MEXICO CITY – Rory McIlroy this week at the WGC-Mexico Championship became the first high-profile player to take a hard stance against a proposed new tour,  and the early feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

“I received some nice messages,” he said following his first round at Club de Golf Chapultepec. “I wasn't hoping for anything. I was just sort of providing my point of view and getting it off my chest, and that's what I felt. I wasn't trying to do anything or prove a point or try to get any sort of praise.

“I've sort of been sick of talking about it for the last few months, and I'm happy that everyone knows where I stand on that, and I'm happy that I know where I stand on it.”

On Wednesday, when asked about the Premier Golf League, the world No. 1 said he didn’t “like it” and that he was “out” of the proposed league which is attempting to woo the game’s top players away from the PGA Tour and European Tour.

Specifically, McIlroy said he didn’t like the idea of giving up the autonomy of being an independent contractor and that he valued his legacy over any potential financial gain.

McIlroy said he received numerous messages regarding his comments and when asked if one of those messages was from PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, he cracked smile. “Maybe,” he answered.

Former U.S. women's national team goalkeeper Hope Solo is among the first-time eligible players on the ballot for the U.S. National Soccer Hall of Fame.

Solo, dismissed from the team following the 2016 Olympics, joins fellow U.S. national team members Brad Davis, Whitney Engen, Herculez Gomez and Clarence Goodson among 14 players first-time eligible players on the 42-person ballot.

Arguably one of the most successful goalkeepers on the international stage, Solo made 202 appearances with the national team with 153 wins and an international-record 102 shutouts. During the 2015 World Cup championship run, she allowed three goals in seven games with five shutouts.

But her career was marked at times by controversy, and her contract with the national team was not renewed after the Brazil Games, when she called the Swedish team "cowards" for taking a defensive posture against the defending gold medalists.

Former MLS players Mike Magee, Carlos Ruiz, Nat Borchers, Conor Casey, Justin Mapp, Jamison Olave and Robbie Rogers also are on the ballot for the first time, as are Women's Professional Soccer league players Jen Buczkowski and Kelly Smith.

LA Galaxy President Chris Klein, who played for the U.S. and in Major League Soccer, and former national team defender Kate Markgraf, currently general manager of the U.S. women's national team, are among six players in their final year of eligibility along with ex-U.S. forward Clint Mathis.

A player must appear on two-thirds of the ballots to gain election. Among the holdovers are LA Galaxy star David Beckham, current U.S. national team coach Gregg Berhalter, U.S. captain Carlos Bocanegra, defender Steve Cherundolo and New York Red Bulls star Thierry Henry.

Gomez, currently an ESPN commentator, was on the U.S. roster for the 2010 World Cup and had a 17-year pro career in Mexico and MLS. He was on the Seattle Sounders team that won the MLS Cup in 2016. Goodsen, a defender, also played in 2010 in South Africa and made 46 national team appearances.

Davis played 15 years in MLS and made 17 appearances on the national team. The left winger was part of the squad that played in the 2014 World Cup.

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Engen's national team career spanned six years and included the 2011 and 2015 World Cups.

Voters include current and past men's and women's national team coaches, MLS and National Women's Soccer League head coaches with four years of top-level head coaching experience in the U.S., MLS and NWSL management and commissioners. the USSF president, all Hall of Famers and select media.

Ballots for the veteran and builder categories will be released later.

Sacramento Kings forward Marvin Bagley III will be out at least another three weeks with a left foot sprain, the team announced Thursday.

Bagley continues to progress but is not ready to return, the team said, adding that another update would be provided in three weeks.

Bagley, taken by the Kings with the No. 2 pick in the 2018 draft, has played just 13 games this season, averaging 14.2 points and 7.5 rebounds.

He originally injured the foot in December and missed eight games. When he returned, he aggravated the injury after four games and has not played since.

Bagley also missed 22 games with a broken thumb suffered in the season opener.

Bagley was on the All-Rookie first team last season, averaging 14.9 points and 7.6 rebounds.

Kyrie Irving will undergo season-ending surgery on his right shoulder, Brooklyn Nets general manager Sean Marks said Thursday.

Marks said the decision was made after Irving had visited with a specialist the past few days.

"He's obviously upset about this, and we're here to support him, support the process, moving forward with him and the rehabilitation," Marks said.

Irving missed 26 consecutive games earlier this season with a right shoulder impingement. He said the pain started during the Nets' Nov. 4 game against the New Orleans Pelicans.

Irving saw an Arizona-based specialist in December and received a cortisone shot on Dec. 24. He said at the time that he hoped the cortisone would eliminate an immediate need for surgery.

Irving returned to action Jan. 12 and played nine games before suffering a right knee sprain in a loss to the Washington Wizards on Feb. 1, which turned out to be his final game of the season.

"I think Kyrie even mentioned a couple times that he's been playing through pain," Marks said. "He's been playing, and we got to give him a lot of credit for that, pushing through. He wants to be out there with his guys. It gets to the point where you say enough is enough, and again it goes to long-term health, and the best prognosis for him right now is, let's shut him down and get this taken care of once and for all."

Irving averaged 27.4 points, 5.2 rebounds and 6.4 assists in 20 games this season.

Despite Irving's shortened season, Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson said he was able to learn that Irving "was better than I even thought" and expressed optimism for the team's future.

"Faster than I thought, more skilled than I thought, higher-level competitor than I thought, much more physical than I thought," Atkinson said of Irving. "I don't think people give him enough credit how physical he is on both ends, how active he is defensively, what an attacker he is -- that bodes really well for the future. I really love the player, and I feel like we have a really good relationship, so we're in a good place there. Obviously, you want more reps, more time with him, but we'll have time in the offseason too, obviously, to connect. And when he gets healthy, we'll work with him a little bit."

Marks said he was disappointed that he and the Nets (25-28) have gotten so little of a look at their full team during what he called "a roller-coaster ride of a season." In addition to Irving, guard Caris LeVert missed seven weeks with a right thumb injury, and forward Wilson Chandler sat out 25 games due to a suspension.

Kevin Durant, who signed a four-year contract worth up to $164 million with the Nets in the offseason, also is not expected to play this season because of a ruptured right Achilles tendon, which he suffered in Game 5 of the NBA Finals in June, his final game with the Golden State Warriors.

ESPN's Malika Andrews contributed to this report.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Coming down to the finish of the 62nd annual Daytona 500 Monday night, crew chief Chris Gabehart wasn’t sure what tricks his driver Denny Hamlin had left up his sleeve.

After all, Hamlin was the only Toyota driver left in a sea of seven Ford Mustangs among the top eight heading into a double-overtime restart to conclude NASCAR’s biggest event.

But as it turned out, a little luck and a well-timed side-draft on Hamlin’s part were enough to propel the No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry past Ryan Blaney and into victory lane, earning both Hamlin and Gabehart a second-straight Daytona 500 triumph.

Hamlin edged out Blaney by .014 seconds in the second-closest finish in the history of The Great American Race to open up his second NASCAR Cup Series season working with Gabehart.

For the crew chief in question, he was quick to note his good fortune at being paired with Hamlin in the first place, let alone the fact that the duo has now topped NASCAR’s biggest race in back-to-back years.

“I told somebody coming up pit road, I’m not going to buy any lottery tickets for the rest of my life,” Gabehart joked during the post-race winner’s press conference. “I think it’s amazing that I’ve won my second in as many Daytona 500s as a crew chief. A lot of people don’t even get a chance to win one.

“But for me personally, this one is honestly way more special for me,” he continued. “The first one was my first race as crew chief for the (No.) 11 FedEx Camry with Denny, and you just have so many great resources behind you, it’s really just riding the wave from all of that. I was trying to figure out what was going on, and I felt like Denny and the team were doing all the work, to be honest with you.

“That one I felt very, very lucky to receive.”

This time, however, there was as much or more skill involved than there was luck.

Hamlin stayed up front most of the afternoon, strategically finding his way to the front at the start of the second stage on Monday and leading a race-high 79 laps of the 209 run at Daytona Int’l Speedway.

It was a quietly-dominant performance the likes of which Hamlin and Gabehart have become known for lately, with the duo having won seven of the last 37 races in the NASCAR Cup Series together.

Monday was just the crowning achievement of a run that Gabehart said gives him a firm place among the best crew chiefs in the NASCAR Cup Series garage area.

“The way I look at it, 365 days later and after putting together the season that we put together in 2019 as a team … with me being fortunate enough to be asked to lead that team, this one is so much more valuable to me,” Gabehart noted. “I feel like I’ve earned this one. I feel like I belong now.

“I feel like this team is capable of excellence, and this one means a lot more to me personally.”

SALEM, Ind. — Members of the ABC Body Committee confirmed Thursday that Five Star Race Car Bodies’ ABC Next Gen body has been approved for competition starting in 2021 across multiple sanctions.

Series and sanctioning bodies that have approved the ABC Next Gen body for next season include the Champion Racing Ass’n, Southern Super Series, ARCA Midwest Tour, CARS Tour and the SRL Southwest Tour.

The history of the ABC Body Committee goes back to 2002, when various groups gathered to give the racing industry guidance on a national standard for an asphalt late model body shape.

At that time, the ABC Body Program was formed to oversee a body shape control program.

The nation was quickly unified, and the yearly cost of competition for highly competitive teams went down, as a new body would not be released every year.

With the implementation of this late model body shape program, teams were no longer required to purchase the most up to date and increased performance body every year.

For 17 years, one shape has stood the test of time and allowed racers to travel across the country in pursuit of fair and equal competition. However, in recent years, various short track stakeholders made it known they felt it was time for a new body shape.

The introduction of the new ABC Next Gen body shape has been a long process, but the various parties have come to the table with compromises and moving forward in that effort.

The sanctioning bodies that have led the ABC Next Gen unifying effort hope that other tracks and sanctioning bodies will join them in establishing the new national standard.

Five Star originally released its Next Gen late model body for competition in 2019, but the ABC Body Committee chose not to approve it at the time. Since then the Next Gen body has been utilized by several tracks and a handful of sanctioning bodies prior to being approved for competition by the ABC Body Committee for 2021.

The ABC Next Gen committee is still working with AR Bodies in an effort to keep two manufacturers in the program, even arranging to provide AR with the necessary build templates.

AR Bodies revealed its own updated body design during the 2019 edition of the PRI Trade Show in Indianapolis, Ind., in December.

This is consistent with the process used for the original ABC body, where AR Bodies used builders’ templates drawn from a standard, approved shape.

The original ABC bodies produced by AR and Five Star, as well as the new ABC Next Gen body, are the only bodies that will be approved for competition.

It was important to the leadership group that a single, new shape be identical aerodynamically to the current ABC body. Involved series did not want racers to purchase a new body because they thought it was necessary to be competitive.

The ABC Next Gen committee is confident this has been accomplished, given that the new body style has been proven, through extensive wind tunnel testing and a year of on track competition, to be aerodynamically equal to the current body.

Additionally, many in this effort have demonstrated their commitment to a shape control program for late model racing since the first days of the original ABC group, and that commitment goes even deeper with two key enhancements for the ABC Next Gen body.

First, the new effort improved the design of the body panels that greatly reduces the potential for overall body shape manipulation.

Second, a more complete set of inspection templates and dimensions have been developed for both racers and tech officials, in order to maintain body shape parity for all racers.

The ABC Next Gen leadership group has agreed that the body will be a part of the 2021 rules packages. Some of these organizations may opt for a late 2020 season implementation to aid teams in need of major repairs later in the year.

Racers should check with their individual sanctioning bodies to confirm their specific roll-out plan for the ABC Next Gen body.

TRENTON, N.J. – Dirt modified star Larry Wight is expected to bring excitement to this weekend’s East Coast Indoor Dirt Nationals, inside the CURE Insurance Arena Feb. 21–22.

Wight had just returned to his Phoenix, N.Y., home after two week competition in Florida in a dirt modified when he was offered to drive Kenny Vincent’s 600cc micro sprint.

The combination makes the new team one of the pre-race favorites to win Saturday’s $5,000-to-win, 50-lap A-main.

Wight brought back a Big Gator championship trophy from Florida’s Volusia Speedway Park after winning three of the five DIRTcar Nationals Modified features held. The 2018 winner of Super DIRT Week in Oswego, N.Y., also has 410, 360 and midget car experience.

In his first appearance at the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl National in Tulsa, Okla., in 2017, Wight became a rookie sensation.

Vincent’s No. 97 600cc micro sprint, based out of Delaware, is also a top runner wherever it competes with driver Luke Thomas behind the wheel.

When Thomas was not able to compete this weekend, Vincent went looking for a replacement that could take his team to victory lane. Through the urging of friends, Wight was chosen, and he quickly accepted.

In the first running of the East Coast Dirt Nationals, Thomas blew a tire during a qualifying event that buried him in Saturday’s alphabet soup qualifying races.

But Thomas rebounded to transfer from the back of the D-Main to the, C to the B, to the A-Main despite starting in the back of each race. Thomas then drove from the rear of the field again to finish seventh in the A-Main, earning him the “Hard Charger” of the event award.

The first Indoor Dirt Nationals was won by Staten Island, N.Y., 600cc micro sprint regular Whitey Kidd III. Last year’s event went to dirt modified star Erick Rudolph of Ransomville, N.Y.

Rudolph, a three-time champion of the Indoor Auto Racing TQ midget series, won last year’s event in a pick-up ride, much like Wight will attempt this weekend.

Wight will join another red-hot driver coming off a sensational Florida Speedweeks in Anthony Nocella of Wolburn, Mass.

The 27-year old won twice in an asphalt modified during the week-long World Series Of Asphalt Racing at New Smyrna Speedway, including a photo finish victory in the John Blewett III Memorial 76-lap race.

Though Nocella’s more recent racing endeavors have consisted of racing modifieds on pavement, he has considerable background racing 600 micro sprints and he’s made three previous appearances at the Chili Bowl in a full-size midget.

On Friday, by the luck of a blind draw, the field will be split into 10 heat races. Those who start in the back will benefit by points given for each car passed.

The top 60 in heat race points are then divided into four A-Main qualifiers, of which the top three transfer directly to Saturday’s 50 lap A-Main event paying $5,000 to the winner.

On Saturday all non-qualified drivers are split into qualifying races by their results on Friday. Each of these events, starting with twin F-Mains, transfer four to the next main until two B-Mains are reached on the schedule.

In the final qualifiers, the top six transfer to the A-main, which will start 24 cars.

Grandstand gates open at 6 p.m. on Friday, with racing beginning at 7 p.m.

The doors open at 4 p.m. on Saturday, with an autograph session at 4:30 p.m. among the 12 drivers locked into the A-main after Friday’s events.

Racing on Saturday will begin at 6 p.m.

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. – Joe Gibbs Racing confirmed Thursday that Kyle Busch will compete in five NASCAR Xfinity Series races this year, at Phoenix Raceway on March 7.

Busch’s five race NASCAR Xfinity Series program in 2020 will be as follows:

March 7 at Phoenix Raceway in the No. 54 TWIX Cookies & Creme Toyota Supra

May 23 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the No. 54 TWIX Cookies and Creme Toyota Supra

June 20 at Chicagoland Speedway in the No. 54 Starburst Duos Toyota Supra

July 18 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the No. 54 Starburst Duos Toyota Supra

Aug. 15 at Watkins Glen Int’l in the No. 54 Combos Toyota Supra

“I’m excited to have Mars partner with me in the Xfinity Series and have TWIX, Starburst and Combos on my No. 54 Toyota Supra for these NXS races,” said Busch. “It’s really going to be something to celebrate with Mars brands helping me get to the 100-win mark in the Xfinity Series this season.”

Busch is the winningest driver in NASCAR Xfinity Series history with 96 victories. He won four races in seven starts last season.

Jacob Canter will handle the crew chief duties for the No. 54 Toyota Supra. He currently serves as the test team manager for Joe Gibbs Racing’s NASCAR Cup Series program.