#TeamAFP staff writer Rod Mullins was down in Bristol this weekend – both days, as it turned out – for the 2025 MLB Speedway Classic at Bristol Motor Speedway.

The Atlanta Braves got the win, 4-2, over the Cincinnati Reds, but that was just part of what was going on at the iconic NASCAR venue.

Rod takes us in the press box and on the field to give us insight into what was going on behind the scenes.

The Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves are on their way to Bristol after the splitting the first two games of a four-game series.

Why Bristol?

Rod Mullins previews the 2025 MLB Speedway Classic, which will feature a record-breaking crowd – more than 85,000 are expected – at Bristol Motor Speedway, which has been remade into a state-of-the-art baseball stadium for a one-night-only game on Saturday.

Rod was at BMS on Thursday, and he takes us behind the scenes to get us ready for this most unique sporting event.

If you want to know what you need to know about UVA Football, you need to follow the money.

AFP staff writer Scott German joins the podcast for our summer UVA Football preview, and most of what we do over the course of the hour is, follow the money.

Scott talked last week with the new GM for UVA Football, Tyler Jones, and the assistant GM, Justin Speros, to learn more about the massive influx of dollars into the NIL budget, and how that changed things in terms of recruiting.

Two topics on the news podcast today:

An appeals court lifted an injunction in the antitrust suit filed by the owners of 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports against NASCAR, which could put the status of the two race teams in doubt ahead of the beginning of the trial in December.

Rod Mullins joins me for the podcast to break down the latest developments in the case/.

Rod also reports on the pending closure of the company that produces the grandfather clocks presented to winners at Cup Series races at Martinsville Speedway and the preparations for the 2025 MLB Speedway Classic.

The show wraps with a recap of Shane van Gisbergen’s win in Chicago, and a look ahead to this weekend’s action in Ponoma.

UVA President Jim Ryan, whose contract was extended in 2022, before the MAGAs started gaining power on the BOV, was a goner; the only question was, how?

There was plenty to work with – the issues with leadership at UVA Health, which led to the resignation of its CEO, Craig Kent, in February; the failures on several fronts that factored into the entirely preventable shooting deaths of three UVA Football players in 2022.

Turns out, the leverage point would be DEI, with a pair of UVA alums in the Trump DOJ, Gregory Brown, the deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights, and Harmeet K. Dhillon, a civil-rights lawyer in the department, leading the charge on that front.

NASCAR legend Richard Petty seems to think Shane Van Gisbergen did something wrong when Van Gisbergen won his way into the 2025 Cup Series playoffs this past weekend.

We talk about that, plus break down Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s one-off this coming weekend as a crew chief at Pocono.

Butch Wells, a member of the Augusta County Board of Supervisors, called me on Wednesday to address the controversial cancellation of a planned Pride Month event at the Augusta County Library that had been scheduled for this past Monday.

The explanation for how things went down last week on this doesn’t put anybody involved in the decision to pull the plug on the Pride Month event in a positive light.

Still no news on the status of Gary Taylor, the head coach of Cavalier Aquatics, the Piedmont Family YMCA competitive swim team, and an assistant coach with UVA Swimming, who is currently serving a two-year probation handed down by the U.S. Center for SafeSport.

AFP was the first to report on the investigation that concluded with Taylor admitting to emotional misconduct while coaching swimmers from 2015 to 2022 at North Carolina State, Auburn and Cavalier Aquatics.

On the podcast, I report on what we know about the case, and the silence from UVA Athletics and the local YMCA.

Eight immigrants went to work in Harrisonburg on Tuesday morning and didn’t return home that night.

Crystal Graham tracked down the story of what happened to them, talking with a witness at the scene where the FBI and Homeland Security detained the eight, and threatened locals who tried to intervene to inform the immigrants of their rights.