ALISO VIEJO, Calif. – Speakers and presenters taking part in this year’s Performance Racing Industry Trade Show Education program represent a who’s who of industry experts and top performers on the track, in the shop, and behind the businesses that specialize in race parts and services.

Attendees of the 2019 PRI Show, set for Dec. 12–14 at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, will have more opportunities than ever to pick up valuable tips and takeaways during an expanded seminar lineup covering a wide range of topics — from sales and marketing strategies to finding and hiring qualified employees to best practices in race track operations and much more.

In fact, included among this year’s expanded educational programming are several technical seminars focused on race engine technology, a roundtable with top sanctioning body representatives, a panel discussion featuring top female drivers, and more than a dozen business-focused sessions guaranteed to help racing professionals boost their operations ahead of the 2020 season.

“The quality and quantity of educational programming offered at this year’s PRI Trade Show is nothing short of extraordinary,” said PRI Editor Dan Schechner. “PRI Education has put together an incredible lineup of top-flight presenters and panelists in order to deliver unprecedented value for Show attendees and exhibitors. Regardless of the business or racing segment you’re involved in, we guarantee you’ll come out of our seminars more informed and better prepared for future success.”

With more to be announced in the coming months, speakers scheduled to participate in this year’s PRI Education program include:

• Engineer and author David Vizard: With more than 30 automotive books and 4,000 magazine articles, Vizard is one of the world’s most widely published automotive writers. His technical seminar will offer insights and lessons from Vizard’s 50 years of engine customization.
• Lake Speed Jr. of Driven Racing Oil: Speed, a certified lubricant specialist, plans to discuss the latest evolutions in oils and fuels as they relate to direct injection engines, diesel engines, modern engines, and vintage engines.
• Darin Morgan of Reher-Morrison Racing Engines: In his seminar on key advances in modern cylinder and port design, Morgan will go in-depth on how efficiency has increased power over the years while uncovering the pitfalls associated with this technology.
• Jason Enders of RE Suspension and Gary Crooks of Port City Racecars: Enders and Crooks team up to present a seminar on bump stops and provide the necessary working knowledge to help teams better understand their race cars. Attendees will learn about the latest technology that short track asphalt racers are using to push the envelope.
• Jeanette DesJardins of Car Chix and Crank It Media will moderate an all-female panel that includes racing standouts Natalie Decker, Lea Ochs, and Sarah Burgess discussing opportunities for women in motorsports. Attendees will hear about their challenges, triumphs and lessons learned, and better understand how to market to, engage with, and raise awareness among young women interested in pursuing motorsports as a career.
• NHRA Announcer Alan Reinhart: Reinhart will lead a roundtable featuring representatives from ARCA, NASA, IMCA, NMCA/NMRA, and other race sanctioning bodies discussing a range of topics at the forefront of motorsports today, such as controlling costs, technical specs, and rules enforcement.

This year’s PRI-sponsored seminars, which are presented free of charge for all registered Show attendees and exhibitors, will be broken out by tracks—Sales & Marketing, Business Operations, International, Opportunities in Racing, Sanctions & Tracks, and Technical Education. All sessions are 60- to 90-minutes long and will take place in the Convention Center’s upstairs meeting rooms during all three days of the Show in the Convention Center’s upstairs meeting rooms. More information on specific seminar times, dates and locations is available at prishow.com/education.

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. – Matt Kenseth, the 2003 NASCAR Cup Series champion, will serve as Grand Marshal of the NASCAR Xfinity Series CTECH Manufacturing 180 on Aug. 24.

Kenseth, from Cambridge, Wis., a two-time Daytona 500 champion, racked up 39 victories at 19 different tracks and took the top honor in 2003 as the NASCAR Cup Series champion.

Kenseth also boasts an International Race of Champions title in 2004, and qualified for the Playoffs in 13 of 14 seasons. Kenseth’s 39 Cup Series victories ranked him 19th all-time entering 2018. He also recorded 20 pole positions, 181 top-five finishes and 327 top-10 finishes in 650 starts or more than 50 percent of his total Cup starts.

Kenseth has also collected 29 wins in NASCAR’s Xfinity Series, with his last victory coming in the series’ at the season-finale event at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2014. Kenseth has earned 139 top-five finishes, 202 top-ten finishes, and 17 poles in his 288 starts in the series.

Kenseth will sign autographs for fans at the CTECH Manufacturing Trailer near victory lane from 11:30 a.m. to Noon. He will then wave the green flag at 2 p.m., to start the race.

“The only bad thing about it is I have to realize I am old enough to be a Grand Marshal,” Kenseth said with a laugh. “Seriously though, it is a big honor to be the Grand Marshal of such a big race. It is also close to my home. It is very nice to be honored with this and I am glad CTECH Manufacturing selected me for this year’s event, this means a tremendous amount to me.”

The 2019-20 La Liga season kicks off this weekend and much of the attention will be on the top three teams fighting it out for the title. Graham Hunter gets you ready for the new campaign with a look at how their offseasons unfolded.

Jump to: Will Felix be La Liga's star? | Can Atletico's new arrivals shine? | Did Real do bad business? | Neymar a distraction for Barcelona?

Atletico Madrid have won the summer, hands down.

Diego Simeone's team having sold over €300 million of talent and brought in over €240m of young, hungry replacements (to date) means that even if either of their La Liga arms-race rivals managed to land Neymar before the window closes on Sept. 2, Barcelona sheepishly pick up the silver medal, with Real Madrid not only third (where they finished the last two La Liga campaigns) but frantically trying to convince everyone that bronze looks awfully similar to gold.

If only there were a trophy to show for it. The transfer-related tag of "Summer Champions" signifies about as much as the increasingly heard but slightly risible tag of "Winter Champions" for those who sit top of the table when the Christmas break arrives.

Nevertheless: a job well begun is a job half done, right? So let's give more than just kudos and a patronising pat on the back to Atleti. They faced what looked like a horrendous challenge, haemorrhaging a mix of experience, winning mentality, club legends and two superb young bucks in Rodri and Lucas Hernandez. Yet their judgment, efficacy of market management, speed of work, ability to spot the revelation of this transfer window (or indeed many previous), Joao Felix, and their net spend of around €8m -- if you factor in the €60m arrival of Rodrigo from Valencia -- suggests that Atleti have spat in the eye of adversity.

Whether it wins them La Liga remains to be seen, but a summer that could have left them fighting an uphill battle now sees them muscular, nimble and potentially able to punch above their weight. This season in Spain is going to be exciting, a real smackdown between the three giants of La Liga -- Barca, Real and Atletico -- so here are some talking points.

Will Joao Felix be La Liga's star?

Felix is only 19, still rather slender and will find it testing to work with Atletico manager Diego Simeone and coaches Mono Burgos and Oscar Ortega. Felix is a La Liga debutant with initiation songs to sing, pranks to put up with, and image-management by the club imposed on him so that expectations are dampened after his €126m arrival.

Yet, this is a kid blessed with such extraordinary talent, such chutzpah, acceleration, positional wit and an exceptional eye for goal that his Atleti teammates are already instinctively looking for him whenever they have the ball. Every single player in that squad has taken one look and said: "We have signed a diamond -- let's get him on the ball."

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If the composer George Frideric Handel were still alive, Atleti would be commissioning him to compose a second Hallelujah chorus. They have found their Messiah.

No matter his talent, a player of Felix's age, carrying such a weight of expectation and responsibility, will encounter bumps along the road in his first complete season in La Liga. That said, the move remains extraordinary for a number of reasons. With Madrid and Barcelona involved in what is both an unseemly and, arguably, unnecessary squabble for Neymar's grossly expensive services, don't they both look stupid for missing the chance to purchase Felix? The answer is a resounding "YES!"

Moreover, Atleti somehow managed to agree with Benfica, the player and his agent, Jorge Mendes, a payment plan where they only have to splash out in the region of €40m (down payment, agent payment, sell-on payment to Porto where he originated) before the rest is paid over the course of his contract. If Felix performs well enough to help Atleti reach at least the Champions League semifinals, the forward could earn his new club the entire remainder of the fee within nine months. That. Is. Utterly. Astonishing. Business.

Can Atletico's other new arrivals replace those who left?

Losing Rodri (€70m to Manchester City) and Lucas (€80m to Bayern Munich) are blows Atletico would have wanted to avoid, but the club have long known they would need replacing at some point.

At the back, even though Diego Godin -- who left for Inter this summer -- was bedevilled by errors last season, it's worth waiting to evaluate the loss of his personality and "win at any cost" attitude. But for Atleti to add the tall, tough Felipe from Porto, as well as the talented Mario Hermoso, for €30m less than Bayern were forced to pay for Lucas, is spectacular.

Kieran Trippier's move from Tottenham came out of the blue, but while he might not be as attentive to details and defensive concentration as Simeone likes, his attitude and crossing ability should give A+ service to what should be a thrilling Atleti front line.

None of Renan Lodi, Hector Herrera or Ivan Saponjic make you fret for Atleti's investments, while Marcos Llorente, signed from hated rivals Real Madrid, is a fine facsimile of Rodri. They aren't identically talented but Llorente was under-priced at €30m, brims with energy, industry and athleticism, is a superb professional and looks ready to make Atleti's central midfield punishingly hard-working.

Then there's the "other Rodri," Rodrigo Moreno. If Atleti wrap up a €60m move for this athletic, relentlessly team-minded striker, who has been playing winning international football with Koke and Alvaro Morata since they were all kids, it's the icing on the cake.

Atletico have had one hell of a summer. But it's not over yet. Spain's transfer market closes on Sept. 2 and there's still time for huge change, though they are already looking in better shape than their rivals.

The fact that several key veterans chose to leave at the end of their contracts had threatened disaster, but it can now be construed as advantageous. Madrid and Barca are replete with players on high wages they'd like to ship out but who are refusing to budge. Not Atleti.

Has Real Madrid's spending addressed their needs?

Atleti's rapier-like approach to business contrasts starkly with Real Madrid's blunderbuss style. Yes, they've splashed out (at the time of writing) €305.5m (gross, not net) and there's quite a lot of "rock 'n roll" glitz to boast about with the likes of Eden Hazard. But have they specifically reinforced the things that went awry last season? Have they done what coach Zinedine Zidane wanted this summer?

In short, no. And an utterly horrific 7-3 thrashing imposed on Zidane's team by Atletico at the ICC tournament in July suggests that Real might not even be favourites in their own city, let alone for the La Liga title.

Left-back Ferland Mendy was indeed a Zizou choice, and has sparked Marcelo's competitive instincts, but at €48m it's not good that Mendy is already out with a thigh injury. Centre-back Eder Militao may turn out to be an ideal buy, but Zidane has been flitting uncertainly between four at the back and a 5-3-2/3-5-2 system, so we'll see how quickly the €50m 21-year-old (a €40m+ profit for Porto just 12 months after buying him) can bring security at the back.

Rodrygo and Kubo (an 18-year-old Japanese starlet who was initially part of FC Barcelona's academy until their FIFA ban was imposed) ooze promise, thrills and a sprinkling of the magic dust of international marketing allure, yet will struggle to make a real impact until they gain a bit more experience.

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Hazard adds the pedigree -- unquestionably a talent of gargantuan proportions -- but why on earth did the €100m winger turn up for work at his new club, one that is in turmoil, in the kind of preseason shape that would have been acceptable in, say, 1978? It's not Madrid's fault but it's certainly emblematic of dipping standards.

And finally, €60m striker Luka Jovic will score goals but looks well short of having the build-up play and savvy that Madrid will need against the elite group of Liga and European clubs they measure themselves against. He's that mythical breed of striker who "only" scores goals. An odd, expensive signing.

The players who have arrived all add their own parts of youth, athleticism, hunger and energy -- valuable commodities in what was a moribund Madrid squad last season -- but there are still more weaknesses in the business that club president Florentino Perez and his right-hand man, Jose Angel Sanchez, have managed to conduct since May.

Gareth Bale, with the Premier League and Chinese transfer markets now closed, has stayed put -- despite Zidane admitting in public that "it would be best" if the Welshman left -- and is likely to stay unless PSG accept him in part exchange for Neymar or he's sent out on loan.

Thus far, there has been no move for Man United midfielder Paul Pogba either. Whether the controversial World Cup winner is or isn't the cure for Los Blancos' midfield ills, Zidane is wedded to the idea of buying him and has been infuriated by Perez's failure to secure that deal.

If Neymar arrives, it will be like salt in the wound. Thus far, Real's best midfield options are Luka Modric, Toni Kroos and Casemiro, which although still full of class, is bemusing. Slow, sometimes disinterested, porous, unable to control possession, lacking athleticism and physicality all last season, it's remarkable that (attempts to sign Pogba aside) no corrective action has been taken to strengthen the midfield.

Will Barcelona be distracted by Neymar pursuit?

Judging them by their own, well-publicised objectives for the close-season, Barca could award themselves a complacent pat on the back, a glass of cava, exchange mutually appreciative smiles among their football executives -- and then their rivals could laugh up their sleeves at the Camp Nou finances.

Barcelona's self-set task sheet was: add competition at left-back, augment possession-control and passing in midfield and then, a year late, add French flair up front. Junior Firpo, Frenkie de Jong and Antoine Griezmann (was there really any doubt where he was going?) tick those boxes.

Throw in some measurable progress from their young talents (Jean-Clair Todibo, Carles Alena, Ricki Puig and Carles Perez) and the outward signs are decent. However, even with the departures of Malcom, Andre Gomes, Marc Cucurella and Denis Suarez, Barcelona need to sell ... and profitably.

Rafinha, Philippe Coutinho and Juan Miranda must be calculating how long it'll take them to unpack their training ground lockers, while if the right price were offered for Arturo Vidal then the Camp Nou bean-counters would produce their abacuses in Olympic time.

The club has vastly strained its financial muscle for three reasons. 1) expensive contract extensions; 2) investment in the Camp Nou renovation project; 3) President Josep Maria Bartomeu's public promise that his parting gift (before summer 2021, which is the latest there can be elections to determine his successor) will be another lengthening of Lionel Messi's contract.

Messi craves Champions League victories, not because Cristiano Ronaldo has more of them but because he's a natural-born competitor who has also suffered a series of brutal European disappointments in recent years at the hands of Atletico, Juventus, Roma and Liverpool.

If Bartomeu wants "Team Messi" to look indulgently on the opening of contract negotiations, he'll do well to re-patriate Neymar. Messi, whether you concur or not, believes that his Brazilian pal will add incisor teeth to Barca's European bite (Luis Suarez hasn't scored a Champions League goal away from home for nearly four years and hit the net only five times in the last 29 UCL matches).

However as long as PSG keep insisting on cash only for Neymar, whether that sum is €120m or €220m, Barcelona can't afford to buy him back. I believe it's that simple. Nor, it seems increasingly clear, can they persuade Ivan Rakitic or his Sevilla-born wife that the footballing life (and climate) is anything but worse any further north than Barcelona. PSG want the Croatian, but like Bale at Madrid, he's not keen to depart.

All of which leaves both Barcelona and Madrid desperately thrashing around for a means to secure a Brazilian they can't afford, didn't budget for and who'll also cost them dearly in terms of existing playing staff (Vinicius Jr., Isco, Karim Benzema and Rodrygo at Real; Ousmane Dembele and Coutinho at Barca) who'd be required to drop to the bench or leave altogether.

Meanwhile, over at Atletico, Felix may still only hint at the potential to reproduce what Neymar has achieved in his career, but the Portuguese is impressing with a new cadre of athletic and hungry teammates around him.

Atleti win the summer. Now, can they add the La Liga title?

Hold tight, this battle has the potential to be immensely entertaining, explosive, and potentially embarrassing for some.

Ravi Shastri will remain head coach of the India men senior team, with his new contract extending up to the 2021 T20 World Cup in India.

The BCCI's Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) spent all of Friday interviewing five candidates for head coach, with a sixth - Phil Simmons - pulling out of the race. The CAC rated the candidates on five separate categories - coaching philosophy, experience, achievements, communication, and "knowledge of modern coaching tools".

The three members of the CAC - former India captain Kapil Dev, former India coach Anshuman Gaekwad and the former India women captain Shanta Rangaswamy - agreed "unanimously" to retain Shastri's services, Kapil announced, with Mike Hesson, the former New Zealand and Kings XI Punjab coach, and Tom Moody, the former Sri Lanka and Sunrisers Hyderabad coach, coming a close second and third respectively.

Apart from Shastri, Hesson and Moody, the CAC also interviewed Robin Singh, who has coached at four-time IPL champions Mumbai Indians and was formerly India's fielding coach, and Lalchand Rajput, India's manager during their victorious World T20 campaign in 2007 and more recently coach of Afghanistan and Zimbabwe.

Hesson, Robin and Rajput made their presentations to the CAC in person, while Moody and Shastri - who is with the India team in the West Indies - appeared via teleconference.

The interviews for the remainder of India's backroom staff will commence next week, tentatively from August 19-22. India's senior selection panel was supposed to pick the head coach's support staff, as per the BCCI's new constitution, but ESPNcricinfo understands that the CAC wanted to have a say, and expressed its interest and wrote to the BCCI to get involved in the process.

The contracts of Shastri and his support staff were meant to expire at the end of the 2019 World Cup, but they were given a 45-day extension keeping in mind the West Indies tour. Ahead of the team's departure for the Caribbean, India captain Virat Kohli made a public announcement that he would prefer if Shastri was to continue as head coach.

When Shastri was appointed head coach in July 2017, the CAC at the time - comprising Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman - had consulted Kohli during the selection process. This time, the CAC did not seek Kohli's opinion on the matter.

"Absolutely not," Kapil said, when asked if the CAC had been in touch with Kohli before it made its pick. "If we had asked him, we would have had to ask the whole team their opinion too."

The previous CAC had also tried to sort out the differences between Kohli and Anil Kumble, who had stepped down as head coach in fractious circumstances before Shastri's 2017 appointment. It subsequently emerged that Kohli had refused to budge in that instance, which eventually resulted in Kumble opting to walk away.

Shastri first joined India's backroom staff as team director during the 2014 tour of England, and remained director in the absence of a head coach, when Duncan Fletcher's tenure ended after the 2015 World Cup. Shastri was out of the set-up when Kumble became head coach in June 2016, but he returned as head coach after Kumble's resignation.

Since then, Shastri has overseen Test match wins in South Africa and England, and a maiden Test series win in Australia, in 2017-18. Under Shastri, India most recently reached the semi-finals of the 2019 World Cup in the UK, topping the round-robin phase of the tournament before exiting with a loss to New Zealand.

Eoin Morgan has hinted that he may step down as England's white-ball captain due to a back injury.

Morgan suffered a back spasm during the World Cup, leaving the field during the win against the West Indies in Southampton, and his training was limited throughout the tournament in order to manage the injury.

"I need more time to think, that's the honest answer," Morgan told Test Match Special when asked if he would lead England into the T20 World Cup next year. "It's a big decision, a big commitment.

"Given the injury that I went through in the World Cup, I need time to get fully fit.

"I actually need the season to end pretty soon so I can have that time to physically get fit and guarantee that it's not an injury risk between this year and next, and then I'll be able to make a call on that."

Morgan said that he "absolutely" wanted to lead the side next year, but said "it's just that I don't want to let anybody down.

"When you lead, you have to lead from the front," he said. "And you have to be physically fit at the start, and then finding form is another thing.

"Hopefully, that works itself out."

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Morgan has been playing for Middlesex in the T20 Blast after a two-week break from the game, though missed a defeat against Sussex because of the injury.

And he admitted that he felt "physically and mentally cooked" after the World Cup. "As captain, you take a little bit more on board than probably just being a player," he said.

Morgan is likely to be available for the rest of the Blast, but it seems unlikely that he will play in the final three Championship games of the season. He was due to play for Dublin Chiefs in the Euro T20 Slam before the tournament was postponed, and will return to the T10 League in Abu Dhabi in November.

Several of Morgan's team-mates, including Ben Stokes, Liam Plunkett, and Jos Buttler have spoken about the emotional comedown that followed the final against New Zealand, and he suggested that it was only natural for them to feel mentally fatigued.

"The comedown from the high of that final is bound to tire guys out a little bit," he said. "The selectors and the coach would have sat down and given the guys who needed a rest as much as they can.

"There's only so much you can do in preparation for an Ashes series, but I think they've done what they can. Naturally, it's going to feel different. You're never going to be able to replicate what happened again, or the high, but it's an Ashes series - people don't need firing up for it. I'd lose my left arm to play in it and everybody knows that. To be in that changing room now with the opportunity of contributing in the series and hopefully winning it is huge."

Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov has officially agreed to sell his remaining stake in the Brooklyn Nets and full ownership of Barclays Center to Joe Tsai, the team announced Friday.

Tsai, who paid $1 billion for a 49% share of the Nets in 2018, is paying an additional $1.35 billion for the remaining 51% share, sources confirmed to ESPN earlier in the week.

This purchase by Tsai, the co-founder of Alibaba, one of the world's largest e-commerce companies, still needs approval from the NBA's Board of Governors, which has already approved the first transaction.

A statement from the Nets said the transaction should be finalized by the end of September and that Brett Yormark, who has served as CEO of the Nets since 2005, will step down from his post after overseeing the transition to new ownership.

"I've had the opportunity to witness up close the Brooklyn Nets rebuild that Mikhail started a few years ago," Tsai said in the statement. "He hired a front office and coaching staff focused on player development, he supported the organization with all his resources, and he refused to tank. I will be the beneficiary of Mikhail's vision, which put the Nets in a great position to compete, and for which I am incredibly grateful."

Prokhorov bought the Nets from real estate developer Bruce Ratner in 2010, allowing the team to complete its move into Brooklyn, and Barclays Center, in 2012.

"It has been an honor and a joy to open Barclays Center, bring the Nets to Brooklyn, and watch them grow strong roots in the community while cultivating global appeal," Prokhorov said in the statement. "The team is in a better place today than ever before and I know that Joe will build on that success, while continuing to deliver the guest experience at Barclays Center that our fans, employees, and colleagues in the industry enjoy."

The $2.35 billion total value of the deal for the team, not including the arena, makes it the largest purchase price of an American professional sports team, surpassing the $2.2 billion paid by David Tepper to buy the Carolina Panthers and by Tilman Fertitta to buy the Houston Rockets.

Yormark came to the Nets from NASCAR and helped usher the franchise to Brooklyn from its prior homes in East Rutherford and Newark, New Jersey. Having initially come aboard under Ratner, Yormark stayed in his post during Prokhorov's ownership over the past nine years.

"Without Brett's innovative foresight and leadership, we would not be where we are today with the Nets and Barclays Center," Prokhorov said. "Brett had always made it clear to me that when the arena and team sold, he would move on and begin his next journey. Thank you to Brett, who has been a true partner and friend over the past 15 years."

The team spent big early in Prokhorov's tenure, racking up a record luxury tax bill in 2013-14, before retrenching in recent seasons after the failure of the trade with the Boston Celtics for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce in 2013. This summer, however, the team made a huge splash in free agency, signing Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan.

Earlier this year, an investment group led by Tsai purchased the WNBA's New York Liberty from James Dolan.

ESPN's Tim Bontemps contributed to this report.