Following news of Jackson's arrival at Irish two of the club's sponsors, including drinks giant Diageo, decided to end their support.
On the pitch, Jackson will be reuniting with former Ireland head coach and now Irish director of rugby Declan Kidney as well as Les Kiss, his former head coach at Ulster and Ireland.
Danaher, Irish's assistant coach, says Jackson has settled in well alongside other new recruits.
"Paddy's part of us working towards what will hopefully be a successful return to the Premiership," Danaher said.
"He's spent a year in France before coming here. He seems a little bit more at home and I think he's glad to be back in an English-speaking country.
"He's a quiet lad who works hard on the training pitch and he's just keen to get on with his business."
BARCELONA: Too few attackers, too many midfielders
Barcelona did a lot of good business this summer. Much of it was done early, too. Frenkie de Jong helps rejuvenate an aging midfield and Antoine Griezmann brings quality in attack. The arrival of goalkeeper Neto cancels out the departure of Jasper Cillessen and Junior Firpo provides competition at left-back for Jordi Alba.
They managed to shift a number of players, too, with Malcom bringing in a good sum of cash and Philippe Coutinho's loan to Bayern Munich shifting a big earner from the wage bill. However, those two left with the idea another attacker would join -- namely Neymar. That didn't happen and they're left with just four (admittedly very good) forwards for three positions: Griezmann, Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Ousmane Dembele. The problem is, Messi and Suarez are both now 32 and Dembele is injury prone. Youngsters Carles Perez and Ansu Fati could have a bigger role to play than they expected.
The opposite is true in midfield, where seven players will compete for three places. It may be a long season for one of Ivan Rakitic, Carles Alena or Arturo Vidal.
At the back, they stick with what they've got having missed out on Matthijs de Ligt to Juventus. An injury to Gerard Pique -- who's also the wrong side of 30 now -- would leave them at the mercy of Samuel Umtiti's knee. Umtiti is the only real backup to Pique and Clement Lenglet, with young Jean Clair Todibo still untested. -- Sam Marsden.
play
1:59
Can Bale be Real Madrid's best player this season?
Steve Nicol decides whether the hot takes from this weekend's action are plausible or simply overreactions.
REAL MADRID: A weaker midfield and no leader in attack
Madrid, in fact, weakened a midfield line they meant to strengthen. Los Blancos sold Marco Llorente, Casemiro's natural replacement, to Atletico while Dani Ceballos, the alternative to Toni Kroos and Luka Modric, was loaned to Arsenal. Much is expected from Federico Valverde but he has clocked just eight minutes in Madrid's opening three league games. After being widely expected to leave, Gareth Bale and James Rodriguez stayed with Madrid not receiving suitable offers.
The loss of Marco Asensio to an ACL injury, a lack of spark from Vinicius Jr. and the absence of an injured Hazard in the opening three games, has highlighted another weakness in Madrid's team: there is no leader in attack. Hazard will provide quality but is far from reaching the goal-scoring numbers that Cristiano Ronaldo once did. Neymar could have filled that void. -- Adriana Garcia.
play
1:23
'Fantastic' Felix already showing signs of greatness at Atleti
ESPN FC's Steve Nicol and Craig Burley discuss Alvaro Morata's winning goal and Joao Felix's first La Liga start for Atletico Madrid.
ATLETICO MADRID: Nothing. But another striker would have been nice
Atletico got pretty much everything they needed in the summer window, including beating off the whole of Europe to sign wonderkid Joao Felix from Benfica for a club record €126m -- arguably the biggest scoop in La Liga, and that includes Eden Hazard's €100m transfer to Real Madrid!
Atletico had plenty of work to do after losing defensive trio Diego Godin, Juanfran and Filipe Luis as free agents, while Lucas Hernandez, Rodri and Antoine Griezmann departed as Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Barcelona, respectively, activated their release clauses.
The only negative was that Atletico were unable to offload Argentine forward Angel Correa despite weeks of negotiations with AC Milan, and that scuppered a move for Rodrigo. Atletico and Valencia had reached a verbal agreement on a €60m deal but Correa had to leave first. Atletico also were interested in adding James Rodriguez from Real Madrid but again needed Correa to depart. James or Rodrigo would have been the cherry on top on what was a great window. -- Adriana Garcia.
play
1:59
De Ligt's Juventus exclusion sparks heated ESPN FC debate
Steve Nicol and Craig Burley get heated with Gab Marcotti over whether Matthijs de Ligt should have spent Juventus' opening match on the bench.
JUVENTUS: An aging front line and failure to sell well
The €75m signing of Matthijs de Ligt feels like an awful long time ago now but don't lose sight of it. The Ajax centre-back had his pick of Europe's elite and chose Juventus, while the acquisition of fellow centre-back Merih Demiral from Sassuolo for €18m should also go down as one of the bargains of the summer
Sporting director Fabio Paratici continued Juventus' tradition of working the free transfer market with aplomb; Adrien Rabiot and Aaron Ramsey, in theory, skill-up a midfield that lacked angles and imagination last season. The team looks stronger and the squad deeper than ever. But therein lies a problem.
Selling proved very difficult for Juventus this summer. Gonzalo Higuain dug his heels in, as did Paulo Dybala and Mario Mandzukic. Moving on Sami Khedira and Daniele Rugani also hit obstacles. A fortnight ago, Juve vice-president Pavel Nedved insisted the club were under no pressure to sell but their actions up until deadline day suggested otherwise.
Juve's attack in particular looks old after the sale of Moise Kean to Everton and hard choices await the Old Lady when it comes to deciding who's in and who's out of the 23-man Champions League squad. New manager Maurizio Sarri has never been big on rotation and the risk of disgruntlement among a number of high profile players is high. -- James Horncastle.
play
1:14
Marcotti: Inter hopeful Conte can get the best out of Lukaku
Gab Marcotti delves into the faith Inter have placed in Antonio Conte to get players like Romelu Lukaku to shine this campaign.
INTER MILAN: Depth still not enough to challenge Juve
Inter Milan may have had strengthened in almost every area -- including the manager -- this summer, but that does not mean they are necessarily ready to challenge Juventus for the Serie A title.
Last season they were short in attack, after the exclusion of Mauro Icardi, leaving only Lautaro Martinez to play up front and the 22-year-old only managed six goals Serie A goals in 27 appearances. While Inter have brought in Romelu Lukaku from Manchester United for a club-record fee of €80 million, the Belgium international arrives simply as a replacement for Icardi, who left for Paris Saint-Germain on loan.
Lukaku's ex-United teammate Alexis Sanchez has also joined on loan -- and he can play in attack as well as on the wing, where Inter lost Ivan Perisic following the Croatia international's loan move to Bayern Munich. Injuries could prove fatal to any title bid for the Nerazzurri. In central defence, they have superb options for Antonio Conte's preferred back three in Stefan de Vrij, Milan Skriniar and Godin. However, injury to De Vrij meant Conte had to call upon ex-Hull City man Andrea Ranocchia. -- Andrew Cesare Richardson.
play
2:15
What Icardi can offer PSG on his season-long loan
The FC crew break down how Mauro Icardi fits with PSG as he joins the French giants on loan from Inter.
Understandably, PSG's summer business is being interpreted as risky by some less familiar with the French champions' peculiarities -- mainly the loan addition of attacker Icardi to a troubled dressing room in recent years.
For those well-versed with the Ligue 1 giants' recent issues, however, arguing that this summer has not been a success is hard. PSG added quality in depth in certain areas and regenerated others, with central midfield getting a long overdue boost through Ander Herrera and Idrissa Gueye's arrivals, while restructuring with Keylor Navas, Sergio Rico and Marcin Bulka ends years of farcical goalkeeper uncertainty.
One minor complaint is that both full-back positions have not received greater attention this summer, despite sporting director Leonardo's efforts to restock, as well as an exodus of homegrown talent.
Overall, though, PSG finish the summer with a very strong squad on paper, particularly after keeping hold of Neymar, and authority over an unruly dressing room finally appears to have been restored through Leonardo's return at the expense of the inept Antero Henrique. -- Jonathan Johnson.
play
1:51
Will Coutinho's Bayern loan turn around his fortunes?
Alejandro Moreno and Brian McBride react to Philippe Coutinho's move to Barcelona from Bayern Munich on a season-long loan.
Bayern spent most of the summer chasing a big money move for Leroy Sane. But once the Manchester City winger sustained a long-term knee injury, the club turned to brilliant loan deals for Philippe Coutinho and Ivan Perisic, two experienced internationals to fill the gaps left by Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery.
There was a changing of the guard at the back as the arrival of France's 2018 World Cup winners Lucas Hernandez and Benjamin Pavard replaced Mats Hummels, who returned to Dortmund, and Jerome Boateng, who has dropped down the pecking order. While Michael Cuisance came in to take the place of the ineffectual Renato Sanches, sold to Lille, in midfield.
Bayern have added some depth in the middle of the park, however they are still too reliant on Robert Lewandowski. The 31-year-old is Bayern's most important player and is indispensable up top. He already has six goals in three league games and, with only 19-year-old Fiete Arp joining as his backup from Hamburg, he is still without any competition. They'll probably have enough to claim another Bundesliga title but any long-term injury for the Pole could serve as a major blow to Bayern's hopes of winning the Champions League.
play
2:01
Why it's time for Jadon Sancho to move to an 'elite team'
ESPN FC's Steve Nicol explains why Jadon Sancho should depart Dortmund and take the next step in his footballing career.
Dortmund stormed out of the blocks and took an early lead in the transfer market to sign Germany internationals Nico Schulz and Julian Brandt, as well as Belgium international Thorgan Hazard, right after the end of the season.
They also re-signed Mats Hummels from Bayern Munich but, with focus shifting to offloading high-earning fringe players such as Andre Schurrle, Maximilian Philipp, Shinji Kagawa and Omer Toprak, Dortmund roughly invested some €130m (which included Paco Alcacer's permanent transfer from Barcelona) and just about broke even if you add Christian Pulisic's €64m move to Chelsea in January.
Yet despite adding quality and reducing squad numbers, Dortmund still have a few things to work on. In Alcacer and Mario Gotze, BVB have two attackers who aren't a No. 9. Coach Lucien Favre has said he does not need a target man in the box but the lack of alternatives up front could become a major problem.
At right-back, Lukasz Piszczek remains Dortmund's first-choice. But with age slowly taking its toll, the 34-year-old club legend could become a liability. Real Madrid loanee Achraf Hakimi has yet to show he is mature enough to both defend and attack, while 19-year-old Mateu Morey, who joined on a free from Barcelona, is the future but his start to life at the club has been delayed by a shoulder injury. -- Stephan Uerseld.
Serena Williams says she "has to do everything well" to win her US Open semi-final against Elina Svitolina and stay on course for a 24th Grand Slam.
American Williams, 37, is aiming to match Australian Margaret Court's record of Grand Slam singles titles.
Fifth seed Svitolina is the highest ranked player left in the women's event and beat Britain's Johanna Konta 6-4 6-4 in the quarter-finals on Tuesday.
"Elina is obviously a fighter, she gets a lot of balls back," said Williams.
"She doesn't make a lot of mistakes. She's one of those players that does everything really well so I have to do everything well, too."
Seeded eighth, Williams is looking for her seventh US Open title but her first since 2014.
She has won four of her previous five matches against the 24-year-old Ukrainian but Svitolina's victory came in their most recent meeting - a last 16 match at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
"It was an unbelievable atmosphere. I played actually a great match," said Svitolina. "I was kind of young and didn't have big wins at that time.
"It gave me the confidence to actually let me believe I can play consistent against the top players."
Williams' victories at Flushing Meadows in 2019 have included wins against former world number one Maria Sharapova, 22nd seed Petra Martic and the American needed only 44 minutes to thrash China's 16th seed Qiang Wang 6-1 6-0 in the quarter-finals.
However, Svitolina, who also reached the final four at Wimbledon earlier this year but has never played in a Grand Slam final, has also been in impressive form and has not dropped a set in five matches.
She beat Serena's sister Venus, herself a two-time US Open champion, in round two, American 10th seed Madison Keys and then Konta in the last eight.
"I have to react quickly and try to take my chances when I have them," Svitolina added.
"I have played some big hitters in this tournament and I have to react quickly with my feet and with my shots. Then when I have the opportunity, go for it."
'I was dreaming about this day coming'
In the other semi-final, 13th seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland takes on 19-year-old Canadian Bianca Andreescu.
Bencic knocked out 2018 champion and world number one Naomi Osaka 7-5 6-4 on Tuesday and backed that up with a win over Croatia's Donna Vekic, the 23rd seed, on Wednesday.
That victory took Bencic into a Grand Slam semi-final for the first time in her career.
"Semi-final feels great right now," she said. "I was dreaming about this day coming but you never know. I worked hard for this."
Bencic sank as low as 328th in the world rankings after numerous injuries and surgery on her left wrist two years ago but is guaranteed to return to the top 10 for the first time since June 2016.
Andreescu, meanwhile, will also enter the top 10 after coming from behind to beat Belgium's Elise Mertens in the quarter-finals.
The Canadian, who has won two WTA titles this year, is also making her first appearance in the last four at a Grand Slam.
Murray aims for another doubles final
In the men's doubles semi-finals, British pair Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski take on top-seeded Colombians Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, who won the doubles title at Wimbledon in July.
Murray and Skupski won a thrilling final-set tie-break against Americans Jack Sock and Jackson Withrow, while Cabral and Farah eliminated the pairing of Britain's Luke Bambridge and Japan's Ben McLachlan.
Murray is on course for two doubles titles as he is also in Saturday's mixed doubles final, partnering American Bethanie Mattek-Sands. Last year's champions will play either the top-seeded duo of Chan Hao-ching and Michael Venus or fourth seeds Latisha Chan and Ivan Dodig.
Rafael Nadal remains the favourite to win the US Open and move within one on Roger Federer's tally of 20 Grand Slams after a hard-fought quarter-final win over Diego Schwartzman.
Spanish second seed Nadal won 6-4 7-5 6-2 against the Argentine 20th seed.
But he was made to work as Schwartzman twice rallied from four-game deficits in a stuffy Arthur Ashe stadium.
Nadal, 33, will next play Italy's 24th seed Matteo Berrettini, who beat Gael Monfils in their last eight clash.
Three of the men's semi-finalists - Berrettini, Grigor Dimitrov and Daniil Medvedev - have never played in a Grand Slam final.
Nadal's golden opportunity to close on Federer
Nadal, who won his 18th Grand Slam with a 12th title at Roland Garros in June, has been considered one of the favourites in New York from the start of tournament, with the other two members of the 'Big Three' - Serbia's world number one Novak Djokovic and Swiss great Federer - also tipped as the men to beat.
That has been a familiar pattern over the past decade such has been the trio's dominance, showing no signs of changing despite all three men entering their 30s.
The past 11 Grand Slams have all been won by either Nadal, 32-year-old Djokovic or 38-year-old Federer.
But the departure of 2018 champion Djokovic, who retired from his last-16 match against Stan Wawrinka with a shoulder injury, and Federer's quarter-final exit against Bulgarian world number 78 Dimitrov, has given the opportunity for Nadal to make a serious move in the race to be considered as the greatest player of all time.
If Nadal lifts his fourth title at Flushing Meadows he will move within one of Federer's tally for the first time.
Schwartzman falls short in late-night thriller
Before thinking that far ahead, Nadal had to see off a courageous challenge from Schwartzman, who levelled from a double break down in each of the first two sets.
A strange start saw Nadal race 4-0 ahead before the diminutive Schwartzman, backed by vociferous Argentine support on an atmospheric Ashe, hit back with four straight games of his own.
Momentum continued with Schwartzman, who created two break points for a 5-4 lead before the Spaniard dug deep to hold and clinch the opener with another break.
Remarkably the same pattern continued in the second set, Nadal moving a double break up before Schwartzman fought back from 5-1 - with a forehand winner after a desperate scramble leaving even his opponent clapping - to level at 5-5.
Again Nadal's nous proved the difference at the crucial moment, taking Schwartzman's serve in the 12th game with his third set point.
With the clock ticking past midnight, swathes of seats became empty in the early part of the third set as some spectators left for home.
Luckily for those left Nadal wrapped things up quickly, breaking twice without reply to clinch victory in two hours and 46 minutes before embracing Schwartzman at the net.
On the opening day of play, Serbia struck a narrow 3-2 victory over Belgium in a fascinating and hard-fought duel to establish positive momentum in the group, but the early pace-setters knew that there was little time to celebrate with another huge clash on the fixture list the following day.
Awaiting in the second set of group-stage matches was a fierce meeting with the top-seeded team in Group 7, Poland. However, Team Serbia entered the tie not only with confidence on their side but also the understanding that success on day two would be enough to seal top spot in the group.
One powerful weapon Serbia had up their sleeve was the vastly experienced and highly reliable warrior known as Aleksandar Karakasevic. So, it may have come as a shock for some to see the 43-year-old Serb suffer defeat in the match opener and it was a convincing one at that as Poland’s Marek Badowski produced an inspiring display to put his team 1-0 ahead (11-6, 11-9, 11-9).
An early setback for the Serbians, their deficit soon doubled as Jakub Dyjas inflicted a four games defeat upon Zsolt Peto (5-11, 11-3, 11-7, 11-7) to extend Poland’s lead to 2-0 and firmly in the driving seat.
The odds were beginning to stack up in the Polish team’s favour but their opponents refused to give up without a fight: Marko Jevtovic put Serbia on the scoreboard with his straight games win against Samuel Kulczycki (11-8, 11-9, 16-14) while Karakasevic made up for his previous loss, edging an entertaining encounter with Dyjas (6-11, 11-7, 11-4, 11-13, 11-9) to draw the match level at 2-2. Was a truly legendary comeback about to be completed?
With both sides inseparable by the conclusion of the fourth match, a deciding fifth fixture was required to find a winner. The man who put his team on the front foot at the very start of the contest, Badowski went on to beat Peto (11-9, 4-11, 11-9, 11-2) to secure the most crucial of victories that saved Poland’s campaign in Nantes.
Team Poland has relied on the service of Dyjas to get them out of a tricky spot on more than one occasion in the past, but this time out it was Marek Badowski that delivered when his country needed him most.
Two matches down, just one to go and it’s still anyone’s game! Defeated on day one, the hunt for first position in Group 7 is still a possibility for Belgium but to pull it off they will need a mighty performance to see off Poland in the concluding battle.
Right now Poland are in pole position, but this unpredictable group might still have a surprise or two to offer.
Victors in opposition to Argentina, the no.2 seeds, in their opening fixture, Canada recorded a 3-2 win against Chile to secure first place in the group.
Against Argentina the backbone of the success had been Jeremy Hazin, he had accounted for both Nicolas Galvano (7-11, 11-7, 11-13, 11-6, 11-8) and Gaston Alto (8-11, 11-7, 11-5, 2-11, 11-9); facing Chile it was exactly the same scenario. He overcame Manuel Moya (8-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-6) and Gustavo Gomez (11-8, 11-8, 7-11, 11-8).
Furthermore, just as when facing Argentina he had set the scene for Edward Ly to seal the victory; he did the same in opposition to Chile, he overcame Manuel Moya (11-6, 11-9, 11-9).
End of road
Defeat for Chile, it meant the end of the road; for Canada a semi-final place, for Argentina a quarter-final berth. Alas for Argentina there was to be no penultimate round place, a 3-2 defeat was the outcome against the United States trio of Kanak Jha, Nikhil Kumar and Zhang Kai.
A quarter-final exit for Argentina, it was the same for Paraguay, represented by Marcelo Aguirre, Santiago Osorio and Axel Gavilan. After, recording a 3-2 win against Ecuador’s Alberto Miño, Diego Piguave and Emiliano Riofrio to reserve second place, they experienced a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Puerto Rico’s Daniel Gonzalez, Brian Afanador and Angel Naranjo.
At the semi-final stage, Puerto Rico face Canada; the United States opposes Brazil’s top seeded outfit of Vitor Ishiy, Eric Jouti and Gustavo Tsuboi, the trio having the previous day reserved first place in their group.
Progress to semi-finals
Meanwhile, in the women’s team event, Brazil’s Caroline Kumahara, Bruna Takahashi and Jessica Yamada, who had recorded a 3-1 win against the no.2 , seeds, Puerto Rico’s Adriana Diaz, Melanie Diaz and Daniely Rios, concluded their initial phase fixtures in style. They claimed a 3-0 win in opposition to Canada’s Huang Hui, Sophie Gauthier and Joyce Xu. Puerto Rico duly finished in second place.
Progress for the United States and Chile, in the corresponding group, the United States represented by Amy Wang, Crystal Wang, Wu Yue and Lily Zhang gained first place ahead of Chile.
In the penultimate round the United States opposes Puerto Rico, Brazil confronts Chile.
Both the men’s team and women’s team events will be played to a conclusion n Thursday 5th September.
Moreover, there could be repeats of gold medal contests of three years ago at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.
Memorably, in men’s singles class 1, Great Britain’s Rob Davies beat Korea Republic’s Joo Youngdae to claim the title. Both appear on the Ostrava entry list.
“I’ve had a lot more consistency in my training over the summer, so it is going in the right direction and I’m quite happy with where I am at the moment. It is all about qualifying for Tokyo next year so that is my main goal, to get qualified and keep making improvements. It is good to see the Koreans will be there and hopefully I will get to play them. They are obviously good players and it will be good to test ourselves against them.” Rob Davies
In Ostrava, Rob Davies lines up alongside Tom Matthews and Paul Davies. Notably last year Tom Matthews was a bronze medallist at the 2018 World Para Championships in Lasko; Paul Davies at the London 2012 Paralympic Games
“Tom is coming along nicely and it will be good to see how he does against the Koreans as well. We can push each other going towards Tokyo and that will be good for us all I think.” Rob Davies
A possible Rio de Janeiro repeat in men’s singles class 1; it could also happen in men’s singles class 6.
The names of Denmark’s Peter Rosenmeier and Spain’s Alvaro Valera both appear on the entry list. In Rio de Janeiro Peter Rosenmeier accounted for Alvaro Valera in the title decider. Previously, Peter Rosenmeier had won gold at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games, Alvaro Valera had emerged the winner in 2000 in Sydney.
Noteworthy names and there are more who have enjoyed success at the highest level. Slovakia’s Jan Riapos will be in action; he won men’s singles class at the Athens 2004 and London 2012 Paralympic Games. Likewise, winners in London in 2012, Norway’s Tommy Urhaug in class 5 and Poland’s Patryk Chojnowski in class 10 compete in Ostrava.
Similarly in the women’s singles events, there are most prominent names; Norway’s Aida Dahlen, the class 8 European champion in both 2015 and 2017 competes as does Serbia’s Borislava Peric-Rankovic, Rio 2016 class 4 gold medallist.
Overall 323 players have enrolled, a total f 288 men and 95 women.
INDIANAPOLIS – Thomas Meseraull has quickly proven that all it took to light up his season was a new power plant under the hood cover of his RMS Racing-prepared No. 7x midget.
With a new Toyota engine onboard, Meseraull raced from ninth to the win in one of 10 heat races Wednesday night at The Dirt Track at IMS, topping the passing points chart for the opening half of the Driven2SaveLives BC39 powered by NOS Energy Drink.
Meseraull, who had to wait until the ninth heat to go out on Wednesday by virtue of his draft pick Tuesday night, rocketed from ninth to fourth in one lap when the green flag waved and found himself in the lead by the time the fourth revolution of the fifth-mile dirt oval was completed.
From there, Meseraull left the other eight drivers in his heat race in the dust, taking the checkered flag in front of a charging Kyle Larson by .969 seconds and earning 165 passing points for his efforts.
That put Meseraull atop the other 89 entrants for the BC39 and sets him up in prime position for Thursday’s qualifiers. Combined points from the heats and qualifiers set the fields for the alphabet soup.
“I just can’t thank my guys enough; it’s about time I was in a hot rod,” said Meseraull, whose team switched to Toyota power a week ago and already has a POWRi win under its belt. “I’m in the best of the best of the best right now. This thing is brand new; we built it three weeks ago and put a brand-new Toyota in it … and it’s seemed to rip, on the chip, all the time since we got it going.
“We’ve got tomorrow to go yet, but I feel good. I love where we’re at right now. We’re in a rhythm.”
In other preliminary action, Brady Bacon thrilled the crowd from the outset, coming from seventh and edging out Chris Windom by .036 seconds in a photo finish to win the first Wednesday heat race.
A last-lap pass in a green-to-checkered second heat saw Kevin Thomas Jr. slip past Karsyn Elledge for the second heat race victory of the program.
After a duel of sliders with his Clauson-Marshall Racing teammate Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in the third heat race, Zeb Wise pulled away over the second half of the 10-lap sprint en route to victory.
The fourth heat race saw Dillon Welch make a daring three-wide pass of both Justin Grant and C.J. Leary entering turn one on the final lap to take the victory in the Tucker-Boat Motorsports No. 81.
Heat race five was dominated from start to finish by winged sprint car star Gio Scelzi, who rocketed to the lead from the outside pole and was never challenged thereafter. Jason McDougal finished second.
Zach Daum took the lead on lap four of the sixth heat and fended off a determined Tanner Carrick down the stretch en route to that heat’s checkered flag. Billy Wease was third after leading the first two laps.
In that heat, Andrew Layser went for a wild flip in the third turn with two to go while running fourth, with his No. 47bc briefly catching fire before the flames were extinguished. Layser climbed out under his own power.
Jake Neuman came from fourth to first on lap five and walked away from a furious battle for second between Michael Pickens and Christopher Bell to win heat race seven. Pickens eventually prevailed over Bell to come home as the runner-up in that event.
The eighth heat featured another photo finish, as Chad Boat beat out Logan Seavey’s last-gasp effort to take the checkered flag in front by .082 seconds. Alex Bright finished a second back of those two in third.
Following Meseraull’s win in heat nine, Spencer Bayston led the final seven laps to win the 10th and final heat race in his first race back in a national midget since the Chili Bowl Nationals back in January.
Going into the qualifiers on Thursday, Meseraull leads the rostrum with 165 points, followed by Bacon, Thomas and Bayston, who each have 155 points to their names.
Chris Windom is fifth in the provisional point standings with 148 points, while Daum and Neuman are deadlocked at 145 points apiece. Tanner Carrick (143), Logan Seavey (143) and Boat (140) completed the top 10 in the night one standings.
Notables with a long way to go to reach the top-16 lock-in for the Thursday night A-main include Tyler Courtney, who was 22nd on points; Tyler Thomas, who ended the night 25th in points; Christopher Bell, who struggled in his heat and is 33rd in points; and J.J. Yeley, who sits 40th in points after heat races.
To view complete heat race results, advance to the next page.
Mobil 1 – the best choice for your Truck or SUV. Learn more about Mobil 1 Truck & SUV oil and enter for a chance to win a Toyota pickup or SUV at dirtgiveaway.com.
INDIANAPOLIS – Kyle Larson was, quite literally, the last man standing during Wednesday night’s 25-lap Stoops Pursuit at The Dirt Track at IMS, as the second annual Driven2SaveLives BC39 powered by NOS Energy Drink officially got underway.
Larson was one of three drivers who remained in contention during the final segment of the unique, Australian-style pursuit event which eliminated drivers as they crashed out or were passed on track.
He, Michael Pickens and Justin Grant were all racing tightly together on the last lap of the five-lap sprint to the finish when Pickens dove underneath Larson entering turn three and ramped over Larson’s left-front tire with the right-rear wheel of his No. 1nz.
The contact sent Pickens several feet in the air as he flipped wildly, while Larson went into a 360-degree spin as he wrestled to regain control of his Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports No. 97.
While all of that happened down low, Grant went to the cushion in an attempt to rocket around the outside of both crashing cars below him, but tagged the outside wall with his right-rear tire and ended up flipping in his own right.
That left Larson, who kept his car under power as he got pointed back in the right direction, alone to sneak through the fourth corner and to the red and checkered flags as the winner – the only one of 25 cars that ultimately made it to the finish line and completed the entire distance of the Stoops Pursuit.
It was a finish that evoked memories of both the 1976 Daytona 500 finish between Richard Petty and David Pearson at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway and the 1985 “spin-and-win” performed by Danny Sullivan at IMS during the 69th running of the Indianapolis 500.
As he climbed from his wounded race car in victory lane, Larson was all smiles.
Kyle Larson takes the red and checkered flags to win Wednesday night’s Stoops Pursuit at The Dirt Track at IMS. (Rich Forman photo)
“That was wild,” Larson exclaimed. “I didn’t know it was going to be that crazy of a race. On the second to last stage, Justin (Grant) got by and then (Jason) McDougal got by, and I knew I needed to get back to second to be able to run that last round.
“I was really good up top,” Larson continued. “I knew if I got a good restart, I could get by Pickens, but this track was so racy that sliders were easy to throw. Michael (Pickens) was throwing everything he had at me. We made contact there on the backstretch. He was trying to park it on the bottom, and I was trying to do what I did the lap before or two laps before (in order to hold him off).
“I didn’t know it was going to be that crazy of a race, but for an odd format like that, it was a ton of fun.”
The seventh-starting Larson won $2,100 for his efforts, with the $1,500 winner’s share boosted by $100 for each car that the Elk Grove, Calif., native passed during the Stoops Pursuit main event.
With scoring for the two crashed combatants on the final lap going back to the last completed lap, Pickens was credited with second place and Grant was scored third in the final finishing order.
Tyler Courtney and Jason McDougal, who were both eliminated during the final segment break at the conclusion of lap 20, completed the top five.
Polesitter Jesse Colwell never led a lap of the event, passed by Chad Boat in the first corner and eliminated at the lap-five cutoff despite running second at that time. He finished 14th.
Defending Stoops Pursuit champion Zeb Wise made the return visit by winning his heat race, but was mired in traffic after starting 13th and also got eliminated at the end of the first five-lap segment.
Wise was credited with 18th in the official results.
The finish:
1. Kyle Larson (7), 2. Michael Pickens (3), 3. Justin Grant (12), 4. Tyler Courtney (17), 5. Jason McDougal (15), 6. Tanner Carrick (11), 7. Chris Windom (18), 8. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. (16), 9. Chad Boat (2), 10. 19 Spencer Bayston (4), 11. 67 Logan Seavey (5), 12. Zach Daum (14), 13. Kevin Thomas, Jr. (19), 14. Jesse Colwell (1), 15. Gio Scelzi (10), 16. Jake Neuman (6), 17. Dillon Welch (9), 18. Zeb Wise (13), 19. Brady Bacon (20), 20. Christopher Bell (25), 21. Robert Dalby (24), 22. Kyle O’Gara (21), 23. Jerry Coons, Jr. (23), 24. Thomas Meseraull (8), 25. Chase Briscoe (22).
Lap Leader(s): Chad Boat 1-5, Michael Pickens 6-20, Kyle Larson 21-22, Pickens 23, Larson 24-25.
Mobil 1 – the best choice for your Truck or SUV. Learn more about Mobil 1 Truck & SUV oil and enter for a chance to win a Toyota pickup or SUV at dirtgiveaway.com.
The NHL is expanding its reach into Russia through a new streaming agreement that's set to make every regular-season and playoff game available in the country.
The league reached an agreement with Yandex that will more than triple the number of games available to fans in Russia. Staging a game in Russia remains a possibility in the coming years.
"It's a game-changer for us," NHL executive vice president of international and media strategy David Proper said Wednesday. "We're more than dipping our toe into the market."
The NHL's previous agreement called for 15 games per week to be broadcast in Russia. That gave a window into the league and its Russian stars, such as Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Nikita Kucherov and Vladimir Tarasenko, but the long-term goal is to create not just more fans but also another generation of players.
Citing agreements in other countries with established pro leagues, Proper said the NHL is not trying to cut into the KHL's market but rather help the Russian-based league with more exposure.
"If things go really well, it rises all boats because people become hockey fans," Proper said. "For the most part, they're not on at the same times as KHL games, so this gives us the opportunity to show how great Russian players are, and maybe, hopefully, that in some way helps just the overall growth of hockey in the market."
I Dig® is a leading global brand that makes it more enjoyable to surf the internet, conduct transactions and access, share, and create information. Today I Dig®attracts millions of users every month.r
Phone: (800) 737. 6040 Fax: (800) 825 5558 Website: www.idig.com Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Phone: (800) 737. 6040
Fax: (800) 825 5558
Website: 
Email: 
