MOORESVILLE, N.C. – DGR-Crosley announced Wednesday that Tanner Gray will make his NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series debut at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway on Oct. 26.

Gray will pilot the No. 15 Gray Motorsports/Valvoline Toyota Tundra at the .526-mile Virginia paper clip, before following up his debut with starts at ISM Raceway in Arizona and Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway to close out the season.

Gray, a 20-year-old NHRA Pro Stock champion, made the transition back to oval-track racing in 2019, competing full time in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series as well as picking up select ARCA Menards Series races.

In his rookie K&N season, Gray closed out the year with a second-place finish at Dover (Del.) Int’l Speedway, moving him up to third in the K&N Pro Series East point standings.

With combined results between his 15 K&N Pro Series East and West starts, Gray collected one win, nine top-five and 12 top-10 finishes. He also collected three poles as well.

“I’m excited to make the step up to the Truck Series,” said Gray. “I think it’s going to be challenging, but I’m ready to take the next step with my DGR-Crosley guys. We’ve been preparing for this all season, and I think the best way to learn is to go out and do it. Between testing and spending time in the Toyota simulator, I think I have a good feel for Martinsville and will be able to adapt quickly.

“We will have three practice sessions to get acclimated and get the truck where it needs to be; we just need to keep our nose clean in the race and have a solid day on pit road.”

Gray’s K&N Pro Series team will make the transition to the Truck Series with him for the remainder of the season. Seth Smith will cover crew chief duties, while veteran Cup Series spotter Eddie D’Hondt guides the young driver from the spotter stand.

“I’m really looking forward to Tanner’s Truck debut after the building season that he’s had,” said Smith. “He’s learned a lot from where he started at the beginning of the season to where he’s at now. We tested at Martinsville and I feel like we had a really successful test session. I’m looking forward to racing there, as well as Phoenix and Homestead to finish out the year.”

ENNIS, Texas – It was a shocking start to the NHRA Mello Yello Countdown to the Championship for reigning Top Fuel world champion Steve Torrence.

But the talented Texan has more than made up for it at the past two races, looking to be back in championship form as he heads to his home track with another world title in mind.

Torrence started the six-race playoffs with a first-round loss – his first opening-round loss since February and first in the Countdown to the Championship since 2016 – but those concerns immediately went by the wayside.

He rebounded with a final round appearance in St. Louis and a victory on Monday in Charlotte, regaining the points lead in his 11,000-horsepower Capco Contractors dragster and putting Torrence back on track for a possible second-straight championship heading to Texas Motorplex for this weekend’s 34th annual AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals.

“You have to go rounds and you need to win races,” said Torrence, who has nine wins in 2019. “I think we need to win two more races to be pretty solid and have an opportunity to win another championship. We’ll just do the best we can do. I’m looking forward to going to Dallas. It’s a good time right now having the momentum going back-to-back. We need to try to go there and carry this momentum and see if we can be successful.”

Dallas marks the fourth of six playoff races and 22nd of 24 races during the NHRA season, and Torrence appears to be building toward another big finish after his Charlotte win.

Torrence qualified No. 1 at the race and then beat his closest competitor, veteran Doug Kalitta, in the final round. It gave him 36 career wins, with 28 of those coming since 2017.

It’s an incredible pace he’s kept, but Torrence has simply tried to stay in the moment. He credits crew chiefs Richard Hogan and Bobby Lagana for keeping him locked in, especially as the pressure rises with each race during the Mello Yello Countdown to the Championship.

“You can allow yourself to succumb to the pressure or you can look at the situation for what it is,” Torrence said. “You don’t do anything differently in the last six races that you did the first 18 (in the regular season). You just keep that mindset and you can’t lose focus with what you’re doing. You just have to block out who that guy is, whether it’s Doug Kalitta or Tony Schumacher or Doug Kalitta, or whoever. You can’t let what or who’s in the other lane influence you.”

Torrence will aim to be ready for the task at hand in Dallas, where he will look for a second career Top Fuel win. He stretched the lead to 30 points over Kalitta with the Charlotte victory, but it is far from over.

Brittany Force, the 2017 world champion and Dallas winner, is still in contention and remains 92 points behind Torrence. Kalitta is hungry for his first career world title, but Torrence is simply worried about pushing forward and maintaining consistency.

It’s a formula that’s worked almost perfectly the last two seasons, and Torrence has no reason to change it.

“We don’t run the big numbers, but we go out and try to race to win,” Torrence said. “I’d rather turn win lights on than have pretty time slips. We didn’t have the start to the Countdown we wanted, but we got it turned around. Ultimately, you need to go out and try to win all of them. We just need to maintain our consistency.

“We stumbled in Reading and maybe we had relaxed a little too much,” Torrence noted. “We redirected our focus and got back on the same page (in St. Louis) and went back to what got us to that point.”

HARRISBURG, N.C. – JTG Daugherty Racing announced Wednesday the team has signed 32-year-old Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to a multi-year deal.

A seasoned veteran in the NASCAR Cup Series, Stenhouse Jr. will enter his eighth full-time season and will kick it off with JTG Daugherty Racing during the 2020 Daytona 500 alongside teammate Ryan Preece.

“We’re very fortunate to have Ricky join us next season to continue to elevate our racing program at JTG Daugherty Racing,” team owner Tad Geschickter said. “Ricky brings a lot of experience and talent to the team, and we know we can have two playoff-contending teams next season with him and Ryan Preece at the helm of our cars.”

Stenhouse Jr. joins JTG Daugherty Racing following a decade-long tenure with Roush Fenway Racing.

“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to join JTG Daugherty Racing next season,” Stenhouse said. “To be able to see what Tad, Jodi (Geschickter) and Brad (Daugherty) have built over the years says a lot about the team and the organization both on and off the track. JTG has grown from a small team in a barn to a two-car team with more than 100 employees, and I’m looking forward to joining the family.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity, and ready to go win races with the ultimate goal of making the playoffs and competing for a championship.”

Stenhouse, a two-time NASCAR Xfinity Series champion, has two wins, 15 top-five finishes, 34 top-10 finishes and two pole awards in 251 career NASCAR Cup Series starts.

Competing for three years in the Xfinity Series from 2010-2012, he was Rookie of the Year in 2010 and won two series championships in the following two seasons.

Stenhouse earned the Sunoco Rookie of the Year award in the Cup Series in 2013, and brought home his first checkered flag finish at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway in 2017, going on to win his second Cup race later that year at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway.

Aside from his premier series accomplishments, the Olive Branch, Miss., native is highly decorated in the dirt open-wheel racing community.

After his first Cup Series win at Talladega, he became only one of eight drivers to have won in NASCAR’s premier series as well as the USAC Silver Crown, National Sprint Car, and National Midget Series, joining drivers like Mario Andretti, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart.

Lee Ann Walker was walloped with 58 penalty strokes over two days, including 42 in the first round of the Senior LPGA Championship.

The penalties were added to her scores after Tuesday’s second round, when her opening-round score was adjusted to 127 and her second round to 90. Each violation of Rule 10.2b(4), which prohibits a caddie from lining up a player, was a two-shot penalty. They were assessed after Walker realized during the second round that she was violating the new rule, which was implemented at the start of this year.

Golfweek reported that a fellow competitor’s caddie informed Walker midway through the second round that she was breaking the rule. Walker then sought an official to report her violations.

“We had her recreate the times that that happened,” LPGA rules official Marty Robinson told Golfweek.

Walker missed the cut in the three-round tournament on the Legends Tour. Her scores minus the penalty strokes would have been 85-74.

United States star Christian Pulisic was subbed off in Tuesday's disappointing 2-0 loss to Canada due to flu-like symptoms he'd experienced the previous two days, said manager Gregg Berhalter.

"He wanted to continue," said Berhalter about Pulisic after the match. "You could see the disappointment in his face, and we had to make that decision. We made the decision based on being not sure how much he had left. We wanted to inject some energy into the team."

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The U.S. midfielder was visibly annoyed after being removed from the game for Paul Arriola at the hour mark. Television cameras showed the Chelsea winger telling Berhalter "I'm fine" before becoming visibly emotional while seated on the substitutes' bench.

Pulisic had struggled for most of the night, but it was still a surprise when he was substituted.

Nine minutes before his removal, he had missed a glorious chance to put the U.S. ahead, after good work from Jordan Morris, scuffing a weak shot directly at Canada goalkeeper Milan Borjan from just 10 yards away.

The early exit was the latest incident in what has been a disappointing few months for the former Borussia Dortmund star.

The 21-year-old midfielder has been mostly a spectator in his first season in the Premier League, limited to two appearances since August: a League Cup start against fourth-tier Grimsby Town on Sept. 25 and a 10-minute substitute stint versus Southampton in the Premier League on Sunday during which he contributed an assist.

Pulisic joined Chelsea from Dortmund in the summer for $73 million -- a record fee for an American player.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Ahead of the inaugural draft for The Hundred on October 20, the ECB invited eight media teams to Lord's, each to represent one of the tournament's new teams, and to select their 15-man squads for the competition. Here's how things panned out...

ESPNcricinfo threw down the gauntlet for Darren Lehmann in the media mock draft for The Hundred, picking a strong squad including Andre Russell, Aaron Finch and Tymal Mills.

Representing the Northern Superchargers, our 15-man pool included several stars of the Vitality Blast, as well as several players who have starred on the global T20 circuit, and others who are on England's radar.

Picking third, after Trent Rockets (Vithushan Ehantharajah and Adam Collins) and Southern Brave (Simon Wilde and Elizabeth Ammon), our first-round pick was the 2019 IPL's MVP Andre Russell, who would slot into our side as the finisher, listed at No. 6.

After some surprising first-round picks from elsewhere, including Mohammad Nabi and Kane Williamson, we then added Aaron Finch as our opener and captain.

Most teams opted to fill their overseas quota with their first three picks, but we sensed value lower in the draft and ended up selected Imad Wasim - ranked the second-best T20I bowler in the world by the ICC - as low down as round five.

Tymal Mills was therefore our third pick, our first-choice death bowler, and one of two left-arm seamers along with pre-selected local icon David Willey, who could take the new ball along with Imad.

Adil Rashid was another pre-selected local icon, while Olly Stone's pace would complete a strong, varied attack.

Our batting was filled with left-right combinations, with four left-handers (Cameron Delport, Tom Moores, Delray Rawlins and Imad) and three right-handers (Finch, Tom Abell, and Andre Russell) in the top seven.

There was bench strength, too, in the shape of Steven Croft, Rikki Clarke and the Blast's leading wicket-taker Ravi Rampaul, with the looming spectre of Ben Stokes ready to slot into the side when permitted by England.

All things considered, our selection panel came out of the draft happy with our afternoon's work, and optimistic with how our squad will stack up against the one pick by Lehmann on Sunday evening.

There were plenty of high-profile overseas players that failed to make the cut, including Chris Gayle and Lasith Malinga from the six men with a £125,000 reserve price, while Mohammad Amir, Chris Lynn, Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis also missed out, illustrating the point that plenty of big names will go unsold in the real thing.

Morne Morkel, Ian Bell, Ryan ten Doeschate and Danny Briggs were among the unsold domestic players, while there was draft-room drama when Manchester Originals (Nick Friend and Huw Turbervill) tried to pick the unheralded Scotland opener George Munsey, only to find he wasn't in the system.

The main take-home was that the 100 seconds teams have to make their picks is a long time: with analysts pouring their time into depth charts and player roles in recent weeks, there shouldn't be too many sides scrabbling against the clock.

The draft was halted for an hour midway through due to technical difficulties, and the chance to test the software had been cited as a reason to hold the mock event; regardless of who gets picked, the ECB will be desperate the gremlins are banished from the system in time for Sunday evening.

The two UAE players provisionally suspended for alleged breaches of the ICC anti-corruption code stood to make up to US$272,000 (approx.) if they successfully corrupted the games in the upcoming T20 World Cup qualifiers.

ESPNcricinfo understands that the players had been engaged in talks to carry out fixes - ranging from a session to a result - in three of the matches in the qualifiers, which begins on Friday with the UAE playing in the day's second fixture in Abu Dhabi.

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The operations that have led to provisional suspensions of captain Mohammad Naveed and senior pro Shaiman Anwar was so planned that, it is understood, the players had contracts drawn up for the amounts that would be paid depending on the nature of the fix.

It is understood that investigations by the ICC's ACU revealed that both Naveed and Anwar had been engaged by corruptors to fix the results and or session(s) in those three matches; the amounts involved were on a sliding scale of up to around US$272,000.

The ACU had been monitoring the players in question since the UAE's tour of Zimbabwe in April this year. Among others being surveilled was Mehardeep Chhayakar, an alleged corruptor, originally from India, who has been involved with cricket in Ajman and is apparently known in gambling circles as "Gary".

It was during that series in April, played in Harare, that Chhayakar is believed to have attempted to induce Qadeer Ahmed, the third UAE cricketer to be provisionally suspended along with Naveed and Anwar, into fixing in one of the matches.

Chhayakar, along with three other Indian men - all alleged corruptors - were detained by local police in Harare on corruption allegations at the time but released later. The ACU continued to keep a close eye on the movements of the four.

On October 6, the ACU brought in five persons for questioning, including the players charged today. It is understood that the ACU has kept the local police in the UAE informed about the developments.

The ACU handed the charges in person to Naveed and Anwar earlier on Wednesday; Qadeer is currently away in Pakistan while Chhayakar's whereabouts are unknown.

Teenager Coco Gauff was knocked out of the Luxembourg Open in the first round - just days after winning her maiden WTA title.

American world number 71 Gauff, 15, was beaten 6-4 6-0 by Russian eighth seed Anna Blinkova in just 59 minutes.

Gauff became the youngest player to win a WTA title in 15 years in beating former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the Linz Open final.

Gauff and compatriot Caty McNally are in the women's doubles quarter-finals.

"I'm very happy with my performance," said world number 66 Blinkova, who will play Germany's Tatjana Maria in the second round.

"I didn't make a lot of mistakes and I had the right tactics. I was calm and I did my job well today.

"I was very focused. I know she's a great player and I knew she was coming off a WTA tournament win, so I was well prepared."