OSWEGO, N.Y. — Cars don’t hit the track until Wednesday afternoon at Oswego Speedway nd already 144 of them rolled through NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week Early Bird Technical Inspection on Tuesday.

The astonishing number of cars — 31 more than went through Early Inspection last year — were lined up before 9 a.m. and continued until 6 p.m. when two-time champion Danny Johnson’s No. 27j machine was the final car to pass through the inspectors before officials had to head toward Utica-Rome Speedway for Tuesday night’s DIRTcar 358 Modified and Sportsman events. Technical inspection resumes Wednesday morning at 9 a.m.

“It’s a good crew, everybody has at least five years of experience in the tech line, all the same people all the time and it makes it go smooth, they know what they’ve got to check and they know what they’ve got to do,” said DIRTcar Technical Director Mark Hitchcock. “The teams know what’s expected of them, too.”

Of the 144 cars that went through Tuesday’s inspection, there were 51 Super DIRTcar Series Big Block Modifieds and 51 DIRTcar 358 Modifieds.

• Billy Whittaker isn’t only the sponsor of the Billy Whittaker Cars 200 for the Super DIRTcar Series, he’s also trying to win a car for a lucky fan. If Whittaker wins the Billy Whittaker Cars 200 on Sunday, a fan will win a Billy Whittaker Cars & Trux Ford Fusion from entries gathered during the event.

“I’m very proud to sponsor this race with the history of it and all the big sponsors that were a part of it,” Whittaker said. “I’m proud to be able to sponsor this and race in it. I’m just fully involved and it’s just cool.”

Whittaker is definitely gearing up to go for the win, but he knows it won’t be an easy task.

“There’s a lot that goes into NAPA Super DIRT Week,” Whittaker said. “You gotta get through tech, get to the night shows, be able to process and get it ready with a short turnaround. The challenge for us part-timers is definitely tough. The professionals do this so well. We’re going to try to make the Salute to the Troops 150, as well.

“We have our work cut out for us this week, but we’ve got really good race cars. We’ve got a good team put together and we’re gonna have some fun, hopefully. Our main goal is to get into the 200. There’s a lot of competition, a lot of guys. Qualifying is our first objective.”

• Rookie Demetrios Drellos won the most recent Super DIRTcar Series race, Sept. 21 at Albany-Saratoga Speedway, and in the process guaranteed himself a spot in the Billy Whittaker Cars 200. He’ll do double-duty this week, also running the DIRTcar 358 Modified Salute to the Troops 150.

“There is pressure to qualify because you still want a good starting spot,” Drellos said. “But it does take some pressure off knowing you will be in the show no matter what.”

No doubt, Drellos is not underestimating the task ahead.

“At Super DIRT Week you have to prepare for having full fuel load for longer in the Big Blocks,” Drellos said. “You have to prepare a strategy for when you pit. It’s hard to get everyone to agree on a strategy. When is the best time to pit for us? We have to plan for when the race changes and how we adapt to that. It’s a lot more planning with the team.

“We give the cars a real good freshening up. We go through them thoroughly. We got new bodies, because you want to look nice, it’s NAPA Super DIRT Week and it’s great for the sponsors.”

• Veteran racer Pat Ward is also running the Super DIRTcar Series and DIRTcar 358 Modified events at NAPA Super DIRT Week.

“We went through the whole car, put some new parts on her, a new body, and we’ll send her out there and see what happens,” Ward said. “We’re prepared. We’ve done this for a lot of years.  It’s a lot of work because it’s a lot of racing. If you are going good, it’s fun; if not, it’s a long week.”

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AC Milan have named former Inter boss Stefano Pioli as the replacement for Marco Giampaolo, who was sacked on Tuesday.

Pioli's last role in management was with Fiorentina, who he left in April following a difficult run of results.

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Milan only hired Giampaolo in the summer but parted company with the ex-Sampdoria manager following a difficult start to the campaign, which saw them languishing in 13th place with four defeats from their opening seven matches.

Pioli managed Inter for much of the 2016-17 campaign following the sacking of Frank de Boer after 12 Serie A matches, but was dismissed three games before the end of the season.

At Fiorentina, Pioli received huge plaudits for the way he helped steer the club forward following tragic death of captain Davide Astori in 2018. In the following campaign, he led the club to the Coppa Italia semifinals following a 7-1 victory over Roma in the last eight.

However, Milan are the 12th different side he has managed since 2003 and his longest stint with any one side was at Bologna for three seasons from 2011 to 2014.

Pioli has earned the reputation as a journeyman manager. He led Lazio to a third-place finish, in 2015 his best-ever Serie A position.

Milan finished the previous campaign in fifth place -- only missing out on the Champions League on the final day of the season -- but accepted a one-year European ban and are not competing in the Europa League.

Left to him, Virat Kohli would give teams extra points for away wins in the World Test Championship. On the eve of India's second Test against South Africa in Pune, Kohli said that the arrival of the championship had encouraged teams to play positive cricket, and given them the incentive to go for wins when they might have earlier settled for draws. But he did hope there would be one change in the points system, perhaps when the next edition of the championship rolls around.

"The importance of every game has become that much more," Kohli said in a press conference. "In situations that, in a three-match series, you probably would have played out a draw, teams are going to go for wins and get those extra points, so I think it's great for Test cricket. The matches are going to be that much more exciting, is what we feel, and we can already experience that.

"We have to be absolutely professional in every session that we play, so yeah, I think it's much more demanding on the players now, which is a good thing because it will keep the standard of Test cricket high. Yeah, these are the only things we have experienced so far and noticed in terms of changes.

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"If you'd have asked me to make the points table, I would give double the points for an away Test win. That is something that I would have definitely liked to see. Maybe after the first edition."

Visiting teams in India would certainly appreciate that extra incentive. India have been an incredibly difficult team to beat in their own backyard during Kohli's time as captain, India winning 16 of their 22 Tests and losing just one. For all that, though, Kohli said conditions in India are often difficult to negotiate even for his team.

"Look, it's not easy for us as a home side as well," Kohli said. "When conditions are challenging, when the ball's spinning, we've also found it difficult in the past. But we're a team that looks for answers, not excuses, so maybe that's the reason we keep improving, and we've been able to win so many Test matches.

"Come on, give the guy a break now. He's done well, let him enjoy his batting at the top of the order, let him just have fun, like he does in white-ball cricket, and stop focusing on what's Rohit going to do in Tests"

"We don't take anything for granted for sure, we can very well be losing four-five wickets a session, so we know that well, as a team. We work pretty hard on our game also, even though we play in our own conditions and we've grown up playing in these conditions. So I think the mindset is key for us, and that's to win every game that we play and not focus on what the conditions are on display, we look to find answers rather than excuses."

Over the first three days of the first Test in Visakhapatnam, South Africa pushed India hard to find these answers, particularly with their aggressive batting approach against spin, which helped them claw back from 39 for 3 to finish just 71 short of India's first-innings total of 502.

Kohli wasn't surprised by the fight South Africa put up.

"How they played in the first innings was very good," he said. "You have to be positive when the wicket's nice and easy to bat on, you have to try and get as many runs as possible, and that's exactly what they did.

"I would say the first three, maybe even four days of the game, the wicket was hardly doing anything. After three-and-a-half days, it started to turn a little bit, and then on day five we really got into our own. We expected that. We expected teams to come out and try and be positive against us, and we held our own. We held our own in the second innings, and put up 400 runs for them to gun down again.

"Look, we are going to be put under pressure, even though we're playing at home. Its about how we come back into the game and then put double the pressure on the opposition again and then tell them, let's see if that can be executed again. So that's basically what Test cricket is. You have to come back in the second innings and do the job again, it doesn't end in one innings, but the approach was quite expected."

On the final day, India's match-winner was Mohammed Shami, who came into his own on a wearing fifth-day pitch to run through South Africa in their second innings. What sets Shami apart, according to Kohli, is how much help he can coax out of even the flattest surfaces.

"I think on the pitches that we play, I haven't seen anyone get so much seam movement apart from him," Kohli said. "Yes, internationally, many bowlers do, but I think on flat pitches he has the ability to pick you wickets in situations that feel absolutely dead. And that's why he's such an important bowler for us, that's why we've wanted to manage his workload very precisely - all the fast bowlers.

"But he's someone who can change the complexion of the game totally when you don't see it coming. That's the kind of skill he possesses, and now he's taking the responsibility. We don't need to push Shami anymore. We don't need to tell him, come on, you've got to get up and bowl this spell for us. He wants the ball. He understands the situation. When he's given the ball, especially in the second innings when situations are difficult, he comes in and does the job every time.

"It's great. People are taking responsibility in different situations in the game, which is amazing to see and his skill is obviously there for everyone to see, it's not a surprise anymore to all of us that he gets the ball to do that much more than others in conditions that don't really offer you much. He's blessed with that skill naturally, but it's the mindset that's changed now. According to me he's in the best space right now."

India's other hero in Visakhapatnam was Rohit Sharma, who scored centuries in both innings while opening the batting for the first time in Test cricket. That performance, Kohli felt, should end the debate over Rohit's place in the team.

"It's overflowing. It's not been filled," Kohli said, when asked if the opening slots were taken for the foreseeable future. "Come on, give the guy a break now. He's done well, let him enjoy his batting at the top of the order, let him just have fun, like he does in white-ball cricket, and stop focusing on what's Rohit going to do in Tests.

"He's in a great space, he's playing really well, and he looked relaxed in the first game, which is great to see, all the experience he's accumulated over the years came to the fore, so he's feeling absolutely at home at the top of the order, and for us as a team it's a huge bonus, because if you saw the second innings, the way he's able to take the tempo of the game forward, that allows the bowlers an extra hour and a half or two hours to bowl the opposition out.

"So look, if a guy like him at the top of the order plays the way he did in the last game, we're going to be in situations to go for victories in most of the Test matches. We're all very happy for him, and I think it's time to just move ahead from [debating about] his spot at the top of the order and just let him enjoy his batting."

The Pune pitch had a fair grass cover on the eve of the Test match, and a certain amount of early moisture is expected too, given the volume of rain the city has experienced over the past week or so. Despite this, Kohli seemed to suggest that India would probably stick with an attack containing two seamers and two spinners, and not play the extra fast bowler.

"Well, I think more or less our team is settled," he said. "I don't think it's going to play that big a factor because when the pitch is damp it turns as well, so it's not like only seamers are predominantly going to be effective on this pitch, all five days. Everyone will have to play their roles.

"Unless you have a pitch which has total grass coverage, only then you think of changes in combination for the match. Because you do know that it's going to dry out at some stage, and you can't go predominantly one-sided in your attack and then not have the balance. "We are pretty balanced in our team composition, and if any changes need to be made looking at how the pitch might behave on the first three days, then we'll do so, but we don't see any major things to think about, looking at the pitch."

VERNON, N.Y. — Mat Williamson took home the $4,000 top prize in the DIRTcar 358 Modified Series Pre-Game 100 Tuesday night at Utica-Rome Speedway.

Williamson had a lucky redraw and led the 30-car field to the initial green flag. Jordan McCreadie hung with Williamson for the first couple laps before Williamson pulled away, beginning his dominant drive.

Eighth-starting Erick Rudolph was the early mover of the redraw cars, cracking the top five by lap-15. Much of the field was running on the outside of the track, but Rudolph and Mike Mahaney were running the inside line with success.

On lap 25, Williamson had a half back stretch lead, but the battle for second between McCreadie and Alan Therrien was back and forth. The two drivers traded positions until a lap 29 yellow flag flew for Lance Willix’s rear end issue.

The race resumed with a lap-33 restart where Mahaney and Larry Wight went four-wide, splitting Rudolph and Ryan Arbuthnot in turn two. The group raced four-wide down the back stretch, before Arbuthnot and Rudolph backed out of the four-wide affair entering turn three.

Mahaney’s car was stout in the middle stages of the race and as he worked around Therrien on lap 52 to take the second spot away. A lap 59 yellow flag setup a restart with Williamson and Mahaney. Williamson elected to start from the outside and brought the line with him. Wight shot from the fourth spot up to second and challenged Williamson off the second turn. Williamson would maintain the lead through the third and fourth turns.

Wight began cutting down his deficit with 25-laps remaining, but off of turn four on lap 81, a trail of smoke ended Wight’s rally. Mahaney inherited the second spot, with Rudolph close behind.

Williamson ran upon heavy lapped traffic on lap 93, but effectively worked his way through to go on to a comfortable margin of victory.

“I have to thank my guys for giving me a fast hot rod all night,” Williamson said. “We hope to keep things rolling with the 358 series races at Weedsport and Brewerton this week.”

Rudolph came on strong late to finish in the second position, while Mahaney completed the podium. Arbuthnot and Therrien finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

The finish:

Feature: 1. Mat Williamson ($4,000), 2. Erick Rudolph, 3. Mike Mahaney, 4. Ryan Arbuthnot, 5. Alan Therrien, 6. Dave Marcuccilli, 7. Rocky Warner, 8. Chad Brachmann, 9. Rusty Smith, 10. Yan Bussiere, 11. Kyle Dingwall, 12. Greg Martin, 13. Ryan Bartlett, 14. Michael Parent,  15. AJ Miller, 16. Gary Lindberg, 17. Larry Wight, 18. Alex Therrien, 19. Bobby Varin, 20. Jordan McCreadie, 21. LJ Lombardo, 22. Kyle Inman, 23. Matt Janczuk, 24. Ronnie Johnson, 25. Ronnie Davis III, 26. Pat Ward, 27. Lance Willix, 28. Corey Wheeler, 29. Billy Whittaker, 30. Fred Carleton.

Mo Bobat, the man whose analytical approach helped to change the way that England's squads are selected, has been named as the ECB's new Performance Director for men's cricket.

Bobat, who is currently the board's Player Identification Lead, will take charge from David Parsons, who left the post in July. He will work closely alongside Chris Silverwood, the newly appointed head coach, and Ed Smith, the national selector, to support the delivery of performance plans and selection strategy.

A 36-year-old former PE teacher from Leicester, Bobat studied sports science and management and is also in the process of completing a Masters in sporting directorship. Prior to joining the ECB in 2011, he worked as a lecturer and teacher in Leicester, augmenting his experience as a Level 4 certified cricket coach.

"I am delighted and honoured to be appointed Performance Director, at what is an exciting time for English cricket," said Bobat.

"I am looking forward to working closely with both Chris Silverwood and Ed Smith, and in doing so, supporting the performance needs of our England teams and moving us closer to achieving our aim of being the most respected team in the world.

"Developing strong relationships with our counties to enhance the size and quality of our talent pool will be paramount. I aim to ensure that our highest potential players receive individualised support and international-specific experiences.

"It is a hugely exciting role and the vision is that the strength of our counties and our high-performance system delivers deliberate and sustained success across all formats."

Commenting on the appointment, Ashley Giles, the managing director of England's Men's Cricket, added: "The position of Performance Director is a critical post in the development of our long-term strategy for elite performance. Mo demonstrated through his knowledge and experience that he has the attributes to take us forward in this area.

"He will be responsible for identifying our highest potential players and leading programmes that will bridge the gap between county and international cricket helping us to deliver successful, respected and inspiring England players and teams.

"The Performance Director will work closely with our network of counties to enhance the size and quality of our talent pool and ensuring that we're jointly making decisions in each player's best long-term interests.

"We have to develop a long-term strategy that identifies the best players in the country that can step up and excel in the international cricket arena. We will expose them to learn and perform in all conditions around the world."

Australia women's nine-wicket win in the final ODI over Sri Lanka women at Allan Border Field in Brisbane on Wednesday was a world record - their 18th win in a row in the format, surpassing the run by the team led by Belinda Clark between 1997 and 1999. Meg Lanning, the captain of the record-setting team, was modest at the post-match press interaction, but conceded that it was a "very special" achievement.

"It's a special group to be a part of, especially over the last couple of years, probably since that 2017 World Cup [they lost in the semi-final to India] - it was a turning point for our group and we really did change a few things around, and we needed to, to be in the position we are now," Lanning said. "Everyone's put in a lot of hard work to get to this point, and to be able to get the record off the Belinda Clark team is certainly very special because there have been some amazing cricketers who have come before us.

"We speak a lot about making sure we look back at the past and understand what has come before us, because they certainly laid the foundation for where we are today. It's important that we recognise that."

The latest win was as commanding as you'd expect from this team. First, Nicola Carey and Jess Jonassen kept things tight and Georgia Wareham and Megan Schutt picked up a couple of wickets each to keep Sri Lanka to 8 for 195 despite Chamari Atapattu's 103. Then Alyssa Healy came out to bash an unbeaten 76-ball 112 and, with Rachael Haynes hitting 63 and Lanning 20 not out in 11 balls, the target was crossed in 26.5 overs. The series was wrapped up 3-0, and the lead at the top of the Women's Championship table over England has now stretched to eight points (from one fewer game).

"The WBBL prepares you extremely well for international cricket, it gets you in front of crowds, on TV, and the style of cricket is great as well. I've got no doubt that that's lifted the ability within our team" Alyssa Healy

"It's something we have made a bit of a habit of, of finishing off series really well," Lanning said. "I know there's been a lot of talk in the media about the record, but I can honestly say that within our group, we haven't really spoken about it. We go into every game to try to win it. So it was no different today. So to finish it off in style was a great effort. We spoke about making sure we do that because we do sort of split up now as a group [for the Women's Big Bash League]. I thought everyone did a great job, the bowlers especially, and Midge [Healy] and Rach with the bat."

Adding a bit of flavour to the record-breaking win was Clark's presence at the Field. Healy joked, "She just turns up at the opportune times! It's the end of the series, and hey, there's Belinda!" Lanning, meanwhile, pointed out that Clark had set yet another target for the team: "She sent me a message saying that her team only lost two games out of 33, so we need to keep going. So we've got one record, but we need to make sure we keep going. So we're under strict instructions."

Not just that, there's one more record up for the Australians to target: the most ODI wins in a row, irrespective of gender, which currently stands at 21 in the name of the Australia men's team, achieved between January and May 2003 under Ricky Ponting. That has to wait, though, because of the WBBL, as Australia next play ODI cricket in March in South Africa. "We'll give it a crack," Lanning promised.

It's over to the WBBL then. And Healy, for one, is sure that the tournament will give the Australians the perfect way to prepare for the 2020 T20 World Cup, to be played at home in February-March next year.

"World Cups are extremely difficult to win, and we've experienced the highs and lows of World Cups over the last four-five years, so we've obviously got a bit of a chance to go into a different environment and keep improving our games and adding things to our game and that sort of thing," she said. "Our group is hungry as ever to keep improving, and keep being successful. Once we get back together as a group [after the WBBL], hopefully [we will] continue to be successful.

"I think the WBBL prepares you extremely well for international cricket, it gets you on the big stage in front of crowds, on TV, and the style of cricket is great as well; the world's best players from overseas and Australia playing, and it's a great standard. I've got no doubt that that's lifted the ability within our team and, as we have seen over the last two tours, we have brought players in who have been playing state cricket for a while and WBBL, and they have fitted in seamlessly and have looked at home on the international stage."

And Healy has built up nicely to the WBBL, doing one of the things in the last game she hasn't always managed to despite her staggering form: finish an ODI chase.

"I guess a little bit of a mental thing [getting out]," she said in response to a question. "I was saying to Meg today, often when I get to 60-odd I hit one in the air, so it's all a bit weird. But to be able to be clinical and finish off the series really well, and be not out, is probably not something I have done a lot. So to do it today was obviously pleasing."

Jason Gillespie will remain as Sussex head coach at least until the end of the 2022 season, after agreeing a contract extension.

Gillespie, who won the County Championship with Yorkshire in consecutive seasons in 2014 and 2015, moved to Hove at the start of the 2018 season but has so far been unable to oversee the side's return to Division One.

However, Sussex have enjoyed more success in one-day cricket, reaching the knockout stages of the Vitality Blast in both of his seasons in charge, including to the final in 2018.

His stature as a coach, including his links to the BBL franchise Adelaide Strikers, has also been helpful in attracting a high calibre of overseas players, including Alex Carey, Mir Hamza, Travis Head, Rashid Khan and Ishant Sharma.

"I'm absolutely delighted to extend my time at Sussex," said Gillespie. "I absolutely love the place and everyone at the club has been fantastic since I joined.

"I really feel we're moving in the right direction, which is really pleasing. I can't fault the efforts of all our players and coaches. We're all on the same page; everyone wants what's best for the club, and I feel we're progressing in reaching those aims.

"We've had some really good times together, and we've had some challenging times, but we're all clear about what we're setting out to achieve and focussed on improving and developing to keep us moving forward.

"That's a pretty special thing to be part of. I want to thank the club for the opportunity to carry on being part of that and for showing faith in me. I'm determined to repay that faith by keeping things moving in the right direction and hopefully having some success down the track."

Rob Andrew, Sussex Cricket's chief executive added: "We are delighted to announce that Dizzy [Gillespie] has extended his contract through to 2022. There is going to be a lot of change in cricket over the next couple of years and we wanted some continuity through this period.

"We still have a lot of work to do to improve the men's side and we were disappointed not to achieve promotion to division one of the County Championship this season. It is where the club aspires to be.

"We have been more consistent in our performances in T20 and 50-over cricket in the last couple of years but need to find that consistency in Championship cricket as well. Dizzy and his coaching team will be working hard to move the club forward and we are delighted he has chosen to help us on this journey."

Britain's Heather Watson and Harriet Dart have been knocked out of the Tianjin Open women's doubles.

The pair were beaten 6-4 4-6 2-10 by China's Zhu Lin and Han Xinyun.

The British pair took the first set but were forced into a tie break after losing the second and struggled to find momentum, handing the Chinese duo victory.

Watson, 27, is in singles action on Thursday 10 October as she plays second seed Wang Qiang in the second round.

Dart, 23, was knocked out by qualifier Kurumi Nara on Tuesday.