OKLAHOMA CITY -- A couple days into training camp, Chris Paul needed to set the record straight.

Again.

He had already cleared things up on Twitter, but as he stood in the corner of the Oklahoma City Thunder practice facility and peered across the floor with an eye toward Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Paul was eager to reiterate something.

A day before, Gilgeous-Alexander made the bold claim he was winning every shooting competition between the second-year guard and the 15-year veteran. Paul disagreed.

"I beat him bad today, too," Paul said. "We're gonna get the crew to film us one day in our shooting games."

They'd been teammates for only a short time, but the chemistry between Paul and Gilgeous-Alexander was clear. Much has been made about Paul's leadership role with the Thunder, and specifically in mentoring Gilgeous-Alexander in a master/padawan situation.

But Paul wanted to set that record straight.

"Maaaaan," Paul said, eyes widening and eyebrows raising. "Everybody keeps saying, 'What am I gonna teach him?'

"What is he gonna teach me?"

After an impressive rookie season, Gilgeous-Alexander was more than some unknown young player, but not necessarily a sure future All-Star when the LA Clippers sent him to Oklahoma City alongside a treasure trove of first-round draft picks in the blockbuster Paul George trade.

But Gilgeous-Alexander has continued to grow and is tapping into the kind of potential that has some wondering if he's going to be the next young superstar in Oklahoma City.

MORE: Debating the tightest award races down the stretch

BILLY DONOVAN STARTED with a risky preface.

"I don't mean this the way it's going to come across," the Thunder coach said, "but I'm happy he struggled."

It was after the Thunder's Nov. 29 game against the New Orleans Pelicans, and despite an OKC victory, Gilgeous-Alexander had a rough outing: 10 points on 4-for-13 shooting and four turnovers.

"Because," Donovan said, lingering on the word for emphasis, "I think adversity is good. He's had a lot of success in this early part of the season, he's done some incredible things, and I always feel like with players, there's people that have what I call surface confidence and deep confidence. And when you go through struggles you find out what kind of confidence you have in yourself."

Gilgeous-Alexander's first game with the Thunder featured a career-high 26 points. He followed it up with 28 points in his second game. It looked like he was hitting the ground running with his development, all while taking a slurp of OKC's secret development sauce.

The next few weeks, though, were not spectacular. He was struggling to find his place in a hybrid three-point-guard lineup and playing less aggressively. He scored 12 points on Nov. 25 against the Warriors, then 11 on Nov. 27 against the Trail Blazers leading into the game against the Pelicans.

"So I don't mean to say I want to see him struggle. I obviously want to see him play great every game -- it helps our team," Donovan continued. "But I do think for his evolution as a player to be able to go through nights like that and keep himself engaged in the game, how to learn from those situations and come back the next day and get better from it, is really healthy for his development and growth."

IT WAS JAN. 13 and the Thunder were in Minneapolis. They were up 15 on the Minnesota Timberwolves with 29.9 seconds left and Paul had the ball isolated at the top of the key. Gilgeous-Alexander, sitting on 19 rebounds -- already an overwhelming career high -- was camped on the right block.

Paul launched from straightaway, and Gilgeous-Alexander -- summoning some Russell Westbrook-level stat-stuffing skills -- snared his 20th rebound. There are some within the team who believe Paul not only missed on purpose, but missed so accurately as to intentionally create a carom in the direction of Gilgeous-Alexander.

It gave Gilgeous-Alexander a beautifully round stat line -- 20-10-20 -- and his first career triple-double. He became the second guard in the past 30 years with a 20-point, 20-rebound triple-double (joining, naturally, Westbrook), and the youngest with that line, clearing the previous mark set by Shaquille O'Neal in 1993.

"Coach had challenged me before the game to fill up the stat sheet more and do more things," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "Because he thought, as well as myself thought, that I was more capable of what I was doing."

Gilgeous-Alexander was referring to assistant Brian Keefe. He works closely with Gilgeous-Alexander and has played a unique role in Thunder history. He was on Scott Brooks' staff in the early days, helping shepherd the growth of Kevin Durant, Westbrook, James Harden and Reggie Jackson. Keefe has been a steady hand in the organization. He understands the Thunder.

And the Thunder understand player development. They have plenty of experience in managing and developing elite talent. They don't set unrealistic expectations. There's a belief in process and organizational stability. It's never a game-by-game thing. At the most, it's a year-by-year thing. With all the new faces, the Thunder put a focus on scrimmaging a lot in training camp. It became clear to Donovan then that Gilgeous-Alexander had a little something extra to him.

"Everybody keeps saying, 'What am I gonna teach him?' What is he gonna teach me?"

Chris Paul, on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

"The thing that's important in all of this is his makeup," Donovan said. "There are plenty of individual players that have great individual talent and ability but they don't know how to bring it out of themselves, and certainly he's really driven internally.

"There's a drive inside of him, personally, to want to become all that he's capable of becoming. And that's half the battle in terms of player development."

Paul has guided the Thunder all season, elevating in closing moments, but Gilgeous-Alexander has 85 clutch time points himself, ranking 11th in the league. He's shooting 57.8% in the clutch. He leads the league in clutch steals, along with Paul, with 10. He's a plus-106 in clutch time, second in the league (behind teammate Dennis Schroder). He's one of the more effective iso players in the league, averaging 0.95 points per play. He's someone you can lean on in tense stages.

"His first step is unbelievable," Raptors coach Nick Nurse said. "It's really hard for anybody to keep him in front of him and then he blows by you, and then again he slows it all down to sidestep people or use his athleticism or make the right play at the end of it."

Nurse had two more things he liked: Gilgeous-Alexander's demeanor and his shooting mechanics, seeing his form being the kind that will age well, and even likely extend beyond the 3-point line. Something Gilgeous-Alexander is working on right now: a faster release on catch-and-shoot 3s.

"I tell you what," Nurse said, "he's got a lot of things going for him, right?"

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THE THUNDER HAVE a plan in place to eventually begin a rebuild. General manager Sam Presti has been remarkably transparent about it, even going so far as to pen an op-ed in the local newspaper.

Most thought it was starting this season, but Paul, Schroder, Steven Adams, Danilo Gallinari and Gilgeous-Alexander had other plans. The Thunder are 37-22, fifth in the Western Conference. And Gilgeous-Alexander is the leading scorer on that team at 19.4 points per game.

But down the line, the Thunder recognize their path back to competing for NBA titles will have to go through some lean years that will yield lottery balls. It's not even really a choice; it's just the reality of a rebuild in a small market.

To contend requires All-NBA talent. Standard practice is it requires two, maybe even three such players. And to acquire All-NBA talent in a small market has to be done via trades or the draft.

The Thunder have a war chest of draft capital, but where they plan to make their franchise-defining selections is with their own picks. That could be in two years. It could be in four.

What's currently unknown, though, is where Gilgeous-Alexander fits into the plan.

Is he possibly one of the All-NBA-caliber talents? Is he too good to tank with, but not good enough to build around? Would the Thunder eventually have to trade him to complete a bottoming out? Is he a centerpiece?

These are the things that Thunder are trying to assess, all while Gilgeous-Alexander produces a sensational second season. There's a beyond-his-years feel to him, from the way he speaks to the composure on the floor with his stop-and-start movements and casual, horseshoe-tossed layups. But the team is pumping the brakes a bit, managing expectations with an eye toward incremental growth.

After all, OKC's track record grooming young stars speaks for itself. And it's not just the Thunder who are keeping him grounded.

"The people around me don't let my head get too big," Gilgeous-Alexander said earlier this season. "Especially my mom. She tells me I suck every day."

He was joking. Probably.

At a certain point, the Thunder will have to determine how foundational he is and how high he can soar. He has had an excellent sophomore season, playing a vital role as a versatile flex guard in one of the league's most dangerous lineups, but he also has been shielded by Paul.

Gilgeous-Alexander hasn't played much without Paul. He hasn't played full-time point guard. He hasn't had to call plays and orchestrate offense in tight games. He hasn't been relied upon to take and make the big shots, and live with the criticism of a crucial turnover or questionable look. He hasn't gotten the blame for a close loss.

A couple weeks ago, with the Thunder down three against the Celtics with a few seconds left, Marcus Smart picked his pocket to prevent him from even getting a shot off. Gilgeous-Alexander took it hard. He vowed to learn from it.

"Every experience is different, teaches you a new thing -- good or bad -- and you just take it, learn from it and move on," he said.

All part of the process, though. And it's also why having one of the best point guards in NBA history alongside has been such a boost. Paul is one of the true masters of the game, a floor general in every sense, a clutch-time magician.

That's where the Thunder are pushing Gilgeous-Alexander to fill those gaps.

"It's easy to evaluate yourself based on how many points you score," Donovan said. "And Shai's going to be a terrific scorer, I think, for a long time in his career. But I do think he's selling himself short if he's not impacting the game in a lot of different ways.

"There's nothing in the game that he can't have an impact on."

But it might not just be the game that he ends up having an impact on in Oklahoma City.

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- After getting cleared to play by a cardiologist, Brandon Nimmo could joke.

"I guess I have a little bit larger heart," the New York Mets outfielder said Friday. "Hey, I've got a lot of love to give."

Nimmo was removed from the starting lineup before Wednesday's game against Houston.

"They got a report from the cardiologist that they would just like to look at something that had gone on with the physical that we did," Nimmo said. "This was something that happened in 2016 -- something that I had to be pulled aside for. It's something I had, and they wanted to recheck it."

After a series of tests and monitoring that included 24 hours with a wearable device, the 26-year-old was back in the lineup on Friday against St. Louis.

The Mets became cautious when they noticed an irregularity in Nimmo's electrocardiogram. Nimmo also underwent an echocardiogram to ensure he didn't have thickened heart walls.

"The layman way they put it for me was an 'irregular heartbeat.' But it doesn't happen to me when I get up to 85% of my heart rate. It doesn't affect how I play. It's just a resting heart rate and didn't appear during my peak physical exertion," Nimmo said. "I wasn't concerned. It was more frustrating on my end. But I understood. The heart's a different thing. You want to check all the boxes on that."

Nimmo's wife, Chelsea, surprised him by tweeting Thursday "he's healthy and feels great" followed by "I also apologize in advance if this breaks any rules I don't know about."

Nimmo played center field and went 1-for-2 with a run in a 3-2 win.

Right-hander Marcus Stroman and Robinson Cano made their spring training debuts.

Acquired July 28 from Toronto for top pitching prospects Anthony Kay and Simeon Woods Richardson, Stroman worked two innings and allowed two hits and a run on Paul Goldschmidt's opposite-field homer to right.

"I truly believe that I'll be able to go out there and throw 210, [2]20, [2]30 innings -- however many innings I need to go," said Stroman, a 2019 All-Star.

Cano was the designated hitter and walked and flied out against St. Louis starter Adam Wainwright. The 37-year-old Cano is to be a DH again Sunday and play second base on Tuesday.

The eight-time All-Star played in just 107 games last year, his fewest in a season that did not include a suspension. He played in 80 games in 2018 after testing positive for the banned substance furosemide.

Cano said watching the preparation of former Yankees teammates Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada instilled a work ethic as he got older.

"Those guys played 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 seasons in the big leagues. To be able to go out every day and perform at a high level, that's what you dream of as a kid," he said.

New manager Luis Rojas intends for Cano to ease into the exhibition season.

"Last year he started playing from the first game," Rojas said. "He wanted to see the teams in the division, coming to the National League. He's going to keep working with the performance staff to keep strengthening his lower half. We're not going to put a number or a goal for the number of games that he's going to play."

Game notes
RHP Jacob deGrom, coming off his second straight NL Cy Young Award, is to make his first spring appearance Sunday, against Washington. Rojas had no update on the cardiac test on 1B/OF Matt Adams.

PHOENIX -- Clayton Kershaw struck out four batters without allowing a hit in his spring training debut Friday, the first step toward a possible Opening Day start for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Kershaw, the Dodgers' longtime ace, faced a Milwaukee Brewers lineup with five expected regulars, including Brock Holt and Keston Hiura at the top of the order. He struck out both on three pitches each to open the bottom of the first.

After two walks and a strikeout of the final batter he faced, Kershaw was done after 1⅔ innings and left with a 1-0 lead. The Brewers came back for a win.

"It was awesome. Maybe I didn't hit one spot, but physically I felt like the ball was coming out, felt like it was breaking the right way," Kershaw said. "Now just got to figure out how to throw strikes, but other than that, it was a good first step for sure."

Kershaw said his fastballs, which reached 93 mph, had life on them as they reached home plate. He left to a standing ovation from the Dodgers fans at American Family Fields of Phoenix, the Brewers' spring home.

Kershaw went 16-5 with a 3.03 ERA last season. He pitched 178 1/3 innings, his highest total since 2015.

He missed the start of the season due to shoulder soreness that caused him to be shut down for most of spring training. His streak of eight straight Opening Day starts came to an end.

This spring he's completely healthy. He finished his day throwing more pitches in the bullpen and hopes to pitch three innings in his next outing.

"It's night and day," Kershaw said. "Everything feels good. I didn't feel bad last year, it was just spring, I had to get over that. But to have a full offseason and now have full spring feeling healthy, it can only help. So I'm encouraged by that."

When Kershaw last pitched in a game situation, he blew a 3-1 lead in the eighth inning of Game 5 of the National League Division Series, surrendering back-to-back home runs to Anthony Rendon and Juan Soto of the eventual World Series champion Washington Nationals.

Kershaw took his latest postseason shortfall hard, and he was asked if it overshadows a good regular season in 2019.

"You always remember how it ended, obviously. So just take it, it's no fun, try to move on as best you can and try to get ready for this year," Kershaw said. "I don't really look back or whatever. You kind of just remember what happened at the end. So hopefully you win the last game one of these years."

Manager Dave Roberts hasn't named an Opening Day starter for the Dodgers.

"It's always a special day, if it happens, for sure," Kershaw said.

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Salvador Perez was back behind the plate for the first time since Tommy John surgery.

The six-time All-Star caught the first four innings of the Kansas City Royals' 3-1 loss to a San Francisco split squad on Friday.

"I was super-excited to be back behind the home plate," Perez said. "I feel great. I feel good. I wasn't nervous."

A five-time Gold Glove winner, the 29-year-old had not caught in a game since Sept. 26, 2018.

Perez hurt a ligament in his right elbow during drills in spring training last year, and Los Angeles Dodgers team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache performed Tommy John surgery on March 6.

"It was emotional," Perez said. "It was kind of like opening day -- once you catch the first pitch, it's a regular game. I blocked some balls, threw to second base between innings. It was all great."

Trevor Rosenthal struck out two in a perfect inning.

Darrin Ruf hit a two-run homer in the second off Ian Kennedy.

Jeison Guzman, who turned 21 in October, homered in the ninth.

London race will also incorporate the GB trial for the World Half Marathon Championships

Multiple Olympic and world gold medallist Kenenisa Bekele will face reigning Boston and Chicago marathon champion Lawrence Cherono in the Vitality Big Half on Sunday (March 1) as part of his countdown to the Virgin Money London Marathon on April 26.

The half-marathon starts at Cutty Sark and passes through Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Lewisham and Greenwich with more than 15,000 runners taking part. For world 5000m and 10,000m record-holder Bekele, it is his first time in the race.

“My training has been going well,” said Bekele, who stormed to a 2:01:41 marathon in Berlin last year, missing Eliud Kipchoge’s official world record by just two seconds.

“I have prepared well and I have been really confident since the Berlin Marathon. I think this race will be a good motivation ahead of the London Marathon in April which is my main focus.

“I am happy to be back here in London. I love racing in London, even though sometimes my performances here haven’t been what I had hoped for. It is a great city with great crowds who enjoy their sport.

“I know that Lawrence Cherono is really strong athlete,” he added. “I have raced him before and I know that this will not be an easy race for me.”

Cherono said: “Coming here for me is good preparation for the Boston Marathon.

“I watched him (Bekele) in Berlin and he did a wonderful job but you cannot compare last year with this year.

“It’s a new year and a different race so you can’t predict what will happen.”

Britain’s 10-time global track gold medallist Mo Farah has dropped out with an Achilles injury but domestic entries include Dewi Griffiths, Chris Thompson, Ross Millington, Derek Hawkins, Josh Griffiths, Robbie Simpson, Charlie Hulson, Nick Goolab, Adam Clarke and Andy Vernon.

The top British women are Lily Partridge, Steph Davis, Hayley Carruthers, Eleanor Davis, Clara Evans and Rebecca Murray.

For the third year running, the Big Half will incorporate the British Athletics Half Marathon Championships and, for the first time, it will also be the GB trial race for the World Half Marathon Championships in Poland on March 29.

David Weir and Shelly Woods lead the wheelchair race entries.

The event is set to be shown on the BBC Sport website and app from 08:50 on Sunday.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Tiffany Powers has joined Pit Pay, the only mobile pit pass app for the motorsports industry, as the company’s Chief Operations Officer.

As COO, Powers will direct the day-to-day operations of Pit Pay, including partner and track relations, product management, client support, and marketing and communications. She will report directly to Pit Pay president and founder, Frank Bolter.

“I’m excited that Tiff has joined Pit Pay; she is the absolute perfect fit to lead the organization,” said Bolter. “Tiff has been involved in many facets of the motorsports industry – her résumé is impressive and diverse, and she truly understands the business. Pit Pay may be new technology to the motorsports industry, but with Tiff’s background and leadership, I am confident that we can use our technology to enhance the at-track experience while establishing a standard of excellence for the Pit Pay brand.”

Powers joins Pit Pay after four and a half years at Hendrick Motorsports, where she worked as a media relations representative for drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr. and William Byron before transitioning to the role of account executive for the famed No. 24 team, working with the team’s primary partners, Axalta, Liberty University, Hertz, UniFirst, Hendrick Autoguard, and associate partner 2XU. In 2016, Powers was voted as the NASCAR Cup Series PR Representative of the Year.

With more than 20 years in motorsports, Powers got her start working with her family-owned Charlie Daniels Racing team in 1999, when she was 14 years old. After working with her father and brother as a mechanic and spotter, she began her own driving career in 2001, starting in Legends cars and progressing through the ranks to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and even drag racing before getting out from behind the wheel in 2012.

While pursuing her driving career, Powers earned her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering with a concentration in motorsports and a minor in public relations from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2007. Upon graduation, Powers joined NASCAR Cup Series team Chip Ganassi Racing where she worked as an engineer for three years. Powers then pivoted to business and marketing, joining GMR Marketing on the Lowe’s Racing account.

After working on the Lowe’s program with driver Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 team for several years, Powers moved to JR Motorsports as the public relations representative for drivers Earnhardt, Kevin Harvick, Kasey Kahne and Ben Rhodes in the NASCAR Xfinity Series before being promoted within the year to the Cup Series as Earnhardt’s media relations rep with sister organization Hendrick Motorsports.

“I’ve worked in a lot of different areas of the motorsports industry,” said Powers. “Along the way, I met Frank and collaborated with him other industry projects. We’re both passionate about giving back to the motorsports industry and guiding it into the future. When he approached me about joining Pit Pay, I was extremely impressed by the effort and resources he has put into researching, developing and launching the Pit Pay app. Frank identified a need in the motorsports industry and created a solution with Pit Pay, and I am ready to jump in and help him launch the company and build it from the ground up.”

Pit Pay provides its users – racers, crew members and other attendees – with a simple, hassle-free experience in the app and at the track. Pit Pay customers can quickly and easily purchase pit passes in advance using the app. Once they arrive at the track, users proceed directly to the dedicated Pit Pay check-in area, present the mobile pit pass on their device and receive their armband or credential, saving valuable time standing in line, signing waivers and exchanging cash. The Pit Pay app safely and securely stores credit card information and users’ favorite tracks and series to make purchasing a pit pass as simple as a few clicks on their mobile devices.

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – You wouldn’t know Brooks Koepka missed the cut Friday at the Honda Classic.

You wouldn’t know he made two more double bogeys in the second round, to go with the double bogey and triple bogey he made in the first round.

You wouldn’t know he didn’t come close to playing the weekend, with his pair of 74s leaving him five shots off the cut line.

He sounded like a man who doesn’t feel that far away from getting himself ready to add to this four major championships.

“I struck it really well,” Koepka said Friday, before heading to his nearby home for the rest of the weekend. “Really pleased with how I'm hitting it.”

So, move along, folks, there’s nothing to see here, not if you’re looking for signs Koepka's left knee still isn’t right, if you’re looking for evidence the knee might keep Koepka from making magic again, with the another major championship season just around the corner.

“Yeah, everything is good,” Koepka said. “No complaints. It has nothing to do with my knee.”

This missed cut was mostly about his putting, he said.

There’s still rust to be worked off.

“I think I've played, what, 18 rounds since August?” Koepka said.

Actually, 14 rounds since the start of the new year, but we get his point.

“Just need to pick it up a little bit, pick up the pace, give it maybe a little bit more touch around the greens, a little bit more feel.” Koepka said. “But the way I'm striking it, I'm very pleased. I feel very happy with it.”

As proof his knee is fine, Koepka said Friday that he has committed to playing the Arnold Palmer Invitational next week. That means he’s going to play five weeks in a row before taking a week off to play the Masters. He’s going to go from the API to The Players, the Valspar Championship and the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.

Koepka was right about his putting. It wasn’t good at PGA National. He was 141st in strokes gained: putting for the week when he signed his scorecard.

Koepka said when he did miss a shot this week, PGA National’s stern design severely punished it.

“I just end up in the worst place possible,” he said. “It is very easy out here to turn a decent round into what can be a little bit of a disaster and you can rack up some big numbers pretty quickly.”

Yeah, Koepka hit four shots in the water over the first two rounds.

And, yeah, he told Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis two weeks ago that the knee injury that shut down his season last fall was a lot worse than he let on. He told Lewis he didn’t know if the knee “will ever be 100 percent.”

So, this run of five consecutive weeks of play, and then his start at the Masters, a bid to improve his second-place finish at Augusta National last year, will give more weight to Koepka’s words, whether they be what he told Lewis about the severity of the injury, or what he said this week about the knee being stable and feeling good again.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It’s one of the most remarkable stories in sports car racing history.

The protagonist is motorsports legend Mario Andretti, while the antagonist – at least one of them – is Hollywood superstar Steve McQueen.

The scene is Sebring Int’l Raceway and the 19th Twelve Hours of Sebring on March 21, 1970.

Three years after winning his first Twelve Hours in 1967, Andretti was well on his way to a second Sebring win in the No. 19 Ferrari 512S Spyder that he co-drove with Arturo Merzario.

Andretti put the car on pole by a healthy margin in qualifying, and he and Merzario dominated most of the race for the Ferrari factory team.

They led by as many as 12 laps before gearbox troubles forced the No. 19 Ferrari to stop. Disappointed, Andretti was ready to head for home.

“We’re out of the race and I was pretty much ready to leave because I had my plane there,” said Andretti, who the year prior had won the Indianapolis 500 and the Indy car championship. “The next day, on Sunday, I was racing a sprint car race in Reading, Pa., so I figured, ‘Well, I’ll just leave a little early.’

“I was ready to go, say my goodbye and Mauro Forghieri, the team manager said, ‘No, wait, wait, wait! I might want you to go and finish the race with the third car with (Nino) Vaccarella and (Ignazio) Giunti. I said, ‘Well, I don’t know.’”

Andretti was torn. On one hand, after spending all day dominating the race in the No. 19 Ferrari, it’d be nice to have something to show for his efforts.

But at the same time, the No. 21 Ferrari 512S Coupe was quite a bit different from the No. 19 Spyder, which had an open cockpit. It also was running third, a lap down to the leaders with less than two hours left in the race.

Jo Siffert was leading the race for the Porsche factory-supported team in the No. 5 Porsche 917K and was looking mighty strong. Running second was Peter Revson in a privateer No. 48 Porsche 908 he was sharing with McQueen.

“All of a sudden, the leading Porsche had some issues with a front hub, so they’re in the pits a long time,” Andretti recalled. “And Revson was in the (No. 48) car and he had been in the car for over eight hours – not consecutive – but McQueen did the minimum amount.”

A few weeks before the Sebring race, McQueen had broken his foot in a motorcycle race in Lake Elsinore, California and was sporting a cast on his left leg.

But with Siffert’s misfortune, Revson moved into the lead and track announcers were sensing a big Hollywood ending for McQueen.

“As Revson goes into the lead, they’re saying, ‘And Steve McQueen takes the lead!” Andretti remembers. “They’re screaming, ‘Steve McQueen!’ and I’m looking at it and that pissed me off, actually. So, I told Forghieri, ‘If you want me to go, I’ll go in the car,’ because I felt that I had a better chance against that Porsche rather than the factory Porsche.”

But before he did it, Andretti also spoke with Giunti, who was due to take over in the No. 21 Ferrari from Vaccarella.

“It was his turn to go back in the car and finish,” Andretti said. “He was sitting there, and I asked him – because Forghieri was adamant that I get in the car – but I wanted the other driver to accept that. I didn’t want to be that forceful. I asked him, ‘Ignazio, is it OK if I go?’ He goes, ‘Yes. Yes. OK.’”

With Giunti’s blessing, Andretti climbed into the cockpit of the No. 21 Ferrari. It was a car he had never driven before, in the pitch-black dark of night.

“I didn’t fit worth a damn, because both guys were a little bit taller than me,” Andretti says. “But I was determined.”

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LE MANS, France – Officials from the Automobile Club de l’Ouest have announced the 62-car grid for the upcoming 88th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The headlining class, LMP1, features the smallest field of the four classes. Only six teams are entered in LMP1, spearheaded by the two-car squad fielded by two-time and defending overall winners Toyota Gazoo Racing.

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s No. 7 entry will be shared by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez. The No. 8 entry out of the Toyota Gazoo Racing stable will be driven by defending race winners Kazuki Nakajima and Sébastien Buemi, as well as new teammate Brendon Hartley.

Other entries in LMP1 include a two-car program from Rebellion Racing and two entries from Team TNT. This is the final appearance in the 24 Hours of Le Mans by the LMP1 class, which will be eliminated next year in favor of the new Le Mans Hypercar class.

The GTE Pro division features a stout 11-car field, with 10 of those entries being factory entries. Among them are the American Corvette Racing team, which will prepare and field a pair of the new Chevrolet C8.R race cars.

Porsche is attacking Le Mans with four factory entries in GTE Pro, AF Corse is set to field a pair of Ferrari 488 GTE Evo racers and Aston Martin has entered two Vantage AMR entries. The only non-factory team in GTE Pro is the Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.

The biggest class this year in terms of car count is LMP2, which will feature 24 cars. There are four chassis’ represented in LMP2, including the Dallara P217, the Ligier JS P217 and the Riley MK.30. However, the ORECA 07 makes up the bulk of LMP2 the field, including a Garage 56 entry.

The Garage 56 entry comes from SRT41, which is fielding a specially adapted ORECA 07 for the trio of Takuma Aoki, Nigel Bailly and Ben Moussa. Aoki and Nigel Bailly are both parapletics, while Moussa lost one of his hands as a teenager.

Finally, GTE Am features 20 entries from a variety of teams. Eleven of those entered are full-time FIA World Endurance Championship teams.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans is scheduled for June 13-14 at Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans, France.

Click here to see the full 24 Hours of Le Mans entry list.