The parents of Dallas Mavericks star Cooper Flagg were avid NASCAR fans when he was a kid, but the Maine native had never attended an event until he drove the pace car for the WÜRTH 400 on Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.
Flagg, recently named the NBA Rookie of the Year, had to go through pace car certification before he could drive the Chevrolet Corvette around the racetrack.
“It was great, fast, very comfortable, but I’m excited to show everybody [on the] track and tell them to follow me around a couple of times,” Flagg said before the race.
⚡ Full coverage of NASCAR at Texas Motor Speedway:
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→Michael Jordan radiates star power at NASCAR just while watching
→Dallas Mavericks star gets spin in pace car, talks about season
→TV star and NASCAR driver offers blunt assessment of DFW airport
→Texas native ready to race on home track again
→Pioneering driver and swimsuit model talks about balancing career
Flagg got the opportunity to talk to another prodigy, Connor Zilisch, a 19-year-old looking to take NASCAR by storm similarly to Flagg in the NBA.
“To be able to talk to somebody that’s going through a lot of similar things at a time in your life, there’s just not many people that have been through this type of stuff at this age. So I think it was cool to connect on that,” Flagg said.
Flagg rode with Zilisch in the car and admitted he was little scared in the passenger seat driving with the professional.
“I mean, he got going pretty fast. I want to say I think they told him [to only go] 100 miles per hour, but think that’s what he did, for sure,” Flagg joked. “But no, we got going pretty fast. I think half the ride, I was more scared of what was going on. I’ve never been in a car going that fast. It was pretty cool.”
Driver Denny Hamlin had some fun with Flagg while the rookie was driving the pace care riding his bumper from behind.
Flagg also talked about his rookie season, which ended with him winning the second-closest NBA Rookie of the Year race since 2002-03. The Duke product showed massive improvement from the beginning to end of the season.
“It’s just always been about growth, and I thought I had a lot of growth throughout the season,” Flagg said. “So there’s a lot of moments I look back to, and can point to different learning experiences and moments of growth.”
Flagg explained some of the important lessons he learned in his first season.
“The lifestyle aspect of things, growing up fast, learning how to be on my own was definitely something I had to develop very quick,” he said. “But, um, I think just learning how to lose. I mean, there’s 82 games. Even some of these teams that have really successful seasons, there’s still a lot of losing that goes on in a single season.
“So I think just learning how to still take away a lot of positives from even the losses, and be able to learn and grow from those instead of just being kind of devastated by losses. So I think that was a big part of it for me.”
Game schedule dates, times, locations
Rangers ▶
April 27 N.Y. Yankees 4, Rangers 2
April 28 N.Y. Yankees 3, Rangers 2
April 29 Rangers 3, N.Y. Yankees 0
May 1 Rangers 5, Detroit 4
May 2 Detroit 5, Rangers 1
May 3 at Detroit, 6:20 p.m., NBCSN, Peacock
May 5 at N.Y. Yankees, 6:05 p.m., RSN
May 6 at N.Y. Yankees, 6:05 p.m., RSN
May 7 at N.Y. Yankees, 11:35 a.m., RSN
May 8 vs. Chicago Cubs, 7:05 p.m., CW
May 9 vs. Chicago Cubs, 6:05 p.m., RSN
May 10 vs. Chicago Cubs, 1:35 p.m., RSN
TCU Baseball ▶
April 24 TCU 8, Houston 3
April 25 TCU 4, Houston 2
April 26 TCU 14, Houston 2 (7 innings)
April 29 TCU 12, UT-Arlington 1 (7 innings)
May 1 Oklahoma State 7, TCU 6
May 2 Oklahoma State 9, TCU 2
May 3 Oklahoma State 11, TCU 10
May 8 vs. Utah, 6 p.m., ESPN+
May 9 vs. Utah, 2 p.m., ESPN+
May 10 vs. Utah, 1 p.m., ESPN+
May 14 at West Virginia, 5:30 p.m., ESPN+
May 15 at West Virginia, 5:30 p.m., ESPN+
May 16 at West Virginia, noon, ESPN+
Stars ▶
First-round playoff series (Wild win 4-2)
Game 1: April 18 Minnesota 6, Stars 1
Game 2: April 20 Stars 4, Minnesota 2
Game 3: April 22 Stars 4, Minnesota 3 (2OT)
Game 4: April 25 Minnesota 3, Stars 2 (OT)
Game 5: April 28 Minnesota 4, Stars 2
Game 6: April 30 Minnesota 5, Stars 2
Wings▶
April 30 Wings 95, Indiana 80 (preseason)
May 3 vs. Las Vegas (at Austin) (preseason), 6 p.m., Ion
May 9 at Indiana, noon, ABC
May 12 vs. Atlanta, 7 p.m., KFAA
May 14 vs. Minnesota, 7 p.m., Amazon Prime Video
May 18 vs. Washington, 7 p.m., KFAA, Peacock
TCU Football ▶
Aug. 29 vs. North Carolina (at Dublin), TBA
Sept. 12 vs. Grambling State, TBA
Sept. 19 vs. Arkansas State, TBA
Sept. 26 at Central Florida, TBA
Oct. 24 vs. West Virginia, TBA
Nov. 14 vs. Kansas State, TBA
Nov. 26 at Texas Tech, TBA
Cowboys ▶
Sept. 27 vs. Baltimore (at Rio de Janeiro), 3:25 p.m.
2026 opponents (dates and times TBA; one home game will be in Rio)
FC Dallas ▶
April 11 FC Dallas 1, St. Louis 1
April 18 FC Dallas 2, LA Galaxy 2
April 22 Minnesota 1, FC Dallas 0
April 25 Seattle 2, FC Dallas 1
May 2 FC Dallas 2, NY Red Bulls 0
May 9 vs. Salt Lake, 7:30 p.m., Apple TV
May 13 vs. Vancouver, 7:30 p.m., Apple TV
May 16 at San Jose, 9:30 p.m., Apple TV
May 23 at Colorado, 8:30 p.m., Apple TV
Texas Motor Speedway ▶
May 4 NASCAR Racing Experience