INDIANAPOLIS – Tony Kanaan will compete in five NTT IndyCar Series oval races for A.J. Foyt Racing as he winds down his full-time racing career.

The announcement was made Thursday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the site of his 2013 victory in the Indianapolis 500. Kanaan’s final season as a primary driver has been dubbed the TK Last Lap.

Kanaan will drive the No. 14 Chevrolet for A.J. Foyt Racing as he attempts to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 on May 24. He’ll also compete at Texas Motor Speedway on June 6, Richmond Raceway on June 27, Iowa Speedway on July 18 and World Wide Technology Raceway on Aug. 22.

Despite this being his final season as a primary driver, Kanaan left the door open for a potential return to compete in the Indianapolis 500 in 2021 and beyond.

“I look back at all these years racing in IndyCar and the first thing that comes to my mind is how fortunate I’ve been to be in the top level of the sport for this long. I walked into this sport as a 23-year-old with lots of hopes and dreams and I can say, without a doubt, that I accomplished everything I wanted,” Kanaan said. “I’m 45 now; I have fans, wins, podiums, records, a championship and an Indy 500. I feel and know I can still do this for a long time, but like everything else in life there is also a cycle in racing. For a long time, I’ve been asked when I would retire, and my answer was always the same: The day I wake up in the morning and feel like I can’t do this anymore, that’s when I’m going to retire.

“Unfortunately, there are other things one should take into consideration when planning the future, and probably the most important one is what are the options that are available. For 2020, my best option was to race the five ovals of the NTT IndyCar Series season, the sport that gave me so much and that I will always love. I’m not done with racing, that’s for sure. I decided that this year I would step back a bit and enjoy these five races, have time for my family (wife Lauren, sons Leonardo, Max and Deco, and daughter Nina) and my fans, and also give back to the sponsors that always stood by me.”

Kanaan has amassed 17 wins, 15 pole positions and 78 podium finishes in his 377 career starts, which rank second all-time only to the 407 starts made by Mario Andretti. He also is the Ironman of the sport, holding the active record for most consecutive starts at 317 that began at Portland Int’l Raceway in 2001.

His IndyCar career began in 1998 with Tasman Motorsports after capturing the Indy Lights championship for the organization the previous year. He achieved success quickly at the top rung of the sport, winning CART Rookie of the Year honors with Tasman that year. In his second season, he earned his first pole position at Long Beach in April and then his inaugural win at Michigan Int’l Speedway in July.

One of his major career accomplishments came with Andretti Green Racing in 2004 when he captured the IRL IndyCar Series championship. He won three races, recorded top-five finishes in 15 of the 16 races and completed every lap on the season en route to the title.

The most significant moment came in 2013 with KV Racing Technology when he won the Indianapolis 500 in his 12th attempt. The average speed of the race – 187.433 mph – remains the fastest Indianapolis 500 in history, and the 68 lead changes also remains a standing record. Kanaan has made 18 Indianapolis 500 starts, with a win, pole position (2005), eight top-five finishes and 361 laps led.

Kanaan has driven for seven teams in his career, beginning with Tasman Motorsports his rookie season. He followed with Forsythe Racing (1999 when Tasman was sold to Gerald Forsythe), Mo Nunn Racing (2000-02), Andretti Green Racing (2003-10), KV Racing Technology (2011-13), Chip Ganassi Racing (2014-17) and A.J. Foyt Racing (2018-present).

In addition to his IndyCar accomplishments, he added two prestigious sports car championships to his resume. He won the LMP2 division of the 12 Hours of Sebring in 2007 and then captured the overall race victory of the Rolex 24  in 2015.

What does the future hold for Kanaan after this year? That’s a good question.

“For the future, who knows?” he said. “I’d love to still be involved with IndyCar to some degree. I’ve also had offers to race in a number of different series, but that’s not my priority at the moment.”

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Five-time Daytona Supercross champion Ricky Carmichael will serve as an Honorary Race Official for the 62nd annual Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 16.

As part of his Honorary Race Official duties, Carmichael will be introduced at the drivers’ meeting, participate in pre-race ceremonies, ride in one of the parade cars and take part in question-and-answer sessions in fan hospitality areas and the UNOH Fanzone.

Carmichael, a native Floridian who resides in Tallahassee, retired from Supercross competition in 2007 as the most decorated rider in history with 15 championships and 150 victories. He’s a five-time Daytona Supercross champion, most in event history. Carmichael is an inductee of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, which makes its home at Daytona International Speedway, and the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame. Following his motorcycle career, Carmichael transitioned to NASCAR competing in both the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoor Truck Series.

For the 13th consecutive year, Carmichael is the course designer for the Daytona Supercross, scheduled on Saturday night, March 7. The Daytona Supercross, the longest continuous Supercross race in America, is celebrating its 50th running in 2020. Carmichael’s course design for this year’s historic event will feature a nod to the history of the Daytona Supercross and include elements from past Daytona courses such as the over-the-wall jump, the Daytona tunnel jump and grass as a fourth racing surface; the Daytona logo will also be displayed in the center of the extended course.

“I’m really excited to be part of NASCAR’s most prestigious event,” Carmichael said. “Daytona International Speedway is very special me and I’m honored to have a place in its history. I’m looking forward to returning in March to celebrate the 50th running of the Daytona Supercross.”

“Ricky Carmichael is a true legend in motorcycle racing and it’s an honor to host him for the Great American Race,” Daytona Int’l Speedway President Chip Wile said. “Ricky has enjoyed many successes and triumphs in his decorated career, including an unprecedented five DAYTONA Supercross victories. He continues to make an impact on motorcycle racing today, including his role as course designer for the Daytona Supercross.”

Past Honorary Race Officials for the Daytona 500 include Baseball Hall of Famer Chipper Jones, racing icon and 1967 Daytona 500 champion Mario Andretti, three-time Indianapolis 500 champion Johnny Rutherford and three-time Daytona 500 champion Bobby Allison.

LEXINGTON, N.C. – A.J. Allmendinger will drive for Kaulig Racing in eight NASCAR Xfinity Series events this season.

Kaulig Racing announced earlier this year that Allmendinger would be piloting the team’s third entry at Daytona Int’l Speedway, alongside teammates Ross Chastain and Justin Haley.

Additionally, Allmendinger will be entered in seven more races for Kaulig Racing. Those races include both events at Daytona Int’l Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Road America, Watkins Glen Int’l and the ROVAL at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where he is the defending race winner.

“A.J. (Allmendinger) has played an instrumental role in competition for Kaulig Racing,” states Chris Rice, president of Kaulig Racing. “He has helped guide our road course program and has been a great resource for our other drivers, crew chiefs and engineers to lean on. I look forward to what he can do in more races for us this season.”

Allmendinger, who competed in five races for Kaulig Racing in 2019, recorded two top-five finishes, including one win – the second in team history.

“I’m looking forward to returning to the Kaulig Racing organization,” said Allmendinger. “I had so much fun working with everyone on the team last season and being teammates with Justin(Haley) and Ross (Chastain). Hopefully I can help the team in any way possible so that we can build on the success we had last year and go for more wins. More than anything, Kaulig Racing is just a great team to compete for, especially with Matt Kaulig as the owner and Chris Rice as the president of the team.”

MOORESVILLE, N.C. – RagingBull.com has been named the primary sponsor of Go Fas Racing and driver Corey LaJoie during the upcoming Daytona 500 at Daytona Int’l Speedway on Feb. 16.

RagingBull.com is the top stock market education website in the United States. At RagingBull.com, subscribers benefit from trading and stock market coaching, education, and resources working with skilled traders in action.

“RagingBull.com is absolutely stoked to sponsor Go Fas Racing in the Daytona 500,” said said Jeff Bishop, CEO and co-founder of RagingBull. “At RagingBull.com we’ve built a company of winners and we support traders who are driven to achieve the highest results, come first, and drive their trades to big profits and to win in the markets.”

The No. 32 team had one of the highest average finishes at superspeedways in 2019, averaging a 10th-place result. The team brought home a sixth-place result in the last race at Daytona, the Coke Zero Sugar 400, marking career-best finishes for LaJoie and the Go Fas Racing team.

LaJoie hopes that Go Fas Racing’s strong runs at superspeedways in 2019 is a good omen for the RagingBull.com team as the sponsor makes its debut in the Great American Race.

“We’re really excited to welcome RagingBull.com to the Go Fas Racing team especially for our premier race of the season, the Daytona 500,” said LaJoie. “We had some really good finishes at the superspeedways last year and hopefully we can put this blue-and-white RagingBull.com Ford up front for the biggest race of the season and start the 2020 season on the right foot.”

STATESVILLE, N.C. — In little more than a week, World of Outlaws sprint car star David Gravel will embark on the newest chapter of his racing career, comprised of a childhood dream he’d only hoped to attain.

Gravel will begin his journey down the paved road of stock-car racing, competing in the Feb. 8 Lucas Oil 200 ARCA Menards Series race at Daytona Int’l Speedway as a precursor to a limited schedule of NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series races with GMS Racing during the late-spring and early-summer months.

While many might raise an eyebrow at Gravel’s jump from dirt to pavement, he’s been quick to remind people that sprint car racing wasn’t his initially-desired path.

Growing up in New England, Gravel’s original focus as a youngster was the pursuit of a NASCAR ride.

“Man, I know that some dirt guys or sprint car people aren’t happy that I want to do this deal or that I’m getting a shot at it, but it was just one of those things that developed and I really wanted to tackle, you know?” Gravel told Sprint Car & Midget during the recent Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals. “I didn’t grow up in Pennsylvania. I didn’t grow up in Indiana. I didn’t grow up in Iowa. I didn’t grow up around sprint car racing. I just did it. People don’t realize that sometimes, that growing up in Connecticut, NASCAR was my first love and the goal that I looked at as a little kid. Nobody knows what sprint car racing is in Connecticut; I just got to see it at a later age and loved it. That’s the route I decided to go at the time.

“Now though, you’ve seen Jeff (Gordon) make that jump; you’ve seen Tony (Stewart), and Christopher (Bell) and Kyle (Larson) all go from dirt to pavement and be successful, and I feel like I can do the same thing,” Gravel added. “I’ve been through a lot of different race cars in my career and I think I’ve proven that I can drive just about any of them and be successful … so this is the next challenge, in my eyes.”

The Watertown, Conn., native is scheduled to begin his Truck Series excursion on March 27 at Texas Motor Speedway, with five other Truck Series events built in alongside that initial outing and the ARCA race at Daytona Int’l Speedway preceding it.

One of those remaining five Truck races is the annual Eldora Dirt Derby at the half-mile Eldora Speedway dirt track in Rossburg, Ohio, a natural fit given Gravel’s dirt prowess.

Gravel, a 51-time World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series winner, has finished third in the WoO standings each of the last four seasons, driving for two different teams during that span.

That success caught the eye of four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon, who helped secure sponsorship from Axalta for Gravel and Jason Johnson Racing to carry during last year’s Knoxville Nationals at Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway.

The rest was up to Gravel at that point and the 27-year-old delivered with flying colors, winning both his preliminary night and the 50-lap, $150,000-to-win finale at the Marion County Fairgrounds half-mile.

Axalta will be back with Gravel during the Eldora Dirt Derby on July 30 and Gravel added that Gordon has also been a staunch supporter and mentor through the process of getting his pavement opportunity in place.

“Looking back, the goal was always to get a sponsor for Knoxville and get a sponsor for the Eldora truck race, and obviously winning Knoxville and having Axalta on the car really helped my cause there,” noted Gravel. “I’m really happy with how it’s gone so far and how we’ve built all these pieces into the program that we have now. We were under a lot of pressure at Knoxville and we came through and did a really good job. I’m proud of that and hopefully we can keep making other people proud as we keep going.

“Jeff is also one of the best that I could possibly have in my corner. He’s done it all as a driver, coming from dirt midgets and sprint cars up to the NASCAR level and now kind of being involved with the business side of NASCAR also,” Gravel continued. “It’s pretty cool to have him on my side as a mentor or an agent, so to speak. I’m definitely lucky in that regard.”

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It was 21 years ago at TPC Scottsdale, when a horde of fans helped Tiger Woods move a boulder that was blocking his approach shot at the Phoenix Open.

The boulder was by loose definition a loose impediment.

Last year, some fans helped Brooks Koepka, who was in a similar situation in Saudi Arabia.

The scene played out again on Thursday at the Saudi International. But, unlike Koepka and Woods, Alvaro Quiros offered his own assistance and needed only a couple of caddies to help.

The 2020 Symetra Tour’s “preliminary” schedule released Thursday features 20 tournaments with prize money totaling $3.6 million.

While that’s down from last year’s 23 events with $4 million in total prize money, the tour expects to add yet more events to its “Road to the LPGA” schedule.

“Even though we anticipate still adding another event or two, it is important for our players and fans to have the preliminary schedule to plan their upcoming season accordingly,” Symetra Tour chief business officer Mike Nichols said.

As is, the schedule features increases that will boost the average purse size to $180,000, the largest in tour history.

A minimum of six events will feature purses of $200,000 or more, including two new events, the Circling Raven Championship in Worley, Idaho, Aug. 28-30, and the Copper Rock Championship in Hurricane, Utah, Sept. 3-5.

The season is scheduled to open March 6-8 with the Florida’s Natural Charity Classic in Winter Haven, Florida.

For a seventh straight year, the tour will feature the Potawatomi Cup, with the four Potawatomi tribes that serve as tournament hosts offering $40,000 in unofficial bonus money for the top finishers through the tournament series. The events are:

• The Four Winds Invitational in South Bend, Indiana, June 12-14.
• The Island Resort Championship in Harris, Michigan, June 19-21.
• The FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship in Battle Creek, Michigan, July 24-26.
• The PHC Classic in Glendale, Wisconsin, Aug. 7-9.

Notably, the Island Resort Championship will again serve as a U.S. qualifier for the Evian Championship. The top two finishers will earn spots in the LPGA’s major championship in France.

The Insurance Office of America will once more title sponsor three tournaments, one in California, one in Georgia and one in Florida.

The Zimmer Biomet Championship in Auburn, Alabama, will feature the largest purse on tour ($300,000).

Symetra, the tour’s entitlement sponsor, is again hosting two events, including the season-ending Symetra Tour Championship at LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida (Oct. 1-4). The top-10 players on the official Volvik Race for the Card money at the conclusion of the season finale will earn promotions to the LPGA for 2021. The Symetra Tour purse is $250,000.

Click here for the full Symetra Tour schedule.

Jon Rahm paid tribute to fellow Arizona State Sun Devil Pat Tillman on Thursday at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, sporting a pair of custom shoes with ASU colors and Tillman's military image.

Tillman, who played football for Arizona State and also the Arizona Cardinals, quit his professional sports career to join the United States Army and was killed in Afghanistan in 2004.

Rahm previously paid tribute to Tillman during this event in 2017 and 2018, wearing Tillman's No. 42 ASU jersey while playing the par-3 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale.

KING ABDULLAH ECONOMIC CITY, Saudi Arabia – Graeme McDowell and Gavin Green shared the lead at the Saudi International on Thursday by shooting 6-under 64 in the first round.

McDowell, the 2010 U.S. Open champion at Pebble Beach, birdied the final three holes despite strong afternoon winds sweeping the course next to the Red Sea.

Five players were one shot behind at 5 under, including 2016 Open champion Henrik Stenson.

McDowell made four straight birdies from the second to the fifth. The only blemish on the Northern Irishman's card was a double bogey on the par-3 11th. Green hit the day's first tee shot at 7:15 a.m. and enjoyed calmer conditions. The Malaysian made five birdies before the turn, and another at the 10th.

Phil Mickelson, McDowell's playing partner, shot a bizarre 66 and trailed by two shots, alongside five others. Mickelson had only five pars while making nine birdies, three bogeys and a double bogey at the par-4 second hole.

Defending champion Dustin Johnson, who won the inaugural event last year, carded a 67 to be in a group of seven at 3 under. Top-ranked Brooks Koepka and former No. 1 Lee Westwood both shot even-par 70.

Saudi Arabia's controversial image and human rights record affected the lineup at the Royal Greens Golf & Country Club. Rory McIlroy said last month that the country's image was as a factor in declining his invitation, and a reported $2.5 million appearance fee.

Mickelson said last month on Twitter he understood those fans ''who are upset or disappointed'' about his decision to play.