TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Persistent rain showers creating saturated grounds at Terre Haute Action Track have forced World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series and track officials to cancel Saturday’s event at the Indiana track.

The decision comes hours after USAC and track officials canceled Friday’s portion of the Wabash Clash at the Terre Haute Action Track.

The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series season will continue Sunday at Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt, Ind.

TALLADEGA, Ala. – Blistering speeds were the story Friday afternoon during two rounds of Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Talladega Superspeedway.

Unsurprisingly, Denny Hamlin led the way in a Joe Gibbs Racing-prepared Toyota. What was shocking was the average speed that Hamlin produced with his No. 11 FedEx Ground Camry around the 2.66-mile oval.

A lap of 46.734 seconds, equating out to 204.904 miles per hour, was Hamlin’s best and the best lap overall across two 50-minute practice sessions for NASCAR’s top division.

Hamlin’s lap in the draft was nearly three tenths of a second faster than his closest pursuer.

Despite the eye-popping time and speed, Hamlin said in between practices that he didn’t notice that much of a difference in his best lap versus any of his other revolutions on Friday afternoon.

“I’ll be honest, I didn’t even know what lap it was because all the laps I was (out there), I was kind of in the middle of the pack,” Hamlin noted. “It doesn’t feel any different, especially with this big spoiler. It just feels like the cars are really planted to the track. It really caught me off guard to see what it was.”

The 2010 Cup Series championship runner-up added that, despite the big numbers posted, he doesn’t expect the speeds to come down very much prior to Sunday’s 1000Bulbs.com 500.

“I don’t think they will (drop). I think they’ll probably stay close to where they’re at, I would think,” Hamlin noted. “In practice you always kind of have those anomaly laps that are out there, but yeah, I wouldn’t suspect anything that would be different before Sunday.”

The top 19 drivers on the overall Cup Series practice charts Friday posted their best laps in the first round.

Kevin Harvick’s No. 4 Busch Light Ford Mustang was second at 47.013 seconds (203.688 mph), followed by Kyle Busch at 47.014 seconds (203.684 mph) in the No. 18 M&M’s Hazelnut Toyota Camry.

Journeyman Ford drivers Corey LaJoie (47.078/203.407) and Michael McDowell (47.083/203.386) completed the Fast Five. A third JGR Toyota – driven by Erik Jones – was sixth fastest on Friday.

Ross Chastain, Brendan Gaughan, Chris Buescher and Matt DiBenedetto filled out the top 10.

In all, 33 of the 40 drivers who posted a time during opening practice eclipsed the 200-mph barrier.

Clint Bowyer, who was 20th overall for the day, led the way in final practice with a time of 47.396 seconds (202.042 mph). He was followed by Aric Almirola in second, with the Wood Brothers Racing No. 21 Ford Mustang – shared by Paul Menard and Matt Crafton on Friday – timing in third in final practice.

Qualifying for the 1000Bulbs.com 500 is scheduled for 4:35 p.m. ET on Saturday afternoon, with live coverage on NBC Sports Network, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.

BRASELTON, Ga. – A pair of young guns took the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge field by storm on Friday during the series’ season finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

Austin Cindric and Seb Priaulx paired up this weekend in Multimatic Motorsports’ No. 15 Ford Mustang GT4 entry. Michelin Raceway marked the fourth race of the Pilot Challenge season for Multimatic and the team’s first since Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in July.

Making his North American racing debut, Priaulx qualified the No. 15 Ford in second place, a remarkable feat for the 18-year-old and son of three-time World Touring Car Cup champion Andy Priaulx.

Making his second start of the year was the younger Priaulx’s co-driver and NASCAR Xfinity driver, Austin Cindric. The 21-year-old previously competed at Daytona – finishing fifth – before recording his second career Pilot Challenge win on Friday. His involvement with IMSA has stemmed back to 2014 but after a three-year hiatus returned last season as part of the Ford Performance Development Driver program.

“I’ve had a lot of fun when Ford Performance brings over the NASCAR Xfinity guys and we get to do some of these races in the GT4 cars,” said Cindric. “Multimatic kind of kickstarted my career. It took off in a lot of different directions and I wouldn’t be where I am without them. I see the same thing with Seb. They believe in him and he’s done an awesome job.”

“Thanks to Austin, he did a great job to get the car home in first place,” added Priaulx. “It was a good race. We had good pace at the start, not to get the P1 spot but it was good enough to win the race today, so I’m really happy. Thanks to Multimatic and Ford Performance to give me a chance to race this car and with Austin.”

Finishing second place for their best finish of the season – and fourth podium finish – was Jesse Lazare and Corey Fergus in the No. 69 Motorsports In Action McLaren GT4. Third place went to the 2018 GS champions, Owen Trinkler and Hugh Plumb in the No. 46 Team TGM Mercedes-AMG GT4, who whose finish clinched the manufacturer’s championship for Mercedes-AMG.

Meanwhile, simply rolling off the starting grid and taking the green flag solidified the GS championship for the No. 39 Carbahn with Peregrine Racing Audi R8 GT4 of Tyler McQuarrie and Jeff Westphal. However, the race didn’t go as simply as planned, as the Audi made contact with another car at the start of the race and suffered toe link damage, sending the car behind the wall. The No. 39 Audi ultimately returned to the track 15 minutes later.

Despite the unfortunate luck on Friday, the Carbahn team still had smiles all around come the checkered flag. In its sophomore season, the team finished with eight top-four finishes, six of those being on the podium.

“Something like that where you look back at the season and all those great moments are what help you win a championship,” said McQuarrie. “Every single race is so important because you never know what’s going to happen.

“It’s the ultimate thank you for Jeff and I to thank the team and our ownership group. We went to them two years ago with this plan and we sold them on it. That plan was ‘Give us two years and we’ll win a championship.’ We went out there to do that. To give them that is a really good feeling.”

Capping off a Cinderella season for Bryan Herta Autosport was the team’s No. 98 Hyundai Veloster N TCR entry of Michael Lewis and Mark Wilkins.

In what was not only the maiden IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge season for Bryan Herta Autosport, but also for Hyundai, the duo executed near to perfection all season, entering Friday’s finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta with an 11-point lead in the TCR standings.

Their tally of wins for the end of the season was bolstered by one following the two-hour FOX Factory 120, as Wilkins and Lewis took their third checkered flag of the season. Lewis started second on the grid and the car remained in the top three for the majority of the race. Wilkins brought the Hyundai home just 1.313 seconds ahead of the pole-sitting No. 17 JDC-Miller Motorsports Audi RS3 LMS of Britt Casey Jr. and Mikey Taylor.

“Today was an example of what Mark is awesome at doing,” said Lewis. “I think this last race was a really big stamp on our championship. Like ‘Hey we’re here, we’re going for the championship, but we’re going to try to win this race too.’”

“This was a massive team effort by all, that’s why we’re here,” said Wilkins. “We have a great synergy. Bryan built a great team for us and it’s just our job to do our component. It was down to the wire, it was a tough race today. We had to lean on it every single lap. This is a big one.”

Finishing third and clinching the manufacturer’s championship for Audi in the TCR class was the No. 23 FAST MD Racing Audi RS3 LMS of Nick Galante and James Vance. This was the pair’s third podium finish of the season.

BRASELTON, Ga. – Felipe Nasr rocketed to the top of a record-setting qualifying session Friday at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

Nasr collected his first Motul Pole Award in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition and earning the prime starting spot for the 22nd annual Motul Petit Le Mans.

Piloting the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac, Nasr shattered the lap record set a year ago by co-driver Pipo Derani by nearly two seconds, taking the Daytona Prototype international (DPi) and overall pole positions. Nasr sped around the 12-turn, 2.54-mile Michelin Raceway road course in one minute, 8.457 seconds (133.573 mph) to nail down his maiden pole position in his second season in the series.

“Finally. It’s great to get a pole position, after all I’ve spent, what, two years in the series,” Nasr said. “I’ve been close a few times, but never got the job done. It’s a nice place to do it here at Road Atlanta.

“I have to say I was pretty happy with the lap. … I felt pretty confident going into qualifying because I knew the car I had on my hands. I worked with my engineer on the final details and I think it paid off.”

The effort also kept alive the No. 31’s hopes to repeat as DPi champions. Nasr, Derani and third driver Eric Curran must win Saturday’s iconic 10-hour race and have the No. 6 Acura Team Penske DPi finish ninth or worse to complete the back-to-back feat.

“Action Express has done an amazing job to get our Whelen car up front, but I feel like we have a winning package all around,” Nasr said. “It’s the final race of the season, so I want to go for the victory. The boys are in the same spirit as well, so we all want to get the job done and race smart.”

Dane Cameron qualified the No. 6 Acura in fourth position with a lap of 1:08.802 (132.902 mph), during an amazing session that saw all but one of the 11 DPi entries eclipse Derani’s 2018 lap record of 1:10.437. Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya clinch the DPi championship with a finish of eighth place or better on Saturday, no matter what the No. 31 does. Reigning Indy 500 winner Simon Pagenaud fills out the No. 6 driver lineup for Saturday.

The top five qualifiers Friday were covered by a blanket, all separated by less than four-tenths of a second. Ricky Taylor, Cameron’s teammate in the No. 7 Acura Team Penske, was second at 1:08.598 (133.297 mph). Joao Barbosa, Nasr’s Action Express teammate in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac, was third at 1:08.629 (133.237 mph). Timo Bernhard took fifth in the No. 77 Mazda Team Joest Mazda at 1:08.847 (132.815 mph).

The familiar No. 62 red Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GT3 returned to IMSA and the Motul Petit Le Mans for the final race of the year and marked that reappearance with a bang by winning the GT Le Mans pole.

James Calado piloted the car to a lap of one minute, 15.639 seconds (120.889 mph) Friday to earn his first WeatherTech Championship pole. The time broke the old mark of 1:17.006 set by BMW’s John Edwards last year.

“It’s pretty awesome,” Calado said. “It is so nice to come into the box and see the team’s spirit lifted and the emotion on everyone’s faces. So this is what’s important in going forward and winning races.”

To demonstrate how close the qualifying session was, all nine cars in the class broke the old mark set by Edwards last year. The top five cars were each from a different manufacturer and separated by just .217 seconds.

The No. 3 Corvette driven by Antonio Garcia initially qualified second with a time of 1:15.702 (120.789 mph) but was moved to the rear of the GTLM grid when its rear wing was found out of compliance during post-qualifying inspection.

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CONCORD, N.C. – Alan Prusiensky was transported to a local hospital for evaluation following a violent crash during the second round of Pro Stock qualifying for the NTK NHRA Carolina Nationals on Friday night at zMAX Dragway.

Prusiensky was racing against 2017 Pro Stock champion Chris McGaha during the night time qualifying session. The parachutes on Prusiensky’s car didn’t unfurl properly upon crossing the finish line at the end of the run and Prusiensky’s Dodge Dart then hooked sharp left, crossing in front of the car driven by McGaha.

Prusiensky’s car struck the left-side wall nose first before flipping and bursting into a brief ball of fire. His car landed on all four wheels and rolled to a stop as the fire extinguished itself. He was quickly attended to by members of the NHRA Safety Safari.

It took him a moment, but Prusiensky emerged from his race car with a hand from Safety Safari members. He walked away from the crash under his own power. He was taken to a local hospital for further evaluation according to an official statement from NHRA officials.

Below is the full statement from the NHRA regarding the crash:

“During the second round of qualifying at the NTK NHRA Carolina Nationals in Concord, N.C., Pro Stock driver Alan Prusiensky’s 2018 Dodge Dart crossed the center line then made contact with the wall and rolled before coming to a rest. Prusiensky exited the car under his own power. He was transported to a local hospital for further evaluation.”

Less than one week after sending an emotional message back home to South Korea, Kevin Na is breaking the silence he’s kept through years of personal anguish.

Speaking with Golf Channel on the 18th green at TPC Summerlin after his playoff win at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open last Sunday night, a teary-eyed Na delivered this message in Korean:

"To my Korean fans, for always supporting and believing in me despite all these false rumors, I want to say thank you. No matter what anyone said about me, I have been very happy. So as I kept my mouth shut, I feel like I showed you my feelings with my clubs today. Even as I bit my tongue, I have gotten to this point. Thank you to my fans again. I will see you soon at the CJ Cup."

Na, who was born in South Korea and moved to the United States at the age of 8, twice declined to speak any further on the subject.

But he’s now telling Golf.com that the message was in reference to a past engagement with a South Korean woman that was broken off in 2014. Per Na, a meeting between the two families turned sour: “Her dad told me, ‘If you don’t change your mind and marry my daughter I’m coming after you.’”

Na was jeered days later by the woman's mother, who arrived at the Korean Open with a sign that read: "American Golfer Na! Give back my daughter's life as cleanly as you sent her stuff back."

Na’s ex-fiancée then filed a lawsuit that, according to Golf.com, “included salacious details about the couple’s sex life” and “received titillating coverage in the Korean tabloids.” Na countersued for defamation of character.

“Not only did I win my suit,” Na said, “but she had to pay me close to $50,000, when a typical ruling in a defamation lawsuit is only a few hundred dollars. I think that shows the judge agreed how damaging the statements were.”

Na and his wife, Julianne, were set to show off their Las Vegas home on a Korean reality show this summer but the episode was cancelled because of a “spate of bad publicity.”

Na, who will play next week’s CJ Cup in South Korea, says he’s speaking out now to protect his wife and two children.

“There have been too many rumors and false statements and it’s been very hurtful. Now I have a family and I feel I need to protect them and my name,” he said.

“Every time I win the old stories and details get dragged up again.

"I hadn't planned to say anything but I couldn't help it. I'm sorry I rambled on so long and confused all the viewers in the U.S."

CARY, N.C. – Doug Barron lost his great start with three bogeys over his last four holes and had to settle for a 6-under 66, giving him a one-shot lead over Woody Austin after the opening round Friday in the SAS Championship.

This is the last regular-season event on the PGA Tour Champions before the top 72 players advance to the Charles Schwab Cup playoffs.

Barron started his round on No. 10 and 30 on the back nine of Prestonwood Golf Club. He reached 9 under through 14 holes until his three bogeys at the end.

Jerry Kelly, No. 2 in the Schwab Cup behind Scott McCarron, opened with a 68 along with Vijay Singh and Tim Petrovic. McCarron, assured of being atop the Schwab Cup standings going into the postseason, shot 73.

HUMBLE, Texas – Brendon Todd had played 17 holes of bogey-free, 5-under golf Friday at the Houston Open when he hit his tee shot into the left greenside bunker at the Golf Club of Houston’s par-3 ninth hole. In an unfortunate break, Todd’s ball settled near the lip, forcing Todd to hit his next shot from an awkward lie.

“I was in a really tough spot with one foot out of the bunker there on the first [bunker] shot,” Todd said. “Thought I picked the right club to run it down there and the club just went right under the ball.”

Todd failed to get out of the sand and left himself another bunker shot to remain at 1 under, which happened to be the projected cut line at the time.

“When you know you've got to get up and down for a chance to make the cut, you're deflated,” Todd said, “so that was a tough spot.”

After a quick pep talk from his caddie, Todd stepped up and did what he had to do, holing the shot to shoot 5-under 67 and likely make his first cut of the young season.

“I hit a beauty,” Todd said. “I landed it right on top of the mound like you're supposed to and got lucky that it rolled in the hole.”

Luck hasn’t been on Todd’s side in recent years. The 34-year-old Georgia product won on Tour and cracked the top 50 in the world in 2014. Two seasons later, he had lost his card, missing 25 of 29 cuts during the 2015-16 season.

He got it back via this year’s Korn Ferry Tour Finals but had played each of the first four events of this Tour season and failed to make the weekend each time.

Now, though, he’ll finally stick around for one.

HUMBLE, Texas – Peter Malnati wasn’t like most kids.

While his friends and fellow aspiring pro golfers would dream about sinking a putt to win the Masters or the U.S. Open, a young Malnati was imagining much more.

“As a little kid, I would watch and see these guys hole out to win the big tournaments, and their wife and their little kids would just come running out on the green,” he said.

“To me … that was the dream stuff.”

Malnati will soon have the final piece to the puzzle to make realizing that dream possible. He and his wife, Alicia, are expecting their first child two weeks from Saturday.

“But she is beyond ready,” added Malnati.

Alicia is back home in Knoxville, Tenn., while Peter is here in Houston. Of course, after a 7-under 65 in brutally-windy conditions Friday at the Golf Club of Houston, he is also in contention, which puts Malnati, the leader by two at 10 under, in quite the predicament.

“I’m fully on call,” Malnati said. “I didn't know if I was going to come play here or not. [Alicia is] always encouraging me to play and she has all the media officials' phone numbers, so if someone has to come get me off the course this week, they will.”

If Baby Malnati – the couple decided to wait until the birth to find out the baby’s gender – holds off for a couple of days, Daddy will have a chance to end a lengthy slump in a big way.

Malnati hasn’t recorded a top-10 on Tour since the 2016 Tournament of Champions, which he qualified for after winning his first Tour title, at the Sanderson Farms Championship the previous fall. After keeping his card last season by finishing 118th in FedExCup points, Malnati has two missed cuts, a WD and a T-45 (at Sanderson) while playing every event this fall.

The 32-year-old was honest in admitting that the impending arrival of his first child has him “98 percent excited, 2 percent terrified.” He also revealed that it has affected his preparation for tournaments.

But this week, he’s tried to finally have a different mindset: His heart is still back home, but his mind is on golf.

“I was like, ‘Dude, this is your last tournament before you become a dad, like do something with it,’” he told himself.

Malnati has flipped the switch from future dad to competitor nicely through 36 holes of the Houston Open. He opened in 3-under 69 before playing the first five holes Friday in 5 under with a 22-foot eagle make at the par-5 fourth.

That’s when play was called for inclement weather, storms that brought along 30 mph wind gusts and much cooler temperatures. When Malnati returned to the course, he went from playing in near-perfect conditions to downright difficult ones, but you wouldn’t have known it by his play.

Malnati didn’t make a bogey the rest of the way while adding birdies at Nos. 9 and 15, which, as he said, was “more than he could have ever hoped for.”

“The wind really messes with me,” Malnati said. “I know it makes it difficult for everyone, but it really tends to mess with what is one of my strengths. … But I was really pleased with the way I hit a lot of the putts in the wind.”

Back home, Alicia is likely just as pleased watching her husband chase his second Tour victory – even if she may have to summon him home before the event ends.

Should that happen, Malnati is prepared. After all, he fully expects to be in this position many more times … as a dad.

“I won a Korn Ferry Tour event with my wife caddying for me, I won a big amateur event with my mom caddying for me, so I've gotten to have some of those kind of family moments at the end of a tournament,” Malnati said. “But the idea of actually being a father and then one day, you know, hopefully having my kids get to see me do what I love to do, which is this, and hopefully do it well is something that I kind of get emotional even just thinking about that.

“That’s going to be so awesome for me.”

The dream stuff.