WELCOME, N.C. – Myatt Snider will join Richard Childress Racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2020 with sponsorship support from TaxSlayer.

Snider and TaxSlayer will make select NASCAR Xfinity Series starts with Richard Childress Racing beginning with the season-opener at Daytona Int’l Speedway on Feb. 15.

Snider, an accomplished driver whose resume includes 2018 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series Rookie of the Year honors, joins the team after competing full-time in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series this year.

“I am thrilled to be driving for Richard Childress Racing in 2020,” said Snider. “It’s an honor to drive for a team with such a rich history in the sport, and I’m excited to start learning from everyone. After a great season of racing in Europe this past year, I’m excited to be back home and moving up to the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

“I’m also happy TaxSlayer has returned for another year to support my racing career,” continued Snider. “I’m honored to be a part of bringing them back to the Xfinity Series. TaxSlayer has been a loyal partner of mine, and I can’t wait to see what we can build together moving forward. I know the season just ended, but 2020 is shaping up to be an excellent year. I’m just ready for Daytona to get here as soon as possible!”

In addition to competing in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series, The Charlotte, N.C., native also made select NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series starts this year and is a former race winner in the ARCA Menards Series, scoring a victory at Toledo Speedway in 2016 in his first ARCA start.

“We’re proud to be joining forces with Myatt and TaxSlayer during the 2020 season,” said Richard Childress, chairman and CEO of Richard Childress Racing. “Both Myatt and TaxSlayer are family-focused, with Myatt’s family being involved in racing and TaxSlayer being a family-owned tax and financial technology company. Those values fit perfectly with ours, and I think will help guide all of us to on and off-track success next season.”

MADRID, Spain – FIM and the Dorna WSBK Organization have set the Superbike World Championship schedule for next season.

The schedule includes 13 rounds taking place ion 11 countries and on four different continents. The season will begin in Australia at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit on Feb. 28-March 1. It will be preceded by the annual final pre-season official test on Feb. 24-25.

Following Australia, the Superbike stars will fly to Qatar to compete at Losail Int’l Circuit from March 13-15. Circuit de Jerez in Spain will begin the European schedule on March 27-29, followed by TT Circuit Assen in the Netherlands on April 17-19.

Round five will take place at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari di Imola in Italy on May 8-10, followed by MotorLand Aragon in Spain on May 22-24. Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli is next on June 12-14, followed by England’s Donington Park on July 3-5.

A fresh addition to the schedule is a visit to Motosport Arena Oschersleben in Germany on July 31-Aug. 2. Portugal is next on the schedule, with the tour visiting Autódromo Internacional do Algarve on Sept. 4-6.

Sept. 18-20 will see the series visit Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, followed by the final European event of the season at France’s Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours on Sept. 25-27.

The final race of the season will take place in South America at Argentina’s Circuito San Juan Villicum on Oct. 9-11.

Jose Mourinho has described his Tottenham squad as a "gift" and said he will not need to sign new players in the January transfer window.

Mourinho, speaking at his first news conference since replacing the sacked Mauricio Pochettino as Spurs manager on Wednesday, will start his reign in charge with a trip to West Ham on Saturday aiming to kick-start the club's season following just three wins in 12 Premier League games so far.

But despite inheriting a team that is sitting in the bottom half of the table, Mourinho insisted that the squad which reached last season's Champions League final is much stronger than its league position suggests.

And as a result, he will not be asking chairman Daniel Levy for reinforcements when the transfer window opens.

- Laurens: Inside Tottenham's turbulent day
- ESPN FC 100: The best players in world football

"For players, the best gift is the ones that are here," Mourinho said.

"I don't need players, I am so happy with the ones I have. But I need to get to know them. I know them well from playing against them, but you never know them well enough until you work with them.

"But my gift is this squad. It is a very, very good squad. I am not here to make dramatic changes, just follow my ideas in the progressive way."

Mourinho, who was sacked by Manchester United last December, claimed that he had tried and failed to sign a number of Spurs players while at previous clubs.

"One of the reason I came was because of them [the players]," he said.

"I tried to buy some for previous clubs. Some I didn't even try because it would be so difficult to think about that. But I am really, really happy with the players here and I don't want to make big changes.

- ESPN Premier League fantasy: Sign up now!
- VAR in the Premier League: Ultimate guide
- When does the transfer window reopen?
- Premier League winter break: All you need to know

"I want to respect the base which they did for five years. Our work for two days, we hope it is a plus, an update, not a change.

"But this is not about me coming here and say everything was wrong with Pochettino. Not at all. I just want to understand why results in the last year in the league have not been strong."

A day ahead of India's first day-night Test, India captain Virat Kohli has acknowledged the growing on-field disparity in Test cricket between boards that can afford to prioritise Tests and those that cannot. India's first pink-ball Test approaches amid continuing debates about the stature and appeal of Test cricket, and Kohli took the opportunity to point out that the main reason India are the No. 1 Test team is because of the "commitment" shown towards the longest format by BCCI and players.

"You could say that," Kohli said on Thursday at the Eden Gardens when asked if one half of cricket was getting stronger and the other weaker. "I can't speak for another team or another board on how they look at Test cricket and how they want to manage it. But from our point of view, and the BCCI point of view, the only discussion we've had over the last two-three years is how we can keep Test cricket right up there, and that takes the commitment of the board, firstly. And secondly the total commitment of the players wanting to do everything that's required to keep the standards of Test cricket high."

In the current ICC FTP (Future Tours Programme) from 2018-2023 India play 51 Tests and only England (59) play more. By comparison, Australia play 47 Tests, New Zealand 38 and Ireland 13 Tests in that same period.

But a big challenge many boards are facing is to make domestic cricket lucrative for their players. West Indies were among the first to feel the pinch, and have only recently made small strides towards fixing the issue. More recently, Cricket South Africa (CSA) has been on the receiving end of an alarming rate of player exits to pursue Kolpak deals in English county cricket, and has struggled to scale its flagship T20 tournament, the Mzansi Super League, into a premium product. And players in Pakistan have been unhappy with reduced salaries in their domestic system.

Newly-elected BCCI president Sourav Ganguly had said within days of taking office last month that he would prioritise the financial health of first-class cricketers in India, and announced that a contract system would be put in place. Kohli pointed out that this sort of support was vital.

According to Kohli, the BCCI incentivising Test-only players with healthy contracts had played a pivotal role in India's success in the longest format. "If you look at how exciting as a team we've been over the last two-three years it tells you in the way people come and watch us play as well. It is a partnership of the board and the players moving in one direction. If you look at our contracts system as well, a lot of importance has been given to Test cricketers. I think all things have to coincide and I think every cricket nation that has done that are invariably the ones that are playing strong Test cricket.

"Their hearts and minds are totally in sync with keeping Test cricket on top. Everything has to be taken into account. You can't tell the players you have to be committed to playing Test cricket but contractually we won't do anything for you. Because we're professional players, we earn a living as well. As long as Test cricket is displayed or said to be the most important format, everything around that has to happen in the same manner."

In 2018, the Indian national team's annual retainers were significantly boosted, and a new top-tier added for players who play in all formats. That category, A+, was worth at least thrice the previous highest retainer price. Valued at INR 7 crore (approx. US$ 1 million), it also meant significant boosts for the grades below. Grade A, at INR 5 crore (approx. US$ 770,000) currently consists of Test specialists Cheteshwar Pujara, R Ashwin, and Ajinkya Rahane, alongwith other multi-format players. The raise also lifted the lowest grade contract, Grade C, to INR 1 crore (approx. US$ 140,000), which is what Wriddhiman Saha and Hanuma Vihari make.

The BCCI took the decision when it was being governed by the Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administrators. The CoA approval came on the back of negotiations with senior players including Kohli, MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and the senior coaching staff including former India head coach Anil Kumble.

In 2017, captains of Australia (Steven Smith then), England (Joe Root), and India (Kohli) made at least US$ 1 million in salaries. But the disparity was abundantly clear in the fact that the fourth-highest paid captain, Faf du Plessis, made about 40% of those figures at worst, with a US$ 440,000 contract. In the same year, Zimbabwe captain Graeme Cremer stood to earn US$ 86,000.

"Speaking from our team's point of view, that was our main goal - how can we tell the Test players you guys are the most important," Kohli said. "Because the other formats are taking care of themselves anyway. You have so many people coming up and playing white-ball cricket but Test specialists are very difficult to find. Only someone who has gone through the grind for five-six years in first-class cricket, and are still continuing to do so, are the ones that eventually make it.

"So yeah, the players need to be taken care of but at the same time the players need to respond in a manner that they're giving 120 percent every Test match. I think as long as teams are willing to do that, and cricket boards are willing to do that, Test cricket will always be on top."

On the field itself, the game has looked to innovate, such as with day-night Test cricket. But Kohli is wary - as are Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar - of the fact that pink-ball cricket is but a small step.

"Yes it is great to create a buzz around Test cricket, the first three-four days here [Eden Gardens] are sold out, which is amazing, " Kohli said. "But I think Rahul bhai mentioned this recently that if we have a Test calendar, where the series and the Tests are fixed, then obviously it'll bring a lot more system and a lot more sync into people planning their calendars as well.

"It can't be random, saying you never know when a Test is going to arrive. If you have centres marked and you have Test calendars marked then obviously people will have a better system as to how they are getting to those Tests - people are not going to leave work and come to a Test match if they don't know what's going on. They can plan in advance, like you plan for anything in life."

THE SKELETON OF a stadium sits at the center of a construction site three times the size of Disneyland. It is a futuristic mass of steel and concrete that appears to have both risen from the earth and descended from space. SoFi Stadium -- the name sounds from the ether -- will house a football field 100 feet below ground level and is surrounded by mammoth mounds of excavated Inglewood, California, soil piled like peaks in a range around the development. When it opens next summer, its backers hope SoFi will mark the end of one NFL era in Los Angeles -- defined by rotting venues and teams that have drifted in and out over 73 years -- and the beginning of another. The $5 billion-plus project will feature a translucent roof that appears to hover above the stadium, as if allowing it to breathe, and will be home to 298 acres of retail space, including a theater, a concert venue and a new NFL Media headquarters. Now, though, seven days a week, it is surrounded by cranes and trucks and an army of hustling workers in white construction helmets bearing the logos of two home teams: the Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Chargers, an arranged marriage of clubs whose high-level executives barely speak with one another.

SEPARATED BY MINUTES, Dean Spanos and Stan Kroenke walk into a Ritz-Carlton ballroom in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It's the final day of the NFL's fall owners meeting in mid-October. Spanos, in khakis and a navy blazer, arrives first, with commissioner Roger Goodell. Spanos is a conservative, risk-averse man whose Chargers are still trying to get on the radar in L.A. Kroenke, tall and thin with a thick mustache, follows shortly after in a black suit, black dress shirt and black sunglasses. The Rams' owner is a shrewd real estate mogul who has found changing the Los Angeles sports landscape more challenging and expensive than he'd imagined. Both L.A. teams suffered losses the previous weekend. The Rams drew an announced crowd of 75,695 to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, but it was half-empty at kickoff and contained so many San Francisco 49ers fans that the Rams' offense was forced to use a silent snap count. The Chargers, on national television against the Pittsburgh Steelers at the 25,300-seat Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, 16 miles south of downtown L.A., felt as if they were playing on the road -- again. Steelers fans either outnumbered Chargers fans or came close, as did Denver Broncos fans at the prior home game, as did Houston Texans fans at the home game before that, as did Indianapolis Colts fans in the season opener. In the fourth quarter against the Steelers, the opening of the Styx song "Renegade," a Steelers anthem, blared from the stadium's sound system, the setup to a failed Chargers joke that got the visiting fans even rowdier. Overhead, as with most Chargers home games, a plane dragged a banner that read: "Impeach Dean Spanos."

L.A. has always been a Lakers town. On a cool September evening in Chavez Ravine, you'd be forgiven for thinking it's a Dodgers town. When Wayne Gretzky arrived in 1988, the Kings joined the mix, and when USC was hot under Pete Carroll more than a decade ago, the city became a college football capital. Was it ever an NFL town? If so, can it still be? Something strange happened in the 21 seasons between when the Rams and Raiders left after the 1994 season, and when the Rams returned in 2016. Angelenos, burned by a league that seemed to view the city more as a focus-grouped market than a layered and complicated region, showed little desire for a team of their own.

Jerry Jones thought he could win them over. Now 77, the Dallas Cowboys' owner and Hall of Famer is the NFL's most powerful person and maybe the most influential power broker in American sports. He has been the most passionate evangelist for the NFL to make a splashy return to Los Angeles, the city where he was born, envisioning a near-future with more money in it for everybody. In 2015, the Rams' Inglewood project, then estimated to cost $1.86 billion, was competing against a Chargers-Raiders $1.8 billion option in Carson. Few outside the NFL knew it, but Jones positioned himself to profit from either proposal. Concessions for either project -- and the construction, in the case of Inglewood -- would be managed by Legends, the company co-owned by Jones and the Steinbrenner family. The competition between the proposals was bloody and toxic given the high stakes, pitting owners against one another. Ultimately, Jones sided with Kroenke because his stadium and project proposal had what Jones called the wow factor. "We had good insight on its vision," Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan says. "It was spectacular."

At an owners meeting in a posh Houston hotel in January 2016, Jones helped to resolve the L.A. relocation scrum by persuading fellow owners to endorse a compromise that he had sold as a blueprint for success. Two teams would return to Los Angeles: the Rams -- and, if they chose, the Chargers. The red flags that are obvious now were visible then. League research indicated neither the Rams nor the Chargers had an overwhelming reservoir of support in the L.A. region, with fewer local fans than the Patriots, Steelers, Packers, Cowboys and even the Raiders, according to some team and league studies. What's more, the accommodation wouldn't make the Rams and Chargers equal partners, like the Jets and Giants at MetLife Stadium, which the teams jointly built with private funds. Kroenke -- one of the NFL's wealthiest team owners, worth an estimated $9.7 billion -- would pay to build the stadium, perhaps the only option in California, whose legislators and voters rarely approve a single public dollar for new stadiums. Spanos, a long-respected owner with a reputation for putting the league first, would be given the first option to be Kroenke's tenant, for $1 a year, and if the Chargers decided to remain in San Diego, the Raiders could join the Rams in L.A. -- an outcome nobody around the league wanted, owing to Al Davis' burned bridges and the co-opting of team apparel by gangs.

Almost all owners believed Jones' resolution to be the best business decision among the available options, and most supported it under the cover of a secret ballot, which allowed them to vote for Inglewood without Spanos knowing who had turned on him.

Spanos felt burned and betrayed by the vote and the entire L.A. decision process, and therefore few expected him to exercise the tenancy option. But he did, and now these unequal partners are locked in a bitter fight, stoked by Kroenke's fury over cost overruns exceeding $3 billion, questions over the Chargers' long-term viability in the market, a lawsuit seeking billions over Kroenke's departure from St. Louis that has engulfed the entire league, and an increasingly fractious and sometimes petty civil war between Rams and Chargers officials, according to documents and nearly two dozen interviews with owners, league and team executives, and lawyers.

SoFi Stadium has become a vessel for each figure's motivations and goals, and a repository for the hopes and vanities of the NFL. Spanos wants to secure once and for all his family's fortunes and establish his team as more than an NFL version of the second-rate Clippers, embarrassment and awkwardness over being Kroenke's tenant be damned. Kroenke is driven by the chance to build a monumental legacy for both himself and the NFL, despite the huge bill. Jones wants what he always wants: for the league to flex, show off and "grow the pie" of annual league revenues now edging toward $17 billion a year -- and to walk away with a healthy cut. But SoFi Stadium is also a bet -- a multibillion-dollar wager that in a market of 22 million, the world's most spectacular stadium will inspire 70,000 people to show up every Sunday and cheer. For two teams.

A PHONE CALL between Kroenke and Goodell in the autumn of 2015 was a harbinger for the current impasse. On Nov. 4, Kroenke was on his cellphone on the small patio of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in the heart of Beverly Hills. The secret ballot in Houston was still two months away, and the Carson project seemed to be gaining traction with owners, mostly out of loyalty to Spanos, who believed at the time he was close to the votes he needed. Kroenke was willing to do whatever it took to return the Rams to L.A. -- including partnering with Spanos. "I want you in L.A. with Stan," Jones had told Spanos. Normally quiet and reserved, Kroenke was hot.

"No. No! No, Roger!" Kroenke said. "I've been out there, spending millions, and everybody else is piggybacking on everything I've done, not spending a dime, letting me take all the heat, and then they think they're going to get to step in? I don't think so."

"I've been out there, spending millions, and everybody else is piggybacking on everything I've done, not spending a dime." Stan Kroenke

The call continued for 10 minutes, until Kroenke realized people were staring at him. He stood up and said, "Roger, we're going to have to continue this conversation in a few seconds. I need to get somewhere a bit more private to discuss some of the things I need to say to you next."

The following month in San Francisco, Spanos dined with a small group of owners who were convinced his project would prevail. "We got you," said Jerry Richardson, the Carolina Panthers' then-owner who had tried to bully owners to vote for Carson. They raised a glass, and Richardson spent the rest of the dinner trashing Kroenke. But Richardson had overestimated his power of intimidation -- and underestimated Jones' persistent charm. Twenty-four hours before the vote in Houston, Spanos walked into a conference room where a clutch of owners had been deliberating. On a whiteboard, the two options that had been on the table for a year -- "STAN/LA" and "CHARGERS-RAIDERS/CARSON" -- were crossed out. A new option, a Jones-driven last-minute compromise, had appeared: "STAN-DEAN/LA." Spanos knew he had lost.

Before the secret ballots were counted, Colts owner Jim Irsay pulled Spanos aside and said, "This is for the best."

FEW IN THE league felt that way a year later, especially Spanos. In December 2016, he stood before a room of owners and league executives at the Four Seasons in Irving, Texas, looking like a man who had lost much more than a vote. He was 66 and at the low point of his 22 years running the Chargers. After losing to Kroenke, he had returned to San Diego and lost again, blowing $15 million on a long-shot ballot initiative for a new stadium, destroying any remaining goodwill and trust with a loyal fan base. A broken man, Spanos was out of options.

"I don't want to go to L.A.," Spanos said. "I want to stay."

Many owners sympathized with Spanos, but some were also frustrated by him. The league's $550 million relocation fee that Spanos would need to spend to move to L.A. might have been better invested in a new stadium in San Diego, where the Chargers would collect most of the revenue. Why move to a city that showed little interest in them? "It wasn't rational," a high-level league source says.

But Spanos had his own rationale, frustrated by years of wars with San Diego officials over public financing for a new stadium. The league-first guy was gone. He was determined to do what was best for his club and for his family, several of whom worked for the team, and in L.A. he saw "a favorable, low-risk deal," a Spanos confidant says. In L.A., the value of Spanos' team might increase by $1 billion from the Forbes-estimated $2.08 billion value it had in San Diego in 2016. He'd play in a glistening new park, with no stadium debt. His biggest expense would be the $550 million relocation fee, and Spanos intended to borrow to pay it.

After the Irving league meeting, brass from the Chargers and Rams met with league executives and lawyers for a series of negotiations to finalize the term sheet, whose broad stipulations were set by owners and league executives the night before the secret relocation vote. Spanos and Kroenke, both of whom declined to comment for this story, had enjoyed a strange relationship, both cool and occasionally friendly, once playing gin rummy together on a private jet a decade ago. But the term-sheet sessions were awkward and "the body language horrible," according to one attendee. Spanos and his executives surprised Rams officials by drawing a hard line, demanding a cut of all revenue streams, input over design elements, and approval over all decisions made by Legends and by StadCo L.A. LLC, the stadium company controlled by Kroenke. Rams officials tried to be cordial, but they seethed. The way they saw it, Spanos had the entire Southern California market to himself for 21 seasons with little to show for it, but now he felt entitled to a chunk of revenue on a project to which he would contribute one dollar a year. Says one high-level executive involved in the negotiations: "The Rams felt like Stan was taking all this risk and would appreciate it if Dean would recognize what he was bringing to the table."

"I don't want to go to L.A. I want to stay." Dean Spanos

Spanos was keenly aware of the imbalance, but he also knew the league, a trade association at heart, would ensure him a share of stadium cashflow enjoyed by other teams. The Chargers ended up with a sizable 15% share of all revenue streams, including joint luxury suite sales, sponsorships and SoFi Stadium's naming rights, which is estimated at more than $600 million over 20 years.

Spanos also won a major concession on the most divisive issue: stadium seat licenses, the tens of thousands of dollars NFL teams often charge for the right to buy season tickets. All the revenue from both teams' sale of SSLs would go to Kroenke to help defray the cost of the stadium. But per the term sheet, the Chargers neither had to meet a revenue target nor even sell a single SSL. All the Chargers had to do was try to sell the SSLs, at whatever cost they determined, until one year after the stadium opened, after which they wouldn't even have to try to sell any.

The NFL sets SSL targets for all teams, often forcing owners to open escrow accounts through the league as part of a complicated process to ensure that no owner defaults on stadium debt. League research had predicted that the Chargers and Rams could each sell $400 million in SSLs, but because Kroenke was paying for the stadium himself, neither the Chargers nor the Rams were required by the league to meet those sales targets. While there were no penalties if the teams failed to hit the goal -- all involved were careful not to violate antitrust laws -- the Rams expected the Chargers to reach the $400 million mark as a way to contribute to their new home. The terms were favorable to Spanos, and Kroenke had little choice but to accept them. League executives wanted the Chargers to have a friendly deal -- and also knew that in the long run the Inglewood stadium and project would probably appreciate by billions, making Kroenke's investment more than worthwhile. Kroenke took Spanos at his word that the Chargers would be a full partner, while aware that Spanos had no financial incentive or obligation to help. It was a fragile trust forged by two teams suspicious of each other.

On Jan. 18, 2017, the Chargers held a fan rally at the Forum in Inglewood to officially announce the move to L.A. Only a small section of the arena was open, and it was nowhere close to full. On a huge screen, Chargers highlights played, accompanied by the soundtrack from "Top Gun," which was set in San Diego. Superstar quarterback Philip Rivers looked dour on stage, like a child who had been dragged to a party by his parents, and would later proudly refuse to move his family to L.A. Twice, Goodell praised Kroenke, who was not in attendance, and his vision for the palatial new stadium before mentioning Spanos, who was seated nearest to the commissioner. When it was Spanos' turn to speak, he surveyed the scarce and scattered Chargers fans. "This is surreal!" he said. A group of fans flipped him off.

JERRY JONES HAS always believed in the transformative power of a new home, having witnessed it firsthand when he went big on AT&T Stadium. In 2009, Jerry World opened in Arlington, Texas, and a decade later it still shines with a modern, fresh-paint gleam. Jones even believes in the transformative power of a practice facility. He turned The Star, the Cowboys' training center, into an entire football ecosystem, with high-rise apartments, restaurants and a high-end club. How big can the NFL become? Jones loves to test his own "tolerance for ambiguity," as he often says. But L.A. is not North Texas in its hunger for the NFL and he knew it. To get L.A. fans off their phones and into a stadium, Jones told everyone that the league had to build something unforgettable. At an August 2015 owners meeting, Jones said Kroenke was the only one who had the "big balls" requisite to reintroduce the league after two decades away. This year, at least half a dozen owners and team executives have toured the new stadium. "It's going to be a phenomenal building," 49ers CEO Jed York says. "It's going to be a place that you need to see a game."

Problem was, the Rams couldn't move right into their new stadium after the relocation vote, forcing them into a holding pattern until it opened. They tried to market their homecoming after 21 years in St. Louis by dusting off throwback uniforms and the team's classic "Whose house? Rams house!" chant. A crowd of 91,046 showed up in September 2016 for the first regular-season home game, a win over the Seattle Seahawks. But the Rams learned that just because fans show up doesn't mean they root for the home team, especially if it's a loser. They finished 4-12. After less than a year in L.A., the reboot required a reboot. The team fired longtime head coach Jeff Fisher, and in January 2017, Kroenke signed Redskins offensive coordinator Sean McVay as head coach, a perfect West L.A. combination of precocious and attractive. Still, league executives were worried. McVay was only 30, the youngest head coach in modern NFL history. If he failed, the entire return to L.A. might too.

McVay didn't fail. He led the Rams to the playoffs in 2017 against the Atlanta Falcons, a game at the Coliseum that sold out in less than a week. In November 2018, the Rams appeared to break through for good at the Coliseum on Monday Night Football against the Kansas City Chiefs. Jay Z, Robin Thicke and Goodell were in attendance. The Coliseum was packed and electric. Quarterbacks Jared Goff and Patrick Mahomes combined for 891 total yards and 10 touchdown passes. The Rams' 54-51 win felt like something real, a connection between a city and a team after years of stops and starts with various clubs that used Los Angeles as leverage to build new stadiums in their home markets. The Rams shot up 9% in local TV ratings after that Monday night, a bump that continued as they reached the Super Bowl. But there was no second bump. This year, the Rams are less exciting and less dominant, with uneven fan support. Against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sept. 29, a photo went viral of a mostly empty Coliseum at kickoff. It was ugly, and it served as a reminder to Chargers executives that no matter how embarrassing their team's own crowds are, L.A. is still up for grabs.

OF COURSE, JUST because L.A. is up for grabs doesn't mean the Chargers are well positioned to grab it. In 2017, the Chargers also tried to reinvent themselves upon returning to the city where they last played in 1960. They went small. For a temporary home, they chose a soccer stadium in the middle of the California State University, Dominguez Hills campus, shaving its 27,000 seats to 25,300. The idea was to start fresh by offering a premium experience and, not incidentally, premium ticket prices. League executives loved the idea: an entirely new experience of fans climbing fences to get in. Spanos hosted pregame parties for family and friends not in a walled-off suite but under a low-key tent next to the stadium. Want to boo him? Shake his hand? Spanos was accessible.

But few fans tried to get access to him. The Chargers struggled to fill the tiny venue with home-team supporters, a fact first obvious against Philadelphia in Week 4 of 2017, when the Eagles recovered a Rivers fumble on the first drive and the crowd roared as if at the old Vet. Still, new head coach Anthony Lynn, a budding star who was hired one day after Spanos announced the move, led the Chargers to a 9-7 record. After wasting much of 2017 with relocation logistics, the Chargers made some modest marketing strides. They partnered with KABC, the top-rated TV station in L.A., announced a deal with iHeartRadio to reach 10 million listeners, and cooperated on a show in the style of HBO's "Hard Knocks" with Spectrum SportsNet. The team sold all 11,000 season tickets in 2018, but the stadium still felt more like a neutral-site college bowl game than the NFL.

In March 2018, the Rams and Chargers launched their SSL programs for the new stadium. It was harder than expected for the Rams and couldn't have gone worse for the Chargers. Most teams hire at least a dozen staffers to handle SSL sales for a new stadium, in addition to hiring a company like Legends. The Chargers, which outsourced most of the work to Legends, were flying blind in L.A., with no analytics department or sophisticated method of reaching fans. The Rams had a huge head start; they had sold 70,000 season tickets for the 2016 season in the Coliseum in six hours. All the Chargers had was "a couple of email addresses" of potential ticket holders, in the words of a team executive, and a slogan -- "Fight for L.A.!" -- that sounded less like a rallying cry and more like a schoolyard challenge to their future landlord, which did not go unnoticed by Rams executives, who mocked the slogan. The Chargers spent $3 million marketing "Fight for L.A.!" -- including $2.3 million on Facebook ads that didn't move the needle.

That fall, Chargers executives reviewed a bracing study that was available only to a handful of teams, league and Legends executives. It confirmed what some around the league had predicted all along: There was practically no market for Chargers season tickets, no matter the price. Legends officials later told league executives and those from other teams that it was the worst feasibility forecast they'd ever seen. In 2018, the Chargers were in the middle of a season in which they would finish 12-4 but rank 30th in revenue, one spot down from their final year in San Diego, owing largely to the small stadium. The team had sold only $60 million worth of SSLs, far behind the league's $400 million goal. "The projections were made before anyone had a clue," one Chargers executive says. "They were completely unrealistic."

Spanos and Chargers COO Jeanne Bonk then made a controversial decision. They slashed prices for 26,000 upper deck seats, lowering tickets to the $50 to $90 range, and dropped the SSL rate to $100 -- up to 15 times less than the Rams were charging for the same seats. The Chargers' reduced prices were higher than options suggested by Legends, which included the idea of abandoning the SSLs altogether. But for a bottom-line league, it was an unmissable flare that L.A. might never be a two-team NFL town.

The Rams got a heads-up one day before the Chargers' fire sale was announced.

THE RAMS WERE furious. Spanos had potentially cost Kroenke hundreds of millions. In the Chargers' news release, president of business operations A.G. Spanos, one of Dean's sons, wrote, "A family of four should be able to buy season tickets for the entire family and not need a second mortgage to do so." It felt like a subtle shot at the Rams.

Other owners and executives were stunned by the Chargers' deep discount and asked the league to intervene. The NFL had considered asking its senior vice president Brian Lafemina, trusted and respected by both the Rams and Chargers, to move to L.A. and serve as peacemaker. But before the league could officially offer the job, Lafemina left to run business operations for the Washington Redskins, and instead a host of league executives were assigned to help manage L.A. Kroenke and Spanos remained cordial with each other -- both are nonconfrontational -- but relationships between their staffs collapsed, becoming petty and personal, with both teams' executives ripping each other to confidants. "The Chargers were trying to save themselves," a high-level source involved in relations between the two teams says. "They want to be seen as a full partner, yet they did something that hit their partner hardest."

"They want to be seen as a full partner, yet they did something that hit their partner hardest." High-level source involved in relations between the two teams

Spanos insisted the price drop wasn't a spiteful move but a reflection of weak demand, indicative not only of the larger problem of selling the Chargers in L.A. but also of the concept of SSLs in Southern California. There was no tradition of SSLs in L.A. No Lakers fan had to pay extra for the right to buy season tickets to watch LeBron James at Staples Center. It sounded to some fans like a racket, making an already tough sell even tougher. Everyone started pointing fingers, with owners mad at the league office for allowing a toxic relocation process and the league reminding owners that most of them voted for two teams in L.A. In the end, most owners rooted for the Chargers to not piggyback off Kroenke but try to duplicate the success of the soon-to-be Las Vegas Raiders, who have sold nearly $400 million in SSLs, double their projected number, for their new stadium opening in September 2020 off the Vegas Strip. What's more, a "fair amount" of the Raiders SSL buyers live in L.A. and will hop on I-15 on weekends, an executive with knowledge of the sales says. It has left a few owners and team officials worried and irritated that the Raiders have siphoned off part of an already wary L.A. fan base.

Chargers executives were convinced the Rams were lashing out because stadium construction was billions over budget. In the eyes of Chargers brass, the Rams had every right to be angry. But blowing up at Legends was tricky for the Rams because Jones had delivered the L.A. vote -- and Kroenke and Jones have become pals, a power clique of two. Still, Legends had never managed a project so massive -- and it had "gone off the rails," a source close to Legends says. It began in 2016, when the Rams realized that both initial estimates -- $1.86 billion in early 2015, which rose to $2.4 billion by late 2015 -- had been poorly calculated. Vendor costs ballooned because of competition with LAX's $14 billion renovation. The infrastructure was unexpectedly pricey, with a massive retaining wall required 100 feet below grade for the field. A record amount of rain in early 2017 complicated matters even more, filling the hole of the field with up to 15 feet of water that needed to be drained and costing the Rams 40 work days. And so the Rams announced in May of that year that completion would be delayed until 2020. In March 2018, the project had hit a cost of $5 billion, but the price continues to go up. StadCo officials now refer to it to owners and executives around the league as "our $6 billion stadium," although some executives insist it won't be that high. All the construction complexities have turned SoFi Stadium into "the eighth wonder of the world," Khan says. "It's amazing how much earth has been moved."

Kroenke was livid when his legacy project veered so badly off course, with no guarantee that SoFi will be filled once the novelty wears off. The Rams have joked to owners and confidants they'd happily accept extra financial donations from the league, but they haven't submitted a formal proposal and don't plan to. Kroenke is intent on delivering on his promise and not cutting corners. But Kroenke didn't become one of the richest men in America by spending cash without any limits, and unfortunately for him, a lawsuit has no hard cap.

AT A HOTEL bar last spring in Key Biscayne, a few owners and executives discussed a lawsuit that had not only failed to fade away, like most inevitable litigation following a team's relocation, but had mushroomed into a leaguewide headache, shoving the L.A. mess into each owner's email server and threatening everyone's bottom line. A group that included the city of St. Louis, the surrounding county and the Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority were suing the NFL, claiming in a 52-page state court complaint that Rams officials and league executives violated the league's own relocation bylaws by failing to negotiate with the city in good faith, among other issues. The suit argued that the Rams induced the city to spend more than $17 million on plans for a new stadium that the team never intended to consider because Kroenke had planned long earlier to move to L.A. The complaint alleged breach of contract, unjust enrichment, fraudulent misrepresentation and business interference. The city is seeking billions in damages.

The NFL publicly dismissed the case as baseless and privately saw it as retribution from a city angry at Kroenke, whose departure forever destroyed his relationship with his home state. In his 2016 relocation application, Kroenke had written a scathing indictment of St. Louis both as a football city and as an economic engine, ignoring the loud and loyal crowds during the Greatest Show on Turf. But so far, the St. Louis plaintiffs have quietly won every court motion and decision, including a devastating defeat in the Eastern District of the Missouri State Court of Appeals, in a St. Louis courthouse, on June 12, 2018. The Rams' lawyer, Andrew Kassof, argued for the lawsuit to be sent to arbitration, corporate America's venue of choice. Kassof's argument hinged on what he saw as a clear and simple technicality: The NFL relocation policy was moot because the Rams had the right to relocate whenever they wanted, due to their year-to-year lease in St. Louis' then-Edward Jones Dome. The lease had expired in 2016, Kassof argued, so the Rams were free to leave.

Judge Philip Hess sounded suspicious. "Do the Rams have the ability to move without the NFL's approval?" he said.

"No," Kassof said. "They need the NFL's approval, and ..."

Hess cut him off. "Isn't that what this is about? The relocation policy of the NFL?"

It was a stunning moment in a nearly empty courtroom. Hess' question had forced Kassof to undermine his own case. Christopher Bauman, representing the plaintiffs, seized on it, winning the argument and keeping the case out of arbitration. Last month, the Rams petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to issue a stay, and the high court denied it. Teams have been forced to provide eight years of phone records and emails for discovery -- and had to hire legal teams and data experts to sift through them. Kroenke has had to foot all the legal bills for the teams and league, part of an indemnification agreement the league presented to the Rams, Chargers and Raiders on the morning of the L.A. vote. The legal bills have reached eight figures for some teams.

St. Louis is now seeking each owner's cut of the Rams' and Chargers' $550 million relocation fees -- about $35.5 million per -- as restitution, infuriating owners. Over the past year, the league has dedicated a full hour at owners meetings to debating the merits of "Hard Knocks" but hasn't formally addressed the St. Louis case in depth, irritating some owners even more. The lawsuit has even reopened old wounds from the relocation process. Discovery turned up a damning email from a Carson project official outlining to St. Louis authorities all the ways the Rams seemed to be in violation of the league's relocation policy, providing a blueprint for the city of St. Louis' lawsuit. The email enraged league and Rams executives and undermined Spanos' reputation as the consummate company man, even though he didn't write it. "The perception was that Dean always put the league first and Stan was only out for himself," a team executive says. "Neither was ever completely true."

It has all served as a reminder that before the shotgun marriage there was an ugly divorce, ensuring nobody gets out unscathed.

THE FIGHT FOR L.A. has carried a cost. The needs of the Chargers and Rams are as different as the personalities of their owners. The Chargers still have to find a way to matter in L.A. Late in the summer of 2018, the team hired Fred Maas, a longtime Spanos adviser, as chief of staff. His mandate was clear: increase team revenues. His first order of business was to kill the useless "Fight For L.A.!" slogan, preferring instead small steps to seek out L.A. Chargers fans. The team has sharpened its social media feeds, held a dog rescue day, and hired a Hispanic outreach coordinator who, unlike a predecessor, actually speaks Spanish. On the first day of the 2019 draft, the Chargers held a ticketed fan rally at the Santa Monica Pier, drawing a beyond-capacity 6,000 fans. Still, even executives playing the long game knew getting traction was a big challenge. "We were the most successful 7-11 in San Diego," a high-ranking Chargers executive says. "Now we're just another Whole Foods in L.A."

The Rams, meanwhile, need the stadium to reshape Inglewood and southwest L.A., while luring fans to show up, not just watch on TV. The Rams' 2018 TV ratings in L.A. were higher than the Giants and Jets in New York, the only comparable market and situation. And a prime-time game against the Seattle Seahawks this year outdrew a Dodgers playoff game head-to-head on TV. The Rams ranked 11th in total home paid attendance in 2018, despite playing in the league's oldest stadium. But at any given game, roughly 40,000 fans are theirs, 30,000 root for the visiting team -- as was the case when the Chargers played the Rams at the Coliseum in 2018 -- and the rest seem to be wearing Tony Romo or Bo Jackson jerseys. It's a leaguewide problem in the age of the secondary ticket market but an acute problem in L.A. The Rams' goal is to be the top choice in the region, knowing full well that an entire generation of fans might have been lost in the past two decades. If that fails, their goal is to be every L.A. NFL fan's second-favorite team, and to be the top choice for the next generation. The Rams are leveraging everything, paying all of their star players, trading away future picks -- they sent two first-round picks to Jacksonville for cornerback Jalen Ramsey in October -- to not only win now but also ensure SoFi Stadium is full, preferably in blue and gold.

"We are fighting over relatively penny-ante things. It's unfathomable." Executive involved in Chargers-Rams spats

In the end, it'll fall to Legends -- and, by extension, Jones -- to nudge L.A. into embracing the Chargers and the Rams. Jones declined several requests to comment for this story; a Cowboys spokesman said "a lot is still happening and Jerry would prefer not to discuss it." A lot of what is happening involves the teams' staffs at war, mostly in a passive-aggressive manner via emails and texts. There have been spats over the types of golf carts the stadium will use and over the number of office spaces Chargers suite sales staff are entitled to, per the term sheet. "We are fighting over relatively penny ante things," one executive involved says. "It's unfathomable."

The disagreements inevitably return to the most divisive and, not coincidentally, most expensive issue: the Chargers' SSL prices. In October 2018, when the Chargers announced the price drop, the Rams felt burned, but Kroenke's StadCo -- to which Legends reports -- still pledged to the NFL that it would hire 20 new Chargers SSL sales staffers, along with administrators, bringing each team's SSL sales staff to 40. The Chargers believed staffing parity would give them a chance to succeed or, at least, have a fighting chance. But over the next four months, nobody was hired on the Chargers' side. In December and January, Legends presented a proposal with a Chargers sales staff number lower than 40, explaining that the Chargers didn't warrant as many staffers because there was so little SSL demand -- a low blow, in the minds of Chargers executives. So the Chargers invoked the nuclear option by appealing in writing to the league, forcing Goodell into the role of mediator. There was a conference call with Goodell, Kroenke and Spanos in mid-April, followed by a meeting of team executives in New York on June 20. The staffing issue, among others, was finally resolved -- the Chargers now have 35 SSL salespeople -- but it's still a sore spot with both teams, the Chargers feeling marginalized and the Rams resentful of carrying the financial burden of two teams, one billionaire indefinitely subsidizing another.

Jones has told associates he feels a deep responsibility to make sure Kroenke and Spanos are not only successful but feel taken care of. But the Chargers have sold a weak 25,000 season tickets to date, and the Rams have sold a nascent 40,000, with the hope from both clubs that sales will improve after the stadium opens. "People are not going to spend a fortune on something they haven't seen yet," a Chargers executive says. Sources from both teams insist there isn't any friction with Jones, which is either true or simply what they're saying to avoid getting on his bad side, hoping not to test strained relations. By all appearances, Kroenke and Jones are just fine, hanging out at the hotel bar at various owners meetings, sipping wine and Johnnie Walker Blue Label scotch. In August in Chicago, Jones and Spanos had dinner together after a session of bargaining with the players' union. In negotiations with the union, Jones has raised the so-called LA Exemption, a proposal calling for owners and players to consider diverting tens of millions outside of the normal stadium credits to help Kroenke defray the cost of the stadium. NFL team owners move in self-selected packs and cliques, and Jones will always gravitate toward an owner who can keep revenues spiraling in the right direction.

Nobody in the NFL is spending more to make more than Stan Kroenke.

DEAN SPANOS HOLDS a microphone at the center of a crowded, well-appointed room. It's a late September evening, at a Chargers reception at Luxe, a membership-only office building and high-end restaurant in Beverly Hills. Clad in his usual attire -- blazer over polo shirt -- Spanos appears relaxed before suite holders, business partners, elected officials, team employees and media, despite facing another tough season. The Chargers have played hard but haven't won as much as in the past, the fatigue from playing without any home field advantage for virtually four years perhaps starting to take a toll. The rare high moments have been tough to enjoy. After a dominant home win over the Packers on Nov. 3, the Los Angeles Times published a long column imploring the Chargers to leave for a market that appreciates them.

By midseason, Spanos would seem exasperated over periodic rumors and reports that the team will be sold or relocate again, responding to a report from The Athletic that the Chargers had discussed moving to London as "total f---ing bulls---." At the reception, a flat-screen TV behind him flashes a Chargers logo. "Everything we do, we do as a family," Spanos says.

His family still loves San Diego. Spanos loves San Diego. His father, Alex, a legendary businessman who died at 95 in October 2018, loved San Diego. It still isn't easy to say Los Angeles Chargers -- Fox broadcaster Troy Aikman slipped up on a recent Thursday Night Football telecast -- and NFL executives believe the Chargers could have raised $250 million a year in SSL revenue if they'd stayed, a figure that team executives dismiss as preposterous. If Kroenke had lost the L.A. vote to the Chargers and Raiders, he might have petitioned to move the Rams to San Diego, a source close to him says. But Spanos has told associates that he cut a better financial deal with Kroenke than most had initially given him credit for -- and he insists privately that he really doesn't mind being a tenant. The Los Angeles Chargers are here to stay, whether the city's fans want them or not.

"The stadium is going to redefine Los Angeles in that area for the next century. It's going to be incredible and we're very proud to be part of it." Dean Spanos

Spanos gives a stump speech of sorts about SoFi Stadium, offering to set up tours. The Chargers are trying to remain optimistic. Team executives are hopeful they can hit $320 million in SSL sales for Kroenke and climb from 31st in revenue to the middle of the pack in the next few years. But others wonder if there's any real opportunity for the Chargers. In the annual Forbes list of NFL franchise valuations -- an imperfect ranking that nonetheless tickles owners' egos -- the Rams were fourth, at $3.8 billion, for the second consecutive year. The Las Vegas-bound Raiders jumped six spots to 12th. The Chargers ticked up only one spot, from 22nd in 2018 to 21st in 2019, and their valuation has increased only $420 million, to $2.5 billion, from 2016 in San Diego to now. The team hasn't added the envisioned $1 billion in value -- at least not yet. The Chargers' lack of popularity and inability to monetize however many SSLs they sell will always give them a low ceiling in a high-ceiling league.

"The stadium is going to redefine Los Angeles in that area for the next century," Spanos tells the crowd. "It's going to be incredible and we're very proud to be a part of it."

Kroenke is very proud to deliver it, associates say, giving the league something to celebrate in 2020: a glistening venue that might start to heal the relationship between a city and league, not to mention the rift between the two teams. The strained relations with the Rams seem to be on Spanos' mind as he speaks at Luxe. He thanks his future landlord, calling the Rams "great partners." No matter their differences, Jones, Kroenke and Spanos are in this fight for L.A. together, bound by the mandate that a stadium with the wow factor will, in fact, wow enough people to fill it.

"If I could have one wish this year, I'd wish that we could play them in the Super Bowl," Spanos says of the Rams. "But if I can't play them, we'll play anybody."

JERRY JONES STANDS at the 50-yard line of AT&T Stadium, not far from the sideline, pacing in tight semicircles, ringing his hands and looking anxious. It's an hour before the Cowboys play the Eagles on Sunday Night Football in late October, and the stadium is buzzing and frenzied, its own football energy field -- exactly what he has promised to deliver to L.A. As always, Jones is at the center and absorbing it all, wearing his typical game-day attire of a navy suit and powder-blue shirt with a Cowboys star pinned to his left jacket lapel.

"I'm nervous but feel good," he says with a grin. "This one we really need."

A few days earlier, Jones had stood with Kroenke outside a ballroom at the league meetings in Florida. Other owners drifted in and out of the conversation, but it was mostly just the two of them, a pair of power brokers who will take the league on a journey next fall. The Cowboys will be one of the Rams' 2020 home opponents, and it's easy to imagine a prime-time season and stadium opener between them. There are venues more iconic and louder than AT&T, but until SoFi opens, it's the standard for the power and potential of a new big-ticket stadium, a destination not just for football but for the profit-churning celebration of football grandeur. Nobody in the modern NFL has understood showmanship better than Jones, and he has never failed when he has gone big on vision. Next year will clarify whether there's such a thing as too big.

Jones lingers on the field a few more minutes. He moves to his private suite, flanked by his two sons and surrounded by 91,213 screaming fans as the Cowboys rout the Eagles, an iconic American evening in an iconic American city that might or might not transfer to another next September, when two L.A. teams kick off from underground and into the domed air.

British runner tells AW how he won junior men’s title at World Mountain Running Champs

As a geography student at Loughborough University, Joe Dugdale struggles to find any hills to train on. Located in the East Midlands of England, it is a pretty flat market town. Yet this month he took gold in the junior men’s race at the World Mountain Running Championships in Patagonia.

So how did he manage it?

Firstly, his family live in fell running territory of Cumbria so he spent the summer training up and down hills in the Lake District, in addition to winning the junior men’s title at the European Mountain Running Championships in Zermatt, Switzerland, too.

He has also been running on the fells since he was eight years old, so he drew on this background to strike gold at the global event in Villa La Angostura.

“I think all my hill work is left over from the summer really,” he says. “When I’m in Loughborough I have to travel a bit to find some hills. Beacon Hill is really the only place and it’s several miles jog from my house, so it’s pretty hard (to find hills).”

Lack of hills aside, Loughborough is a renowned base for up-and-coming athletes. World record-breakers Sebastian Coe, Dave Moorcroft and Paula Radcliffe are among those who have studied there over the years and it attracts many of Britain’s leading endurance running talent.

A pre-race downpour was also in Dugdale’s favour as it meant a dry and dusty course turned into a much greasier surface. “The course had a lot of descents in it and I usually do better on big climbs,” he explains, “but the rain really helped us because I don’t think many of the other teams were used to running in such heavy rain.

“I’m used to doing descents on really slippy ground. Other teams were struggling and I was able to pull away.”

His British team-mates also ran well as Matthew Mackay (above left) finished fourth and Matthew Knowles (above centre with Dugdale right) came fifth as Joe Hudson was 12th to secure team gold.

Angela Mattevi won the junior women’s title for Italy as Cristina Simion won the senior women’s classic distance race. Americans, meanwhile, won the men’s classic distance courtesy of Joe Gray plus long-distance titles via Jim Walmsley and Grayson Murphy.

PLACERVILLE, Calif. – Placerville Speedway is the home to some of Kyle Larson’s most cherished racing moments.

It’s the place he made his first sprint car start, it’s the place he won his first sprint car race and it’s the place he describes as his home track.

Now, he can chalk up another memorable moment at the northern California quarter-mile dirt oval and lay claim as the winner of the richest event in USAC NOS Energy Drink National and Western States Midget history, earning $20,000 for the 100-lap feature victory and an extra $12,000 bonus as the overall points champion of the inaugural Elk Grove Ford Hangtown 100, totaling a whopping $32,000.

Larson’s 17th USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget win moved into a tie for 37th all-time with Jay Drake and J.J. Yeley, but it was the first in his own Kyle Larson Open Wheel/Lucas Oil/iRacing/Finley Farms/King/Speedway Toyota after winning 15 of his previous 16 for the Keith Kunz Motorsports/Curb-Agajanian team between 2011 and 2019.

It’s a car he shook down in a pair of midget events at Placerville earlier this season, both of which he was victorious in.  Wednesday night was just the beginning in one way, but also the culmination of what he and crew chief Paul Silva had their goals set on with the creation of the team to best a field of 56 other determined individuals.

“Paul put a lot of work into this car throughout the last handful of months,” Larson explained. “We ran out here a couple times and the car counts haven’t been big, so I didn’t know how good we were.  But I think we proved that we were really, really good, and good in the slick, which was nice.”

Larson started 10th in the 28-car field and instantly became a factor, charging to seventh on the initial lap, then into the top-five by the second. Meanwhile, up front, Brady Bacon jetted out to the early lead for the first two circuits before two-time and defending Ollie’s Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of Champions titlist Aaron Reutzel blitzed to the lead with a turn three slider on the third lap.

On lap five, the first incident of the feature occurred when provisional starter Zeb Wise got upside down in turn one.  Damage was minimal and the reigning BC39 champ ultimately returned to finish 24th.

Tanner Carrick made moves on the 12th lap to slip past Bacon for second and began to close in on leader Reutzel. Carrick’s teammate Logan Seavey was on a mission to supplant Bacon from third two laps later, then by Carrick for second on the 17th lap and Reutzel on lap 18 for the lead by utilizing the diamond maneuver from the top of turn three to drive by Reutzel off the bottom of turn four.

A hectic sequence saw Carrick rip second away again, this time from Reutzel, off turn two before finally squeezing by on the bottom for the spot off the fourth turn on lap 20.  Seavey amassed control at the head of the field after starting all the way back on the outside of the sixth row and opened up a sizable near one-second advantage a quarter of the way through.

Larson, who was passed early on by Seavey, began plotting a methodical course toward the front, first picking off Reutzel for third on the 24th lap, then snuck under Carrick for second at the exit of turn two while in traffic.

On the 30th lap, Seavey went wide over the cushion between turns three and four.  Larson seized the opportunity and drastically closed in on Seavey as the two scythed under, between and around the tail end of the field.  On the 35th lap, Larson was there to swoop in under Seavey on the bottom of turn three.  The two smacked sidewalls at the entrance of turn three and Larson ducked under to lead at the stripe with a third of the race in the archives.

Seavey remained within earshot of Larson until the 40th lap when he nearly parked it in between turns one and two, losing three positions in the process and allowing Ricky Stenhouse Jr. into second before he, himself, dropped out on lap 43.

A hellacious 42-lap green flag run came to a halt when rookie Jesse Colwell spun to a stop at the top of turns one and two, erasing Larson’s 4.318 second lead prior to a lap 50 red flag, where several teams took the opportunity to refuel and readjust for a second half run.

Right off the bat, when racing resumed, a melee ensued between turns three and four with fourth-running Shane Golobic and Rico Abreu contacting each other in the third turn, causing both to flip.  Early leaders Seavey and Reutzel were stacked deep on the bottom along with World of Outlaws champ Brad Sweet and Spencer Bayston.

Reutzel’s turn of luck took continued on the 52nd lap when he toppled over in turn two, but restarted and finished 12th.  Kevin Thomas Jr. took a nasty tumble off turn two following contact with another car. Thomas walked to the ambulance under his own power following the incident.

The storyline of the latter 50 laps was simply the domination displayed by Larson. His seven fastest laps of the race came in rapid succession between laps 51-57.  All the while, everybody else was trying to play catchup, battling it out amongst themselves for second as Larson slipped into the distance.

Over the final 25-lap sprint, Christopher Bell and Carrick swapped the second position five different times before Bell prevailed, albeit a staggering 8.152 seconds behind Larson at the checkered.  Carrick took home third while Ryan Bernal took fourth after starting 19th, his best run with the series since a fifth-place effort in the most recent 100-lapper in 2012 in Haubstadt, Ind. Jerry Coons Jr. rounded out the top-five.

It’s the fifth time that Larson and Bell have finished first and second in a USAC National Midget feature. However, Wednesday at Placerville marked the first occasion in which Larson got the upper hand with a win.

For complete results, advance to the next page.

HAZARD, Ky. – Brandon Overton has departed the Rum Runner Racing dirt late model team owned by Joey Coulter and has landed a new ride at Wells and Sons Motorsports.

“We’re thrilled to have Brandon as the newest addition to the Wells Motorsports team,” said team manager Eric Wells. “We’re looking forward to ending 2019 on a high note and sky’s the limit for 2020.”

Overton spent this season driving for Rum Runner Racing, earning 12 victories for the team, including three with the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series. He also secured the Schaeffer’s Oil Southern Nationals Series title this year.

Overton is already well-acquainted with both Eric Wells, and his father, David. The duo often traveled and parked alongside each other while Overton was a World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series regular in 2015 and ’16.

The 28-year-old driver is preparing to compete in the Nov. 22nd-24th events at Screven Motor Speedway (Sylvania, Ga.), Lancaster (S.C.) Speedway, and Cherokee Speedway (Gaffney, S.C.).

Wells and Overton are formulating plans for 2020, including Overton’s possible return as a World of Outlaws regular and the hiring of two full-time crewmen to assist Overton in maintaining the team’s stable of Cornett-powered Longhorn entries.

Wells and Sons Motorsports recently parted ways with Kyle Strickler, who joined the team in the spring for his first season in a dirt late model.

Tommy Fleetwood's previous event ended with three eagles and trophy and this one began with a hole-out eagle.

Fleetwood holed his first shot of the day from 153 yards at the DP World Tour Championship.

Fleetwood eagled three par 5s in his final round in South Africa, en route to winning the Nedbank Golf Challenge, his first tournament title of the year. The win gave him a shot at claiming the Race to Dubai title in this week’s European Tour season finale.

The Englishman needs no worse than a tie for second to have a shot at the grand prize and the hole-out start quickly pushed him in that direction.

Fleetwood followed that eagle with a birdie at the second and turned in 5-under 31. He added two more birdies on the inward half but also had a pair of bogeys. Fleetwood did, however, avoid ruining his round at the par-5 18th with a lucky break off the rocks.

His 5-under 67 placed him in a tie for fourth, four shots behind leader Michael Lorenzo-Vera.

In a year with four victories, the FedExCup and PGA Tour Player of the Year honors, there have been plenty of highlight-worthy shots for Rory McIlroy. But the Ulsterman may have outdone himself during the opening round of the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.

"Honestly, it's possibly the best shot I've hit all year," McIlroy said.

The swing to which he was referring was his approach to the par-5 18th, a 286-yard missile of a 3-wood that found the green and rolled to within 5 feet. It set up a closing eagle for McIlroy to finish off an 8-under 64 that left him alone in second place at the European Tour's season finale and just one shot behind Mike Lorenzo-Vera.

"I usually carry my 3-wood about 280 yards off the deck," McIlroy said. "It was right on the limit, but as soon as I hit it I knew it was perfect."

McIlroy has won this tournament twice before, most recently in 2015, and a victory this week would tie his personal best with five wins in a calendar year. He got off to a hot start with five birdies over his first seven holes before dropping his lone shot of the day at No. 12 and failing to birdie the par-5 14th.

Where in previous instances he might have tried to manufacture a rally down the closing stretch, he instead tried to relax and rely on his patience. The results then came in a flourish: birdies on Nos. 15 and 16 before he uncorked a memorable shot from the 18th fairway.

"Just a little more of, 'You're still 4 under par, there's a lot of golf left in this golf tournament,'" McIlroy said. "Just trying not to push it too much. It's funny, it's sort of counter-intuitive. The less you try to push it, it seems the lower the scores are."