BRADFORD, Vt. – Officials from the Northeast-based USAC Dirt Midget Ass’n confirmed a 15-race calendar for the tour on Sunday morning.

After a successful first race at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway Flat Track in 2019, which featured a drive to victory from 22nd by Seth Carlson, the DMA will visit Loudon twice in 2020.

The first race will take place on July 17, the Friday night of New Hampshire’s NASCAR Cup Series weekend. A second race has been added on Sept. 11, in conjunction with the Full Throttle Fall Weekend on the big track.

Bear Ridge Speedway in Bradford, Vt., has been the club’s home track for 10 years and 2020 will continue the association. Bear Ridge will host the midgets 11 times, beginning with the track’s May 2 opener and continuing every other Saturday until Sept. 19.

One exception to the DMA racing every other Saturday at Bear Ridge will be in June, when the DMA will not race on June 13 but will race back to back weeks on June 20 and June 27.

Albany-Saratoga Speedway in Malta, N.Y., returns to the schedule with their traditional two races, both on Friday nights. The first race takes place on June 12 and the return visit will go on Aug. 14.

Will Hull is the reigning series champion and will try to defend his title in 2020 driving the Skip Matczak No. 3.

2020 USAC Dirt Midget Ass’n Schedule

May 2 – Bear Ridge Speedway – Bradford, Vt.
May 16 – Bear Ridge Speedway – Bradford, Vt.
May 30 – Bear Ridge Speedway – Bradford, Vt.
June 12 – Albany-Saratoga Speedway – Malta, N.Y.
June 20 – Bear Ridge Speedway – Bradford, Vt.
June 27 – Bear Ridge Speedway – Bradford, Vt.
July 11 – Bear Ridge Speedway – Bradford, Vt.
July 17 – Flat Track at NHMS – Loudon, N.H.
July 25 – Bear Ridge Speedway – Bradford, Vt.
Aug. 8 – Bear Ridge Speedway – Bradford, Vt.
Aug. 14 – Albany-Saratoga Speedway – Malta, N.Y.
Aug. 22 – Bear Ridge Speedway – Bradford, Vt.
Sept. 5 – Bear Ridge Speedway – Bradford, Vt.
Sept. 11 – Flat Track at NHMS – Loudon, N.H.
Sept. 19 – Bear Ridge Speedway – Bradford, Vt.

WILMETTE, Ill. – The Race Track Business Conference has awarded the M1 Concourse in Pontiac, Mich., with the Outstanding Facility of the Year Award.

The plaque was presented by the National Speedway Directory at the Performance Racing Industry Trade Show.

“We are thrilled and honored to receive this prestigious award,” said Jordan Zlotoff, CEO of M1 Concourse. “We are proud to join an elite group of facilities that have received this accolade before us. Our development and growth has been an incredible journey that started five years ago with an abandoned automotive manufacturing plant into what is now the world’s largest private garage community.”

“M1 Concourse set the gold standard to car aficionados in the Motor City. From the redevelopment of a former industrial property to its challenging track design and functional garage condos and club, the journey has been impressive. The location and layout allow it to prime access to Roadkill Nights and Woodward Dream Cruise, along with hosting marketing events and ride-n-drives. We are pleased to recognize this unique venue,” said Tim Frost, the organizer of the event.

The previous award winners were the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (2013), NCM Motorsports Park (2014), Daytona Int’l Speedway (2015), Charlotte Motor Speedway  (2016), Gateway Motorsports Park (2017) and Knoxville Raceway (2018).

ALLENTOWN, Pa. – The most prolific championship winning driver in the history of the Indoor Auto Racing Series Fueled By VP Race Fuels, Erick Rudolph, will begin his quest for a fifth TQ Midget Series title on Jan. 3-4 inside the PPL Center.

Rudolph, also one of the winningest dirt modified drivers during the 2019 outdoor season, is the defending Indoor Series champion. Rudolph clinched the title by winning the 2019 series finale in Syracuse, N.Y.

Rudolph, who will turn 28 during the month of January, also won the series title in 2016, 2015 and 2012 and is the only driver to win more than two titles.

“I’ll be driving the same car as last year,” Rudolph said. “Mark Lafler will be with me.”

Rudolph will be using the two race Allentown Indoor race meet as a springboard toward his quest for a second straight title. Rudolph won each of his four titles driving Lafler-built cars. Lafler has built nearly two dozen of the rugged, fast, remarkably simple cars but he has chosen not to build any more for new customers.

“His cars haven’t changed very much at all over the years,” Rudolph said. “Subtle differences, but very little. Same with the Dave Pippard’s engines we run.”

Rudolph is coming off a very successful 2019 season. In addition to winning the Indoor Auto Racing Series title in March, he was the 358 Modified season champion at his home track, Ransomville Speedway and at New York’s Utica-Rome Speedway. He also won the prestigious DIRTcar 358-Modified Series title, giving him four titles in one season.

Matt Janisch and Ryan Flores, who won the Friday and Saturday Allentown TQ Midget features in 2019 will both be in competition on Jan. 3-4 hoping to keep Rudolph out of victory lane.

After the two-race event opener in Allentown, the series moves to Atlantic City, New Jersey’s Boardwalk Hall on Jan. 31-Feb. 1 for the 18th annual NAPA Auto Parts Classic.

The season finale is on March 13-14 in a second year return to the brand new Exposition Center located on the grounds of the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse, N.Y.

Rudolph ended the 2018 season with an Indoor victory in December at a special non-point event held on a banked clay oval. The third annual East Coast Indoor Dirt Nationals will return to CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton, N.J., with a new date. This race meet, held the last two years in December, has been moved to Friday and Saturday, Feb. 21-22.

Rudolph will be back to defend the $5,000 to win race honors again driving a dirt wingless 600 Sprint owned by Pennsylvania car owner Tom Fraschetta.

“I kind of like Atlantic City more than the other tracks but only because of where it is and what there is to do there after the races,” said Rudolph.

“Syracuse was nice because there were a lot more people I know personally who were there watching me race, the dirt race was really cool too.”

Though Rudolph missed out on also winning the Super DIRTcar Series big-block modified title – he was a contender until late in the season – he was pleased with his overall results from 2019 which included 24 wins, third among northeast drivers.

Rudolph admits that he will campaign vigorously, as he has in the past three years, for the Super DIRT Series Big Block title, which is a 30-race grind that stretches into November.

Short term, he’s fully focused on the four Indoor Auto Racing Series events.

WATFORD, England -- If Christmas is a time for putting others' needs before your own, then Manchester United's generosity in a 2-0 defeat at Vicarage Road was to be applauded.

Watford went into their final fixture before Christmas bottom of the Premier League table, without a home league win since April and as the only team in Europe's five major leagues yet to reach double figures in league goals. When David de Gea's calamitous error allowed Ismaila Sarr to put the hosts in front in the 50th minute, it was the first time Watford had taken the lead in a league game in front of their own fans this campaign. Watford's 2-0 win, in Nigel Pearson's first home game as manager, was only their second success in 18 league matches this season and allowed the Hertfordshire club to close to within six points of safety. Just like Father Christmas, United dress in red and white, come to call once a year and arrive bearing gifts.

Whereas Watford's fans will tuck into their Christmas dinners harbouring renewed optimism that their side might yet pull off the unthinkable by avoiding the drop, United's supporters find their team occupying their lowest placing at Christmas -- eighth - since 1989.

United's run of six games without defeat in the league is over, the momentum sparked by their back-to-back wins over Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City has vanished and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will once again find himself confronted by questions about his suitability for the job. Of equal concern to Solskjaer and his team's supporters will be the knowledge that opposition sides know exactly how to defeat United: you simply give them the ball.

When United have enjoyed success this season, they have generally done so by allowing their opponents to control possession and hitting them on the counter-attack. In each of their most notable victories this season, United have had less than 50 percent of possession: 46 percent in August's 4-0 win over Chelsea, 42 percent in September's 1-0 defeat of Leicester City and 47 percent and 28 percent respectively, in those 2-1 successes against Spurs and Manchester City earlier this month.

It is when United are allowed to have the ball that they struggle. In each of the league defeats that preceded the trip to Watford -- against Crystal Palace, West Ham United, Newcastle United and Bournemouth -- they had over 50% of possession and it was the same story at Vicarage Road, where Solskjaer's men slumped to a fifth reverse of the campaign despite having 64 percent of the ball.

The United manager claimed that his side's defeat was "not about the amount of possession", arguing instead that a lack of "quality" was to blame, but the statistics are difficult to ignore. On the last 17 occasions that United have had more of the ball than their opponents in a league game, they have emerged victorious only once.

The visitors' desperate lack of a cutting edge was plainly apparent during a first half in which their failure to capitalise on possession must have made Watford goalkeeper Ben Foster remember the years he spent passively watching United play from the Old Trafford bench. Central midfielders Fred and Scott McTominay were both wasteful and it was left to Anthony Martial, United's centre-forward, to supply the few moments of inspiration. The Frenchman dragged a shot wide after a one-two with Daniel James and it was from his through ball that Jesse Lingard squandered the best chance of the first 45 minutes, tamely chipping the ball onto the roof of Foster's net.

Teams who fail to make possession count leave themselves vulnerable to mishaps at the other end and there could be no greater symbol of United's currently fragility than De Gea, whose error was one of the worst in the growing list of the blunders that he has committed in recent seasons. Sarr's shot, down and into ground lacked any kind of power, but De Gea somehow allowed it to slip through his grasp.

Solskjaer suggested that De Gea may have been momentarily distracted by thoughts of what he was going to do once he had the ball. Either way, the Spain international has now gone 13 league matches without a clean sheet, the longest such run of his career, while United have not had to wait so long for a shutout since the 1970-71 campaign. Aaron Wan-Bissaka succumbed to his own attack of nerves moments later when he threw himself into an ill-advised lunge on Sarr, which allowed Troy Deeney to double Watford's advantage from the penalty spot.

The one bright spot for United was the return of Paul Pogba, who came on for Lingard to make his first appearance since Sept. 30 after a spell on the sidelines with an ankle injury. His impact was immediate. On two occasions he created chances with raking passes from inside his own half, only for Marcus Rashford and substitute Mason Greenwood to fail to take them, and he twice tested Foster, the second time after a sharp exchange of passes with Martial.

"The last half an hour, when Paul [Pogba] came on, that was probably the only plus today," Solskjaer said. "He gave us that little bit of edge, quality, urgency. He played some great passes over the top, he had some nice combinations and he had a chance himself."

Given the flagrancy of their creativity deficit, Pogba's return is a timely gift for United. Because aside of that, there is precious little else beneath the tree to get excited about.

India finished 2019 on a high, sealing a 2-1 victory over West Indies in front of a packed crowd, in a game that see-sawed this way and that. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma were front and centre in a chase of 316, much as they have been all year in various formats. Both players were asked to look back at 2019 during the presentation ceremony, and these were their thoughts, as told to Star Sports.

Kohli: Well, it's been one of the best years for Indian cricket, to be honest, apart from playing the cricket that we played for half an hour in the World Cup. I think apart from that it's been a beautiful year for us. We'll keep chasing that ICC trophy, it's something that this team deserves, it's something that I feel should be accumulation of all the hard work we've done in the last few years, and we'll keep chasing it. We'll have that vision in place, but I think apart from that, the way we've played, the brand of cricket, it's been wonderful to be a part of it.

A lot of India's success recently has come about as a result of their fast bowlers. Mohammed Shami finished 2019 as the highest wicket-taker in ODIs. Jasprit Bumrah is already one of the world's best bowlers across formats. And on Sunday, Navdeep Saini joined the production line and showed great promise.

Kohli: Yeah, indeed. Having a bunch of fast bowlers like this, who can just bowl out any opposition anywhere, is a brilliant thing to have in Indian cricket. [It's] something that we haven't quite relied on in the past, but I think them taking the attention away from the spinners in India is a huge statement, so I think that's what makes us feel that when we travel now, we have it in us to win a series, and not just one-odd Test match here and there. So I think it's been hard work, persistence, learning the game, thinking about the game that's got them to where they are and they deserve it fully.

Congratulations @MdShami11, ODI cricket's top wicket-taker of 2019 pic.twitter.com/sQvK15VVw3

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) December 22, 2019

Kohli was talking about India's seamers dismantling South Africa in a three-match Test series at home. Shami and Umesh Yadav picked up 24 wickets and were a class above. That coupled with the usual runs the top order provide have made India an extremely hard team to beat.

Rohit: I should be grateful of the year I've had. A World Cup victory there would've been nice. But as a team, we played some good cricket throughout the year whether in red-ball cricket or white ball cricket. The team kept together very well and every individual stepped up and put their hand up and got the team through. Personally, yes, I've enjoyed batting but there's no way I'm going to stop here. An exciting year coming forward as well so I quite look forward to that as well.

I understand my batting really well and I want to play within my limits, whatever limitations I've got. Knowing the gameplan that you want to execute on the field is very very important and more often than not I went out there trying to do that. Even in the red-ball format, playing against South Africa, I knew it was going to be challenging. Although in India, we never saw the ball swing, it swung quite a bit in that series and it was a big challenge facing the new ball. We know the challenge will be bigger when we start travelling and we want to win games there. It's more important than individual performances because we want to make sure we stay on top of the table.

The most runs by an opener in a calendar year - what a 2019 India's Hitman has had #INDvWI pic.twitter.com/zSeSO3W2OA

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) December 22, 2019

Are India satisfied with their bench yet?

Kohli: Look, we are in the process, every series, of trying out people, see how they react under pressure, because whether people want to accept it or not, after few years we have to go through a transition again where the youngsters will have to step up, keep Indian cricket at the standard that has been set now. It's just about identifying those people every now and then. Once those people have been settled, then you feel like you've contributed to Indian cricket, you've left the team as strong, if not stronger than what it was when you were playing, and that is something that we'll keep striving for.

After the confusion about last Sunday's opening coin toss in Dallas, the issue is now expected to be a point of discussion with the NFL's competition committee this offseason, league sources told ESPN.

In the game against the Rams, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott initially was not heard saying that Dallas wanted to defer the opening kick to the second half.

The NFL could consider simplifying the rules for what players have to say during the coin toss for the 2020 season, according to sources. The discussion is expected to center around whether there is a way to simplify the language regarding the opening coin toss.

As it is now, one of the team's captains must clearly use the word "defer" when identifying whether his team wants to receive the ball to open the game or defer that choice to the second half. There was a question of whether Prescott used the word last Sunday before the NFL intervened and ultimately got the call right.

Rams quarterback Jared Goff called tails for the opening coin toss that came up heads. Prescott then told referee Walt Anderson that his team wanted "defense" before pointing to the Rams and saying, "kicking it that way."

Anderson looked to confirm Prescott's choice, which would give the Rams the choice to receive the football in the second half, too, and video showed Prescott saying, "We defer to the second half."

To which Anderson responded, "OK, you're going to kick."

Prescott using the word "kicking" before he used the word "defer" created confusion over whether the Cowboys enabled the Rams to receive the ball to open the second half before the NFL intervened and ruled that Dallas would get the ball in the second half.

But the fact that there even was a question led some last week to wonder why the NFL doesn't simplify the language in order to avoid potential controversies.

The Cowboys won 44-21.

As the Chargers get ready for their final home game of the season Sunday, they are hoping they won't have a repeat of what occurred during last weekend's loss in Los Angeles to the Vikings.

For the first time this season, the Chargers had to use a silent count in their home stadium because there were so many Vikings fans in attendance, sources told ESPN.

The Chargers nearly had to resort to that tactic earlier this season, when they hosted the Steelers in a game in which there seemed to be more fans from Pittsburgh than Los Angeles in attendance. The Chargers' offense ultimately didn't use a silent count that week.

The concern, according to sources, is that the Chargers could be in a similar situation Sunday when they host the Raiders (6-8), who have a strong following in the Los Angeles area. If the Raiders were still competing for a playoff spot, the Chargers (5-9) might be forced to feel like outsiders again.

Although Oakland has been eliminated from postseason contention, the Chargers could face another tough battle at home. It is symptomatic of what has been a difficult move to the Los Angeles market. One source who tracks the team said this week, "L.A. is not a Chargers town."

Starting pitchers among Major League Baseball's free agents continue to come off the board quickly: Stephen Strasburg followed by Gerrit Cole followed by Madison Bumgarner, Wade Miley, Julio Teheran and Gio Gonzalez, all faring better than anybody might have expected last winter. With the preferred pitching pendulum in MLB seemingly swinging back from relievers to starting pitchers again, there is a desperate need for rotation help in the industry.

The Minnesota Twins are looking for help, as are the Chicago White Sox (although they did add Dallas Keuchel), the Toronto Blue Jays, the Los Angeles Dodgers and others. With the free-agent cupboard mostly cleaned out, clubs are increasingly digging into trade possibilities, which is why the name of the Cleveland Indians' Mike Clevinger has popped up, and why executives have speculated that the Pittsburgh Pirates will try to fix Chris Archer before dangling him in June or July, or sooner.

Because of the rotation starvation, the Yankees will be able to make a decent deal to move the contract of J.A. Happ, and the Boston Red Sox might be able to construct some trades of David Price and/or Nathan Eovaldi, to shed at least some financial obligation. Other teams believe the Seattle Mariners, in the midst of a rebuild, would flip Marco Gonzales and Yusei Kikuchi for the right offers.

FORT WAYNE, Ind. – Racing will not take place at Indiana’s Baer Field Motorsports Park next season.

Baer Field Motorsports Park Promoter and General Manager Dave Muzzillo announced in a Facebook Live video Saturday that the owners of the property have chosen not to renew his lease on the property, which will be listed for sale.

“I met with, actually two weeks ago today, with a representative of the company that owns the property and we went through a lot of stuff,” Muzzillo said. “A week later I get back from the PRI show and I get a registered letter telling us that the lease will not be renewed.

“We need to vacate the property and the property will be up for sale,” Muzzillo said. “There will be no racing at Baer Field in 2020 unless somebody wants to write an extremely big check for the property. The amount we were told was really unacceptable.”

Muzzillo took over promotion of Baer Field Motorsports Park in 2015 and has operated the track for the last five years. The track first opened in 1964.

The Champion Racing Ass’n has already announced several events would be held at Baer Field Motorsports Park next season across the several divisions the organization sanctions.  No announcements have been made regarding the rescheduling of those races.

“It’s really heartbreaking. We were totally blindsided by the whole thing,” Muzzillo said. “Extremely blindsided. It was a slap in the face. It was explained to me that they do not want to be absentee land owners. They do not live in the state of Indiana. They want to sell the property.

“I’m not going to say the amount. I do not want to be responsible for anybody that has a heart attack and are unable to spend Christmas with their family, so I’m not going to tell you the amount that they want. I’ll just tell you that it doesn’t fit my budget.”

Muzzillo, who also owns the Sprints on Dirt series, said he intends to open the track one last time on Dec. 31 to allow fans and competitors the chance to walk the track.

“We have to vacate the property by Dec. 31 at midnight,” Muzzillo. “So on Dec. 31 from midnight to 4 in the afternoon, we are going to open the gates one last time and people can take their final walk around the race track.”

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Balance of Performance – or BoP, as it’s commonly known – is often mentioned by drivers, teams and manufacturers in sports car racing.

But what is it and why is it so important in sports car racing.

We’ll take a closer look at what BoP does and how IMSA will use it in the upcoming season that kicks off with the Roar Before the Rolex 24 At Daytona on Jan. 3-5.

Most other forms of motorsports around the world have one driver per car, and each car is built to the same or very similar technical specification. At the end of most races, there is one winner.

Sports car racing is different. You’ve got multiple drivers sharing the same car. You’ve also got multiple classes of race cars competing at the same time, and within each of those classes, you’ve got markedly different car configurations and technologies.

Those differences are what makes sports car racing so appealing to race fans. The diversity of cars and manufacturers provide a visual spectacle and auditory symphony unlike anything else in motorsports.

And that’s also why we have BoP.

The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship again will have four different classes. In the flagship Daytona Prototype international class, there will be normally aspirated V8-powered Cadillacs competing against twin-turbo V6-powered Acuras and turbocharged, four-cylinder Mazdas. All DPis are mid-engined.

In the GT Le Mans class, we have the BMW M8 GTE with a front-engined, turbocharged V8. The new Corvette C8.R is now mid-engined with a normally aspirated V8, while the Porsche 911 RSR has a flat, six-cylinder normally aspirated engine also mounted ahead of the rear axle. The Ferrari 488 GTE has a mid-engined, twin-turbocharged, V8 configuration.

The GT Daytona class will have 10 different models competing with a variety of layouts and engine types. The Acura NSX GT3 is a twin-turbo, mid-engined V6. Like its GTLM brethren, the Ferrari 488 GT3 also has a mid-engine, twin-turbo V8, as does the McLaren 720S GT3, which will open its 2020 IMSA WeatherTech Sprint Cup season at April’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. The Audi R8 GT3 LMS and Lamborghini Huracán GT3 each have normally aspirated V10s with a mid-engine configuration.

The Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and BMW M6 GT3 use twin-turbocharged V8s and a front-engine configuration.The Mercedes-AMG GT3 and Lexus RC F GT3 are front-engined too, but use naturally aspirated V8, while the Porsche 911 GT3 R still uses its longstanding, normally aspirated, flat-six engine situated behind the rear wheels.

The LMP2 class is the closest thing to spec, with all of the mid-engined cars using normally aspirated Gibson V8 engines. However, the class is open to chassis built by four different constructors and BoP is not used in this class.

The different engines and configurations are only part of the equation. The mass and weight distribution of each car, especially in the GT classes, can differ substantially between models, and each also has its own aerodynamic capabilities.

With such different vehicles competing against each other, BoP is the mechanism IMSA uses to put the cars in each class on as level a technical playing field as possible. For the DPi and GTLM classes, IMSA’s goal is to have every car within a performance window of 0.3 percent, and a 0.5 percent window in GTD.

That means the fastest DPi or GTLM car would cross the finish line three tenths of a second ahead of the slowest car in class at the end of a 100-second lap. Visually, we’re talking about the length of a conference room table.

In GTD, it’d be half a second from fastest to slowest, which is the length of a slightly larger conference room table. In all cases, it’s little more than a blink of an eye.

In terms of performance windows, that’s tiny from a technical perspective. As a result, the outcome of each race should ultimately come down to driver skill, pit crew prowess and race strategy as opposed to one car’s technical superiority over another.

A similar process also is used for the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge, where substantial diversity among manufacturers and technology is found in both the Grand Sport (GS) and TCR classes. Between the WeatherTech Championship and Michelin Pilot Challenge, a total of 17 different manufacturers will compete in 2020.