You are forgiven if you got lost somewhere amid the morass of NBA semantics surrounding Kawhi Leonard missing nationally televised games against the Utah Jazz on Oct. 30 and the Milwaukee Bucks on Nov. 6 -- both part of back-to-backs.

To review: When it became public that the LA Clippers would sit Leonard for the Nov. 6 contest, the initial assumption in the media and among rival teams was that Leonard was being held out under a "load management" program similar to the one the Toronto Raptors crafted for him last season.

If that was code for resting, weren't the Clippers in violation of the league's resting policy, implemented in 2017 -- and thus subject to a fine of at least $100,000? Wasn't Leonard cheating fans?

But then, a plot twist: The league office clarified to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski that Leonard was legitimately injured -- with a sore knee. He was not resting. This was not load management. The Clippers were in the clear! (Leonard would end up missing three straight games in mid-November.)

But wait: Another plot twist! The league 24 hours later fined the Clippers $50,000 for pregame comments from coach Doc Rivers in which he declared that Leonard "feels great." How could Leonard be both feeling great and injured? The disconnect cost the Clips.

Again: It's understandable if you threw your hands in the air and gave up trying to understand this. The NBA concedes it was partly to blame for the haziness. Last season and earlier this season, it allowed teams to use "load management" as a designation both for players who were just resting -- thus potentially subjecting their team to penalties under the resting policy -- and for those nursing some injury.

The NBA sought to eliminate such confusion in the wake of this month's Leonard brouhaha, as Byron Spruell, the NBA's president of league operations, told ESPN in an interview last week. The league outlined new guidelines for injury reporting in a Nov. 11 memo to teams, a copy of which was obtained by ESPN.

The short version: Load management is now rest. Period. If you see that term, it will mean a healthy player is taking the night off. If skipping that particular game violates the league's resting policy, that player's team will be penalized.

"What has been confusing -- and I'm not picking on Kawhi -- but 'load management' was one of the causes people put out for why he sat out, and it's not," Spruell said. "He's an injured player."

The resting policy prohibits teams from sitting healthy players in "high-profile" nationally televised games. It requires teams rest players at home absent some "unusual circumstances," the idea being that home fans get many chances to see their teams' stars. The league also has instructed teams not to rest multiple healthy players in the same game, barring those same "unusual circumstances."

Taken to an extreme, the only game type in which a team may rest a healthy player is a home game broadcast on local television. For teams on national TV a lot, there aren't as many of those as you'd think. But there are still enough to carve out a decent number of rest days, at least in the league's view.

The league has robust investigatory authority to make sure teams obey the rules. A team cannot simply list a player as out with a sore whatever without evidence and sit that player in a national TV game that would normally trigger the league's resting policy, Spruell said.

For any injury, the NBA requires that teams submit documentary proof into a league-supervised portal, according to Spruell and team medical personnel who spoke to ESPN. Those documents can and should include official reports from examinations by trainers and team doctors, medical imaging and other documents, should the league request them.

"They get everything," one team medical staffer told ESPN.

If that is not enough, the league might require team doctors hop on the phone with John DiFiori, the NBA's director of sports medicine, Spruell said. If a team wants to rest a healthy player in any game that would normally fall under the resting policy, they must call the league office at least 48 hours in advance, the memo states. In practice, they are calling much sooner, according to Spruell and team personnel. Some teams have called a week in advance to test the waters on resting a healthy player, only to end up playing him anyway, league officials said.

The league values such planning. They contacted the Clippers in the offseason and asked if the team had any general road map for when Leonard might sit out, sources said. The Clippers replied that they could not provide one at that point.

In the end, all these decisions -- whether a team may rest a healthy player in a game normally subject to the resting policy, or whether a player designated as "injured" truly is injured -- can be sent as high as Adam Silver, the league's commissioner, for approval.

"We are not getting gamed," Spruell said.

Due to privacy concerns, the league has strict rules over who has access to a player's medical information, Spruell said. Even some league officials who are close to this process do not see those records. This is of paramount importance to the players' union.

By the revised definition, no player has missed any national TV game this season due to load management or rest, league officials said.

Team personnel said the league has been flexible. No player is 100 percent healthy once the season really gets going, trainers and doctors said. If a player needs rest, team personnel can ask that player what feels sore, provide some treatment, and document said treatment in a way that satisfies league oversight. They can then designate that player as having a specific injury and sit him without penalty for a game subject to the league's resting policy, team personnel said. The player is classified as injured, not resting.

If that game is part of a back-to-back featuring one national TV game and one local broadcast, the league might suggest sitting the player on the local broadcast -- even if that is a road game.

The league also has given more leeway to players with chronic injuries and major injury histories, as well as those recovering from serious acute injuries. For now, that group includes Leonard, Joel Embiid, Dejounte Murray and Kristaps Porzingis, among others. A team wishing to sit one of those players in a game that would normally fall under the resting policy can list him as injured and feel confident the league will approve the designation. They also could simply rest him ("load management") on one end of a back-to-back and argue such a scenario -- injury history, back-to-back game -- fits the "unusual circumstances" exception to the resting policy.

If given enough notice, the league would again push the team to make the player available for whichever end of the back-to-back -- if either -- is scheduled for national TV.

A player in this category could recover to the point that a past injury may no longer be used to skirt the league's resting rules, Spruell said. The league would sort that out on a case-by-case basis, in conjunction with the player's team and the players' union, officials said.

The league also has allowed for some wiggle room on what constitutes a "high-profile" national TV game, sources said. A game on NBA TV might not be the same as a game on ESPN or TNT. A Golden State Warriors-New Orleans Pelicans game without Zion Williamson and most of Golden State's foundational stars might no longer qualify as "high profile" -- providing teams more flexibility in resting healthy players.

On a semi-related note, the NBA and its broadcast partners -- ESPN included -- have recently discussed the possibility and feasibility of more aggressively "flexing" out scheduled national TV games that do not look as appealing in light of injuries and team performance, sources said. Some mega-teams -- the Lakers, for example -- will never be flexed regardless of injury. On some national TV nights, there are few alternatives on the schedule.

Teams know they have to act in good faith. The NBA will detect any abuse of resting rules and injury designations. Two seasons ago, the league warned the Chicago Bulls about resting too many healthy players at once.

All of this touches on the larger issue of ratings decline and the challenge in making each night of an 82-game regular season appointment television. As Wojnarowski and I reported over the weekend (with a big assist from Jonathan Givony), the league and the players' union are in serious talks over major scheduling adjustments designed to spark fan interest. The biggest:

• a midseason tournament similar to those used in European leagues;

• a play-in tournament, described here, for the final two playoff spots in each conference;

• a proposal to re-seed what are now the conference finals by overall record, so the teams with the two best remaining records cannot face each other until the NBA Finals;

• reducing the base regular season from 82 to 78 games.

Although the league hopes to introduce these changes -- pending a vote of the board of governors -- for the 75th-anniversary season in 2021-22, they are not intended as a one-off to commemorate that milestone campaign, Spruell said.

"We are looking at the short-term and long-term benefits of doing something less than 82," Spruell said.

Some team executives are either enthusiastically for or against these proposals, but the overall reaction has been a sort of lukewarm indifference. Even those who don't like the ideas on some level concede they can't really do much harm as compared to the status quo.

Scattered thoughts:

• I like the play-in tournament, and I have since breaking the news about this particular proposal in February 2018. It strikes a nice balance between rewarding regular-season achievement while also creating a new incentive for teams toward the bottom of the standings to try until almost the end.

There are always going to be trade-offs to change at this scope. Is it "fair" that a No. 7 seed that wins, say, eight more games than the No. 10 seed before the play-in tournament could suddenly find itself at grave risk of losing a playoff spot to that inferior No. 10 seed -- due to injury, poor play, bad matchups, whatever? Perhaps not. But if that is the cost of coaxing Nos. 10, 11 and 12 into going all-out into April, I'll accept it. There are too many unwatchable games right now in March and April.

• The midseason tournament will be the toughest sell. Teams are skeptical that anyone will really care about winning it. The league and union are discussing bonuses for players, but we have seen in the All-Star Game that fringe bonuses will not be enough. Why would a team contending for the actual NBA title risk playing its best players heavy minutes in November and December to win some cup with zero history behind it?

Maybe they wouldn't. The NBA can apply the resting rule to all tournament games, but that only requires teams play healthy players. It does not control how many minutes teams play them.

But teams in the middle might go hard for it. Preliminary games under the current proposal are built into the larger regular-season schedule, so teams can approach those as they would normal games. Both teams and players would have some financial incentive to make this tournament an event that sells. Whatever money it generates would presumably be included as basketball-related income, which determines the team salary cap -- and thus how much players make in the aggregate.

Moving to a 78-game schedule means some teams would lose out on revenue from two home games. They would be looking to make that up in the midseason tournament.

If given enough time, these kinds of new events pick up some organic power and importance. If it's a thing for long enough, then it becomes a thing people care about. But it might take time. The NBA has to be ready for this to look silly in the first few years -- for criticism, players sitting out, and elite teams poking fun at middling try-hards chasing the junior varsity cup.

Ride it out long enough and this could work. There is nothing inherently dumb about the idea.

• I surrender to the November/December timing of a midseason tournament, even though it feels so early. Teams are barely discovering who they are. But the All-Star break appears to be out. Ditto for Christmas. Weekend games in January run into postseason football. I like the idea of leveraging March Madness fervor by holding the final rounds on off nights of the NCAA tournament, but that is very late in the NBA season.

I do wonder if there is some way for the NBA to hold the semis or the finals on Martin Luther King Jr. Day -- already an important day on the schedule -- but that January window is complicated.

Maybe this timing is right. By late November, the anticipation and novelty of the early season has faded. This might give some games more juice.

• One proposal from a couple of team employees: Guarantee the winning team a playoff spot. That's interesting. It doesn't really impact the elite teams. Some ultra-tankers might not even want a playoff spot if it removes them from the lottery. (They probably wouldn't want to turn off their fans by tanking the midseason tournament, either.) How would clinching a playoff spot in December change behavior over the rest of the season for a middling playoff team?

• How about this: If the winning team ends up making the playoffs anyway, they get a spot in the draft lottery? That is one way to motivate contenders. It also risks an elite team winning the No. 1 pick, and even some proponents of dramatic lottery reform get a little queasy when you bring up those kinds of scenarios.

• By the way: Teams have been formally proposing schedule tweaks for years. At least one has advocated for a 58-game schedule, with each team playing every other team twice. (Even the proposing team knows that is too radical right now.)

One Eastern Conference executive submitted a proposal that in its own way includes midseason and play-in tournaments: a 62-game regular season, after which teams are placed into three tiers based on their record in those 62 games. Teams then play 18 games within their tier -- facing each team home and away -- bringing the season to 80 games.

Tier 1 features the teams with the top five records in each conference after 62 games. Tier play then would determine the order of the top five playoff seeds in each conference.

Tier 2 features teams 6-10 in each conference after 62 games. The 18 games within that group would determine seeds 6-8 in each conference -- basically, the play-in tournament.

Tier 3 features the bottom 10 teams jostling in what could admittedly be some pretty forgettable games. Perhaps winning could be linked to better lottery odds.

It would be simpler to divide teams into tiers based on record, without regard to conference affiliation. The author of this proposal stressed that he crafted it specifically to take into account the political realities of conferences and even divisions. It also could create arena booking conflicts.

• I'm still digesting the reseeded final four. It is really a watered-down version of taking the 16 best teams into the playoffs, regardless of conference affiliation. In opposing that concept, the league has argued (among other things) that historic and geographic rivalries would suffer since we would not see rival teams match up as often in the postseason. There is some truth to that.

This new final four might thread the needle. We could still get Philly-Boston type series in the first two rounds, and then again (for the first time) in the Finals. It would cut travel in the championship round.

On the other hand, I'm not sure how often the problem this purports to solve -- the two best teams by a significant margin being in the same conference -- really happens.

The go-to example will be 2018, when the Warriors and Rockets faced off in an epic seven-game Western Conference finals before Golden State walloped an overmatched 50-win Cleveland team in the Finals. But that is a bit of an outlier. (Toronto also had a better record than Golden State in 2018, though reseeding still would have separated the Rockets and Warriors in the semifinals.)

There is also something cool about the two NBA Finalists having played each other only twice in the regular season. (And in many years, injuries and rest render one or both such games almost irrelevant as predictors.) It makes the Finals feel like an event -- something we haven't seen before.

I dunno. I'm still running it through my head and debating with league insiders.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- John Sherman had sold his successful energy company and embarked on a nine-month trip around the world with his wife, Marny. They had visited Africa and Asia and all points between, and had landed in Europe when the most incredible thing happened.

Sherman's long-suffering but beloved Kansas City Royals reached the World Series.

It was Marny who, upon noticing her husband watching for updates on his phone, encouraged Sherman to return to Kansas City. So smack-dab in the midst of their global sojourn, the white-haired businessman with a bushy mustache and self-deprecating sense of humor hopped a jet home in time to watch Games 6 and 7 between the Royals and San Francisco Giants at Kauffman Stadium.

Little did Sherman know, five years later he would be back in the ballpark, staring out a window from the club's hall of fame Tuesday after being introduced as the team's new controlling owner.

"The opportunity to do this in your hometown is very, very special," said Sherman, who grew up an Army brat but ultimately settled in Kansas City, where he founded both of his energy businesses. "I feel incredibly fortunate to be sitting in this seat. but I also realize the privilege and responsibility that we have in this seat on behalf of our fans, our players and coaches, our associates and our community."

The purchase of the Royals from David Glass for approximately $1 billion was approved unanimously by owners of the other big league clubs at their meeting last Thursday. The transfer closed Monday, and the full list of owners -- primarily local businessman along with a few famous fans, such as actor Eric Stonestreet -- was released prior to Sherman's introductory news conference Tuesday.

His group is just the third owner of the Royals since their inception in 1969, when Ewing Kauffman established the team. The Glass family served as caretakers of the franchise following Kauffman's death before purchasing it outright and retaining control until earlier this year.

Sherman had approached Glass about buying the team about five years ago, around the time he was traipsing around the world, but the timing wasn't right. So Sherman ultimately bought a minority interest in the division rival Cleveland Indians, giving him experience in running a club. That ownership interest has been placed in a blind trust and eventually will be divested.

Sherman hadn't given much thought to buying the Royals the past four seasons, so he didn't even answer his phone when it rang during spring training. He was focused on the Indians' upcoming season, their split-squad game that afternoon and, well, the phone number ...

"I looked down and it was a call from Fayetteville, Arkansas," Sherman recalled, "and at my age, I'm a big target for all these scammer robocalls, and they tend to all come from Arkansas for some reason. At best, they're going to be trying to sell me a Medicare supplement, so I ignored the call.

"Then later in the day, we were on our way to the stadium," he continued, "and I had a voicemail and it was David Glass. Very casual, 'John, if you get a chance, give me a call at your convenience.' I didn't think much of it. I called David and he said, 'John, I wanted to give you a heads-up. The family has decided to sell the team. I don't know if the timing is right, but you would be my first choice.'"

Rather than return to the Indians' ownership suite, Sherman walked around the stadium concourse and mulled the offer, something that he continued to do for the next several days. He ultimately called Glass back and they began the long and complex transaction.

The negotiations were kept under tight wraps, and it wasn't until all the major points had been hammered out that word leaked of the sale in late August. The Royals quickly acknowledged it, but any purchase had to be approved by the other owners at their annual meeting in November.

Given his experience with the Indians, and Sherman's roots in Kansas City, it was a formality.

Sherman takes over at a unique juncture for the organization.

After losing to the Giants in the 2014 World Series and beating the New York Mets to win the 2015 title, the club quickly went downhill. Many of the Royals' best players hit free agency, draft misses had left the prospect pool barren, and the result has been back-to-back 100-loss seasons.

But there were signs late last year that another wave of talent could arrive soon, including a group of heralded young pitchers still in the minors. There is a fresh feeling after the retirement of manager Ned Yost and the hiring of Mike Matheny, who had been serving as an adviser. And the Royals are finalizing a lucrative new TV rights deal that should help their financial flexibility.

Sherman described his management style relatively hands-off, meaning Matheny and general manager Dayton Moore will be primarily responsible for the on-field product. But he's also a longtime baseball fan, and that means Sherman plans to spend plenty of time in the ownership box.

"I've got a lot to learn here, and these guys are pretty optimistic," he said. "I heard Mike say, 'I'm not going to call it a rebuild,' and I think that's probably right in some ways.

"Our objectives are to compete for a championship on behalf of our fans. I've heard Mike say it and I heard Dayton say it: We want to try to do it on a sustainable basis, and have sustained success."

JEREZ, Spain – Marc Marquez wrapped up the second day of the final MotoGP test of the year Tuesday at Circuito de Jerez by topping the charts.

With the forecast looking bleak, Marquez was among the first riders on track. He quickly put down a fast lap at 1:37.820, which ended up being the fastest lap of the day and second overall to the time put down Monday by Maverick Vinales.

“Theses two days were very positive for us, working with the 2020 items we have and trying to find the right direction,” Marquez said. “On the first day we tried a lot of things and then today we started with the best of what we found yesterday. Unfortunately, we only did 20 laps before the rain came. It wasn’t wet enough to properly test in the wet and it certainly wasn’t dry. Now it’s time for the staff in HRC Japan to analyze everything.”

Marquez’s attention now turns to an operation on Nov. 27 at Barcelona’s Hospital Universitari Dexeus-Quiron. The Repsol Honda Team rider has elected to have an operation on his right shoulder as a preventative measure after medical consultation. The operation will be similar to the one performed on his left shoulder at the end of 2018.

“This winter I would have liked to have a nice holiday and enjoy a bit of quiet time after a great 2019 – but it is time to have surgery on the right shoulder,” Marquez said. “As everyone knows, last winter was very tough for me with the operation on the left shoulder, which was very, very damaged. I want to avoid the situation where my right shoulder is in this condition in the future so I spoke a lot with the doctors to see what our options were. Before Motegi I had some issues with the shoulder and then after the crash in Malaysia I had a subluxation.

“Here at the test I had another subluxation after the crash, so we decided with the doctors that it was best to have the surgery to avoid the situation we had with the other shoulder. It will take more or less the same time and we will work in the same way to arrive at the Malaysia test as strong as possible.”

Team Suzuki Ecstar continued to show speed during the test, with Alex Rins and Joan Mir going second and third fastest on Tuesday. Vinales was fourth fastest Tuesday after setting the fastest overall lap of the test on Monday. Fabio Quartararo was fifth fastest for Petronas Yamaha SRT.

VENTURA, Calif. – Ricky Stenhouse Jr., a five-time USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget feature winner, has become the latest addition to the massive field for the 79th running of the Turkey Night Grand Prix on Thursday at California’s Ventura Raceway.

Stenhouse, also a two-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup winner and two-time NASCAR Xfinity Series champion, will drive the No. 17JR for Clauson/Marshall Racing, a fifth entry for the team alongside series champion Tyler Courtney, Chris Windom, Zeb Wise and Andrew Layser.

The Olive Branch, Miss., native has made three USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget starts this year, finishing seventh in September’s BC39 at The Dirt Track at IMS and sixth on the opening night of the Hangtown 100 one week ago at California’s Placerville Speedway.

On the second night of the Hangtown 100, Stenhouse was running second when he pulled off with a problem just prior to the halfway mark of the 100-lapper.

Stenhouse has made one previous Turkey Night Grand Prix midget start, in 2007, where he finished third in his qualifying race and 29th in the feature event.  The 2007 race was held on the pavement of Irwindale (Calif.) Speedway.  This year’s race will mark Stenhouse’s first Turkey Night Grand Prix appearance on dirt.

FRISCO, Texas -- The pointed comments made by owner and general manager Jerry Jones about the Dallas Cowboys coaching staff after Sunday's loss to the New England Patriots have not affected the players in the locker room.

"Passion, emotion, the energy he brings, that is Line 1 for Mr. Jones, I feel like from my perspective," tight end Jason Witten, who has played 16 years for the Cowboys, said Tuesday. "He wants to win. He expects to win. He feels like he's put a great team together, which he has, and we haven't played to our expectations of where we should be. That's completely fair. I think it's just the raw emotion of it all. He's been around a lot of great football and knows what he wants it to look like."

After the game, Jones called Patriots coach Bill Belichick "masterful" and said the loss was a "significant setback," while calling into question the coaching staff, particularly with special teams after a blocked punt led to the game's only touchdown.

"With the makeup of this team, I shouldn't be this frustrated," Jones said after the loss.

Over the past two days, Jason Garrett, who does not have a contract beyond this season, has been asked about Jones' comments and gave similar answers.

"We just focus on what we need to do to coach and play our best and get ready for this ballgame," Garrett said Tuesday. "Buffalo's a good football team, so we'll just keep our attention right there."

Running back Ezekiel Elliott said he was unaware of what Jones said but admitted there is frustration with the Cowboys' 6-5 record.

"Just with us not winning, you're going to be frustrated," Elliott said. "Where we are grateful is that we do control our destiny and we can control our destiny in these last games and get into these playoffs."

The Cowboys are in first place in the NFC East over the Philadelphia Eagles (5-6), but they have yet to beat a team with a winning record. They have lost in their four chances against the New Orleans Saints, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings and Patriots.

The Bills are 8-3 and are one of two teams currently with a winning record remaining on the Cowboys' schedule. They play the 6-5 Los Angeles Rams on Dec. 15.

"You have to be a team that wins those games, and right now we're not," linebacker Sean Lee said. "We need a find a way to do that ASAP because teams who win and get into the playoffs and then win in the playoffs, they win close games. So we need to get there."

NEW YORK -- Free-agent pitcher Sam Dyson has been accused of domestic violence by an ex-girlfriend and is being investigated by Major League Baseball.

The commissioner's office said Tuesday in a statement it is "aware of it and looking into it."

Dyson's agency, ISE, did not immediately respond to a text seeking comment.

The Athletic reported Tuesday that the allegation was made by an ex-girlfriend in posts on her personal Instagram account and on an account she writes in the voice of her cat.

The Athletic, citing a source who was not identified, reported that posts on the accounts alluding to an unidentified individual were about Dyson.

Dyson, 31, was acquired by the Minnesota Twins from the San Francisco Giants at the July 31 trade deadline and became a free agent after the season.

The right-hander was 5-1 with a 3.32 ERA in 61 relief appearances this season. He has spent eight seasons in the majors and has also played with Toronto, Miami and Texas.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Seattle Mariners have added another option for their rotation by agreeing to a one-year contract with Kendall Graveman.

According to multiple reports, Graveman, who turns 29 next month, is guaranteed $2 million in his return from Tommy John surgery. He would earn $8 million if Seattle exercises a 2021 option and he pitches at least 150 innings in each season.

Graveman has not pitched in the major leagues since May 11, 2018, for Oakland and had surgery that July 24. Cut by the Athletics after the season, he signed a one-year, $575,000 deal with the Chicago Cubs and made a pair of three-inning minor league injury rehabilitation outings on Aug. 22 and Sept. 1.

He will have a chance to earn a spot in Seattle's starting rotation, which has a couple of openings. Marco Gonzales, Yusei Kikuchi and prospect Justus Sheffield are likely the only set starters for Seattle heading into the season.

"Kendall is a great bounce-back candidate," Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto said in a release. "His makeup is off the charts, and we've done a fair bit of homework on him from his time in Oakland and more recently in Chicago. He was a work-horse, ground ball-oriented pitcher, with whom we saw a velocity spike prior to his Tommy John surgery.

"We really trust him and his ability to consistently throw strikes. At 28 years old, he has the ability to stay in our system for a period of time and gives us something to look forward to."

Graveman is 23-29 with a 4.38 ERA in five major league seasons.

He gets a $1.5 million salary next year, and Seattle has a $3.5 million option for 2021 with a $500,000 buyout, according to reports.

Graveman could earn $1.5 million in performance bonuses in each season based on innings: $100,000 each for 15, 25, 40, 50, 65, 75 and 90 and $200,000 apiece for 100, 115, 140 and 150.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. — A few weeks after announcing plans to return full time to the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series trail, Brent Marks has had a change of plans.

The native of Myerstown, Pa., will park his own car in favor of joining CJB Motorsports next season. Marks and the Chad and Jenn Clemens-owned team are planning a traditional outlaw schedule, with the team expected to partake in select World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series, Ollie’s Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of Champions and Pennsylvania sprint car events.

CJB Motorsports announced in August it would part ways with Shane Stewart, who joined the team prior to the 2019 season. The combination struggled to find success, with Stewart only managing one World of Outlaws triumph this year at Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville.

“Really everything just started coming together here in the last week,” Marks explained. “They gave me a call and we sat down and talked and worked out some details. They had presented to me, at the time, they weren’t looking to go on the full World of Outlaws tour, which I was totally OK with.

“I love racing with the series, nothing against the series at all. I really wanted to drive for that team and be able to work with Barry Jackson and follow what they wanted to do. I really like the schedule they presented me and we’re going to be able to hit every single big race in the country.”

CJB Motorsports Crew Chief Barry Jackson explained he’s had his eye on Marks for some time and has been impressed with his work ethic over the last few seasons, where Marks has been an owner-driver on the World of Outlaws tour.

“I’ve been looking at Brent for quite a while,” Jackson said. “He’s put a few years in on the outlaw tour now and has done a good job, especially for the situation that he’s been doing. He’s a family-owned deal. They work with their sponsors really well.

“He basically has to do a lot of the stuff himself, from car maintenance from engine maintenance to paying bills and driving the truck up and down the road. The whole deal.”

Marks will no longer have to worry about those things as he’ll now be 100 percent focused on driving as he joins the CJB Motorsports stable.

“It’s a huge weight off my shoulders as well, because I can just concentrate on being a driver and not have to deal with the pressure of being a car owner and trying to keep my own deal fully funded,” Marks said. “There are just a lot of other distractions for me with that.

“Really, I’m thankful that I had the opportunity to do that with my own team and it put me in this position to be able to allow me to race for a high-caliber team like CJB.”

Jackson revealed that CJB Motorsports was in talks with David Gravel about potentially returning to the organization in a part-time role with the team. However, Gravel, who raced for CJB Motorsports from 2016 to ’18, reached a deal to remain with Jason Johnson Racing.

“I was hearing different things about him (Gravel) possibly wanting to go NASCAR Truck racing. We offered him an opportunity if the 41 team wasn’t willing to give him a part-time ride,” Jackson said. “We weren’t trying to take a driver from another team, we were just offering an opportunity if he needed it.

“He chose to stay at JJR, which was the right decision.”

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