KANNAPOLIS, N.C. – Henry Repeating Arms, an American manufacturer of classic rifles and shotguns, will sponsor NASCAR Xfinity Series competitor Cole Custer this weekend at Road America.

Named after Benjamin Tyler Henry, who invented and patented the Henry rifle in 1860, Henry Repeating Arms has two manufacturing facilities – one in Bayonne, N.J., and the other in Rice Lake, Wis., located approximately 290 miles northwest of Road America.

“Road America is a home race for us and we partnered with Cole Custer because of his success this season and because of the strong relationship we have with Haas Automation,” said Anthony Imperato, president and owner, Henry Repeating Arms. “We use made-in-America Haas CNC machine tools to manufacture our products, all of which come with a lifetime guarantee backed by our award-winning customer service.”

Custer is having a career year, leading the Xfinity Series with five wins and five poles. The victories have placed the 21-year-old from Ladera Ranch, Calif., into the NASCAR playoffs for the third straight season.

“We’re enjoying a lot of success on the track and moments like this are how we win off the track,” Custer said. “Henry Repeating Arms is a great customer of Haas Automation and we’re extremely proud to be representing them at Road America.”

Custer has made two career Xfinity Series starts at Road America, finishing in the top-10 each time. His best result at the 4.048-mile, 14-turn road course is fourth, earned in last year’s race.

“In road-course racing, the competition is more on the driver’s shoulders compared to your traditional oval-styled track,” Custer said. “You’re on the edge of your seat for the entire race, and even the smallest mistake can take you out of the race. I enjoy road-course racing and challenging my skills as a driver. I learned a lot in last year’s race at Road America and I’m looking forward to getting back there in my Henry Repeating Arms Ford Mustang.”

MOORESVILLE, N.C. – The No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford Mustang will feature a special paint scheme for the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, honoring Jimmy Means’ No. 52 Alka-Seltzer Pontiac.

Means drove the iconic powder blue car in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In its early days, Front Row Motorsports was originally known as Means-Jenkins Motorsports, stemming from a partnership between Means and current Front Row Motorsports team owner Bob Jenkins. Their relationship began with Jenkins sponsoring Means at Bristol with his local Taco Bell franchise, which led Jenkins to a partial ownership of Means’ race team. The team was active for one year before Jenkins separated and founded Front Row Motorsports.

McDowell’s No. 34 Ford will feature the famous light blue body with red and dark blue accents. Front Row Motorsports partner Dockside Logistics will serve as the primary sponsor for the race.

“Throwback weekend at Darlington is one of my favorites of the whole year,” McDowell said. “It’s fun to recreate some of the most well-known paint schemes throughout the history of our sport. Our owner, Bob Jenkins, has always admired Jimmy Means, and the Alka-Seltzer car is definitely a favorite of his. I’m really excited that we can honor their friendship with our No. 34 Dockside Logistics Ford.”

It’s a new week, which means it’s time for another edition of the SPEED SPORT Power Rankings. There is a new name at the top of the Rankings again this week! Who is it? Click below to find out.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. – Corey LaJoie will be piloting more than just the No. 32 Ford Mustang when the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to Martinsville Speedway on Oct. 27.

Go Fas Racing sponsor Keen Parts/CorvetteParts.net will transform their usual paint scheme into a Scooby-Doo inspired Mystery Machine for the First Data 500, less than a week before Halloween.

“Scooby Doo was my favorite cartoon growing up, so when Tom and T.J. asked what I wanted to do for Martinsville, there was no doubt that I wanted to be driving the Mystery Machine,” said LaJoie. “They always have really cool themes behind their Halloween-weekend schemes and I’m excited to be part of this one and thankful for all that they do for our team.”

This will be the second year that the Corvette parts supplier has converted their sponsorship of the No. 32 at the October Martinsville event into a unique, eye-catching masterpiece – in celebration of Halloween.

Last fall, the Ohio-based company brought a purple and black Peanuts scheme that showcased one of the most recognizable characters known, Snoopy. The scheme instantly became a favorite by fans of all ages.

“We are super excited to present this paint scheme to Corey to run at Martinsville,” said longtime friend and sponsor of the team, T.J. Keen. “This cartoon was his favorite as a kid and I bet it still is today.  We cannot thank the team enough for letting us do these schemes and we hope you fans will enjoy it.”

MLS announced on Tuesday that it has awarded an expansion team to the city of St. Louis, swelling the leagues ranks to 28 clubs.

St. Louis' ownership group includes Enterprise Holdings Foundation president Carolyn Kindle Betz and other female members of the Taylor family, making it the first female majority-owned team in MLS history. The investor group is rounded out by World Wide Technology CEO Jim Kavanaugh, and Enterprise Holdings Executive Chairman Andy Taylor. The team will begin play in 2022 and the process for selecting the team name, badge and colors will begin immediately.

- ESPN fantasy: Sign up now!

"It is with great pride that we welcome St. Louis to Major League Soccer," MLS commissioner Don Garber said. "St. Louis is a city with a rich soccer tradition, and it is a market we have considered since the league's inception.

"Our league becomes stronger today with the addition of the city's deeply dedicated soccer fans, and the committed and innovative local ownership group led by Carolyn Kindle Betz, the Taylor family, and Jim Kavanaugh."

The announcement caps a process that amounted to a rollercoaster ride. The St. Louis bid looked dead back in 2017 when a city referendum that would have directed $60 million in new tax proceeds towards the construction of a stadium was defeated by voters. That setback led Paul Edgerley, who headed the investment group at the time, to cease his efforts to bring a team to St. Louis.

But last October, Kindle-Betz and other members of the Taylor Family got on board alongside Kavanaugh, who was part of the previous investor group. Thanks to a willingness to fund stadium construction almost entirely with private funds, and with a site located in the Downtown West district, St. Louis was back in the game. MLS announced in April that it had entered exclusive negotiations with St. Louis, and following a series of presentations, the last of which came three weeks ago at the MLS All-Star Game in Orlando, the decision was made to bring the Gateway City into the MLS fold.

"Our ownership group has come a long way since we first announced our bid last October at Mathews-Dickey Boys and Girls Club, and it's an incredible feeling to now be able to say, St. Louis is home to the first official majority female-led ownership group in MLS," Kindle Betz said. "Our MLS team and stadium will only add to St. Louis' renaissance currently underway and will provide us with a great opportunity to bring together many different segments of the community, uniting people in their love for the game."

The stadium is part of a major development project, which will include mixed-use retail and restaurants. According to the ownership group, no Tax Increment Financing (TIF) or any direct citywide tax investment will be needed to finance the stadium project. The stadium proposal specifies that only those purchasing tickets and items at the stadium will be paying any tax. The team will pay for all stadium maintenance, repair and upkeep.

MLS has long desired to have a team in St. Louis, given the sport's long history in the Gateway City. Five of the 11 players that defeated England at the 1950 World Cup were from St. Louis, and the city has produced 29 players and coaches who have been inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

The area's youth programs have helped develop several players into professionals, including MLS players Will Bruin (Seattle Sounders) and Joe Willis (Houston Dynamo), Tim Ream (Fulham) of the English Championship, rising star Josh Sargent (Werder Bremen) of the Bundesliga, and Becky Sauerbrunn (Utah Royals) of the NWSL and the FIFA World Cup champion with the U.S. Women's National Team.

In addition, many former MLS players are from St. Louis, including Taylor Twellman, Brad Davis, Chris Klein and Steve Ralston.

As much as things have changed for Ike Opara, at the office, it's business as usual. Last season, he shepherded a defense that ranked fourth in Major League Soccer in both goals against and expected goals against. This season, the back line he leads ranks fourth in goals against and seventh in expected goals against.

What has changed is that those defenses are on two different teams: Sporting Kansas City in 2018 and Minnesota United this season. And the change in fortunes of those clubs -- Minnesota's expected goals against has improved from 22nd in the league, while SKC's goals against has dropped to 20th in MLS -- reveals just how invaluable Opara is. All of which is ironic, considering that it is value that led him to leave Kansas City for the Twin Cities.

Twelve months removed from winning MLS' Defender of the Year Award in 2017, Opara was Sporting's third-highest-paid center-back, with his $342,916 annual salary lagging well behind new signing Andreu Fontas' $999,999 and Matt Besler's $783,250.

"I think if you just look around the league," Opara said in an exclusive interview with ESPN FC, "I think objectively I had a very undervalued contract."

So he asked for a new deal, a year after signing a contract that improved his 2017 salary by nearly $200,000.

"We had a discussion to see if we could make this happen," SKC manager and sporting director Peter Vermes told the Kansas City Star last offseason about Opara's request. "Our statement and comment to the player was that we had some targets that we had already identified prior to the end of the season that we were going to work on first, and if there were monies left over, we'd be willing to have a conversation.

- ESPN MLS fantasy: Sign up now!
- Stream games LIVE on ESPN+
- MLS Playoff Picture: Who besides LAFC has a chance?

"But it went public immediately, and that changed the way this would be dealt with."

After conceding 141 goals in its first two seasons in MLS, Minnesota had set out last winter to add an experienced center-back, ideally someone familiar with the league. By Jan. 28, Opara was a Loon.

"It was a challenge that I was willing to accept," Opara said ahead of facing his former side on Thursday (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN). "[The Loons] were ready to right the past two years, because no one wants to give up 70-plus goals a year. These guys were sick and tired of hearing it."

So United parted with $1 million in Targeted Allocation Money to bring the now-30-year-old to Minnesota.

"One or two people raised a few eyebrows and thought we overpaid for him," Minnesota manager Adrian Heath told ESPN FC. "But as I've said since we've got him: We got him cheap."

It has been money well spent. Minnesota United finished ninth in the Western Conference in each of its first two seasons in MLS; but with Opara anchoring the back line, the Loons are second in 2019 with a goal differential that has gone from minus-12 at this point last year to plus-eight.

Of course, Opara can't take all the credit. The club's front office signed former Seattle Sounders captain Osvaldo Alonso (who has shown few signs of slowing down at age 33), midfielder Jan Gregus (who is among the league's leading creators from deep), right-back Romain Metanire (who was selected to the All-Star team last month) and goalkeeper Vito Mannone (who has the third-most clean sheets in the league). They also added left-back Chase Gasper and midfielder Hassani Dotson with their second and third picks in the SuperDraft, a pair that is in in the conversation for rookie of the year.

But central to the club's improbable rise up the table has been a vastly improved defense, where Opara's physical abilities and leadership qualities have had a tangible effect on everyone around him -- old Loons and new Loons alike. And while his new club thrives in his presence, his old one has faltered without him.

SKC are in jeopardy of missing the postseason for the first time since 2010, sitting 10th in the West, six points out of the conference's final playoff place.

To say that Sporting's downturn is solely a result of Opara's departure would be misleading. The club has been beset by injuries in 2019, losing 141 man games to injury this season, with 74 of those coming from players across the back line. Besler and Fontas, the center-back pairing who earned more money than Opara in Kansas City last season, have been absent 12 times this term.

Ultimately, it has led to defending that Vermes has called "terrible," defending that "embarrassed" him.

"It's stuff that this team does not do, but unfortunately, we're doing it," he was quoted as saying by journalist Andy Edwards. "And that's a problem."

Amid its rash of injuries, Sporting is desperate for the sort of defensive depth that the 2017 Defender of the Year would've offered. And with Opara on course to contend for this season's award, he'll have the opportunity to show his former club precisely what it is missing when he and Minnesota travel to Kansas City on Thursday.

"It's hard to compare those two seasons across two different teams, but in some ways, I think I am [playing better than in 2017]," Opara said. "That's always something I've been striving for, is to be recognized as one of the best defenders in this league."

That recognition is likely to arrive sooner rather than later. Considering Opara's request for a greater contract before joining Minnesota, and the club's dramatic turnaround since his arrival, it would be foolish not to reward him financially. The adoration of his coach suggests a long-term deal with the Loons is in Opara's future, and Heath also has campaigned for his center-back to add a second Defender of the Year award in three seasons.

"I haven't seen anybody better, I really haven't," Heath said. "If there's somebody who's going to beat him to Defender of the Year, he's going to have to have had some year to have a better year than Ike Opara's had."

The 2019-20 Premier League season has had two games to show us what we can expect, so we have some wild predictions based on what we have learned so far.

Only VAR can stop Manchester City's title march

Permit us to jump ahead to the final day of the Premier League season on May 17: Manchester City have hogged 78% of the possession against Norwich, while raining in 30 shots on goal. Victory will seal them the title and they need it, with Liverpool cruising home against an already-relegated Newcastle.

City have done everything but score and the game seems up. But then, in the 95th minute, Sergio Aguero blasts in an exact replica of his title-winning moment from 2012. Shirts are removed, limbs flung around in ecstasy, strangers hugged; City have won their third league title in a row.

But hang on: two minutes later their joy turns to abject agony as VAR finds that the ball flicked off Raheem Sterling's thumb as he challenged Timm Klose in the buildup. None of the Norwich players appealed and to the naked eye Aguero's goal was good, but it doesn't matter: the super slow-mo says "No" and, high up in the stands at St James' Park, Liverpool's stunned supporters wildly celebrate a first title in 28 years.

If any of that sounds unrealistic, you haven't been watching the first two weeks of the season properly.

- ESPN Premier League fantasy: Sign up now!
- All Premier League summer transfers
- Transfer grades: Tracking every big club's deals

Teemu Pukki will win the Golden Boot

Move over, Mo Salah; step aside, Aguero. There's a new gunslinger in town: it's the flying Finn from Norwich, Teemu Pukki, who will prove unstoppable in the race for the Golden Boot.

Pukki struggled in Scotland's top flight and barely made a dent in the Bundesliga; the Premier League is another matter, though, and the 29-year-old looks utterly lethal. He might have missed a couple of early opportunities against Newcastle but Norwich's free-flowing side create chances for fun, and the three he subsequently put away were worthy of the division's very best.

At 43 minutes per goal and with 73% of his shots hitting the target, only Raheem Sterling has a comparable record to the four-goal striker so far. Pukki and Norwich face a porous Chelsea next and, should he put further daylight between himself and his challengers on Saturday, the question will be whether any of them can possibly reel him in.

Arsenal will become kings of north London again

What was all the fuss about a power shift in north London? Arsenal are back in the driver's seat and there to stay, with the Premier League's most lethal centre-forward double-act (Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette) backed up by a balanced, energetic midfield and a bolstered back line.

Unai Emery has turned his side from stodgy to sleek, introducing the excellent Real Madrid loanee Dani Ceballos -- whose tenacity set up Aubameyang's winner against Burnley -- and showing faith in exciting homegrown midfielder Joe Willock.

It has given them a shot of energy that will surely create more chances for Aubameyang, who already has two goals to his name, and Lacazette. Given that £72m summer signing Nicolas Pepe is still being eased in, not to mention the fact that attacking left-back Kieran Tierney is still returning to fitness, Arsenal will only become more potent -- and the two-point gap they have already established over Spurs, whose attacking depth still seems light, will prove crucial by the end of the campaign.

Mike Ashley's luck at Newcastle will run out

Steve Bruce needed a good start at Newcastle to ensure that, through all the discord and backbiting, a "local hero" narrative might at least carry some goodwill for the new manager.

But they have begun with two tepid performances and their display at Norwich -- listless up front, joyless in midfield, desperately sloppy at the back -- bore all the hallmarks of relegation fodder.

With journeys to Spurs and Liverpool coming up in the next three-and-a-half weeks, things are unlikely to get better. For all of Bruce's experience, Newcastle don't have a top-class manager in Rafa Benitez to turn things around this time and it's hard to see anything but a third relegation under Sports Direct mogul Mike Ashley's tenure.

Ashley Barnes will make a £40m move in January

A bruising striker who menaces defenders and fits perfectly into Sean Dyche's aggressive brand of football would do nicely for the teams on the fringe of the Champions League and Europa League spots in January. Which is why many of them will do battle for Ashley Barnes' signature in an effort to land a "Plan B" option who can drag them over the line.

Leicester, Everton, Wolves and his old club Brighton will go as high as £40m and who can blame them? Barnes, who turns 30 in October, has for so long been derided, even if the tide turned slightly with a 12-goal haul last term.

But a flying start for Burnley, who look set to make the preseason predictions look foolish once again, means he is the obvious choice for anyone seeking a little more presence and know-how in their attack. This winter he will get the once-in-a-lifetime big-money move he deserves.

Brighton will sneak into the Europa League

Having stayed up by the skin of their teeth last season (in fact they should have been relegated according to the ESPN Luck Index), then sacked the cautious Chris Hughton days after the final game, Brighton look like a team liberated from self-doubt and are playing a brand of fresh, attacking football that will give anyone a game under new boss Graham Potter.

As a result, they will ride the wave of momentum from their 3-0 win over Watford on opening day and finish seventh to earn a spot in next season's Europa League qualifiers.

They will get a helping hand from one of the top four to claim the place usually given to the League Cup winners, but their early-season form suggests they will deserve it. Potter will of course then be linked with all the top-level jobs going -- including that of Chelsea, where Frank Lampard's rocky first season in charge will see them finish only just above Brighton, in sixth.

Former England batsmen Mark Ramprakash and Jonathan Trott have emerged as high-profile candidates for the role of India's batting coach as the BCCI interviews numerous aspirants to appoint support staff this week. The board has started the recruitment process to find batting, bowling and fielding coaches for the men's team and the interviews are scheduled to take place from Monday to Thursday.

Ramprakash and Trott are understood to have been interviewed along with other candidates that include Thilan Samaraweera, Pravin Amre, Amol Muzumdar, Hrishikesh Kanitkar and Vikram Rathour. Former South Africa batsman Jonty Rhodes, who was the fielding coach of Mumbai Indians in the IPL until recently, and Ant Botha, who represented South Africa Under-19s before moving to England, have applied for the post of fielding coach. For the bowling coach position, Venkatesh Prasad, Sunil Joshi, Amit Bhandari and Paras Mhambrey are understood to have applied.

The contracts of the head coach and the assistant coaches ended after the World Cup in July before they were all given extensions for the ongoing tour of the USA and the West Indies. The BCCI has since extended Ravi Shastri's contract as head coach for another two years.

ALSO READ: Kapil Dev-led CAC wants to be involved in selecting assistant coaches

The selection panel will send its shortlist of the final choices for the three positions to the board, which can involve the head coach before making the appointment. It is believed that Shastri is likely to stick with his existing support staff - Sanjay Bangar (assistant coach), Bharat Arun (bowling) and R Sridhar (fielding) - all three being automatic entries in the recruitment process. These three men were handpicked by Shastri in 2014 when he joined the Indian dressing room as the team director. All three continued to hold on to their positions even during Shastri's one-year absence in 2016-17 when Anil Kumble was the head coach.

Trott, meanwhile, has been invited to apply for the batting coach role with England Under-19s and England Lions. He is currently in a temporary role as batting coach at Kent, though he had a brief stint with the England Test side ahead of the Test against Ireland at Lord's a few weeks ago.

Interest in Ramprakash and Trott comes at a time when English coaches appear to be somewhat undervalued at home. The status of England coaches, however, does appear higher overseas. Paul Farbrace, the former England assistant coach, was also approached by both Sri Lanka and Bangladesh - he declined both - while Michael Yardy, the former England allrounder, was recently appointed as New South Wales' batting coach. Peter Moores is also understood to have been the subject of interest from South Africa in recent weeks, though he has declined to confirm the approach.

With additional inputs from Nagraj Gollapudi