KNOXVILLE, Iowa – Carson McCarl is the first driver in the running for the Priority Aviation $20,000 Knoxville Nationals Sponsorship fundraiser benefiting the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum.

Drivers planning on competing at Knoxville Raceway in Iowa in the August 360 or 410 Knoxville Nationals are eligible. The drivers/teams who raise the most funds to help pay for the construction of the Bryan Clauson Suite Tower for the non-profit museum through memberships or donations will again be rewarded cash bonuses.

In addition to the $20,000 first place prize for the driver/team raising the most funds for the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum, Richard and Jennifer Marshall, of Priority Aviation, will be awarding the second place earner $10,000 and the third place earner $5,000.

Last year’s winner was Lance Dewease, while McCarl finished second. The program brought in more than $60,000 last year for the non-profit National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum.

All that sprint car teams and fans need to do is have their prospective members or donors visit www.SprintCarStuff.com and order a membership there, or contact the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum.  If ordering online, specify your driver or race team in the Notes section on the final page.

The driver or team with the highest amount of donations returned to the museum before July 31, at 6 p.m., will receive the $20,000 sponsorship funding.  Second will be awarded $10,000 and third, $5,000.  Memberships start at only $25 per year, but any donation amount will be accepted. So everyone can afford to help out their favorite race team and the museum.

Montreal Canadiens star defenseman Shea Weber is expected to miss four to six weeks because of a sprained left ankle.

The Canadiens announced the injury Wednesday after Weber was evaluated earlier in the day by renowned specialist Dr. Robert Anderson in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Weber suffered the injury Feb. 4 against the New Jersey Devils and has missed Montreal's last three games.

Weber, 34, has 13 goals and 21 assists in 55 games this season, his fourth with the Canadiens.

LOS ANGELES – OK, so Tiger Woods may have – to use his words – “carried his ass” in Australia at the Presidents Cup, but Justin Thomas was quick to remind Woods that he wasn’t just spectating at Royal Melbourne.

“I mean, he did – he played way better than I did,” Thomas said. “But I told him last night: 'All I know is that if I didn’t make a putt, you’d have a ‘1’ next to your halve column, so you’re welcome for that.'”

Thomas was referring to his clutch finish to the team’s foursomes match against Hideki Matsuyama and Ben An. With the Americans in desperate need of a point, Thomas buried a 17-foot putt on the 18th hole to win the match, 1 up, screaming, “I love me some me!” in celebration.

That win kept the deficit manageable (6 ½ to 3 ½) heading into the Day 3 matches. The U.S. would eventually prevail, 16-14, with Woods going 3-0 as a playing captain and Thomas contributing 3 ½ points in five matches.

“That’s what he does,” Thomas said of Woods’ dig. “That’s why we’re friends; we can joke with each other like that. But he did. He carried my ass.”

Woods and Thomas are grouped together for the third consecutive year at the Genesis Invitational. They tee off, with Steve Stricker, at 2:41 p.m. ET Thursday.

LOS ANGELES – Playing with Tiger Woods is supposed to be an acquired skill. The inside-the-ropes presence. The large crowds. The distractions. No wonder a psychologist studied Woods’ effect on his playing partners in the mid-2000s and concluded that he won not only because of his immense skill, but also because of intimidation.

Justin Thomas didn’t compete against Woods in his athletic prime, but he’s had plenty of head-to-head opportunities over the past three years – and he’s bucked the trend of the so-called Tiger Effect.

Thursday’s opening round will be the 15th time they’ve been grouped together in a tournament. Thomas has bettered Woods 10 times, lost to him only once and tied him on three occasions. Oh, what frequent victims like Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els would have done for that winning percentage.

On Wednesday, Thomas was asked the secret to his success in that fraught arena.

“Although Tiger is a good friend of mine, it’s a little different than maybe playing with Rickie (Fowler), who is also a really good friend of mine,” he explained. “Rickie and I are probably talking more than Tiger and I am, so I’m able to maybe stay a little more focused. There’s a lot more people, a lot more stuff going on, where I have to stay a lot more focused in that sense.

“I’m not exactly sure what it is, but I know that I’ve had some really, really good rounds of golf with him, and I hope to have some more.”

Of course, there was one teachable moment. In December at the Hero World Challenge, Thomas was battling for the title when he became more concerned with beating Woods than the rest of the field. Thomas promptly stalled, bogeying the 13th hole and then making a mess of 18, recording his lone loss to Woods and leaving the event fuming.

“I was really, really pissed after that event,” he said. “I feel like I should have won that tournament handily, and I didn’t because I didn’t handle the situation very well. But I learned from it.”

When asked this week what impresses him most about Thomas, Woods pointed to the 26-year-old’s competitive fire. “JT always wants to win,” he said. “He’s highly motivated and extremely competitive.”

How competitive?

Thomas said the only time he’s rooting for someone else is when he’s in the clubhouse, with no chance to win. Other than that ...

“It doesn’t matter how close I am with someone,” Thomas said. “I want to beat them so bad that they want to quit golf. I don’t care if it’s Tiger. If it’s Jordan (Spieth). If it’s Rickie. If it’s Jack Nicklaus. I don’t care. I’m out here to beat everybody.”

Daley Blind said he was happy to be back on the field after making a substitute appearance for Ajax in a 3-0 Dutch Cup win over Vitesse Arnhem on Wednesday.

Blind, 29, underwent heart surgery on Dec. 21 after experiencing dizziness in Ajax's 1-0 Champions League loss to Valencia on Dec. 10, but he returned to action in the 77th minute for Ajax on Wednesday.

"I am really happy to be back on the pitch," Blind told Fox Sports Netherlands. "I was so eager to get back. I had a little bit of tension beforehand because you don't know how it will go. But I knew before the match that I would come on, so I looked forward to it."

The procedure Blind underwent in December saw the former Manchester United defender fitted with a subcutaneous implantable defibrillator, according to the club.

Blind said: "It was heavy period because you don't know what is coming or which news you will get but luckily it didn't last long for everything to look good. I have been positive most of the time and was busy with my return.

"The doctor really needed to hold me back and step on the brakes because I wanted to get back asap. I wasn't scared at all, I wanted to get back on the pitch as fast as possible.

"I have missed [playing] a lot. I missed my teammates and I missed being on the pitch. I need to build up now, I am not fully fit to play 90 minutes."

Ajax, who missed out on the Champions League round of 16 after making it to the semifinals in 2019, next face RKC Waalwijk in the Eredivisie on Feb. 16.

Manchester United have told new signing Odion Ighalo to stay away from their Carrington training base because of fears over coronavirus, sources have told ESPN.

The striker has been training at the National Taekwondo Centre, next door to Manchester City's Etihad Stadium, since arriving from Shanghai Shenhua as a precaution.

After signing on loan on deadline day, Ighalo arrived in Manchester from China on Feb. 1 and will remain in the mandated 14-day incubation period until Friday.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and his squad will return from their warm weather camp in Marbella on Friday morning and Ighalo will train with his new teammates at Carrington for the first time over the weekend before the trip to Chelsea on Monday.

Ighalo was not included in the squad which travelled to Spain because of fears he would not clear UK immigration on the way back having been in China fewer than 14 days earlier.

The 30-year-old, who has not played a competitive game since Dec. 6, has been working to a personalised training programme designed by United staff in a bid to ensure he is ready to feature at Stamford Bridge.

"He is going to travel with us," said Solskjaer. "We will just see his fitness work this week and I think we will get him sharp.

"We want to integrate him as quickly as we can because, of course, he is desperate to play for us."

There is a certain aura, romance, about the one-club man. To stick with a single team throughout one's career requires a consistent level of excellence that is enough to fend off the competition, both inside the team and out. All the while, a feeling of challenge has to be there.

External factors play a part as well. The club has to appreciate what you offer throughout a sustained period. The same goes for the usual parade of managers that one might encounter. There also has to be general agreement on the player's relative value that gives both sides the feeling they're gaining something in return.

There was a time when it looked like Wil Trapp might be one of those guys with the Columbus Crew. This is a man who is quintessentially Ohio, having been born in Columbus and raised in nearby Gahanna. He played collegiately at the University of Akron, emerged from the Crew's academy to sign a Homegrown Player deal, and went on to become a fixture in Columbus' midfield. He could embrace his family before every home game.

But throughout the past few years, there has been a growing restlessness in Trapp. He acquired a Greek passport, the better to ease a possible path to a European club. A sense of mental fatigue took over as well, especially after the Crew were saved from relocation when the Haslam and Edwards families purchased the team from Anthony Precourt.

There was also an increasing sense that Trapp no longer fit into the plans of Crew manager Caleb Porter. When asked whether he still felt like one of Porter's guys, Trapp said, "I think any time that the coach names you the captain, you feel like you're one of those guys."

True, but other actions spoke as well. The acquisition of Darlington Nagbe, a player whose skill set has considerable overlap with Trapp's, further raised the question of just how much of a future the Crew captain had with his hometown club. It had gotten to the point where if Trapp was to grow, he had to leave.

Yet when the deal to ship Trapp to Inter Miami finally went down, the reality of his departure hit home. He eventually took out a full-page ad in the Columbus Post-Dispatch to convey his thanks to the fans, the club and his family. Prior to that, the goodbyes felt sudden and awash with emotion.

Great soccer player but better person. Columbus will always be home, good luck Wil Trapp! #Crew96 pic.twitter.com/yPlusacWN6

— DrPeteEdwards (@DrPeteEdwards1) February 9, 2020

"[Leaving the Crew] was difficult, I can't undersell that point," Trapp told ESPN via telephone last week from Inter Miami's training base in Sarasota, Florida. "I had about five minutes in Cancun with the boys to just say goodbye and it was a very emotional time. These are people that I had built great relationships with, had been through ups and downs with. To say goodbye, it didn't almost feel real because to step into something different after that was new to me, of course. But at the same time, I think it was necessary."

Trapp hasn't been traded to just another MLS team, he's been thrown into the league's ultimate Petri dish, that of an expansion side that is trying to find its way in a league that now sports 26 teams. Granted, it's a well-financed Petri dish, and the recent success of Atlanta United and LAFC in their inaugural seasons has put aside the notion that expansion teams can't win right away. But with two weeks to go until the start of the campaign, there are a lot of unknowns surrounding Miami. The imminent signing of Mexico international Rodolfo Pizarro would be a huge boost, but the loss of Designated Player Julian Carranza to a foot injury will sideline him for upward of 12 weeks. The weight of responsibility on Trapp, as well as veterans Luis Robles and A.J. DeLaGarza, just got a bit heavier.

The South Florida vibe figures to be demonstrably different, for sure, but Trapp isn't looking at that as a negative. In fact, it's provided precisely the energy boost he was hoping to feel when he agreed to make the move south. He's being pushed in all manner of ways.

"There's Spanish spoken here and then translated, so you're learning new things every single day," he said. "I think as a player you want to be growing and feel like that. That freshness and newness to continue to grow."

It helps that Trapp has found something of a kindred spirit in Miami manager Diego Alonso. Both men have something to prove. The U.S. midfielder is keen to show he can excel outside of his Ohio bubble, while Alonso is eager to move past his disappointing spell at Liga MX side Monterrey. There's also a stylistic fit in that Alonso values possession with quick combinations.

"You feel like you're connecting back to what you love again a little bit," said Trapp about the early training sessions under Alonso. "His energy and passion for the game is contagious. He has this just glowing ability to bring people together that love to play football, that love to combine and make passes and press and have intensity. It's infectious."

At 27, Trapp knows his skill set is basically who he is as a player. He's not going to turn into a midfield destroyer who delivers crunching tackles. He feels that to do so would be not only a waste of time, but dampen the skills that he does possess.

"If you're always trying to chase the white rabbit of some new skill acquisition, you end up not focusing on the things that you're actually good at," he said. "It's about just understanding what those qualities are, and then sharpening them to be as good as possible in those strengths."

Trapp hasn't given up on his European dream just yet. His contract is up at the end of the year, the Greek passport still in his back pocket, but he also sounds like a player willing to give Miami a go and see where it leads.

His focus is on establishing chemistry with his new teammates -- a critical piece for an expansion team -- with off-field activities meaning almost as much as those on. A sterling rendition of the Blackstreet's "No Diggity" did plenty to endear Trapp to his teammates. The team even organized an outing to watch the Super Bowl at a nearby bowling alley, the better to get guys out of their hotel rooms and spend time with each other.

"You have guys joking, guys laughing and enjoying their time together not only as teammates, but just as people," he said. "I thought that was special, those types of moments are really important."

Trapp's bonds with his former home will never really be broken, and it's not as if Ohio is on the other side of the world. But now he's is eager to create some new ties that bind.

Lungi Ngidi knows a thing or two about making a comeback. In his short international career, which has just turned two years old, he has already had to recover from a stress fracture, a side strain and a slew of hamstring niggles, the latest of which kept him out of this summer's Test series against England. He returned for the white-ball matches and he has now shown an ability to come back, on the field.

On Sunday, in the Pink ODI at the Wanderers, he dragged South Africa from a certain defeat to tense one with a final spell of 3 for 11 in four overs, after his first five overs had cost 52 runs. On Wednesday, in the first T20I at Buffalo Park, he turned England's chase from flying to floundering with a death-bowling spell off 3 for 10 in two overs, after an opening spell of 0 for 20, and has proven his ability to play the big moments.

"I guess it's a mental thing, to be able to finish off well in situations that require you to," Ngidi said afterwards "It takes a lot out of your mental side. Physically, obviously I am trying as best as I can to get back to the pace that I was at and to hit the areas that I am known for hitting. But at the moment, it's just trying to keep that confidence going of doing my job at the back end and closing out very well."

Though Ngidi made his name for bowling fast, he demonstrated a different quality at the death in East London. On a slow pitch, Ngidi's offcutter foxed Ben Stokes into fetching a wide ball and slapping it to long-on in the 18th over, with England 26 runs away from victory and 14 balls remaining. Top-scorer Jason Roy had been dismissed by a Beuran Hendricks slower ball three overs before that, while Dale Steyn, playing for the national side for the first time in 11 months, had also taken pace off the ball earlier to demonstrate the value of skill, rather than speed, in the shortest format.

The South African attack's attention to developing the more nuanced areas of their game has been notable under the coaching of Charl Langeveldt, who was with the team under Russell Domingo and was headhunted from his role in Bangladesh to return in the Mark Boucher era. Ngidi credited Langeveldt with giving him the belief to bowl a variety of different deliveries and trust that the results can be effective.

"He has had a massive impact in terms of the mental side," Ngidi said. "Having watched him and the way he used to bowl, he has given me a lot of confidence as a young player, knowing someone like that is now on my journey. He has made sure I back the skills that I am good at. Something like that on the back end, where maybe someone would say maybe a change of ball was needed or maybe a yorker, stick to what's working and it worked out just well."

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The yorker did make an appearance in Ngidi's final over, when he bowled Moeen Ali with the penultimate ball of the match, with England still needing three runs for victory. That wicket, and the run-out off the last delivery meant that Ngidi successfully defended seven off the final over, which is not often heard of in T20 cricket. But in East London, Ngidi knew it was possible. "The game speeds up a lot at the back end here so even 10 runs can seem like a lot," he said.

So can 178, a score that would be considered gettable in most T20 matches. While Ngidi will receive the bulk of the plaudits for restricting England to less than that, South Africa's attack as a whole will be thrilled with the collapse they forced on an opposition that bats deep. England lost 7 for 44 in 5.4 overs as Tabraiz Shamsi, who went wicketless and Hendricks, who was only brought on to bowl in the 15th over, started the squeeze before Ngidi finished off.

With Andile Phehlukwayo and Steyn also among the wickets, Kagiso Rabada resting from this series and Sisanda Magala waiting in the wings, pending fitness, all that leaves South Africa with some healthy competition in the pace department, and Ngidi wants to make sure he stays ahead of the chasing pack. "We know that there are a lot of fast bowlers fighting for a spot so you've got to be on your A game," he said. "If you're not quite there, someone else is going to come in and do the job you're supposed to be doing. I don't plan on letting anyone take my spot so I am just going to keep playing as best as I can."