ALIQUIPPA, Pa. – Tim Shaffer and his crew chief Cody Jacobs have parted ways with Demyan-Rudzik Racing, effective immediately.

Demyan-Rudzik Racing made the announcement via the team’s official Twitter account early Friday afternoon.

DR Racing and Tim Shaffer along with Cody Jacobs have mutually decided to split ways. We want to thank them for the last couple years of racing and wish them both the best in their futures.

— Demyan-Rudzik Racing (@DR_Racing) August 16, 2019

Shaffer joined Demyan-Rudzik Racing in 2016 and has scored multiple wins with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series and Ollie’s Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of Champions. He also earned a $100,000 payday last year for winning the Sprint Car World Championship at Mansfield (Ohio) Motor Speedway.

The four-time All Star champion and winner of the 50th Knoxville Nationals at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway has earned four wins this year aboard the No. 49x Demyan-Rudzik Racing, most recently at Williams Grove Speedway in Pennsylvania against the World of Outlaws.

Shaffer’s last race with Demyan-Rudzik Racing was the 59th NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals, where he finished 21st in the 50-lap main event last Saturday night.

When reached by phone Friday afternoon, Shaffer said he was informed of the team’s decision to part ways Friday morning.

“It was news to me at about 10 o’clock this morning,” Shaffer said. “They put in there where both agreed to part ways. Well, they agreed to part their way. I didn’t know nothing about it 10 o’clock this morning.

“It was a great four years or whatever we had. We worked so hard to build a team to be very competitive. We could go anywhere and race with anybody and go win. I thought that was pretty special. For it to just fall apart like this, I don’t understand.”

The suddenness of his departure from Demyan-Rudzik Racing leaves Shaffer unsure of his next move. With so few quality sprint car rides available, Shaffer said finding a new ride will be easier said than done.

“There are very few out there. That’s the problem now a days,” Shaffer said. “We don’t have the owners and teams out there like we use to. The teams we do have out there, these younger guys come in with money. I’m just old school. I don’t have that. It is what it is. Not sure what I’m going to do.”

Barcelona midfielder Philippe Coutinho has been ruled out for Friday's La Liga opener with sources confirming to ESPN FC that the club is in advanced negotiations with Bayern Munich about a loan deal for the Brazil international.

Coutinho, who Barcelona has been looking to offload this summer after a disappointing year-and-a-half at the club, was set to be part of the squad to face Athletic Bilbao but was dropped about an hour before kickoff as a deal to the German champs inches closer.

More to follow...

Lord's day two, evening, 2009. The Oval, day two, afternoon, 2009. Lord's, day two, afternoon, 2013. Durham, day four, evening, 2013. Edgbaston, day one, afternoon, 2015. Trent Bridge, day one, morning, 2015.

Just six sessions over 10 years, but together they have been enough to more or less hand England the Ashes on three consecutive tours. Each time Australia suffered a cataclysmic batting collapse of at least six wickets in a session that either set-up or sealed a match for England, generally when clouds and pitch provided assistance for the hosts.

To that catalogue it would have been so easy to add Lord's day three, morning, 2019. Clouds overhead, rain in the air preparing to fall for the rest of the day, a pitch that had sweated under its overnight covers. These were conditions made to order for England, and it was a marked departure from the aforementioned litany that saw Australia lose only three wickets in the two hours of play that were possible prior to lunch.

Far from a strong session for Tim Paine's team, but not disastrous. As their mentor Steve Waugh observed afterwards, the potential for a match-shaping session had been avoided through some doughty batting from Steven Smith and Matthew Wade in particular. "I thought we actually did pretty well," Waugh said. "We talked before the start of the series that the key to doing well over here is to not have a disastrous session.

"You're going to lose some sessions, but just lose them closely, not by big margins. That's exactly what we've talked about and that's what the guys did really well. If you lose a couple of quick wickets there, the potential is to lose five or six or seven and then really the Test matches you're going to struggle to come back from that. We hung in there really well. I thought while Wade is 0 not out he's faced 20-odd balls. Steve Smith again looked pretty self-assured. But that was a crucial partnership, if we lost a couple more wickets there, it could've been a tough session.

For Smith (13 from 40 balls) and Wade (0 from 23 balls) the instinct for survival took precedence over their natural desire to score. "It was difficult conditions," Waugh said. "I was down on ground level and that was good quality bowling - England were very disciplined. There's a bit in the pitch, it's a bit two-paced and a bit off the seam so you have to work really hard. It's the sort of pitch where you've seen everyone who's scored runs in this Test match has scored at less than a run every second ball.

"So it's not a pitch where you're going to go out and dominate, you've got to work really hard and get through the tough periods and hopefully the ball gets soft or the sun comes out and conditions change. You've got to sum up the conditions and I guess from a bowling point of view try to seize the moment. From a batting point of view you've got to stem the blood less and hold steady."

Part of the process of staunching the bleeding was not allowing any to be spilled in the first hour, Cameron Bancroft and Usman Khawaja did exceptionally well to see out the initial exchanges, rotating the strike and showing decent judgment of what to leave. Bancroft's efforts to get his head over the ball were sometimes to exaggerated as to give the impression he might trip directly over it, while Khawaja nailed a pair of back foot drives off Chris Woakes that got the Friday Lord's crowd purring.

However, Bancroft's tendency also to fall across his crease meant England's lbw search looked likely to be rewarded, as it was when Jofra Archer brought one back down the hill to hit him on the back pad. A review from Bancroft only confirmed that the ball was clipping the bails, and England had opened things up. They opened further when Khawaja, having left well earlier in his innings, dabbled at a Woakes delivery that, while well pitched, was fractionally wide enough to also shoulder arms.

Travis Head, so proactive at Edgbaston, immediately found himself cornered, beaten from over the wicket before Stuart Broad reverted to the line around the wicket that has so confounded the South Australian captain over the years. Crease bound in part due to Archer's pace, he was the plumbest of lbws, even if Aleem Dar initially declined the appeal for the hint of a double noise. Wade was given out before the showers arrived, also lbw, but ball-tracking revealed that Stokes angle from wide of the crease had the ball pitching marginally outside leg stump.

All the while Smith left the ball as much as he could, offering his post-leave flourishes with even more spark than usual - as though giving himself little post-delivery rewards for denying a natural instinct to get bat on ball. England, in keeping with Joe Root's assertion before this match that Smith's outlandishness can have a tendency to "put off" bowlers and captains from orthodoxy in their plans, stuck more rigorously to the region just outside the off stump and if they didn't dismiss Smith, made it far harder for him to score.

ALSO READ: Must ignore Smith's twitches and stick to plans - Root

England, too, were left with hope from the session that, while the dam did not burst this day, it may yet do so at Leeds, Manchester or the Oval. "Yeah it will happen," Broad said when asked whether he could see England scooping six or seven wickets in a session this series. "We know in England it's not necessarily the pitch that plays a huge part in that, it's the overhead conditions that you need a bit of luck when you're batting or bowling. Here at Lord's if the sun comes out you can quite easily go and get a wicketless session with the bat.

"But you know if it clouds over and the humidity rises you can get 10 wickets in a session. You need a bit of luck of when those conditions fall, and both bowling attacks I think have got a lot of confidence in taking wickets, and I think this series will be quite intriguing in periods in which batting unit can soak up the pressure and actually get through periods of good bowling, and which batting unit maybe tries to hit their way out and struggles.

"The weather's played a part in this Test match and there's still a chance of a result. I can't see too many draws coming in the next three, I think they'll be result Test matches."

Nevertheless, this was the sort of session in which the teams of 2009, 2013 and 2015 may well have lost six wickets or more. To only lose three meant that the Australians entered the final two days of a rain blighted match with a chance to wriggle their way to a more advantageous position. For the first time in at least four Ashes tours, they ended a potential banana skin of a day without having fallen on their faces.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Daniel Cormier and Stipe Miocic weighed in successfully Friday morning for their UFC heavyweight title fight -- both significantly lighter than they did for their first matchup last year.

Cormier weighed in at 236.5 pounds and Miocic hit the scale at 230.5 pounds. The heavyweight title fight maximum is 265 pounds. Cormier will defend his belt against Miocic in the main event of UFC 241 on Saturday night at Honda Center.

In July 2018, Cormier knocked out Miocic in the first round at UFC 226 to win the heavyweight title. Before that bout, Cormier weighed in at 246.5 pounds. In Cormier's subsequent fight against Derrick Lewis at UFC 230 last November, he weighed 251.2 pounds -- nearly 15 pounds heavier than he weighed in Friday.

Miocic weighed in at 242.5 pounds at UFC 226. This is the lightest Miocic has ever weighed in for a UFC fight. The previous low was 236 in his 2011 UFC debut.

Cormier (22-1, 1 NC) is a former two-division UFC champion and one of the greatest fighters in the promotion's history. The Northern California resident's lone official loss came against Jon Jones in 2015. Cormier, 40, has said this could be his final career bout.

Miocic (18-3) has not fought since losing to Cormier in July 2018. The Ohio native defended the UFC heavyweight title a division-record three consecutive times before dropping it to Cormier. Miocic, 36, had won six straight prior to UFC 226 and he has beaten the likes of Francis Ngannou, Junior dos Santos and Alistair Overeem.

The co-main event for UFC 241 is also official. Nate Diaz, in his return fight after three years away, weighed in at 170 pounds for the welterweight contest. His opponent, former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis, weighed 169.5 pounds.

Yoel Romero, who has had issues making weight in the past, made 184.5 pounds for his middleweight fight with Paulo Costa. The middleweight limit is 186. Costa came in right at 186 pounds. All the other fighters on the UFC 241 card made weight.

A bout between Manny Bermudez and Casey Kenney was originally scheduled for bantamweight, but was moved up to a 140-pound catchweight Thursday night because both had a large weight cut, California State Athletic Commission executive officer Andy Foster told ESPN.

Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey has always championed his players and he's gone to a new extreme in praising James Harden.

"It's just factual that James Harden is a better scorer than Michael Jordan," Morey said on the "Selfmade with Nadeshot" podcast.

Morey acknowledged that people "hate" his take, but explained how the numbers support his statement.

"Based on literally, like you give James Harden the ball and before you're giving up the ball how many points do you generate? Which is how you should measure offense, James Harden is by far No. 1 in NBA history," Morey said on the podcast that was published Thursday.

Harden, the league's MVP for the 2017-18 season and a two-time scoring champion, has seen his points per game average go up every season since 2013-14, culminating with his 36.1 last season.

Jordan, a 10-time scoring champ and five-time MVP, averaged over 30 points for eight of his 15 seasons in the NBA.

Harden gets the statistical edge in advanced metrics. His effective field goal percent, which factors in that 3-pointers are worth more than 2-pointers, stands at 52.5 for his career compared to Jordan's 50.9. Harden's true shooting percentage, which factors in free throws as well, stands at 60.9 percent, while Jordan's was at 56.9.

Harden wins out thanks to the sheer volume of three-pointers he shoots in an era of offense vastly different than Jordan's time. As a result, Morey's point faces obvious criticism that if Jordan played now and shot more than his career average of 1.7 3-point attempts per game then he'd have numbers similar to or better than Harden.

"The counter argument is reasonable," Morey conceded. "They say if you put Michael Jordan on a team now he would do more than James Harden. That's possible. But if you're just saying, 'NBA history, if you give this guy the ball how much does his team score after you give him the ball before the other team gets the ball?' It's James Harden. And I know that makes people mad, but it's literally a fact."

THOMASVILLE, N.C. – PODS Moving & Storage has joined Rick Ware Racing as a sponsor beginning this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway.

PODS Moving & Storage will be the primary sponsor on the No. 54 driven by J.J. Yeley in Saturday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race.

In addition, PODS Moving & Storage will be an associate partner at Rick Ware Racing for the remainder for the season.

“I’m excited to have such a fantastic company join Rick Ware Racing,” said team owner Rick Ware. “I look forward to continuing to grow with PODS, both on the track and through social media and marketing platforms within NASCAR.”

“Whether it’s local or cross-country, at PODS we are passionate about helping our customers move,” said David Redmond, Senior Vice President of Marketing at PODS.  “In celebration of our one millionth long-distance move, we’re excited to sponsor J.J. Yeley and Rick Ware Racing as they move the No. 54 car around the track at the famous Bristol Motor Speedway.”

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Despite rumors about his future, Christopher Bell is remaining mum about his plans for next season and beyond.

Bell, who currently drives for Joe Gibbs Racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, is expected to be named the driver of the No. 95 Leavine Family Racing Toyota in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series beginning next year.

On Thursday morning, Matt DiBenedetto, the current driver of Leavine Family Racing’s No. 95, confirmed he wouldn’t be returning to the team, further fanning the flame of speculation about Bell’s future.

However, Bell said Thursday afternoon he has no news to report regarding his speculated move to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series next season.

“I’m sure everybody is wondering about 2020, but nothing is official until it comes from me or whatever team,” Bell said. “I have no news to tell you guys right now. We’ll just have to wait for another day.

“Ultimately, like I’ve said time and time again, my future is not really in my hands, so the only thing that I can control is if I can go out there and try and win races and do as good as I can. I have to play the cards how they fall.”

Bell, the three-time and reigning winner of the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals, has been on the fast track to NASCAR’s top level for the last few seasons. He made his NASCAR debut in 2015 in the Gander Outdoors Truck Series, winning his first race in his third series start at Eldora (Ohio) Speedway.

He claimed the Truck Series title for Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2017 before moving up to the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2018 for Joe Gibbs Racing. In 62 Xfinity Series starts Bell has won 13 times, including five races this season as he chases the Xfinity Series title.

With Erik Jones expected to ink a contract extension with Joe Gibbs Racing to remain in the No. 20 Toyota and Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin not going anywhere anytime soon, the recently announced opening at Leavine Family Racing seems like the only logical place for Bell to land next season.

While that may seem like the most logical choice, Bell continues to maintain that he does not know what car he’ll be driving next year. For now, his goal is to keep winning races as he continues to chase the Xfinity Series title.

“It’s still — all the way up in the air,” Bell said. “There’s a number of different cars that I could drive next year. I mean obviously I could still run the Xfinity Series, I could go to the Cup Series. It’s not in my hands right now. Just have to go out there and try and continue to win races and ultimately that’s the only way I’m going to better myself is if I can win races.”

BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. — The question we’ve fielded most often over our years with SPEED SPORT is “How did you get to be a writer with them?”

And knowing the people who asked, many probably thought they should have had the slot instead of me, including one who was going to “put me out of SPEED SPORT, Stock Car Magazine and Open Wheel Magazine,” but soon disappeared from the scene.

Actually, getting started was relatively easy, though the motivation was extremely sad. In one summer, NASCAR modified kingpin Freddy DeSarro perished when he hit a sandbank at Thompson (Conn.) Speedway, Mike Grbac lost his life in a crash at Reading (Pa.) Fairgrounds and my brother (Randy) broke his back at Oswego (N.Y.) Speedway when a car spun and they hit nose to nose, sending Randy far enough skyward that he hit the crossbar on an infield light pole.

As a result, I sent NSSN a column on safety, which Chris Economaki liked and published, beginning an association that has lasted 41 years.

Economaki even chose the name for my column, saying the safety piece took a “long look” at the problems prevalent at most short tracks regardless of the classes competing. And until his last day in the editor’s chair, nothing was more valued than one of Chris’ typed postcards complimenting you on something you’d written, often with a suggestion of another topic to pursue.

Technology was different then and you had to mail your typed column so it arrived in Ridgewood, N.J., by Thursday in order to make the following week’s newspaper.

Results were phoned in Monday morning, with an amazing typist taking down the stories as you dictated unless you got to a name like Eddie Pieniezak, which always produced a quick, “Hold on, how do you spell that?”

For years, my first period auto shop class knew that on Monday in the spring and fall, they had to behave and help each other out with problems while I was on my office phone dictating stories.

Our first NSSN-supplied Tandy computer, though primitive, was a godsend and things have gotten progressively easier ever since.

Today, a race results story is often posted on SPEEDSPORT.com within minutes of being written and emailed. And the internet now makes getting photographs to go with the story a relative walk in the park. Gone are the days when after Super DIRT Week at Syracuse, we had to gather film from the photographers and hand it off to photographer Steve Peters, who would drop it off at the Ridgewood, N.J., office on his way home to Lansdale, Pa.

Looking back, it’s difficult to believe what a giant Chris Economaki was in the racing world. He knew absolutely everyone worth knowing and, in turn, could make almost anything happen. One time we were attending the NASCAR Cup Series race at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) Int’l as a family when we bumped into Chris, who wondered why we weren’t in the garage area gathering information.

When told we hadn’t applied for credentials, he simply said: “Follow me!”  We ended up at the garage entrance, where he told the lady at the window that I was one of his people and absolutely needed garage credentials right now. And within seconds, I had them. Who else could have made that happen?

Watkins Glen was also the site of another great experience while researching a Stock Car magazine piece on editor Chris. It was another era, when drivers and owners hung around the garage instead of hiding in their motor coaches and a rainy Saturday afternoon gave us the opportunity to ask a large number of insiders for their best Chris Economaki story.

The only one who refused comment was Benny Parsons, who may well have been the subject of a negative Economaki comment in his column, read weekly by everyone in the industry.

But on the other side of the coin, Richard Petty spewed out a seemingly endless stream of anecdotes involving the two of them. The most memorable, by far, was his description of riding around New York City with Economaki, notorious for his high-speed, somewhat erratic driving, to make radio and TV appearances on behalf of an upcoming NASCAR event.

Petty told of going the wrong way down one-way streets, driving on the sidewalk when they were late for the next appearance and parking on the sidewalk or in front of fire hydrants when no slots were available.

“The most scared I’ve ever been in an automobile was riding with Chris Economaki,” Petty declared.

Economaki and a loyal troop of associate editors built and carried on one of auto racing’s great traditions. How they got the paper out to the printer every Monday night after spending the weekend at far away races remains a mystery. But we do know that people are still lamenting the loss of the weekly print edition.

Today, instead of a postcard from Chris, you get an email from Mike Kerchner saying “take a bow” when you write something for the magazine that really impresses him. That was another of Economaki’s ways of telling someone they’d done well.

It also reminds everyone that Economaki’s spirit and unalterable dedication to getting the story right remains with us. The technology has changed over 85 years, but not the mission.