SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The 2019 DIRTcar Racing season came to a close on Saturday night with an evening of reflection, good food and great times at the Springfield Crowne Plaza.

The big checks, tall trophies and engraved plaques handed out shone bright on the big stage, as did the drivers, crews, families and friends that come together at the track each and every year to take part in the sport they all love.

The festivities began with the honoring of the youngest drivers under the DIRTcar Racing banner and their national champion, Jerremy Sebens of the Kidz Modz division. After a delightful dinner, emcee Rick Eshelman began the awards presentations to the attending drivers in each participating division, up to second place in final points.

Leading off in the special award presentations, DIRTcar Racing COO Tom Deery took the stage to present the 15th annual Bob Memmer Award to a well-known veteran of the Midwestern late model ranks, Kevin Weaver.

Weaver now joins the likes of C.J. Rayburn, Terry Young, William Scogin, Roger Friedman, Randy Mooneyham, Bob Pierce, Tom Helfrich, Morey Denney, Jimmy Dearing, Todd Turner, Bob Sargeant and Jeff Leka as award winners.

The DIRTcar Promoter of the Year Award was given to Matt Curl of Fairbury Speedway, which was accepted by track announcer Mike Norris.

Former Bob Memmer Award winner Morey Denney also took the stage to accept the 2019 DIRTcar Track of the Year Award, given to Spoon River Speedway.

The Engine Builder of the Year Awards were given to Mullins Race Engines in the Modified division and to Durham Racing Engines for Late Models. Rocket Chassis was awarded with the Chassis of the Year Award with 110 total victories across the 2019 season.

Randall Gregory was then honored as the 2019 Late Model Mechanic of the Year; Darrell Hoffman received the 2019 Modified Mechanic of the Year.

After another incredible season behind the wheel of the Bob Cullen Racing #3s Rocket Chassis XR1 that saw an impressive 13 wins on the national scale and seven on the DIRTcar Summer Nationals tour, Brian Shirley collected the 2019 DIRTcar Late Model National Championship, and the Summer Nationals crown for the second year in-a-row.

Shirley was racing in Arizona, but left a video message for all of those in the banquet hall.

“I’d like to thank Tom Deery, Brian Carter, Sam Driggers and everybody at DIRTcar for what they do. Also a huge thank-you to Bob and Lisa Cullen, Thomas Express, Kids Castle, J&J Adventures, Rocket Chassis, Andy Durham and everybody that helps me on this car,” Shirley said.

Nick Hoffman also took to the stage to accept both of his championship awards, worth $25,000 total for his efforts in the DIRTcar UMP Modified national ranks and on the Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals tour.

In his speech, Hoffman rattled-off a few stats he compiled that best defined his success over the season – 24 wins in eight different states at 20 different race tracks for a total of 50 races.

Regional champions of each division were also honored:

Sport Compact
East – Kevin Ashby
North – Matt Mackey
South – Brady Reed
West – Eldon Hemken

Stock Car
South – Terry Reed Jr.
North – Jason Maier

Modified
Northern Indiana – Derek Losh
Southern Indiana/Kentucky – Jordan Wever
Northern Illinois – Allen Weisser
Deep South – Christian Thomas
Michigan – David Vanquilder
South – Ty Shearon
Ohio – Jess Hartman
East – Coleman Evans
Illinois – Tommy Sheppard Jr.
Missouri/Illinois – Mike Harrison

Sportsman
East – Josh Boller
West – Tommy Duncan

Pro Late Model
West – Dakota Ewing
East – Logan Moody

Late Model
South – David Seibers
Southwest – Jim Moon
East – Rusty Schlenk
West – Daryn Klein
Rookie – David Mielke

To conclude the evening, the national champions were called to the stage to accept their awards and make their speeches.

Pro Late Model – Aaron Heck
Pro Modified – Tim Hancock
UMP Modified – Nick Hoffman
Sportsman – Josh Boller
Stock Car – Jason Maier
Factory Stock – Preston Oberle
Sports Compact – Matt Mackey

ST. LOUIS — The second round of the 2020 Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship series was an emotional one in front of 51,841 fans inside The Dome at America’s Center.

Team Honda HRC’s Ken Roczen earned his first 450SX class victory after what many had thought would be a career-ending injury in 2017.

Three seasons worth of events, 50 rounds of which he had competed in 26, had come and gone since the German rider was able to get back on top for his 12th career win in 75 starts. Monster Energy Yamaha Factory Racing’s Justin Barcia fought his way to second place to hold onto the championship point lead and 2018 Monster Energy Supercross champion, Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Jason Anderson nabbed third place.

Eli Tomac and Zach Osborne rounded out the top five.

Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Austin Forkner also had an emotional victory in the Western Regional 250SX class as it was his first since an injury ended his 2019 season while leading the championship.

The win came in front of his home state crowd. Monster Energy/Star Yamaha Racing’s Justin Cooper finished in second place to earn enough points to retain the points lead.

Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull KTM’s Brandon Hartranft earned his first podium with third.

QUEEN CREEK, Ariz. — Brian Shirley raced away from the field during the closing laps to win the opening round of the Keyser Manufacturing Wild West Shootout at Arizona Speedway Saturday night.

Shirley took the lead when leader Ricky Thornton Jr. slipped out of the groove on lap 29 and led the remainder of the 40-lap event to bank the $5,000 top prize.

Frank Heckenast finished second, with Thornton, Brandon Sheppard and Chris Simpson rounding out the top five.

Lucas Schott won the modified feature.

The finish:

Brian Shirley, Frank Heckenast Jr., Ricky Thornton Jr., Brandon Sheppard, Chris Simpson, Chase Junghans, Ricky Weiss, Johnny Scott, Jimmy Mars, Garrett Alberson, Bobby Pierce, Stormy Scott, Mike Spatola, Justin Duty, Earl Pearson Jr., Clay Fisher, Brian Birkhofer, Kyle Beard, Terry Phillips, Cody Laney, Ryan Gustin, Mitch McGrath, Blair Nothdurft, Tony Toste, Cade Dillard.

WADI AL DAWASIR, Saudi Arabia – Portuguese rider Paulo Goncalves has died following a crash during the Dakar Rally on Sunday.

The veteran motorcycle competitor crashed at the 276 kilometer mark in Sunday’s stage. He was found unconscious after going into cardiac arrest and was taken by helicopter to Layla Hospital.

Despite the best efforts of medical personnel to revive him, Goncalves was pronounced dead. He was 40 years old.

Goncalves was taking part in his 13th Dakar Rally after making his event debut in 2006. He finished inside the top-10 four times during his career, including a runner-up performance in 2015 to Marc Coma. He was 46th overall entering Sunday’s stage.

The death of Goncalves is the first during the Dakar Rally since Michal Hernik died in 2015.

Kevin Kisner is getting used to this wild Hawaii weather – or at least as used to it as anyone can get.

As winds gusted for the third straight day at the Sony Open, Kisner flew up the leaderboard on the strength of a Saturday round of 6-under 64, the low round of the week so far at Waialae.

Whipping winds and heavy rains likewise played a prominent role at last week’s Tournament of Champions, where Kisner fought his way to a tie for 14^th on a track that wasn’t wasn’t exactly playing into his hands.

“Yeah, the golf course last week wasn't conducive for anybody that drives it 275. There are very few left that are on this tour,” said Kisner, who went to refer to himself and Matt Kuchar as members of the PGA Tour’s B-flight.

Nonetheless, last week at Maui appears to have given Kisner a leg up on most of his competition.

“I think that's the biggest key to the whole week, seeing how the golf ball was flying last week, not coming fresh off the couch and Christmas break and trying to play in these conditions,” he said. “So I told my caddie that we're going to be more prepared than most of the guys.”

Kisner’s only dropped shot Saturday came at the second hole. From there, he played his final 16 holes with mistake-free, with seven birdies.

So what finally clicked after opening rounds of 69-69?

“I think made more putts than I have the first two days,” Kisner answered.

Indeed, his 117 feet worth of putts holed on Saturday surpassed his combined total of just 94 feet the first two days. He holed four putts of 20 feet or more, including a 48-footer for birdie at the third. Combine that with his ball-striking numbers – he leads the field in strokes gained: tee to green and is second in strokes gained: approach – and you’ll shoot a low number in any conditions.

“I’ve been striking it's great to give myself a ton of opportunities, and I just haven’t made the putts I normally make,” he said. “I’m probably do better in ball-striking stats than ever and worse in putting stats. But they all kind of come to the middle at some point, and I was glad to see the putting improve today.”

A three-time PGA Tour winner, Kisner most recently took last year’s WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play with a 3-and-2 win over the aforementioned Kuchar. He’ll enter Sunday’s final round four shots back, but with only two men, Brendan Steele and Cameron Smith, ahead of him. Should they get off to a slow start or falter early, there’s a good chance it’ll be Kisner pushing them. Over the last five years, no one has fired more rounds of 64 or better at the Sony than Kisner, with four. He referred to Waialae on Saturday one of the few courses left on Tour that fits his eye and that he likes to play.

“I got to be able to make some hay when the sun tends to shine, so I feel like I’ve got to go after it,” he put it. “It's a shorter, ball-strikers' paradise.”

As for what kind of attitude he’ll take into the final round, Kisner sees it being business as usual.

“Probably the same old, redneck, pretty-aggressive guy that I normally am,” he (not-really) joked. “I’m going to try to make birdie on every hole, the way I always have. Sometimes it’s to a victory and sometimes it’s not.”

With four birdies in his last five holes Saturday, Cameron Smith raised an additional $2,000 for Australian bushfire relief efforts and worked his way into contention at the Sony Open.

Fresh off a third-round 66, Smith at 9 under par will enter Sunday at Waialae in solo second, three off the pace set by 54-hole leader Brendan Steele.

It was a torrid close for the 26-year-old Aussie, who will look to win his first individual PGA Tour title on Sunday, after taking the 2017 Zurich Classic with partner Jonas Blixt.

Although he’s won just once in the U.S., Smith is a two-time winner of the Australian PGA Championship, going back to back in 2017 and 2018.

Alongside Marc Leishman and others, Smith is donating $500 for every birdie and $1,000 for every eagle he makes at the Sony to relief efforts back home, where fires continue to decimate the Australia’s ecosystem, killing at least 27 people and by one estimate as many as one billion animals. Smith was also a member of last month’s International Presidents Cup team, which announced on Saturday that it will be donating $125,000 from its own charitable fund to aid in the cause.

Smith, who hails from Brisbane, flew to Hawaii straight from Australia via Sydney on Sunday.

“Where I was in Brisbane, it's probably less affected than the areas down south, like New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia; they're all not doing too good,” he said Friday. “It's pretty tragic to see. I flew into Sydney to come here, and we probably couldn't see – usually from Sydney airport you can see downtown, the skyline, Sydney skyline. You couldn't see that. The smoke was pretty bad.”

And while Brisbane has been less impacted, Smith does have an uncle who owned property outside New South Wales and who now has “absolutely nothing left.”

“We’re pretty close-knit family, so it's hit everyone a bit hard,” he continued. “It’s devastating really. He's probably one the more fortunate ones out of the lot really. Some people have lost their way of work and everything, so it's pretty bad.”

Through 54 holes, Smith has carded 17 birdies, for $8,500 in donations thus far. A half-dozen more birdies on Sunday would add to the total and potentially hand him his first (solo) PGA Tour victory.

Australia fast bowler Kane Richardson says he has never seen Marcus Stoinis so angry as when the allrounder directed a homophobic slur at him during the BBL clash between the Melbourne Renegades and the Melbourne Stars.

Stoinis was fined AUD 7500 (USD 5200) after he pleading guilty to the Cricket Australia code of conduct level two charge of using personally abusive language and apologised to Richardson.

Richardson, who is in India with the Australia ODI squad, said it was normal for Stoinis and him to exchange words when playing against each other. The two have played a lot of cricket together for Australia and were both part of Australia's 2019 World Cup campaign, and have often sparred verbally in domestic cricket.

However, Richardson said this was different from what he had experienced in the past.

"We always talk, we're both competitors," Richardson told reporters on Sunday. "It was just a bit of harmless banter about what was going on on the field and the way he goes about it. I always want to have a chat to him about that. It was just harmless cricket chat. For some reason, he reacted the way he did. You would have to ask him why; it was really out of character. He looked more angry than I have ever seen him. I'm not sure what he was thinking. The learning has to be that it never happens again."

Richardson said Stoinis had contacted him the following morning. And while the pacer was not personally offended, he reiterated the words of Australia coach Justin Langer in saying that it was unacceptable for any player to use those words moving forward, particularly as it was the second such incident this season after Australia Test quick James Pattinson was suspended following a similar code of conduct charge in December.

"Yeah, a little WhatsApp the morning after, but not a whole lot of conversation about it," Richardson said. "He realised he made a mistake. I could just tell by his body language for the rest of his innings that night that he knew he made a mistake. I didn't need an apology for myself, he didn't offend me. It's what he said that offended so many people. It was more just his actions and everyone's actions, we can't afford to have that happen again."

Joe Root has been forced to miss training in Port Elizabeth on Sunday due to illness, ahead of next week's third Test against South Africa.

The England captain is the latest member of the squad to be struck down on a tour that has been dogged by illness and injury. It is unclear at this stage whether the episode is related to the sickness bug that decimated the team during the first Test but, bearing in mind how persistent and contagious that proved, the management will be taking every precaution in ensuring no cross contamination.

As things stand, they are hopeful Root will be able to train as normal on Monday. His absence was more with a view to containing the bug than any serious concern over his availability for the Test.

There was encouraging news for England in the sight of Mark Wood and Jofra Archer bowling two spells each in the nets. Wood appeared to bowl at full pace and is clearly close to match fitness, while Archer remains just a bit tentative and is currently rated at 80 per-cent by the team management. The management will be looking for Archer to bowl with greater intensity on Monday and Wood to show he can do so again without any negative repercussions.

With both men remaining doubtful for the Port Elizabeth Test, however, and James Anderson having returned to home due to injury, Chris Woakes could well be in line for a recall. He also bowled two spells without issue on Sunday and his rated by the management as "fully fit."

Meanwhile, Jos Buttler has issued an apology after stump mics caught him swearing angrily at South Africa's Vernon Philander during the Cape Town Test. Buttler was subsequently fined 15% of his match fee while one demerit point was added to his record by the ICC.

"I'd like to apologise," Archer told the BBC. "I understand that's not the way to behave. I take the slap on the wrists and move on. I fully understand that as role models we have a duty to behave in a certain way.

"Sometimes it's just one of those things: the heat of the moment and a bit of red mist. It's all done so hopefully it can be swept under the carpet and we move on. The two games have been played in great spirit. They've been hard fought games and the series is set up well at 1-1."

But while Buttler accepted that stump mics add to the "viewing experience", he does have reservations about them.

"In Test cricket there are lots of high emotions at times and things can be said that don't necessarily mean anything," Buttler said. "But for viewers at home it can come across very poorly. It's a tough one.

"We understand the stump mics and being able to hear what goes on adds to the viewing experience but we also like that what goes on the field to stay on the field that things said aren't necessarily heard by everyone at home. I'm sure it's up for debate."

Toss West Indies chose to bowl v Ireland

West Indies inserted Ireland after winning the toss for the third ODI. Kieron Pollard had no hesitation in asking Ireland to bat first for the third game running, due to a combination of overnight rain and an early start at St George's.

Both sides made changes for the final game, with West Indies resting Shimron Hetmyer, Sheldon Cottrell and Khary Pierre. Sunil Ambris, Oshane Thomas and Roston Chase were the three players to come in.

Ireland made two changes to their XI, bringing in James McCollum to open the batting in place of allrounder Gary Delany, and Craig Young for Boyd Rankin. "We'll go out there, try to dig in and put up a score," Ireland's captain, Andy Balbirnie, said.

West Indies have already taken the series after winning the first two matches in Barbados - although they required some heroics from the tail in order to squeeze home by one wicket in the second game.

With the possibility of rain during the day, Pollard was keen to chase again. Of the pitch, he said West Indies would "see what we can extract out of it" after a damp start. "Then make it not so dramatic at the back end," he added.

West Indies: 1 Shai Hope, 2 Evin Lewis, 3 Sunil Ambris, 4 Brandon King, 5 Nicholas Pooran, 6 Kieron Polllard, 7 Roston Case, 8 Romario Shepherd, 9 Hayden Walsh, 10 Alzarri Joseph, 11 Oshane Thomas

Ireland: 1 Paul Stirling, 2 James McCollum, 3 Andy Balbirnie, 4 William Porterfield, 5 Kevin O'Brien, 6 Lorcan Tucker, 7 Simi Singh, 8 Mark Adair, 9 Andy McBrine, 10 Craig Young 11 Barry McCarthy

AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Serena Williams ended a three-year title drought when she beat fellow American Jessica Pegula 6-3, 6-4 on Sunday to win the singles final at the ASB Classic.

Williams hadn't won a title since the Australian Open singles tournament in January 2017, and she hadn't won one since she became a mother to her daughter, Olympia, who was courtside to witness the victory.

The 23-time major winner donated her $43,000 winner's check to the fundraising appeal for victims of Australian wildfires, joining many other tennis stars -- including Ashleigh Barty, Nick Kyrgios, Novak Djokovic and Maria Sharapova -- who have pledged money to the already monthslong fire emergency.

Williams was under pressure at first against the 25-year-old Pegula, who was playing in her third WTA final, but Williams asserted herself as the match went on to claim her 73rd win in 98 finals and add her name to a trophy won by her sister, Venus, in 2015.

"It feels good. It's been a long time," Williams said. "I think you can see the relief on my face.

"I played an incredible opponent today in Jessica, and honestly, it was a great match, and I couldn't have played anyone better in the final."

The past three years have been challenging for Williams, as she has juggled the competing demands of tennis and motherhood. The 1,079 days between her Australian Open win and Sunday's victory in Auckland marked the longest title drought of her career.

But she seemed to turn a corner during a demanding week in which she played both doubles and singles, turning out on all seven days of the tournament.

Williams was frequently behind in her matches but showed typical determination to fight her way to the final and overcome Pegula, who ousted former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki in the semifinals.

Pegula has been on a steady climb up the rankings since she overcame a serious knee injury two years ago. The daughter of Buffalo Bills owners Terry and Kim Pegula, she won her maiden WTA title in 2019 and appeared to be a star on the rise in all her matches in Auckland.

Pegula broke Williams in the opening game and was dominant for the first half of the first set, moving Williams around to open the court for her punishing passing shots. She also chased down everything, making returns that Williams thought out of her reach.

Williams visibly called on herself to lift near the middle of the set, breaking to level at 3-3. She then held serve to love and broke Pegula for 5-3, serving out the first set in 51 minutes.

Williams broke Pegula to love in the third game of the second set as she began to dominate. She had three match points on Pegula's serve before clinching the match on serve in just over 90 minutes.

"It definitely feels good," Williams said. "It feels that I was definitely improving as the week went on."

Williams might have had two titles on the same day, but she and longtime friend, first-time doubles partner Wozniacki were beaten 6-4, 6-4 by Americans Taylor Townsend and Asia Muhammad in the doubles final.

Wozniacki was playing her second-to-last tournament before retirement -- the Australian Open will be her last -- and she fulfilled a long-held ambition in Auckland to team with Williams in doubles.

The pair progressed easily to the final but were overwhelmed on Sunday by Townsend and Muhammad, who were a more practiced and efficient combination. The young Americans broke the two former singles No. 1s in the third and seventh games of the first set and claimed the only break of the second set in the third game.

ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.