CONCORD, N.C. — In an effort to deliver the best experience for race fans, the schedule for this weekend’s Can-Am World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte will be flexed to provide earlier start and finish times on all three nights of racing.

The unique annual event at the four-tenths-mile dirt track features the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car Series, World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series and the Super DIRTcar Series big-block modifieds.

Spectator gates will open at 2:45 p.m. on Thursday with on-track action beginning at 3 p.m.

Friday’s and Saturday’s formats will also feature revised times. Gates will remain open at 3 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, with opening ceremonies moved up one hour to 3:45 p.m. followed by racing.

Fans should stay tuned to www.charlottemotorspeedway.com for further updates.

FINDLAY, Ohio — Mike Streicher, the 1991 USAC National Midget Series champion and a well-known fabricator, died suddenly Wednesday morning after an apparent heart attack.

Streicher was 62.

Born in Findlay, Ohio, Streicher’s claim to fame behind the wheel came 28 years ago, when he charged from behind in the final four races of the USAC midget season to defeat Stevie Reeves for the national championship by a scant 17 points.

During a grueling 33-race season, Streicher did the job in his own No. 8 Gaerte-powered Hawk Chassis, with only one feature victory — at Kentucky’s Richmond Raceway — but remarkable consistency.

Streicher collected 21 top-10 finishes and started all but one race during his underdog championship campaign.

A sixth-place finish on the final night of the season at El Centro, Calif., was enough for Streicher to overhaul Reeves, who crashed in practice, blew an engine in his heat race and then flipped on the third lap of the finale feature.

All told, Streicher won USAC National Midget Series championships as a driver, car owner, mechanic and car builder. In addition to his 1991 driving title, Streicher was the mechanic and car owner during Rich Vogler’s 1983 USAC National Midget Series championship run.

He was a six-time USAC National Midget Series feature winner, with his first win coming at Kokomo (Ind.) Speedway in 1988.

Streicher was the head man behind the Hawk Chassis brand of midget and quarter midget cars, built with support from Bobby Seymour and Seymour Enterprises out of Massachusetts.

His chassis earned numerous feature wins with sanctions including USAC, NAMARS, ARCA, NEMA and ARDC.

Streicher also built several of the famed Munchkin midgets, best known for racing indoors at the Rumble in Fort Wayne, with assistance from Munchkin creator Mike Fedorcak.

Streicher’s recent years were spent as a professor at the University of Northwestern Ohio, teaching classes and serving as an assistant coach for the UNOH motorsports team, helping to educate the next generation of racers and mechanics.

However, he did assist with the build on a Seymour Motorsports Hawk/AutoCraft midget for the Chili Bowl Nationals in Tulsa, Okla., back in January, which was piloted by Davey Ray.

Funeral arrangements for Streicher are pending.

United States star Alex Morgan said she plans to play in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo despite the due date of her first child.

Morgan is expecting a baby girl in April, approximately three months before the start of the Olympics.

"I hope to get back on the field as soon as possible," Morgan told USA Today. "After having a healthy baby, I want to get back with the national team and look forward to playing in Tokyo."

Morgan, 30, announced her pregnancy two weeks ago on various social media accounts, along with husband Servando Carrasco.

Morgan said she has no doubt she still will be an elite athlete after having a child.

"There are so many women that have been able to come back to their respective sport after pregnancy and continue to have a successful family while playing their sport that they love at the highest level," Morgan said. "I plan to follow in those footsteps and be one of those women who have a family and carry my daughter around as I'm going to the next city to play. And I still want to continue to enjoy the sport that I've been playing for all my life."

Morgan excelled in the Women's World Cup earlier this year, scoring six goals to help the U.S. win the title.

Overall, Morgan has 107 international goals in 169 matches.

Carrasco is a midfielder for the Los Angeles Galaxy. He and Morgan met when both were college soccer players at Cal. They married in 2014.

Son Heung-Min scored two as Tottenham moved to within one victory of the Champions League round of 16 with a 4-0 victory over Red Star Belgrade on Wednesday.

Son was sent off for his involvement in an incident in which Eveton midfielder Andre Gomes suffered an horrific leg fracture on Sunday, but saw his red card later overturned, and was not expected to start this match, due to the emotional trauma following the accident.

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However, he was named in Mauricio Pochettino's starting lineup and played a starring role with two goals in the Serbian capital.

Both sides missed early chances before Spurs eventually opened the scoring on 34 minutes after a comical goalmouth scramble which saw Tottenham hit the post and have an effort cleared off the line before Giovani Lo Celso -- making his first start for his new club -- headed home.

Son added a second on 57 minutes after he fired into the roof of the net from Dele Alli's pass. The South Korea international turned to the camera and made a praying sign, while appearing to apologise.

And he made it 3-0 three minutes later when he finished off from Danny Rose's square ball across the boss and again the celebrations were mooted. Christian Eriksen then squeezed in a fourth on 85 minutes.

The result leaves Tottenham second in Group B on seven points, with victory at home to Olympiakos in their next match enough to confirm their qualification to the round of 16.

Raheem Sterling's quick strike was neutralised by Mario Pasalic's second-half goal as Manchester City drew with Atalanta 1-1 in Champions League group stage action on Wednesday.

The match end with a bizarre sequence of events that forced City defender Kyle Walker into goalkeeper duties after Ederson was subbed off with an injury at halftime and backup Claudio Bravo was shown a red card in the 81st minute.

City's goal came in the seventh minute when Bernardo Silva fed Gabriel Jesus, who squared the ball to Sterling for a quick finish to the bottom of the net.

City continued to dominate the first half, nearly doubling their lead on several occasions. The visitors were awarded a penalty after the ball struck Josip Illcic's arm in the 42nd minute, but Jesus' weak attempt from the spot drifted wide of the post.

The Italian side equalised four minutes after the break when Pasalic powered a header from Alejandro Gomez's spot-on cross that Bravo had little chance of saving.

Bravo received his red card in the 81st minute he came off his line and brought down Gomez, forcing Walker to come off the bench and into immediate action as he juggled and saved Ruslan Malinovskyi's free kick.

The match was played at San Siro in nearby Milan as Atalanta's stadium in Bergamo undergoes renovations.

In Seattle, it has become a rite of autumn. The Sounders will make the MLS Cup playoffs, usually make a deep run toward the final, and the spotlight will shine on manager Brian Schmetzer to the point of discomfort.

One would think that given his near-40-year association with the Sounders -- from his playing days to managing the team in the second tier, to being an assistant in MLS, to eventually managing the team in the top division -- that Schmetzer would welcome some deserved praise. But any attempt to bestow accolades on the Seattle native is met with near instant deflection. One can almost hear him squirm over the telephone line. Praise is for the players, his assistants or even opposition coaches. It's why the word "steward" is most often applied to Schmetzer, and it fits. He is the organization's conscience, its north star.

"The club is in his DNA," said Seattle GM Garth Lagerwey about Schmetzer. "When he speaks, he speaks sincerely and humbly, and those are things that really resonate with not just our fanbase but the wider community."

That ethos will be put to the test on Sunday, when the Sounders square off against Toronto FC in the MLS Cup final (3 p.m. ET, watch live on ABC). It marks the third time in four years the two sides have met with MLS supremacy on the line, and amounts to the rubber match, with each team having hoisted the MLS Cup once. Yet it's the first time that Seattle has hosted the title game, so for Schmetzer it resonates even more.

"I am immensely proud of this franchise," he said. "Being a guy from Seattle, and this being your hometown team, and then the way my career path kind of happened -- [starting in Seattle with] a couple of stops down in San Diego, a year in St. Louis and Tulsa -- to have the MLS Cup final here, you're so fired up."

Seattle's run of MLS Cup finals would normally catapult a manager into discussions about the league's best coaches, yet Schmetzer's name hardly ever comes up. Granted, the fact that the Sounders are always in the playoffs -- they've reached the postseason every year since joining the league in 2009 -- means there's no "Most Improved" component to get him attention. There have been few wow moments in the regular season either, with Seattle finishing second in the Western Conference each of the past three seasons. There's also the matter of high expectations given that the Sounders have 13 players making above the maximum salary.

That lack of notoriety matters not at all to Schmetzer. He is a near perfect fit for the organization and the city at large.

"I'll let all the experts tell me whether I deserve all the praise for all this stuff, whether it's the team, whether it's Garth, whether it's [owner Adrian Hanauer], whether it's my assistants," he said. "I think there's a successful-enough organization, and what we all have are small bits and roles and parts within the team."

So how has Schmetzer achieved so much success? His approach is all about balance; when to push and when to ease off both in terms of tactics and in his talks with players. His steady accumulation of experience as a player and coach positioned him well to impart his vision.

Schmetzer's style can be traced back to his modest but lengthy playing career that spanned the heyday of the old North American Soccer League in the early-1980s, its demise and then the transition to the alphabet soup of various indoor leagues.

"My gift to the game was my endurance," Schmetzer said with a trace of humor. "I could run, I could get up and down the left wing. Steve Daley used to raise his arm and say, 'Schmeeetz!' And I'd take off and I'd run and he'd pass the ball somewhere else."

Schmetzer recalled how when he was an indoor teammate of Preki's, he would always be aware of where his more talented teammate was, the better to pick up the defensive slack when the ball was lost.

"Those little things helped me have a pro career just because I was smart enough to figure out a way how to get people to say, 'That Schmetz, he's a pretty handy guy,'" he said.

Along the way, he made note of the different locker room dynamics on the teams for which he played. There was an American-Brit divide in Seattle, while the Tulsa Roughneck team "was the tightest group of players I've ever seen." In San Diego, there were multiple cliques, so Schmetzer made sure to bounce around to each one of them. The experience of bridging those divides was useful during his coaching career given the wide disparity in pay in MLS, and the impact that can have on a locker room.

When Schmetzer transitioned into coaching, his time managing youth teams gave him an understanding of how to develop young players. He spent seven seasons managing the Sounders in the various second divisions of the time, and then took on the role of assistant under Sigi Schmid for another seven-plus years. Under Schmid, Schmetzer would imagine he was making the decisions, and if the head man did something different, Schmetzer would tease apart the reason why.

Schmid passed away last December, adding another emotional layer to Sunday's final. Schmetzer's gratitude towards his old mentor remains clear.

"Sigi's memory was unbelievable. Organizationally, structurally, he was better than I was," said Schmetzer. "I learned a lot from Sig as far as how to win in MLS."

It made for an extensive apprenticeship at all levels, so when the call to take over from Schmid came midway through the 2016 season, Schmetzer was ready. That included the knowledge of how his role would change now that he was the man in charge.

"Their livelihood is now in your hands," he said of his players. "What they require is honesty, whether it's the brutal honesty of, 'Hey, you're not playing this weekend,' or the brutal honesty of 'We're not going to renew your option for next year.' How you say that is massively important, as much so as when you compliment a player for a good job, trying to boost the player's confidence. It's different as a head coach than when I was an assistant."

Schmetzer emerged as a well-rounded coach, adept in all aspects. He describes himself as a players' coach in the mold of former Sounders manager Alan Hinton, who signed him as a teenager in 1980. He has also shown he can throw out a tactical wrinkle or two, like in the Western Conference final against LAFC.

"I think to get to the level that you need to get to in order to coach in MLS, you can't be too light on the tactics piece," said Sigi Schmid's son Kurt, who was previously Seattle's director of player personnel but is now the technical director for Inter Miami. "But that being said he's definitely very good at man management. I think some people can manage big groups really well, big personalities really well. I think Brian is really good at managing individuals really well. No one bats 1.000 in that department, but I think for the large majority of players who were there, he was always pretty good about just developing good relationships with those guys and even if guys walked away after hearing things they didn't like."

That ability to connect with players spans young and old alike. He has moved youngsters like Cristian Roldan and Jordan Morris along, and bonded with veterans like Roman Torres and Stefan Frei.

"There's a closeness there within the group because they know that we as a staff have their best interests at heart," said Schmetzer. "That closeness is developed out of mutual respect. It doesn't mean we're going to go on double dates with the players and their wives."

Schmetzer has been adaptable as well. Lagerwey notes that the 2016 team that Schmetzer led to that year's MLS Cup was more rugged following the midseason loss Clint Dempsey to a heart ailment. The following year there was the challenge of repeating as MLS Cup champions. The disappointment of being eliminated to archrival Portland last season was eclipsed this year by the run to the final, with Seattle dispatching LAFC along the way.

"I think that his kind of enduring quality has been that he can coach that 2016 run-and-fight team, and now he can coach this team which can play soccer," said Lagerwey. "We can score a bunch of different ways and be more varied in our attack and our approach and how we play. The credit to him is he can manage both, his message resonates with both groups."

Schmetzer called 2019 his toughest year given the forced retirement of defender Chad Marshall, the injury to forward Will Bruin as well as the suspension to Torres for using performance-enhancing drugs. But now he is on the cusp of another title.

"If I can get them all to believe that if they work for each other and fight for each other, that's the best way they can win, then I'm doing my job as a manager," he said.

With a win on Sunday, praise from outside will surely follow, whether Schmetzer wants it or not.

LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky wants televisions turned off inside Halas Hall to insulate the struggling team from outside criticism.

"Trying to get some of these TVs in the building turned off because you've got too many people talking on TV about us and what they think about us -- what we should do, what we are and what we're not -- but they don't really know who we are or what we're capable of as people or what we're going through or what we're thinking, it's just the outside viewers looking in," Trubisky said before Wednesday's practice.

"So tunnel vision, ear muffs and just come to work every day and try to get better and get back to what we know we're capable of doing."

Trubisky, 25, is having a forgettable third NFL season. The second overall pick of the 2017 NFL draft, Trubisky might not even pass for 2,500 yards or throw for double-digit touchdowns. By comparison, 16 other quarterbacks have already thrown for over 2,000 yards. After seven starts, Trubisky has 1,217 passing yards with five touchdowns and three interceptions and is 31st in the league in QBR (34.8).

Offensively, the Bears rank near the bottom in most statistical categories. Chicago had nine total net yards in last Sunday's loss to the Eagles. The Bears failed to record a first down in that game until under a minute left until halftime.

After getting off to a 3-1 start, the Bears have lost four straight and sit in last place in the NFC North. The Bears finished last in their division four straight years from 2014 to '17 before they surprised the league last season with a 12-4 record and a trip to the playoffs in head coach Matt Nagy's first year.

"It is totally different [this year in terms of expectations]," Nagy said on Wednesday. "Because last year there aren't those outside expectations. No one knew exactly what we were getting in to [last season]. And then we made a little run. We ended up winning the division. And we put ourselves in a great opportunity to where now the expectations are meteoric.

"Now they're just extremely high for a team that's coming from where we were coming from. And that's great. We're not asking for anything different. We want that. If you don't crave that pressure and you don't crave that, then you shouldn't be on this team."

Chicago (3-5) hosts the Detroit Lions (3-4-1) on Sunday.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Alabama coach Nick Saban told ESPN on Wednesday that quarterback Tua Tagovailoa has made promising strides this week in practice and that "there's a good chance he will play" Saturday against No. 2-ranked LSU if he continues to make the progress he's made to this point.

"It's still day-to-day, and you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow or the next day, but he's moving around well and throwing the ball with confidence," Saban said. "His mobility will be the big question, but every day that's improved dramatically."

Tagovailoa, who's passed for 2,166 yards, 27 touchdowns and two interceptions this season for the No. 3-ranked Tide, underwent a "tight-rope" surgical procedure on Oct. 20 after suffering a high ankle sprain on his right ankle against Tennessee. He missed the 48-7 win over Arkansas two weeks ago, and Alabama had an open date last week. Tagovailoa had the same "tight-rope" procedure on his left ankle last season after injuring it in the SEC Championship Game win over Georgia and returned to play less than a month later against Oklahoma in the College Football Playoff semifinal.

Saban told ESPN that Tagovailoa hasn't experienced the swelling or soreness that he did a year ago after injuring his left ankle. The other thing that helps, according to Saban, is that this most recent injury was not to the left-handed Tagovailoa's plant foot when he's throwing the football.

"He knows what to expect now, and you could tell with his rehab," Saban said. "Sometimes the first time a guy gets hurt, they're even afraid in rehab and are asking, 'Am I doing too much? Am I doing enough? It hurts, should I keep doing this?' But even in rehab, Tua was so much more aggressive because he knew the outcome. He already had it before, and his body also knew what to expect. It's a lot like if you never had a stint before in your heart, you'd be scared to death the first time they did it. But if you had to do it a second time, you'd probably be a lot more at ease."

Saban said the key would be Tagovailoa's mobility, which is something you never really know for sure about until you get into a game.

"If you watched (Tuesday's) practice film, you would have a hard time even recognizing that the guy is hurt," Saban said. "But we're not asking him to do everything he would in a game. He's not scrambling for a first down. He's not getting chased by a defensive end or any of that stuff, so it's a little bit controlled. We'll continue to monitor him and see how he progresses, but we're pleased with where he is."

Alabama receiver Henry Ruggs III told ESPN that he's seen enough to know that Tagovalioa will be on the field Saturday against the Tigers.

"He looks good. You can tell he's comfortable and will be ready to go," Ruggs said.

Saban emphasized that if there were some type of setback this week in practice or during the game that Alabama would not take any chances with Tagovailoa, who was also dealing with a sprained knee a year ago when he injured his ankle.

"We've been focused on making sure we get both guys (Mac Jones and Tagovailoa) ready to play as best we can," Saban said. "I'm not going to put Tua in a situation that could be detrimental to him or his future."

Saban said Tagovailoa was "one of the most positive people I've ever been around," and that his can-do mentality along with his toughness has permeated the entire team.

"It's always about team with Tua and what's right in front of him that day. He wants to play, wants to be out there," Saban said. "He loves it, always puts the team first and is competitive. I can't say enough about him."

The one thing Saban has been preaching to Tagovailoa since last season is not to push the envelope on every play.

"You hate to take his competitive spirit away from him, but he will not give up on a play," Saban said. "He should have never gotten hurt on the play he got hurt on. I told him, 'Throw the ball away. You can't be Superman. You can't be trying to make plays that aren't there.' He just won't give up on a play, which you love that competitive spirit. But we also want him to make smart decisions."

Despite All-NBA forward Kawhi Leonard sitting out consecutive national television games one week apart, the league said the LA Clippers are in compliance of its rules on resting players.

Leonard will miss Wednesday night's game against the Milwaukee Bucks on ESPN, the second straight week his national TV absence fell on the opening game of a Clippers back-to-back.

"Kawhi Leonard is not a healthy player under the league's resting policy, and, as such, is listed as managing a knee injury in the LA Clippers injury report," spokesman Mike Bass told ESPN on Wednesday. "The league office, in consultation with the NBA's director of sports medicine, is comfortable with team medical staff's determination that Leonard is not sufficiently healthy to play in back-to-back games at this time."

The Clippers and Leonard are working on a long-range plan to keep him healthy, and that will continue to include sitting out portions of back-to-backs, as well as other limitations on him during the season.

Leonard and the Clippers could've chosen the non-national TV game of last week's back-to-back for his absence, but they weren't required to do so under the league's resting policy. Because Leonard is deemed to be hurt, resting policy rules don't apply.

Leonard hasn't played a back-to-back since early April 2017 for San Antonio. The Clippers and Leonard have no plans in near future for him to return to back-to-back participation in the regular season, sources told ESPN.

Leonard did not play in the Clippers' 110-96 loss at Utah last Wednesday, which was televised nationally on ESPN. The Clippers-Bucks game will be aired on ESPN, and Thursday's game against the Portland Trail Blazers will be on TNT.

Leonard has averaged 29.3 points, 7.3 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 2.3 steals in six games this season.

All-Star forward Paul George is moving closer to making his season debut, planning to participate in 5-on-5 practice on Saturday. He has yet to make his Clippers debut after offseason surgery on both of his shoulders.