WALLER, Texas— A.J. Foyt Racing has signed ripKurrent, an energy services company, as the primary sponsor of Charlie Kimball’s No. 4 Chevrolet for the 104th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.

Moreover, ripKurrent will have a season-long presence on the car as an associate marketing partner.

“I am excited for ripKurrent to come on board for the 104th Running of the Indianapolis 500 with AJ Foyt Racing,” Kimball said. “As a tech company that is disrupting the norms associated with commercial and industrial facility energy usage and finding efficiencies for those companies, there is no better place to showcase technology, speed and success than the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.”

The ripKurrent logo will be on the nose of the No. 4 Chevrolet throughout the season and the car will feature a distinctive ripKurrent livery for the Indy 500.

“We are very excited to be partnered with A.J. Foyt Racing and Charlie Kimball for the 2020 season, and more specifically, the 104th Running of the Indianapolis 500,” said Jade Culbertson, founder and president of ripKurrent, LLC.  “After attending many Indy 500s as a native Hoosier, it will be surreal to think we have an entry with a world class team in AJ Foyt Racing and driver Charlie Kimball in the race. They have the knowledge, experience and skill to put the car in victory circle.”

Based in Boca Raton, Fla., ripKurrent is expanding its involvement in the NTT IndyCar Series after having sponsored Kimball’s car at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway last August.

The No. 4 Chevrolet, which is based in the team’s Waller, Texas race shop, will feature several different liveries over the course of the season as the team continues to sign marketing partners for its two-car operation.

“We welcome our new partner ripKurrent for the 2020 season,” said Larry Foyt, president of A.J. Foyt Racing. “We are thrilled that they will be the primary sponsor of Charlie Kimball’s No. 4 car in the Indianapolis 500. The ripKurrent Chevrolet looks amazing, and I can’t wait to hear it at full song around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.”

BROWNSBURG, Ind. – Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing announced Thursday that Spencer Pigot, who made three starts for the team in 2016, will return to RLL for the GMR Grand Prix on May 9 and the Indianapolis 500 on May 24.

The Honda-powered car will be entered by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in partnership with Citrone/Buhl Autosport.

CBA was formed in early 2020 by former Indy car driver Robbie Buhl and his brother and business partner Tom, and Robert Citrone, founder of Discovery Capital Management and the largest minority owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and his son Nick, a Data Analytics Coordinator for the Pittsburgh Penguins NHL team.

Robbie and Tom own Buhl Sport Detroit, a motorsports marketing company that operates a rallycross team and an advanced driver training program called Teen Street Skills.

Pigot, 26, earned back-to-back championships in 2014 and 2015 in the INDYCAR ladder system, with his 2014 Pro Mazda championship and 2015 Indy Lights title. He made his NTT IndyCar Series debut with RLL in 2016 in the St. Petersburg season opener and also competed in the IndyCar Grand Prix and Indy 500 with the team that year.

He made an additional seven starts for Ed Carpenter Racing that year and joined ECR full time from 2017-2019, with a career-best start of third at the 2019 Indy 500 and career-best finish of second at Iowa Speedway in 2018.

“I’m very excited to join Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing with Citrone/Buhl Autosport for this year’s GMR Grand Prix and Indianapolis 500,” said Pigot. “I ran my first IndyCar Series race and Indy 500 with RLL in 2016, so it will be nice to return to a team with some familiar faces.

“I can’t thank everyone at RLL and Citrone/Buhl Autosport enough for their efforts in putting this deal together and the opportunity to compete in another Indy 500 and I can’t wait for May!”

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — IndyCar unveiled its brand campaign — “A Different Breed” — for the NTT IndyCar Series season. The program that showcases the extraordinary mindset of IndyCar drivers features narration by Academy Award-winning actor Matt Damon.

“A Different Breed” was created in partnership with Chicago-based agency Schafer Condon Carter to convey the distinctive mental, emotional and physical strength required to excel as an Indy car driver.

These athletes — whether 39-year-old, five-time NTT IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon or 19-year-old rising star Colton Herta — have the ambition and drive to harness a carbon-fiber rocket at speeds that can reach 240 mph while always aware that the smallest miscue can change everything.

“Fearless and aggressive by nature, our athletes push the limits of speed and possibility every single lap of every single race,” IndyCar President Jay Frye said. “This campaign reflects both the skills and intangibles that set them apart, giving fans an up-close and personal look at what it takes to be an Indy car driver.”

Video content for “A Different Breed” focuses on the athletes’ unique skill set and mentality as described by Damon, the 2019 Indianapolis 500 honorary starter.

The video features several drivers, including Dixon, Herta, two-time series champion Josef Newgarden, 2019 Indy 500 winner and former series champ Simon Pagenaud, 2016 Indy 500 winner Alexander Rossi and 20-year-old emerging talent Patricio O’Ward.

Click here to view A Different Breed.

In addition to narration by Damon, DJ/producer MAKJ lends an original song – “Green Light” – to the campaign. MAKJ, a fan of the sport and former professional racer, has collaborated with some of today’s most talented artists, including Steve Aoki, Tinashe, O.T. Genesis and Lil Jon. He also has played some of the most prestigious music festivals including Coachella, Voodoo, Electric Zoo and Ultra.

The campaign’s video content is complemented by dramatic still images energized with a shock of color to contrast the black-and-white heroic images. The campaign style and multiple-driver approach provides the flexibility to seamlessly tailor the creative to the needs of various stakeholders and partners in the sport.

IndyCar tasked SCC with identifying a young, rising director to capture the true voice of the campaign and selected Logan Cascia. As the founder, director and DP of Los Angeles-based Cascia Films, he has produced work that includes Emmy and Peabody award-winning television features, commercials and film festival premieres.

David Beckham has said he would welcome Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi at his new franchise Inter Miami, who make their MLS debut this weekend.

Inter president Beckham, who played for LA Galaxy after spells at Manchester United and Real Madrid, exercised an option to buy an MLS expansion team in 2014. The option was a part of his contract at the Galaxy, whom he represented between 2007 and 2012.

"We really believe in the roster we have, the players that we have we're really happy with," former England international Beckham said.

"But we have also talked about if we have the opportunity to bring in big name players from Europe into our city, we will do that.

"Every team in the world would want Messi and Ronaldo in their teams, but we always talked about us being different from any other team, which I am sure every other owner says exactly the same thing.

"So that's what we will try to do and if we have the opportunity to bring big name players in then great -- we're lucky we have an ownership group that has that vision and wants to succeed and has that competitiveness where we want the best players."

Inter are away to Los Angeles FC on Sunday before playing their first home game on March 14 against Beckham's former side the Galaxy.

A player for Italian third division club US Pianese has tested positive for coronavirus, marking what is believed to be the first case of a footballer in Europe.

The Tuscan region confirmed on Thursday that the 22-year-old felt unwell on Saturday at a hotel in the Piedmont region city of Alessandria ahead of his team's league game at Juventus under-23s.

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The player, who has not been named, did not play on Sunday and was sent home, where he underwent tests that confirmed the positive case on Wednesday. He is recovering in a hospital in Siena.

A statement from the Tuscany region read: "Two new suspected positive cases of Coronavirus in Tuscany. Both are awaiting confirmation by the Higher Institute of Health.

"One is a 22-year-old man in the Siena province, a Pianese player, who last Saturday had symptoms in a hotel in Alessandria, where he was training with the team ahead of Sunday's game [at Juventus U23s.]

"He did not play the game as that morning, he had a high fever. The team returned to Piancastagnaio, while he went home. Wednesday morning, he was tested in his home and the results came back as positive in the evening.

"Since early this morning, he is at a hospital in Siena, in isolation. He is in good, healthy condition. Another player of the team felt the same symptoms, which the club is tracking."

Meanwhile, a journalist from Valencia has also contracted the disease following the clash between the Spanish club and Atalanta in the Champions League, the city's health ministry has confirmed.

USA Cricket has reaffirmed their intentions to launch a "Minor League" T20 franchise tournament for later this summer that includes teams based in major metropolitan areas from New York to Los Angeles, a precursor to a full-scale "Major League" T20 franchise tournament in 2021.

San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Seattle, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. are among the other locations touted in a USA Cricket press release on Thursday announcing the plans being propelled by USA Cricket's commercial league partner, American Cricket Enterprises.

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"One of the reasons that ACE was selected to partner with USA Cricket to develop a professional T20 League was that it demonstrated an understanding of the importance of addressing various fundamental issues within the domestic game in the United States," said USA Cricket chief executive Iain Higgins. "We welcome the significant investment and endeavor that has been put into the development of this exciting new national competition as a building block towards the creation of a fully professional T20 league in the future.

"Whilst there are operational details still to be worked out, we are thrilled to see the amount of progress already made. We look forward to Minor League Cricket delivering a regular diet of competitive domestic cricket and new playing opportunities for domestic cricketers up and down the country in 2020, as the ambitious plans for Major League Cricket continue to be developed in parallel."

Other cities listed as part of the league that have not traditionally hosted national-level cricket events in the USA which are touted to be host sites for franchises are Sacramento, Austin and St. Louis. Meanwhile, the Raleigh, North Carolina suburb of Morrisville as well as Lauderhill, Florida are also expected to host teams by virtue of their turf wicket facilities.

A surprising omission from the list of cities for a franchise is Indianapolis. The city's $6 million USD World Sports Park turf wicket venue championed by former Indianapolis Mayor Gregory A. Ballard was used frequently by USA Cricket Association and ICC Americas officials as a host venue for multiple tournaments from its opening in 2015 through 2017.

Cricket administrators and city officials also held discussions around that time of possibly relocating the new headquarters to Indianapolis for both ICC Americas and the newly formed governing body in the USA, which became USA Cricket, before both organisations settled on Colorado Springs, Colorado. No major tournaments have been held there since 2017 though and relations between cricket administrators and city officials have weakened since Mayor Ballard did not seek re-election after his last term ended in 2015.

Many of the locations listed for the league do not have turf wicket facilities, including New York. USA Cricket administrators insinuated that they would be flexible with regards to playing on non-turf wicket venues for certain locations until facilities are upgraded.

"It is extremely exciting for all of us who are involved in it and we collectively feel like this is a game-changing moment for domestic cricket in the USA," Higgins said on Friday night regarding the launch of the Minor League T20 during the USA Cricket AGM on Friday night. "We anticipate that they will include 22 teams playing a regular dose of competitive cricket across the entire summer played on the best available facilities with the majority of those fixtures being played on turf and on venues where investment is being made to improve the quality of those turf wickets and facilities generally.

"We anticipate there being prize money and we anticipate the matches being streamed and some of them being broadcast live in order to add additional impact around this particular tournament."

According to the press release, the competition will be played on a regional basis over the course of nine weeks with a total of 170 matches. Rosters will be made up of semi-pro players and potentially some full-fledged paid professionals while each team will have roster spots guaranteed for players in an U-21 age category. Most likely teams will be playing in a conference or divisional format with the top teams qualifying to advance to a national final.

USA Cricket also announced that they would also resumed national championship tournaments this summer, including tournaments in men's, U-17 and U-14 boys categories. The last sanctioned national championship by an ICC-affiliated governing body in the USA was the 2015 USA Cricket Association National Championships, which took place that April in Florida.

USA Cricket's release stated that Houston would host both junior national championships while the men's national championship will be held over Memorial Day weekend at a location to be determined from May 23 to 25.

Tom Brady is currently operating under the belief that he will enter free agency to play somewhere other than New England next season, a sentiment the quarterback has shared with others, sources told ESPN's Jeff Darlington.

While Brady has his eyes very clearly on free agency, there is still a belief in his circles that the Patriots will have their opportunity to convince Brady to stay. But at this point, Brady is evaluating the NFL landscape with the intention of departing, sources said.

Brady cannot begin negotiating with other teams until the NFL's legal tampering period opens March 16. An eventual meeting between Brady and coach Bill Belichick has not yet been scheduled, according to Darlington. The new NFL league year begins at 4 p.m. ET March 18.

If Brady joins another team, it would end a historic run in New England that included six Super Bowl championships, more than any player in NFL history. Brady's 20 seasons with the Patriots -- in which he combined with Belichick to form one of the all-time great quarterback/coach combinations -- are the most ever with one team by a quarterback.

Brady, who turns 43 in August, is a three-time NFL MVP and four-time Super Bowl MVP. He has led the league in touchdown passes four times and is one of only four quarterbacks to throw for more than 70,000 yards.

He threw for 4,057 yards with 24 touchdowns and eight interceptions in 2019, leading the Patriots to the playoffs, where they were upset in the wild-card round by the Tennessee Titans.

Information from ESPN's Mike Reiss was used in this report.

NEW YORK -- Some key Kobe Bryant memorabilia, including two of his Los Angeles Lakers uniforms and cement handprints from his induction into the Grauman's Chinese Theater hall of fame gallery, are going up for sale in April.

Julien's Auctions said Thursday that the items would be up for sale on April 30 as part of its annual sports auction that includes a silver medal from the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and a 2002 FIFA World Cup gold winner's medal.

Bryant's items were already being planned for auction when he, his daughter Gianna and seven others were killed in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26.

"We are honored to include this collection of his items and pay tribute to this giant who was an inspiration not only to basketball fans but to the entire world," said Darren Julien, Julien's Auctions' president and CEO.

The Lakers uniforms up for sale include one worn during the 2000 NBA Finals, with Bryant's original No. 8. The uniform included a black armband that marked the memory of Wilt Chamberlain, who died that season.

The other uniform was from Bryant's 2007 season, when his number was 24.

Other Bryant items include Adidas game shoes he signed and a basketball signed by the 2010-11 Lakers, including Bryant and others such as Ron Artest and Pau Gasol.

Julien said the Bryant items were being sold by a collector in Kentucky. Fans can view what's up for sale between April 27 and April 30 in Beverly Hills, California, before the auction takes place at Julien's Auctions Beverly Hills.

A memorial at Staples Center on Monday paid tribute to Bryant, who was 41, and his daughter, who was 13.

NORTH PORT, Fla. -- Freddie Freeman hopes to return to the Atlanta Braves lineup next week after his surgically repaired right elbow swelled and forced him out of action a few days ago.

The four-time All-Star had three loose bodies removed from his elbow in October to address years-long pain that caused an ill-timed slump last season. Freeman arrived at spring training saying he felt better than he had in years, but the elbow ballooned Monday after he put in a particularly long day Sunday.

Freeman sent images and spoke by phone to Dr. David Altchek, the surgeon who operated on his elbow. Altchek assured him the swelling was not a concern. Freeman said the discomfort wasn't nearly as bad as last season, when he struggled with basic tasks like shampooing.

"It swelled pretty good, but I knew right away," he said Thursday. "I could straighten my arm, I could flex it, no problems. The swelling went down drastically even that day. Just a little treatment, I feel good. Going to take it day by day, but probably next week I should be in the lineup."

Freeman, 30, batted .295 last season and set career highs with 38 homers and 121 RBIs. He slumped in September when the elbow was at its worst, hitting .235 with no home runs in his final 21 games, then batted .200 in five postseason games as Atlanta lost to St. Louis in an NL Division Series.

The left-handed batting, right-handed throwing Freeman was hitting three times a week and throwing five times a week by the end of the offseason, then opened camp at full bore. He felt fine until waking up Monday, when he was scratched from the lineup for a game against Toronto.

When he returns, Freeman said he'll likely cut down on some of his pregame workload.

"I'm kind of glad it happened in February," he said. "Now I can get all the swelling out, which it already is out, and we can work our way back into the lineup."

Boston Red Sox interim manager Ron Roenicke said Thursday that left-hander Chris Sale will start the season on the injured list.

Sale is recovering from the flu and pneumonia, and earlier this month, Roenicke made it clear the Red Sox would not rush Sale's return. Roenicke said Sale is about two weeks behind.

Sale missed the last six weeks of the 2019 season with a left elbow injury, but this move is unrelated.

Sale, 30, finished 6-11 with a 4.40 ERA and a 1.09 WHIP in 147⅓ innings last season. He won his last two starts in August before the club shut him down.

Boston, a year after winning the World Series, finished in third place in the American League East, at 84-78.