At 20-years-old, Daniel Dye is one of the most interesting prospects in NASCAR.
The DeLand, Florida native is currently preparing to start his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series playoff run at Milwaukee on Sunday, but he already knows where he'll be racing in 2025.
On Friday, it was announced that Dye will drive for Kaulig Racing full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2025, taking a seat with a championship-caliber team.
It's hard to say that Dye's ride is completely undeserved — while the young driver does bring some funding, he's shown immense improvement in his second Truck Series season — but he'd do well to heed the warnings of former prospects who were rushed up too soon.
There may be no bigger victim of a rushed development cycle than Danica Patrick, who, after a solid IndyCar career, was thrown into her first Cup Series campaign just three years after her first stock car race.
As NASCAR fans know, Patrick's career bore little fruit, proving that no matter how much talent and hype a driver brought, rushing them up the ladder wasn't the way to go.
Plenty of other drivers have fallen victim to their own development being rushed by corporate executives or unforeseen circumstances. After Carl Edwards' sudden retirement after the 2016 season, Daniel Suarez was forced into the No. 19 car at Joe Gibbs Racing in 2017 and was gone from JGR after 2018. It wasn't until 2021 when Suarez signed with Trackhouse Racing that he finally found a long-term home.
Dye has put together a decent resume so far in his young career, including two Xfinity Series top-10's in seven starts this year and a Truck Series playoff appearance, but moving on to full-time Xfinity Series competition in 2025 could bite him if he's not careful.
Dye certainly isn't guaranteed to fizzle out at Kaulig in 2025, but the path of his career seems to be following a disturbing trend that is no stranger to staining the reputations of many highly touted prospects.
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NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Austin Hill will take an unplanned vacation this weekend. Hill was suspended for one race on Tuesday after an incident in Saturday's Xfinity Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he appeared to intentionally right-rear hook Aric Almirola in a retaliatory move. Hill will miss the Aug. 2 race at Iowa Speedway. Richard Childress Racing announced that Austin Dillon will drive the No. 21 Chevrolet. NASCAR has cracked down on drivers for right-rear hooks in recent years, including suspending Bubba Wallace in 2022 and Chase Elliott in 2023 after they right-hooked competitors during Cup Series events. Hill was given a five-lap penalty for reckless driving during the race on Saturday. Perhaps the most important aspect of the penalty is that Hill will lose all the playoff points he has accrued so far — as well as any he might earn over his final four starts of the regular season — due to missing a race for a non-medical reason. The suspension essentially ends Hill's regular season, and he will begin the Xfinity Series playoffs with 2,000 points. Hill had earned 21 playoff points prior to the suspension. Hill has won three races so far in the 2025 season and is fifth in the Xfinity Series standings through 21 races.
Matt LaFleur is earning the ire of several of his Green Bay Packers players early in training camp. On Tuesday, LaFleur punished offensive tackle Rasheed Walker for his altercation with defensive end Kingsley Enagbare. However, the most interesting interaction of the day came between LaFleur and tight end Tucker Kraft. Per Matt Schneidman of The Athletic, LaFleur called out Kraft for two questionable fumbles during the first week of practice. Both "fumbles" came after the play was over or when the ball fell out of bounds. "Certainly, we all know what kind of player Tucker Kraft is and can be," LaFleur said. "He can’t allow Evan Williams to reach around and punch a ball out, so it is challenging everybody and hopefully that makes us that much better.” The third-year tight end took issue with LaFleur calling him out in front of the media and blamed the coaching staff for implementing practice rules that made it easy for offensive players to fumble. "I’d say a lot of the times — there’s certain rules you play with in practice, like just letting the defense punch repeatedly," Kraft said. "You’re not allowed to stiff-arm. I guess all I have are excuses. Yes, I am working on not fumbling the ball in practice." Schneidman said Kraft answered the question with a tone of sarcasm. Kraft was frustrated that he couldn't defend the ball by stiff-arming a defender trying to poke the ball from his undefended arm. Kraft acknowledged that during practice, he has to "play by the rules" LaFleur makes and is trying to work on having a "yes sir, no sir" attitude with his head coach. He then made a vague reference about a "bus fine" and accused LaFleur of throwing him under the bus in front of the media. Schneidman believes the tight end might actually be calling for Green Bay to fine LaFleur after his discouraging quote Tuesday morning. "So yes, the Packers’ third-year tight end might be calling for his head coach to be fined — not by the league, of course, but by the team — for what he perceived as throwing him under the bus," Schneidman wrote. "Is Kraft being serious about fining LaFleur? "Probably not. Is he peeved LaFleur called him out? It sure seems like it." LaFleur might do better to have a conversation with Kraft before dragging his name into news conferences with reporters. It's clear Tucker doesn't see eye-to-eye with LaFleur about fumbles. This is a good reminder to those getting overly excited or nervous reading practice reports that what happens at practice should be taken with a grain of salt. Most likely, Tucker is going to be fine.
Would the New York Yankees still be a heavyweight contender without Aaron Judge? Most fans would doubt it. What comes as a shock is that Yankees general manager, Brian Cashman, appears to agree. According to MLB insider Andy Martino of SNY, Cashman had explored the option of selling ahead of Thursday’s trade deadline (6 p.m. EST) if Judge’s flexor strain had turned out to be something worse. Martino wrote this: “[On Saturday], we relayed that the Yankees were floating some of their free-agent-to-be relievers in preliminary trade talks. We have since learned through league sources that last week the Yanks brought up Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt in talks with at least one other club.” It would be strange to see a team with a record well above .500 shop core hitters at the deadline. Both Bellinger and Goldschmidt — hitting .281/.333/.507 with 19 home runs and .283/.341/.419 with eight home runs respectively entering Tuesday — have been valuable producers for the Yankees this year. Goldschmidt signed a one-year deal with the Bronx Bombers over the offseason while Bellinger was acquired via trade with the Cubs. He is signed through 2026 but has a player option at the end of the year. Either player would bring a nice haul back to the Yankees. Of course, the reigning AL MVP’s injury doesn’t seem to be a season-altering, ‘abandon ship’ type of event. Optimistically, Judge should be back soon. But this does serve to illustrate how the team’s success is dependent on one player. Beyond Judge, the Yankees’ batting order doesn’t feature a star-caliber player, or at least a player the lineup can be built around. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, New York lacks enough solid hitters to be considered a worthy contender without Judge. The Yankees’ three bottom-of-the-order hitters — Austin Wells (.214), Anthony Volpe (.213) and newest acquisition Ryan McMahon (.223) — all own batting averages below .230 entering Tuesday. And this doesn’t include J.C. Escarra (.205), Oswald Peraza (.152) or even Ben Rice (.229). If Judge was lost for the season, selling wouldn’t have been a bad idea. He is insoluble glue holding the battered Yankees’ roster together, especially with Gerrit Cole and Clarke Schmidt gone for the year. No one on the trade market could replace him, but with Judge coming back, the Yankees might have enough firepower to at least limp to the finish line.
Left-handed starting pitcher Blake Snell is in his 10th major-league season after making his debut with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2016. Snell spent time with the San Diego Padres, then signed a deal with the San Francisco Giants after the 2023 season, which he later opted out of to enter free agency in 2024. The 32-year-old veteran signed a five-year, $182M contract this offseason with the Los Angeles Dodgers after an exceptional 2024 campaign. Snell earned such a lucrative contract thanks to his outstanding career to date, which includes two Cy Young Awards and an All-Star appearance. Over 213 career starts, he owns a 77–58 record, a 3.18 ERA and 1,372 strikeouts. Snell was placed on the injured list on April 6 (retroactive to April 3) with left shoulder inflammation after experiencing discomfort during a bullpen session; he had made only two starts for the Dodgers before the injury. After four minor-league rehab outings, manager Dave Roberts announced on Sunday that Snell is expected to rejoin the rotation next week. With his return looming, the Dodgers have decided to shift to a six-man rotation but now face a decision on right-hander Dustin May’s roster status. May returned to a full-time starting role for the first time in two seasons and has struggled. On Sunday against the Boston Red Sox, May allowed four runs in five innings of work, and he entered the start with an ERA of 4.73. May’s name has surfaced in trade rumors, and he is a candidate to potentially be moved to the bullpen. He is an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season.
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