USA Today - 06.04.2020

2C ❚ MONDAY, APRIL 6, 2020 ❚ USA TODAY E3 SPORTS

It’s been pretty easy to forget about
Jeff Luhnow and A.J. Hinch, who are ap-
proaching the 90-day anniversary of
their one-year ban from Major League
Baseball and subsequent firing as gen-
eral manager and manager, respective-
ly, of the Astros.
Since then, their former players were
turned into virtual pinatas, first for a
hungry media, then for jeering spring
training fans all seeking some sem-
blance of justice for their sign-stealing
scheme. A few wayward Grapefruit
League pitches found flesh. New man-
ager Dusty Baker and GM James Click

tried to move on.

Then a global pan-

demic cast baseball al-

most completely from

public view, with little

time to ponder whether

the game will be played at

all, let alone wonder what

the fate of its scalawags might be.

It was confirmed this past week that

Luhnow’s and Hinch’s 2020 suspen-

sions will expire as the season does,

even if no baseball is played.

That’s not surprising, given that they

already were out anywhere from $2 mil-

lion to $5 million in salary, even before

owner Jim Crane decided to fire them.

They were already two months into

their sentences before baseball shut

down spring training and delayed the

season. Their bans were set to end at the

conclusion of the 2020

World Series, an event

that might not exist. But a

season is a season, a year

a year, as the players who

will receive a year of ser-

vice time regardless of

whether they throw a

pitch or take an at-bat were pleased to

recently discover.

No, the long-term fate of Hinch and

Luhnow lies not in the semantics of

their ban but at the mercy of their breth-

ren.

In theory, nothing’s stopping Luh-

now – proud patriarch of Codebreaker –

and Hinch – who dared the world to find

dirt on the Astros, only to end up deep-

est in the mud – from finding jobs in

2021. They will be free men.
      Whether they should ever work again

in baseball, or at least serve in any “con-

trol” capacity, is another issue.

Time has not been kind to either fig-

ure. Further reporting only deepened

Luhnow’s complicity. Hinch’s claim that

he smashed a TV monitor to send a mes-

sage to his cheating players did not find

corroboration in the 2019 clubhouse.

And the COVID-19 scourge has up-

ended the world at large, let alone the

very small place baseball occupies with-

in it.

What appetite will there be to reha-

bilitate and amplify shamed and easily

replaceable figures?

In the near term, not much.

When baseball returns, don’t expect

Luhnow and Hinch to be back with it.

MLB’s sentence was just a year on pa-

per. There should be sufficient distaste

for the de facto ban to last much longer.

Peers will decide if Luhnow, Hinch work in MLB again

Gabe Lacques

USA TODAY

Luhnow Hinch

Using a modified wheel and sitting in
his basement, the same old energized,
aggressive Robert Wickens is still there.
But with a team of engineers in his ear,
along with his own ingenuity and yearn-
ing for a competitive edge, there’s a cun-
ning there, too.
None of that has left the 31-year-old
Canadian since his last IndyCar race,
during his 2018 rookie season, when a
horrific crash left him paralyzed and put
his heralded racing career on pause.
Some thought forever. But through
unique circumstances, Wickens has
found his way back to the grid.
Now, it’s all about balancing and fine-
tuning those instincts that made him a
series championship contender almost
instantly.
And Saturday was “Step 1,” according
to Wickens, of what he hopes is a monu-
mental career comeback. After starting
29th (last), he finished eighth in Indy-
Car’s iRacing event on the virtual Barber
Motorsports Park layout. The ultimate
goal: hopping into the cockpit of his Ar-
row McLaren SP machine under the
sunshine of a Sunday afternoon race.
“My return to IndyCar was exactly
how I imagined it, in my basement – no,
I’m kidding,” joked the elated Wickens
from his home postrace Saturday after-
noon. “It was a ride. It felt, in a way, like
the real thing.”
Battling a somewhat awkward steer-
ing wheel maneuver in one of Barber’s
hairpin turns for 45 laps and running a
massive fuel-saving plan, Wickens
moved into the top 20 after just eight
laps before taking third on Lap 25. He
survived two crashes in the final 15 laps

• neither his fault. All in all, Wickens
  considers the result plenty successful.
  “I think it went extraordinarily well.
  To be honest, I picked it up much quick-
  er than I was expecting to,” Wickens
  said. “My whole strategy was to just
  keep my nose clean and try to be there at
  the end. We didn’t do a perfect job at it,
  but we still got there at the end.
  “My goal for my first IndyCar race (at
  St. Petersburg) in 2018 was just to finish

in the top 10, and I didn’t do that.”

After taking the pole and leading for

much of that race, Wickens was taken

out by Alexander Rossi in the final re-

start and finished 18th.

“To come back, albeit through a vir-

tual race, and finish in the top 10, it feels

pretty cool. It’s pretty encouraging what

the future might hold,” he said.

Even what Wickens could control

didn’t go entirely to plan Saturday. Dur-

ing his qualifying run, he found himself

flying into the final turn just seconds

from throwing down the fastest one-lap

time he’d turned since SimCraft had set

up his rig Thursday afternoon. (Even on

Turn 5, his problem area, he lost little

time to the rest of the field.)

Prepared to register a top-10 time,

Wickens spun on the final corner.

“Me being the uber-competitive per-

son I am, instead of being happy where I

was, I tried to push it a little bit more

there,” he said. “And I spun and lost ev-

erything. For whatever reason, I thought

if I did this miracle lap, I would crack the

top 10, which would have been really

cool.

“I don’t know if I wanted the head-

lines or, I don’t know what went through

my head, but I should have just relaxed

and put in still a good lap time, but I

tried to be the hero and ended up being a

zero.”

That mistake solidified his team’s

strategy, which Wickens only formulat-

ed Saturday morning after a conversa-

tion with Andretti Autosport driver

Scott Speed. Wickens showered the en-

tire paddock with praise postrace for ef-

fective tips he received after taking the

seat Thursday afternoon. From iRacing

enthusiasts Felix Rosenqvist and Sage

Karam to the rest of the group, Wickens

was impressed at the level of openness

each driver showed, both privately with

him and publicly in group chats.

Among a group that would typically

keep everything close-to-the-vest,

Wickens said hardly anyone kept any-

thing, beyond overarching race strategy,

to themselves.

“I think it’s because it’s all relatively

pressure-free racing. It brings everyone

back to driving because we enjoy it.

There isn’t much at stake,” he said.

Speed planted a seed that Wickens’

team hadn’t thought of and ended up

paying dividends. In the 45-lap race,

drivers only needed to pit once, though

some favored going twice like winner

Scott McLaughlin and others.

Wickens’ team decided to pit during

the Lap 15 competition caution, allow-

ing him to move up the grid when many

competitors pitted under green around

Lap 25.

With just one stop, Wickens had to

drive cautiously. Without a competitive

pace to challenge for a race victory,

Wickens’ team decided the time he’d

lose by driving a hair less than full-bore

was less than a 28-second pit stop.

That provided a secret advantage

that, in a way, saved Wickens from him-

self.

“I tried it in practice, and I was actu-

ally at almost the same speed trying to

save fuel than when I was pushing, be-

cause when I was saving fuel, I was able

to be a lot more consistent in my lap

times,” he said. “And we made it to the

finish line with 0.02 gallons of fuel left.

It was good teamwork, great job by the

Arrow McLaren SP guys.

“But overall, I’m just excited. I think it

was a good day.”

Wickens satisfied with return

to virtual IndyCar race grid

Nathan Brown
The Indianapolis Star | USA TODAY Network

Robert Wickens was seriously injured

in 2018 while racing at Pocono on the

IndyCar Series.

MATT KRYGER/INDYSTAR

William Byron dominated what

was a chaotic eNASCAR iRacing

Pro Invitational Series race at vir-

tual Bristol Motor Speedway on

Sunday.

One of the few drivers to stay out

of trouble, Byron led twice for 116

laps. Fastest in qual-

ifying and by having

won his heat race,

where he led every

single lap, Byron

started on the pole

for the Food City

Showdown. Byron

only lost the lead

when he pitted for tires when the

caution came out on lap 72.

With 43 laps to go, Byron’s fresh

tires paid off as he retook the lead

from Chris Buescher. Byron led to

the finish despite numerous cau-

tion flags and restarts.

John Hunter Nemechek finished

second. Timmy Hill, who won last

weekend at virtual Texas, finished

third. Completing the top five was

inaugural eNASCAR iRacing event

winner Denny Hamlin in fourth

and Matt DiBenedetto in fifth.

In addition to Byron and

Buescher taking turns at the front,

there was only one other driver

who paced the field. Landon Cassill

led four laps but finished 20th after

being involved in an accident

around lap 73.

There was not much of a rhythm

to the 150-lap race due to 12 caution

flags.

The final restart occurred with

four laps to go. Byron was untouch-

able on restarts and easily gapped

the field to drive to the victory, his

309th on the iRacing program.

Byron

dominates

eNASCAR

at Bristol

Kelly Crandall

Racer Magazine | USA TODAY Network

Byron

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