

For Creed, it was a record 11th runner-up finish – breaking a tie with current NASCAR Cup Series driver and former Xfinity Series champion Daniel Hemric and NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett for most second-place finishes in the series without a win.

Trophy or not, it was a productive day for Creed, who started from pole position and also announced before the race that he signed a multi-year contract to drive for the new Haas Factory Team in the series next season. He was among the seven race leaders, out front for 23 laps and his rally to runner-up that more impressive considering he spun out while leading early in the race.

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“This one might have frustrated me the most out of all of them so far,” Creed said. “I had a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota GR Supra as fast as Xfinity internet today, and led the beginning, got spun there and rallied back.

“I was probably too conservative behind the No. 20 (John Hunter Nemechek) trying to save fuel. I was a couple, few laps short on fuel there and the No. 7 (Justin Allgaier) was in a little bit better spot, and once the No. 7 got around both of us, and the No. 88 (Carson Kvapil), I know I needed to go. I probably set behind the No. 20 another two laps and then charged and was running the No. 7 down. Just had a really good car, but that caution for rain came at a bad time for us.”

NASCAR Cup Series regular Noah Gragson, Matt DiBenedetto, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship contender Taylor Gray, Caesar Bacarella and AJ Allmendinger rounded out the top 10. It marks only the third top 10 of Bacarella’s career.

With five regular season races remaining, Sammy Smith moves into the 12th place in the championship standings holding the final Playoff position by a single point over Ryan Sieg, who won Stage 1 and finished 13th on Saturday.

Cole Custer finished an uncharacteristic 30th-place after his Ford suffered damage in a mid-race accident. The defending series champion continues to lead the regular season championship, but his advantage has been trimmed now to only 12 points over race winner Allgaier.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series moves to the famed Daytona International Speedway for Friday’s Wawa 250 Powered by Coca-Cola (7:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Allgaier is the defending race winner.

RESULTS