CONCORD, N.C. – David Gravel stole the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series spotlight by completing a sweep of the Can-Am World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte Saturday night.

Gravel raced to his second victory in as many races, and his third win overall at the four-tenths-mile North Carolina dirt oval, with a picture-perfect performance during the Outlaws’ season finale.

The Watertown, Conn., native wrested the lead from polesitter Jacob Allen on the sixth revolution and led the remaining distance in the 30-lap feature.

Gravel pulled out to a lead of more than two seconds at times and went unchallenged on the way to his 12th Outlaw win of the year, second-most on the series.

Not even a caution flag with 10 laps left – after Danny Dietrich spun on the backstretch and nearly collected incoming point leader Brad Sweet – could stop Gravel from racing to victory lane.

Gravel nailed the lone restart of the night and drove off to a 1.963-second victory over Sweet, whose second-place finish was enough to secure the World of Outlaws championship over Donny Schatz.

In victory lane, Gravel was emotional as he discussed his sweep of one of the biggest events of the year.

“I don’t know (what to feel). Last night the car was okay, but tonight it was freaking badass, man,” he said. “I had the best race car tonight, hands down. I could go anywhere I wanted, whether it was the top or the bottom, and it showed. I felt like I got through a lot of traffic really, really well.

“You know, my job was easy tonight and as a race car driver, those are the nights you want to have,” he added. “A sweep of the World Finals … what a weekend. This is such a great place and a great way to end the season.”

Sweet, who was passed once by Schatz on lap six as Gravel took the lead, buckled down and never looked back once he retook command over his title rival on the seventh revolution.

After that, the Grass Valley, Calif., native was all-in as he motored away to his first championship down the stretch, with Schatz completing the podium and falling four points short of his 11th series title.

Gio Scelzi crossed the line fourth and Logan Schuchart finished fifth.

Polesitter Jacob Allen, who led the first five laps of the main event before giving way to Gravel, settled for 10th place in the final event of the season.

Aside from the lap-20 caution, three incidents marred the start of the race before a lap could be completed, including two vicious flips where Spencer Bayston and Paul McMahan got upside down.

Fortunately, both Bayston and McMahan were uninjured and walked away from their wrecked race cars.

Sweet’s four-point margin in the title fight marked the closest finish in championship history for the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series, topping the 2013 title tilt in which Sweet’s former teammate Daryn Pittman edged Schatz by just 14 markers to win the first title for Kasey Kahne Racing.

Saturday night’s championship effort by Sweet marked KKR’s second time earning the Outlaw crown.

To view complete race results, advance to the next page.

Celta Vigo coach Oscar Garcia said Lionel Messi is uncontrollable after the Barcelona forward's 34th La Liga hat trick spoiled his return to management.

Garcia replaced Fran Escriba as Celta coach earlier this week but was helpless on the touchline as three Messi set-piece goals helped Barca to a 4-1 win.

Messi opened the scoring from the penalty spot before scoring two free kicks as Ernesto Valverde's side returned to winning ways following defeat by Levante and a draw with Slavia Prague.

"With Messi, you never have the game under control," said Garcia, whose side had started the match brightly. "He's uncontrollable, he throws all [your] plans up in the air.

"His efficiency from free kicks is incredible, his percentages are so high. You can't avoid giving free kicks away there, either. He alone changes games.

"If he didn't play, it would have been very different. We could even have won this one. He conditions everything. You know something could happen every time he has the ball, but when it's a set play you cannot control it."

Of Messi's nine goals in all competitions this season, four have come directly from free kicks. He has scored 22 free kicks since the 2015-16 season from 174 efforts -- an accuracy rate of 12.6 percent.

"It's impossible to not depend on Messi," said Barca coach Valverde when it was suggested his side are too reliant on the Argentine. "We depend on him as much as any team would depend on him.

"He lights everything up, what are we going to do!? With Leo, anything is possible."

Goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen added: "Leo's special at free kicks. It's not normal what he does, he has an amazing talent."

Celta had cancelled out Messi's opener at Camp Nou on Saturday through a free kick of their own, scored by Lucas Olaza. Messi's two dead-ball strikes killed the game, though, with Sergio Busquets adding a late fourth.

However, there was bad news for Barca in the form of a calf injury to Nelson Semedo. The right-back will be sidelined for the next five weeks.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Two years ago, Ed Orgeron stood outside the same visitors locker room at Bryant-Denny Stadium and talked about the future. There were no moral victories after LSU was beaten by Alabama 24-10, he said. His Tigers needed to get better in all areas, and he was the man to do just that.

"We're comin'," he said in that thick Cajun accent of his, "and we ain't backing down."

There was conviction in his voice that belied the facts, chiefly that the Crimson Tide had won seven straight in the series. No one outside of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, would have told you back then that the Tigers were anywhere close to the Tide's level. They had a talented defense, sure, but the offense was perpetually stuck in the mud and continually held them back.

A few months later, that started to change. Orgeron and Joe Burrow ate crawfish together during a recruiting visit, and the two felt a connection. The quarterback was looking for a second chance after things didn't work out at Ohio State, and Orgeron was all too happy to oblige.

It wasn't fireworks at first, of course. LSU and Burrow were shut out by Alabama at home 29-0 the following season, falling short of expectations once again. But Orgeron had one more move up his sleeve. In late January, he hired a little-known assistant coach from the New Orleans Saints to revolutionize his offense. A 29-year-old Joe Brady entered the building, and these Tigers have never been the same.

On Saturday night, the combination of Burrow and Brady -- along with star running back and Baton Rouge native Clyde Edwards-Helaire -- gave Orgeron what he was looking for all along as No. 2 LSU beat No. 3 Alabama 46-41 to snap the Tide's 31-game home winning streak. There were tears in Orgeron's eyes afterward as he gathered his team at midfield to celebrate. Fans shouted at Brady to stay for one more year. Burrow was carried away on his teammates' shoulders as the Heisman Trophy front-runner.

Orgeron entered the media room and asked, "We got a party?"

Not quite. It was something even more meaningful: validation.

"Been a long time comin'," Orgeron said. "We're there tonight."

"They beat us for eight years, we got tired of hearing their stuff ... it was time."

-Coach O was emotional after LSU's first win over Alabama since 2011. pic.twitter.com/O0Lr5kIg5l

— ESPN (@espn) November 10, 2019

For the better part of 10 weeks, the college football world watched and waited, reserving judgment even after LSU beat Texas during a marquee early-season matchup. Then it took down Florida. Then Auburn. The Tigers scored points at a never-before-seen pace and rocketed up to No. 2 in the rankings.

But the question was always the same: What about Bama? Could LSU keep it up against the big, bad Crimson Tide?

We have the answer now. LSU has caught -- and passed -- its SEC West rival.

Not even Nick Saban could stop what these Tigers had become. The Tide's legendary head coach couldn't even muster a sideline blowup as it all went down in front of eyes. For much of the game, he simply crossed his arms tightly across his chest, looked at his feet and paced, searching for solutions where there were none.

His defense could do nothing about Burrow, who completed his first 13 passes, dropped dimes as if it were nothing, then escaped and ran for crucial yards whenever the pressure became too much. It was perhaps the most impressive single performance of the season, as Burrow wound up completing 31 of 39 passes for 393 yards and three touchdowns, and rushed for 64 yards in 14 attempts.

The offensive scheme Brady installed during the offseason -- a blend of the spread and West Coast, with the run-pass option mixed in -- worked to perfection. It unleashed wideouts Ja'Marr Chase and Terrace Marshall Jr., who ran unencumbered through the Bama secondary for touchdowns. For a change of pace, it sent Edwards-Helaire, all 5-foot-8 of him, rumbling between the tackles for 103 yards and three touchdowns, then slipped him out of the backfield, where he pulled down nine receptions for 77 yards and a touchdown.

When the LSU defense bent and Alabama pulled within a touchdown in the fourth quarter, Burrow looked around on the sideline and saw no panic. The Tigers didn't go into a shell and try to run out the clock the way they had so many times in the past. Instead, on third down, they went five wide and went for it, and succeeded. Burrow ran for a brilliant first down and Edwards-Helaire rumbled into the end zone, taking the air out of Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Edwards-Helaire was a bundle of nerves as he went to the sideline, sensing the magnitude of what had just happened. Then he saw one of the strength coaches, former LSU fullback Connor Neighbors, feeling it, too. Pretty soon, the floodgates opened and tears couldn't be stopped.

"Being a guy from Baton Rouge, coming here, playing for my home city, state -- I grew up 20 minutes from campus -- I can't explain it," he said, recognizing the weight of those eight consecutive losses to the Tide and all the players who came before him. "I can't put it in words for you. It was just an overwhelming feeling."

Burrow grinned from ear to ear when it was all over.

Orgeron grabbed him on the field and reminded him of that crawfish dinner where it all started. Burrow had completed a transformation from anonymous Ohio State backup to Heisman favorite at LSU, and he said he never doubted himself for a moment.

"I knew I could play on this stage," he said.

"I don't have a vote," Orgeron said of Burrow and the Heisman. "But if I got a vote, I'm giving it to him."

In the haze of the locker room celebration afterward, Burrow tried to refocus. Like Orgeron, he wasn't ready to say that beating Bama was the end of anything.

"This isn't our goal," he said. "We've got more ahead of us."

He didn't elaborate, but his wideout Justin Jefferson would later on.

Jefferson, whose brother Jordan once quarterbacked these Tigers, said his team is coming for the grand prize now:

"It's time to bring a national championship back to LSU."

OKLAHOMA CITY -- It was the first play of the game and as is customary in Oklahoma City, the (mostly) full house crowd stood waiting the first bucket of the game for the home team. The Oklahoma City Thunder were playing the Golden State Warriors on a Saturday night in the big town, typically standard appointment viewing for any NBA fan.

The Warriors were caught in a mismatch and the Thunder posted Steven Adams on the right block. He spun off of a Warriors defender and laid in a smooth righty layup to grant permission for the fans to sit.

But outside of Adams, the game was barely recognizable.

The Thunder built a 23-point lead with Danilo Gallinari heating up the first half, then watched as D'Angelo Russell scorched in the third quarter to bring the Warriors back. The Thunder face-guarded Russell in the fourth and he added just two more points as Chris Paul hit a mid-range dagger to seal a 114-108 win for OKC.

The Thunder moved to 4-5 on the season. The Warriors are now 2-8.

The Warriors and Thunder have a history. It's one part shared, it's another part strife. They have played some of the most memorable games in NBA history, produced some of the league's greatest moments and between them, largely controlled the Western Conference for a decade. Their seven-game series in the 2016 Western Conference finals is one of the most dramatic, compelling series of all time, and that was just the beginning of it between the Thunder and Warriors. Kevin Durant left OKC to join Golden State less than two months after Game 7.

But with Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andre Roberson all out injured, Shaun Livingston retired, Andre Iguodala traded, Durant changing teams (again), Russell Westbrook in Houston and Serge Ibaka in Toronto, the only player Saturday that played in that 2016 series is Adams.

"Things move fast in the NBA. It's crazy," Steve Kerr said. "That was such an epic series and the level of play in that series was amazing. Athletically, skill-wise -- watching everybody, it was just an incredible display. But between injuries and the Thunder kind of moving into their next phase and us trying to figure out what our next phase is going to look like as we go, dramatic changes on both sides and it is strange.

"It seemed to happen almost overnight," Kerr said. "Again, this is the NBA. This is kind of how it goes."

It would've been incomprehensible even just a year ago for Thunder/Warriors to be scheduled on a college football Saturday going head to head in primetime against OU playing just some 20 miles south. It was a marquee matchup, the original Saturday primetime game (Curry's double-bang near-40-footer opened the series in 2016), a national TV staple with debate, discussion and hype.

"At some point, everybody's got to evolve and change, and different things happen," Billy Donovan said. "It's just the way it is where there's going to be a lot of roster turnover. The rivalries, they're probably less about the teams, and more about the players playing against each other."

That playoff series seemed to set the stage for the Next Great NBA Rivalry. The 73-win Warriors were pushed to the brink by Westbrook and Durant, and there was no reason to think they wouldn't be reconvening in the West Finals again, and again, and again. And even after Durant disrupted basketball by joining the Warriors, the matchup still had pop and in some ways, even more of it. Now, there was drama, there was revenge, there was animosity. Westbrook versus Durant, Westbrook versus the Warriors, Westbrook versus the world.

That only last three years. There were still memorable moments, like "I'm coming!", like Zaza Pachulia nefariously bodying Westbrook twice, like Westbrook's photographer's vest, like Instagram cupcakes, like canceled steakhouse reservations, like Westbrook and Durant going forehead to forehead. But much of that mattered more off the court than on it. The competitive tension was gone, the stakes were never nearly as high.

"I think probably back, 30 or 40 years ago, teams had their players stayed there for 8, 10, 12 years," Donovan said. "Maybe you added a player here or there, but those rivalries, whether it be Philly and Boston or Boston and LA, they kind of stood for a decade and that's the way it was."

Now, unless you care deeply about Alec Burks (sort of) signing with both the Thunder and Warriors last summer, there are neither. KD, Russ, Serge, Steph, Klay and Draymond is now Darius Bazley, Hamidou Diallo, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jordan Poole, Omari Spellman and Ky Bowman.

"We're really far removed from the battles that we used to have," Curry said. "The playoff series and all the back and forth and all the different storylines, so [this is] unfamiliar territory for sure."

There was the first meeting a few weeks ago, previous to the official Warriors downfall this season, but a night with plenty of foreshadowing. Curry and Green were playing but he Warriors looked inept and scattered, and almost as an omen to the absent link between the teams, took a little trolling at the hands of OKC's mayor because of some scoreboard serendipity. Even that game, though, is a far cry from Saturday's where Adams stood as the lone survivor of 2016.

The basketball Gods have a sense of humor. #35 pic.twitter.com/W3HjSg77Y8

— Mayor David Holt (@davidfholt) October 27, 2019

Both teams are plotting their return to the elite, albeit on likely different tracks. The Warriors are taking a gap year of sorts, redshirting the season after injuries hit Curry and Thompson as they develop young players and eye a possible lottery pick. The Thunder are still dismantling after trading their franchise icon, but have a war chest of draft capital on the horizon. There would be new faces, new plotlines and new drama, but maybe one day, somewhere down the line, the Thunder and Warriors will align again. Because who wouldn't want another movie of that?

"That's just the NBA," Donovan said. "Things change quickly."

Either the Thunder or Warriors have held a spot in the Western Conference finals for the last six seasons. But they only crossed over once, the lone playoff meeting culminating with the 2016 epic. It was basically the NBA version of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe building up to Endgame. And with the abrupt crash of the Warriors, they may both miss the playoffs in the same season for the first time since 2009.

"Rivalries are usually based on playoff meetings and an extended period of relevance and I think we were, the Thunder and Warriors, we kind of crossed over each other for about three years where we really among the elite," Kerr said. "It just didn't last long enough for it to become a real rivalry. But for those years, those were incredible meetings and high, high level stuff."

Toss England chose to bowl v New Zealand

Eoin Morgan opted to bowl first after winning a delayed toss at Eden Park, with the possibility of a shortened game making chasing preferable. England continued to shuffled their personnel, with Dawid Malan, centurion in the previous game, one of three to drop out for the series decider.

Rain during the morning in Auckland led to the toss being pushed back by 40 minutes, with the possibility of more poor weather to come. "Hopefully we can get on top with the ball and if we get a full game we'll know what we're chasing," Morgan said.

As part of a pre-series plan to rotate, England brought back James Vince, Saqib Mahmood and Adil Rashid, with Malan, Pat Brown and Matt Parkinson - who claimed a four-wicket haul in the fourth T20I - making way.

Tim Southee, New Zealand's captain, admitted he would have like to bowl, too, but was happy enough to have to set a score on a ground with notoriously short straight boundaries. New Zealand made two changes from the team beaten in Napier, with James Neesham fit to return in place of Daryl Mitchell and Scott Kuggeleijn returning for Blair Tickner.

England levelled the series at 2-2 on Friday, after a record partnership between Malan and Morgan took the tourists to 241 for 3 - their highest score in T20Is - and set up a 76-run win.

New Zealand: 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Colin Munro, 3 Tim Seifert (wk), 4 Colin de Grandhomme, 5 Ross Taylor, 6 Jimmy Neesham, 7 Mitchell Santner, 8 Tim Southee (capt), 9 Ish Sodhi, 10 Trent Boult, 11 Scott Kuggeleijn

England: 1 Jonny Bairstow, 2 Tom Banton, 3 James Vince, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Sam Billings (wk), 6 Lewis Gregory, 7 Sam Curran, 8 Tom Curran, 9 Chris Jordan, 10 Adil, 11 Saqib Mahmood

RENTON, Wash. -- Pete Carroll said there's a "good chance" wide receiver Josh Gordon makes his Seattle Seahawks debut Monday night against the San Francisco 49ers.

"He did really well," Carroll said of Gordon's first week of practice with Seattle. "He was very impressive in terms of picking stuff up, studying overtime. He fit in really well. He's a really good athlete. You can really tell that he's got a lot of potential to be a big-time player, so it was fun to see him on the practice field. He did a nice job."

Gordon was limited with an ankle injury during his first two practices this week, then was listed as a full participant Saturday. He wasn't given a game designation on the team's final injury report, signifying he's healthy enough to play.

So, will he?

"You've got to wait and see," Carroll said with a smile, using his go-to line for questions about availability and personnel decisions in upcoming games. "Wait and see. There's a good chance."

Gordon was waived last week by the New England Patriots after a stint on injured reserve with a knee injury.

"I feel great," he said Saturday when asked about his knee and ankle injuries.

Gordon answered "yes" when asked if he was surprised his tenure with the Patriots ended the way it did. He caught 20 passes for 287 yards and a touchdown in six games this season before landing on IR.

"But we all know the business," he said. "It can be short-lived anywhere. You never know what can happen day to day in the NFL. But that was the decision they made and I'm glad to be here now though."

Gordon said the Seahawks were a desired landing spot for him for "a long time."

"I'm grateful to be here," he said. "There's a lot of gratitude. Definitely thankful to land in a spot like this. It could have been anywhere. I couldn't control that [when he was waived]. But nonetheless, I'm grateful to have this opportunity to just go out there and do what I do."

The Seahawks claimed Gordon off waivers on Nov. 1, too late in the week for the receiver to get up to speed in time to play in their overtime win over Tampa Bay two days later. Carroll and offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer noted how well Gordon picked up Seattle's offense this week. He's one of seven receivers on Seattle's active roster along with starters Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf, plus David Moore, Jaron Brown, Malik Turner and John Ursua.

"He had no problem," Carroll said of Gordon. "I'm not saying he won't make an error here with something, but he had no problem picking stuff up -- principles, concepts, terminology. He made great sense of it."

Said Russell Wilson: "Josh, he's been great since he's gotten here. He's been studying like crazy. He sits up [front] and takes tons of notes. He's highlighting like crazy. He's in his playbook nonstop. He's prepared. He'll be prepared and ready to roll. He's a true pro. He's been in different systems and stuff like that. I think that helps him. I think he's really fired up to be here. We're fired up to have him."

Safety Quandre Diggs is also in line to make his Seahawks debut Monday at Levi's Stadium. He has been sidelined with a hamstring injury that he was dealing with before he arrived in an Oct. 22 trade with the Detroit Lions. Diggs was a full participant the past two days after being limited Thursday.

"Quandre has made it back to practice, made it through it, so he's put himself in position to play this week," Carroll said.

Carroll wouldn't divulge whether the Seahawks plan to activate tight end Ed Dickson off IR. The Seahawks have only two true tight ends on their roster and one of them, Luke Willson, is dealing with a rib injury, though he doesn't have a game designation. The only two players who do are safety Lano Hill and guard Phil Haynes, who are both questionable.

Defensive end Jadeveon Clowney and left tackle Duane Brown were limited Saturday after not practicing Thursday or Friday.

EUGENE, Ore. -- Oregon showed why it's the No. 1-ranked women's basketball team and favored to win the NCAA championship when it rolled to a rare victory over the U.S. national team Saturday.

The Ducks prevailed 93-86, becoming just the second college squad to beat the Americans. The other was Tennessee on Nov. 7, 1999.

In front of a crowd of 11,530 at Matthew Knight Arena, the Ducks thrilled their crowd with the win, led by seniors Sabrina Ionescu and Ruthy Hebard. Ionescu, a guard expected to be the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft in April, had 30 points and seven assists for the Ducks. Hebard had 18 points and 11 rebounds. Junior forward Satou Sabally added 25 points on 10-for-18 shooting, including 3-for-7 on 3-point attempts.

The Ducks advanced to the Women's Final Four for the first time last season, losing in the semifinals to Baylor. Ionescu was eligible age-wise to declare for the draft then, but she opted to return for her senior season at Oregon.

Ionescu had five points in the first half Saturday, but then took over in the third quarter, in which she scored 20 of her points.

The U.S. squad was led by Nneka Ogwumike with 19 points and 14 rebounds.

Miami Heat guard Dion Waiters experienced a panic attack on the team's charter flight Thursday night after consuming a THC-infused edible, sources told ESPN.

Waiters received medical treatment after the plane landed in Los Angeles following the Heat's victory over the Phoenix Suns. Waiters was listed as out for Friday's game against the Lakers due to illness and did not attend the game.

Waiters missed the game in Phoenix because of a stomachache and was seeking relief when he took an edible he was unfamiliar with, sources said. League rules prohibit the use of THC.

The Heat declined to comment.

Waiters flew back to Miami with the Heat on Saturday.

Miami radio station 640 AM first reported Waiters had a reaction to gummies on Friday.

The Heat suspended Waiters for their season opener last month for "conduct detrimental to the team" after he expressed frustration about his role on the team on social media. He has been on the active list for only two of the Heat's nine games thus far but has yet to dress and sit on the bench for a game.

He also missed time during the preseason for what the team labeled personal reasons.

Waiters faces missing out on a $1.2 million contract bonus if he misses more than three more games this season. Waiters is owed $24 million over this season and next as part of a deal he signed with the Heat in 2017.

He lost his spot in the Heat's rotation, as two rookie guards, Tyler Herro and Kendrick Nunn, have had strong starts to the season.

Italian wildcard Jannik Sinner has won the Next Gen ATP Finals after beating Australia's world number 18 and top seed Alex de Minaur 4-2 4-1 4-2.

De Minaur also lost of the final last year, at a tournament that is for the best players aged 21 and under.

Sinner, 18, is the youngest player inside the world's top 100 - at 95 - after jumping more than 450 places in the rankings this year.

"The week has been unbelievable," said Sinner, the tournament's third winner.

Playing in front of a home crowd in Milan, he added: "I wouldn't be here without the wildcard, so thanks to everyone. I hope to be back here next year."

The previous two champions, South Korean Chung Hyeon (2017) and Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas (2018), both reached the Australian Open semi-finals two months after winning the title.

Sinner, who was a champion skier, but chose tennis aged 13, reached the US Open first round in August.