Welshman Nigel Owens will referee a Wales game for the first time when they host Barbarians on 30 November.

The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) revealed the appointment after getting "special dispensation" from World Rugby.

Owens, 46, refereed the 2015 World Cup final and will officiate at the 2019 tournament in Japan this autumn.

Current Wales coach Warren Gatland will be coaching Barbarians for the match as his successor Wayne Pivac takes charge of the team for the first time.

The WRU also confirmed Wales women will face Spain and Scotland as well as Crawshays before they host Barbarians women in the double-header at Principality Stadium.

Owens' appointment is unique in the professional era of rugby union, when neutral referees take control of Test matches.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. – Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion and Joe Gibbs Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. has launched MTJ Aviation, a part 135 private charter company.

MTJ Aviation is an ARGUS Gold certified Part 135 charter operator, based in Mooresville, N.C. The organization is a private charter aviation company that caters to clients that prioritize safety and care about cost.

MTJ Aviation’s chief pilot, Guy Cooper, has more than 15 years of experience in corporate aviation, including time as a jet captain at Delta Private Jets with experience managing and flying a wide variety of corporate turbine aircraft.

MTJ Aviation’s line pilots have extensive experience in a wide range of aviation fields including major airlines, corporations and the United States Military.

MTJ Aviation’s Director of Maintenance, Ron Dietz II, has more than 20 years of experience as an airframe and power plant technician. His background includes maintenance with fleet operators, such as Flight Options, US Airways and multiple charter operations.

“I decided to launch a private aviation charter company because of our experience flying to
NASCAR races every weekend over the last decade or so,” said Truex. “MTJ Aviation offers a refreshing alternative because there are no fractional ownerships, memberships or long-term contracts; we simply fly you from point A to point B safely at a reasonable cost.”

CONCORD, N.C. — Danny Dietrich leads the National Sprint Car Rankings for the third straight week, raising his average finish to 3.431.

Dietrich has made a national best 66 starts this season and has been dropping lackluster finishes since he hit the 50-start mark. The Gettysburg, Pa., driver won his 14th feature of the season last Friday at Williams Grove Speedway.

His 3.431 average finish is down from 3.7 the previous week, putting him ahead of World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series driver Brad Sweet, who has an average finish of 3.680 in 59 starts.

World of Outlaws point leader Donny Schatz (4.420) remains third, with an average finish of 4.020 in 56 races.

Two more World of Outlaws drivers — David Gravel (4.260) and Daryn Pittman (5.620) — round out the top five.

Logan Wagner, Cap Henry, Logan Schuchart, Jade Hastings, who entered the top 10 for the first time, and Buddy Kofoid round out the top 10.

Dietrich leads the Eastern region on the strength of 14 victories, while other regional leaders are Buddy Kofoid (Great Lakes), Billy Balog (Great Plains), Logan Schuchart (Northwest), Dominic Scelzi (West), Jacob Patton (Mid-America) and Carl Bowser. (Ohio-PA).

One hundred and 18 drivers have combined to win 315 features run through Sept. 2.

To view the complete rankings, click below.

Steve Torrence might be a little late to the party, but he’s there.

The reigning NHRA Top Fuel champion, who has raced with a stubborn fury that rivals or surpasses anything drag racing’s legends have dished out, has learned that dominance is necessary only at the right time.

Others already had caught on to that strategy, trying to maneuver their way through NHRA’s six-race, end-of-season Countdown to the Championship playoff.

Torrence, the plain-talking Texan, was blunt about his disdain for the format he regards as socialistic. And he has a powerful ally in the creative three-time champion Antron Brown, who has a clever and rational idea for the sanctioning body to consider.

The Countdown began in 2007 and was patterned after NASCAR’s Chase. The purpose was to maintain fan interest until the final day of the season.

That has happened with Brown, Erica Enders, Brittany Force, John Force, Matt Hagan and Tony Schumacher among those who have clinched series titles in dramatic fashion.

For more than a decade, the top 10 in each professional class after an 18-race so-called “regular season” duke it out in a six-event run. Points are bunched in 10-point increments, with the leader having a 20-point advantage.

As if NHRA drag racing wasn’t complicated enough, the inaugural version of the Countdown in 2007 was a bit over structured and restrictive. The field featured only the top eight drivers after a 17-race regular season. The number of title-eligible racers shrank to four with two events remaining. Drivers’ points were reset in 10-point increments for the first round of the playoffs and again in 10-point increments for the two-race showdown.

The traditional point system didn’t guarantee the driver with the most victories throughout the year would earn the championship. Surprisingly, 16 times among the professional categories from 1974 through 2006, the final year under the “old” format, the champion didn’t win the most races.

Torrence spoke out about the Countdown format in 2017 after he won eight times but lost the championship to Brittany Force.

“It is what it is,” Torrence said. “This whole NHRA deal with the welfare points system is just a crock of crap. You come out here and race for 24 races and you only get to count six. Brittany got hot in the last few races and did good, and you can’t take that away from them. But those guys wouldn’t even be in contention if it wasn’t for this bullshit points system they’ve got. So it is what it is and we’ve got to play by their rules. Congrats to Brittany. Great job. She won the championship. It is what it is, but it’s still bullshit.”

Curiously, in the Countdown-era alone, it had happened seven times before Torrence lashed out.

The most classic example came 10 years ago and inspires hopefuls today. Robert Hight, who had seven first-round losses and two failures to qualify in the 2009 regular season, came from 10th place with three Countdown triumphs to grab his first of two Funny Car championships.

“Robert Hight won the championship from the 10th spot once, but if it was the old, natural way, he would never have been close to winning the championship that year,” Brown said. “What it did is took away from all the teams all their work. I feel like our sport was truly better the old, natural way. That’s my own personal opinion.”

He expressed the same sentiment about Torrence’s disappointment in 2017.

“We race out here. That’s what we do — we race hard,” he said. “Steve and that Capco team worked hard. They won more races than anybody and they deserve the championship. They worked real hard and nobody else would be even close.”

Torrence was so perturbed about losing the title that had appeared to be his that he mule-stomped everyone last season. He was perfect in 11 final rounds and swept all 24 elimination rounds of the Countdown to secure the championship.

Brown understood.

“The regular season is one thing, but the bad part is you really don’t get anything for doing good in the regular season. You’ve got six races to win a championship,” Brown said. “And everything that we’ve done for the last 18 races means nothing. It means nothing. All we did was just seed you.

“We went through a precursor, and all that hard work has gone out the window. And I hate it, because I’m an old-school man where I think all the points should count. Everybody races, and everybody knows this going in. Whoever gets hot for these six races is going to bring the championship home,” he added.

INDIANAPOLIS – The Driven2SaveLives BC39 powered by NOS Energy Drink is an event that was created in honor of late USAC star Bryan Clauson, a race he dreamed of seeing come to fruition for so long.

A three-time Indianapolis 500 starter and renowned short-track competitor, Clauson had tugged on the sleeve of Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Doug Boles for years before his untimely passing in August of 2016, trying to get a dirt track built inside the famed 2.5-mile IMS oval.

Finally, last September, that dream of Clauson’s was realized.

Because of who the race tributes and why it was created, the BC39 is an event that is close to the heart of all four of the full-time USAC drivers competing for Clauson-Marshall Racing, the team co-owned by Clauson’s father Tim and businessman Richard Marshall that was launched in the wake of his passing.

It arguably gets no bigger for a driver than Clauson’s longtime friend Tyler Courtney, who was one of the closest in the dirt pits to Clauson and was quick to nod to Clauson’s mentoring in his early racing days.

“This is … I’m sure the word special will get said a lot this week, but there’s not enough different words for that to explain what it means to me, to us, to this team,” said Courtney, the current USAC National Midget point leader. “I got to watch him run an Indy car on the big track here, and then obviously I got to be a part of a lot of his success in the dirt track ranks. I got to be a part of his first major championship and a lot of stuff like that. He mentored me along the way and formed me into what I’ve become today.

“It means a lot to get to race in his honor, and to do it at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, I think, is the cherry on top. Bryan loved this place.”

Second-year USAC driver Zeb Wise was Clauson’s final selection as a development driver before his death, and Wise repaid that selection with a win in the Stoops Pursuit race on the IMS dirt a year ago.

If not for Clauson, Wise might not even be at the level he is right now, making a potential BC39 victory even more meaningful in the 16-year-old’s eyes.

“I tell people this a lot, but if it wasn’t for Bryan believing in me, I probably wouldn’t be driving a midget, especially for Tim Clauson and Clauson Marshall Racing,” Wise said. “To race in his honor, not only at a race he basically started and wanted to have happen, but to race in honor of his number, to be his last development pick … it’s kind of breathtaking, for me, to look back and realize what’s all happening once the car hits the race track.

“Then when you add having Driven2SaveLives on board, that’s just one more thing, with them being the title sponsor of the race,” Wise continued. “It’s unbelievable to be able to roll out there and race in his honor, and we just want to carry on his legacy as much as we can.”

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