Ryan Newman is being treated for a head injury but suffered no internal injuries during Monday's violent crash at the end of the Daytona 500.

Newman said in a statement released by Roush Fenway Racing on Sunday that he intends to return to racing this season.

"Ryan's objectives have not changed this year," Roush Fenway Racing president Steve Newmark told reporters. "His goal is to win the 2020 Cup Championship."

Newmark added that there is no timeline for Newman's return.

Newman had been hospitalized when, on the final lap of the Daytona 500, his car went airborne, was hit by another car to send it airborne a second time, rolled upside down and landed on its roof in flames.

It took more than 15 minutes for Newman to be taken out of the car, and he spent two nights in the Halifax Medical Center before being released Wednesday.

In his statement Sunday, Newman noted his appreciation for the support he has received since the crash.

Ross Chastain is scheduled to drive Newman's No. 6 Ford on Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where Newman's 649 consecutive race streak, dating to the 2002 Daytona 500, will end.

Yoenis Cespedes broke his silence with the media Sunday, saying he didn't want to talk about the past and is hoping to be ready for Opening Day.

This past Monday, the New York Mets outfielder had told reporters he did not plan to talk to the media.

"Not today, not tomorrow, not at all this year," he said, only to change his mind six days later, answering questions through an interpreter.

Asked by reporters whether he planned to be ready for Opening Day, he said, "If I continue progressing the way that I am, yes."

He has been working out with his Mets teammates since Monday.

While recovering from surgery on his heels last May, Cespedes fractured his right ankle in multiple places in an accident at his ranch near the Mets' training complex in Port St. Lucie, Florida. He and the Mets agreed in December to an amended contract that cut his base salary from $29.5 million to $6 million. He would raise his pay to $11 million if he has one active day on the major league roster and to $20 million if he has 650 plate appearances -- a figure he has reached just once.

"I'm not going to speak about the past," Cespedes told reporters. "I committed an error and I paid the price for it, but today I'll be talking about the present and the future."

He said the chance to raise his salary by staying on the field was important, but he would have come into this season with the same motivation regardless of how his contract was structured.

"A big part of the motivation is the people who have been out there and have been saying that I can't do it," he said. "So I am going out there to prove that I can."

Cespedes, 34, won a Gold Glove in 2015 and a Silver Slugger the following year. He has played in only 119 games in the first three seasons of a four-year, $110 million contract, just 38 since the end of the 2017 season, because of hamstring strains, a hip flexor, surgery on his heels and his broken ankle.

"I feel good. I am happy with the progress," Cespedes told reporters. "Every day I am still working to get better and better. It's not as fast as I want it to be, but as the season approaches, I feel really good right now."

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

The San Diego Padres agreed to a minor league contract with second baseman Brian Dozier on Sunday. He received an invitation to major league spring training.

Dozier joins a mix at second base that is headlined by expected starter Jurickson Profar, who was acquired in an offseason trade with the Oakland Athletics.

"That's our most open competition," manager Jayce Tingler told reporters, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. "Season happens, injuries happen. The more quality depth that we can build, it just gives us more options for later down the line."

The 32-year-old Dozier, who bats right-handed, could be valuable as a pinch-hitter against left-handed pitchers. He has a .270 batting average and .855 OPS against lefties in his career.

He hit .238 with 20 home runs and 50 RBIs in 135 games for the Washington Nationals last season, his first with the team. He made 114 starts for Washington last season, but by the end of the season and in the playoffs, he had lost his starting job to Asdrubal Cabrera.

He was an All-Star with the Minnesota Twins in 2015 when he hit 28 home runs and had 77 RBIs. A season later he set career highs with 42 home runs and 99 RBIs. He also was a run-producer in 2017, finishing with 34 home runs and 93 RBIs and posted a career-best .271 batting average.

The eight-year major league veteran has a .245 average, 192 home runs and 561 RBIs in 1,137 games.

As chance would have it, the Houston Astros' first exhibition game was a home game of sorts, with Houston playing host to the team that shares its West Palm Beach complex, the Washington Nationals. Because it's still February and a lot of the veterans are relatively early in their preparation for the regular season, no members of the 2017 Astros played.

And yet the Astros were still booed, vociferously, in the first dress rehearsal for what promises to be an extremely challenging year.

Really, there's nothing that the Houston players can do about it anymore -- not even the many current Astros who were with other organizations in 2017, like outfielder Michael Brantley, who was serving out his final season with Cleveland back then. Some of the reaction has crossed the line, as ESPN's Jeff Passan wrote the other day.

New Astros manager Dusty Baker said it right in speaking with reporters, Ken Davidoff of the New York Post among them. "You've just got to put your big-boy pants on and just try to shut it out and just play baseball and realize that this too shall pass," Baker said. "When? I'm not sure."

The response to some of the Astros may never dissipate, leaving them to figure out how to cope with it all. Maybe mental coaches can help. Maybe competitive defiance will kick in, with an "I'll show you" instinct taking over. It's possible that some players will let it get to them; the negative reinforcement from booing fans is part of the reason why Ed Whitson, Kenny Rogers and Sonny Gray departed the Yankees.

For members of the '17 Astros who have moved on to other teams, such as the Twins' Marwin Gonzalez and the Mets' Jake Marisnick, it'll be a little easier because the uniforms they wear won't set off the reflexive response that the Houston gear will generate.

Each of the '17 Astros still with the team has no choice but to endure, and as with all players, they all have something at stake personally this season.

TUCSON, Ariz. – The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series is set to invade Arizona on Saturday, March 21, at USA Raceway and on Sunday, March 22, at Arizona Speedway for an exciting doubleheader weekend.

The winged warriors of the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series will invade Arizona for the Wildcat Shootout at USA Raceway and San Tan Valley for the Arizona Desert Shootout at Arizona Speedway.

Reigning champion Brad Sweet, of Grass Valley, Calif., earned his first victory of 2019 at USA Raceway en route to his first series title. It was also his second win at the three-eighths-mile track, tying 2013 champion Daryn Pittman for the most wins at the raceway. With a win at Volusia Speedway Park already this season, Sweet will be on the prowl for back to back wins in Arizona.

David Gravel won his first race at Arizona Speedway last year, becoming the fourth different winner in-a-row at the third-mile track. He returns to Jason Johnson Racing for his second year after a strong first season that saw the pair win 12 races, including the Knoxville Nationals.

Ten-time series champion Donny Schatz is currently the only driver on the World of Outlaws tour who has a win at both tracks. He kicked off the 2020 season with a win at Volusia Speedway Park, bringing himself closer to a milestone 300 career wins by earning his 295th series win.

Both events will pay $10,000-to-win and are sure to produced high-octane action among the winged warriors of the World of Outlaws.

For Saturday’s event at USA Raceway, hot laps are scheduled to start at 6 p.m. with racing at 7:30 p.m. Then for Sunday’s event at Arizona Speedway, hot laps are scheduled to start at 5:45 p.m. with racing at 7 p.m.

LAS VEGAS – The first details surrounding Ryan Newman’s vicious Daytona 500 accident and the safety response that followed came to light Saturday thanks to a NASCAR panel.

So, in reality, what seemed like an eternity was actually much less than that.

After Ryan Newman’s battered race car came to rest last Monday at the exit of the tri-oval following the finish of the Daytona 500, it took only 19 seconds for the first emergency vehicle to arrive, according to the chronology provided by a trio of NASCAR officials in a question-and-answer session with reporters on Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“The tool truck arrived at the vehicle 19 seconds after it came to rest,” said Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer. “The fireman that you saw with the extinguisher was in that vehicle. One of the three trauma doctors assigned to the safety team for the race arrived at the car at the 33‑second mark, and a paramedic entered the vehicle at the 35‑second mark.

“For the next three and a half minutes, two doctors and paramedics attended to Ryan. At the 4:05 mark, the decision was then made to roll the car over while continuing to help aid the driver,” O’Donnell continued. “At the 6:56 mark, the car was upright. The extrication team then began cutting the car, and a doctor continued to provide treatment.

“The roof was removed at the 11:10 mark, and the extrication was completed at 15:40, and the driver was then moved to the ambulance for transport. During this entire time, doctors and paramedics were attending to Ryan, except at the moment of the car rollover.”

Newman, who was taken directly to Halifax Medical Center and released from the hospital on Wednesday, may well have benefitted from the so-called “Newman bar,” a reinforcement for the roll cage that strengthened the roof and the windshield that was implemented after a wreck involving Newman in 2009 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

“So when we look at the cars and look back at what we’ve been able to do with the cars as an industry, we’ve been able to make improvements,” said Dr. John Patalak, NASCAR’s senior director of safety engineering. “The one you’ve referenced in 2013 with the additional roll bars and the roof and the windshield area … we were also able to do things with the laminate windshield in 2013 and improved window net mounting in 2013.

“All of those things really contribute and work together as an assembly to improve the overall outcomes to what we saw in Daytona.”

Both Newman’s car and the No. 32 of Corey LaJoie, which collided with Newman’s Ford as it flipped upside-down, were destroyed in the wreck, and both were taken to NASCAR’s R&D Center in Concord, N.C., for further inspection and evaluation.

No information on Newman’s medical condition was released on Saturday due to HIPAA laws, and the three men on the panel were somewhat limited in the information they did provide.

Why?

“With his (Newman’s) engineering background, he’s been someone who we have turned to in many times talking about safety enhancements,” noted O’Donnell. “One of the reasons you won’t hear as many details today is (because) we still haven’t had the chance to go through this with Ryan and his team, with the other drivers in the garage, but Ryan’s feedback as we go through this will be key, and I think that’ll be a key component as it’s always been throughout the process when he’s been racing.”

O’Donnell was firm in the stance that NASCAR’s overtime procedures will not change as a knee-jerk reaction to Monday’s crash, but he did say that potential changes to the aero rules could be made prior to the next superspeedway race at Talladega in April.

“We’re going to look at everything in terms of the speeds and liftoff,” O’Donnell said. “You’ve heard me say many times before that we never want a car to get airborne, so we’ll look at how that occurred around the speeds.

“We’ll look at the racing procedures we have in place as well. All of that will be on the table as we head into Talladega. If we need to make adjustments around the aero balance and speeds as it relates to safety, we’ll do that.”

A goalkeeper with Uruguayan first division club Cerro Largo was red card, having wound up opponents Nacional -- only for them to score twice against 10 men in stoppage-time and rescue a draw.

Washington Aguerre was booked in the first half for celebrating Cerro's opening goal seated in the lotus position similar to that made famous by Erling Haaland of Borussia Dortmund in last week's Champions League game against Paris St Germain.

Aguerre, who has spent most of his career with Nacional's arch-rivals Penarol, was sent off in the final minute of the match for a foul that led to a penalty.

Because Cerro had made three substitutions, one of their central defenders was forced to don the goalkeeping gloves.

The home side converted the spot-kick in the fifth minute of added time and scored an equaliser in the dying seconds to rescue a 2-2 draw.

It was not the first time Aguerre had wound up Nacional, who along with Penarol are one of Uruguay's two biggest clubs. He was involved in incidents last year and Cerro Largo's president said his future at the club was now in doubt.

"We are going to talk with him," president Ernesto Dehl was quoted as saying in Uruguayan media. "We did that in the dressing room and we will do it again once things have cooled down but one thing for sure is that a definitive decision will be taken in a few days .

"That was decisive, if you play without a goalkeeper everything changes. He is international class but this isn't the first time this kind of thing has happened with him."

Aguerre was also sent off Cerro Largo's first leg 1-1 draw against Chilean side Palestino in the Copa Libertadores second round. Without him, they lost the return 5-1.

Manchester United leapfrogged Tottenham Hotspur into fifth place in the Premier League table after a 3-0 win over Watford at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Bruno Fernandes opened the scoring after he was brought down by Watford keeper Ben Foster in the box, before dusting himself down and nonchalantly slotting home a 42nd minute penalty. Anthony Martial then clipped home a glorious finish just before the hour mark to give his side breathing space. Mason Greenwood completed the scoring after 74 minutes with an excellent strike to move Ole Gunnar Solkjaer's side to within three points of the Champions League places.

Positives

Fernandes notched his first goal for United in what was a classy performance from the January signing, while today's somewhat fortunate shutout was their fifth clean sheet in their last six games in all competitions.

Negatives

The Old Trafford defence really was all over the place in the opening 10 minutes, and had VAR to thank early in the second half after Troy Deeney poked home following some terrible United defending, only for the goal to be ruled out for handball.

Manager rating out of 10

6 -- Solksjaer switched to a back four for this one after a stodgy performance with a five-man defence against Club Brugge in the Europa League on Thursday, and his side put in a much-improved display this time around.

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Player ratings (1-10; 10 = best. Players introduced after 70 minutes get no rating)

GK David de Gea, 6 -- The Spaniard's only test in the first half came when he tipped the ball around the post following a stinging Abdoulaye Doucoure effort, and had just as little to do in the second half as United dominated proceedings.

DF Aaron Wan-Bissaka, 6 -- Should have done much better when trying to slot home after Ben Foster fumbled a Daniel James effort early on, but the former Crystal Palace man was as reliable as ever defensively.

DF Victor Lindelof, 6 -- Deeney targeted the Swede as the Watford man looked to physically impose himself on the United defence, but the centre-half dealt well with the threat and had a steady game.

DF Harry Maguire, 6 -- Played his way into trouble a couple of times early on, but settled into the game, and almost added his name to the score sheet for the second time in a week but glanced a header wide after 67 minutes.

DF Luke Shaw, 7 -- Excellent defending denied Deeney a near-certain goal in the opening three minutes, and the 24-year-old anticipated danger very well throughout, whilst also providing an option on the overlap.

MF Fred, 6 -- The Brazilian was erratic in possession, and put his side in danger on more than one occasion when under pressure from the Watford press. Had a big chance to score what would have been just his second goal for the club, but blasted over from 18 yards with the entire goal to aim at. Replaced after 80 minutes by Scott McTominay.

MF Nemanja Matic, 6 -- Played in his part in a defensive mix-up that nearly gifted Watford an early lead, but found his feet soon after and looked the more controlled of United's double pivot at the base of midfield.

MF Bruno Fernandes, 8 -- Has a touch of elegance about him when he glides across the pitch, and the Portuguese won his side a penalty when he beat Foster to a loose ball, before a Jorginho-esque penalty sent the Watford keeper the wrong way to put his side ahead. He wasn't done there, and provided Greenwood with a perfectly weighted pass for the youngster to blast home United's third.

FW Mason Greenwood, 7 -- Drifted in and out of the game, but forced a couple of decent saves from the keeper, before firing home an unstoppable finish off the woodwork from just inside the penalty area to add some gloss to the score line in the 75th minute, before being replaced by Tahith Chong shortly after.

FW Daniel James, 6 -- Had plenty of opportunities to cut in on his right foot and make something happen in the first half, but the Welshman was often wayward with his final product, but looked a real threat in the second half when picking up central pockets of space and driving at the visiting defence.

FW Anthony Martial, 7 -- The Frenchman had a frustrating first half in which decision making and end product let him down, but he made amends in the 60th minute when he showed brilliant composure to work some space before delightfully clipping the ball over Foster to make the points safe. Replaced for the final ten minutes by Odion Ighalo.

Substitutes

Scott McTominay, N/A -- Slotted into midfield and kept things ticking over in what was his first appearance since Boxing Day.

Tahith Chong, N/A -- Cut inside and fired just wide in the 89th minute.

Odion Ighalo, N/A -- Denied a dream goal when he rounded the keeper and hit the post from a tight angle.