NEW YORK -- When he was first hit by a pitch from Colorado's Chad Bettis, Yankees slugger Luke Voit said he was scared. He remembered when Giancarlo Stanton's jaw was broken by a pitch from Milwaukee's Mike Fiers five years ago.

"I thought broken jaw. My teeth were going to be all scattered everywhere," Voit said Sunday. "I grabbed my face. So I was like, 'Uh-oh.' ... But then, it wasn't as bad as I thought. Just a scary thing."

Voit was back in the New York Yankees' lineup at first base for Sunday's series finale against Colorado. He said his jaw was "super sore" when he awoke, but after icing it, there was only a little swelling. He said it felt as if he had been punched, and there was a slight cut on his chin. Concussion tests were negative.

Part of the force of the 91 mph pitch was absorbed when the ball grazed Voit's shoulder before hitting his chin. He also was able to turn his face slightly to avoid direct contact.

"I dodged a bullet, got lucky," said Voit, who planned to try a protective chin strap on his helmet before the game.

Left fielder Brett Gardner was scratched from the lineup because of a knee that was "barking," according to manager Aaron Boone, and he was replaced by Mike Tauchman. Boone said he expects Gardner will be available for Monday night's road trip opener at Minnesota.

Stanton, limited to nine games this season, is not close to returning from his latest injury. He strained his left biceps on March 31 in his third game, strained a shoulder and calf during his rehabilitation and returned June 18. In his sixth game back, he strained the posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during an awkward headfirst slide into third base against Toronto on June 25.

"Better, but still slow. Not baseball activities yet," Boone said. "He feels like he is making some progress, where I think the first couple of weeks was a little frustrating in that it was slow moving."

Stanton is hitting .290 with one home run and seven RBIs, and he has been pretty much a nonfactor in the Yankees' season.

Outfielder Cameron Maybin, sidelined since straining his left calf on June 21, is to start a minor league injury rehabilitation assignment with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre on Tuesday.

Ace Luis Severino and setup man Dellin Betances, both sidelined since spring training by lat injuries, started throwing on flat ground Monday but are not yet ready to begin bullpen sessions, making returns before late August unlikely.

"I would say sometime in the early part of next month they should be on the mound if everything continues to go well," Boone said.

CLEVELAND -- Corey Kluber threw 30 pitches in a bullpen session Sunday as the Cleveland right-hander continues his comeback from a broken forearm.

Kluber threw off the mound for the second time since being struck on the right arm by a line drive on May 1 against Miami.

Manager Terry Francona said the two-time AL Cy Young Award winner is scheduled to throw off the mound again Wednesday.

Kluber has thrown breaking pitches off flat ground, but has gone with only fastballs in the bullpen. Francona said Kluber will begin throwing breaking pitches off the mound in upcoming sessions.

The Indians have climbed back in the AL Central race without Kluber and right-hander Carlos Carrasco, who was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia in June.

Carrasco has been throwing in the bullpen, but told reporters earlier this month he doesn't know whether he'll pitch again this season.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The Tampa Bay Rays placed oft-injured center fielder Kevin Kiermaier on the 10-day injured list Sunday with a sprained left thumb and recalled outfielder Guillermo Heredia from Triple-A Durham.

Kiermaier is hopeful of missing just a couple of weeks after an MRI exam Sunday found the ligament intact and no surgery required.

"It's the best news I could have received given what happened," Kiermaier said. "I'm going to be OK. I'm going to be back out on the field sooner than later."

Kiermaier was hurt diving headfirst into first base on an infield single in the eighth inning of the Rays' 2-1, 11-inning loss to the Chicago White Sox on Saturday night.

The Rays lost for the 21st time in 36 games and have fallen behind Cleveland and Oakland in the AL wild-card race.

"Everything I do on the field I do for a purpose," Kiermaier said. "Right now we have a struggling team and things haven't been going our way a whole lot lately. This is when I want to play harder; I want to play with more passion."

This is the fourth consecutive year the standout defender has been sidelined by sliding or diving injuries.

Kiermaier missed 57 games last season due to a torn right thumb ligament that occurred while sliding into second base.

He missed 61 games during the 2017 season after fracturing his right hip sliding awkwardly into first base on an infield hit attempt.

Kiermaier fractured his left hand diving for a ball in 2016 and missed 48 games.

Hellen Obiri runs world-leading 5000m as Sifan Hassan breaks European record at Anniversary Games

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is close to being in the form of her life as the two-time Olympic champion won the Müller Anniversary Games women’s 100m easily in 10.78 to just miss her six-year-old meeting record of 10.77.

Her reaction time was a modest 0.155 but her pick up was sensational and the Jamaican won by a well over a metre from Dina Asher-Smith.

The Briton ran 10.92 to maintain her consistent sub-11 form, while Marie-Josee Ta Lou was third in 10.98.

World 200m champion Dafne Schippers was disqualified with a reaction time five-thousandths within the limit.

In the heats, Asher-Smith was mightily impressive, winning her race in 10.91 for her equal second fastest ever time in comfortably repelling the challenge of Ta Lou’s 10.96.

Daryll Neita was a non-qualifying fifth in 11.24.

In the opening heat, Fraser-Pryce won into a light headwind in 10.95 with Imani Lansiquot the leading Briton in a non-qualifying sixth in 11.24.

“At first I was a bit put off by the false start but I was glad I was able to go back and reset myself,” said Fraser-Pryce.

“I am definitely happy. It’s a long season and I’ve been training and training. To come out here and run 10.78 is a fabulous time.”

Asher-Smith said: “I wanted to go 10.8 today, so seeing that time in the final was a bit frustrating. But I really can’t be disappointed with two 10.9s and I’ll definitely look to push to faster times as the season progresses. ”

Also on the track, all eyes were on the women’s 5000m to see if Sifan Hassan could add to her record-breaking 2019.

She did as she set an European record but she was well beaten by world champion Hellen Obiri.

The pace was never really fast enough for a world record. Natalie Rule led through 1000m in 2:53.90 and Winnie Nanyondo passed 2000m in 5:48.44. Gloriah Kite led at 3000m in 8:46.22 as the pace slowed and the world record now looked impossible.

Hassan had sat at the back of the leading group of 10 but she powered past 4000m in 11:39.09 and her laps of 66.94 and 65.48 meant she had just Obiri and Tirop for company.

Obiri kicked past down the back straight and Hassan stayed close but she could not produce her usual kick and she was picked off by Tirop down the straight.

Obiri won in a world-leading and meeting record 14:20.36, with Tirop second in a PB 14:20.68.

“I am so happy because this is my favourite track and I have done my best and I ran the way I wanted to,” said Obiri. “In the last lap I was thinking ‘work hard’ and I said to myself when I went past Hassan: ‘let me go and see if you can catch me’.”

Hassan struggled across the line in 14:22.12 which marginally improved her European record of 14:22.34.

“I went out fast but I’m still very tired from the mile in Monaco last week, both physically and emotionally,” Hassan said following her world record there. “But I still ran a PB, so I’m happy.”

Laura Weightman set a PB of 14:51.78 in 12th to go sixth all-time in the UK.

Just behind her Eilish McColgan was 13th in 14:51.89, despite suffering from a cold.

Jessica Judd and Rosie Clarke set PBs of 15:16.47 and 15:19.75 to gain Doha World Championships qualifiers back in 17th and 18th but Melissa Courtney dropped out.

Lynsey Sharp won the 800m in her fastest time for two years as she confirmed her good form from Monaco.

The early pace was fast – probably too much so as Aneta Lemiesz led through 400m in 56.91 with Sharp third in 57.3.
Natoya Goule was ahead at 500m in 72.5 and 600m in 87.7.

The Jamaican, who ran 1:57.90 in Monaco, surprisingly faded in the closing stages and Sharp kicked ahead with 100m to go.

She lost a little momentum in a painful 15.4 last 100m but her reward was a fine 1:58.61 which might have been even quicker but for the the fast early pace.

The Scot said: “It was a good race. It’s so nice to be in this stadium in London. Everyone has been saying how fast the track is so it was good to make the most of it today with a season’s best. I’m happy with my time. Last week was good but it was so nice to back myself up here as well.”

Behind her, Catriona Bisset was just over a metre back in an Australian record 1:58.78.

In third, Alex Bell improved her PB to 1:59.82 just ahead of European indoor champion Shelyana Oskan-Clarke who improved her season’s best from 2:01.47 to 1:59.83.

In sixth, Hannh Segrave, who paced the 1500m on Saturday, took over two seconds off her PB with 2:00.18.

While Goule was a rare Jamaican disappointment on the weekend, there was success in the 400m hurdles.

Rushell Clayton won in a huge PB of 54.16 to defeat double world champion Zuzana Hejnova, who ran 54.33.

In sixth, European bronze medallist Meghan Beesley strengthened her Doha claim with a UK lead and world qualifying 55.20.

The women’s long jump was a high-quality affair. World leader Malaika Mihambo won in a meeting record 7.02m and had further jumps of 6.96m and 6.93m to underline her superiority.

Brittney Reese finished strongly to jump 6.82m and finish second.

Lorraine Ugen was fifth in 6.62m with Katarina Johnson-Thompson not at her very best this weekend finishing seventh in 6.47m.

World champion Stef Reid won the T44-T64 long jump with a 5.36m leap.

The Club Connect relay saw wins for Shaftesbury Barnet’s under-20 women in 46.31 to go third all-time, Blackheath and Bromley’s under-17 team in 47.61, Croydon’s under-15s in 48.67 and Reading’s under-13 team in 52.06.

Men’s events report to follow.

Results can be found here.

WATSONVILLE, Calif. — Bud Kaeding won the 30-lap feature which honors his legendary grandfather Howard at Ocean Speedway on Friday night.

The NARC-King of the West presented by Fujitsu 410 Series event paid $5,000 to the winner.  Kaeding drove the famous No. 0 Morrie Williams-owned car to victory in the Howard Kaeding Classic.

Shane Golobic brought the Matt Woods No. 17w Nos Energy Drink sponsored car home in the runner up spot after leading prior to being passed by Kaeding. Willie Croft would finish third in his No. 29 after being in the hunt for most of the race.

Jonathan Allard and Billy Aton brought the 24-car field to the green with Aton taking the early lead when Allard stumbled in the first turn. The race would go three laps before a caution for a Jeremy Chisum and Danny Faria spin in the middle of the third and fourth turns. Aton was leading Croft and Golobic.  On the seventh circuit, Golobic took over the second spot. Three laps later, sixth place starter Kaeding, who slowly advanced each lap, would pass Golobic for second.

A caution on lap 16 for a Sean Watts spin in the third turn would bunch the field back up.  Aton was still leading at that point, but the restart proved costly as he would fade under pressure from Kaeding, Golobic and Croft.

A three-wide traffic jam in the third turn would bring out the caution flag on lap 24. The shunt left Allard with a flat left rear tire and Dominic Scelzi with a bent front wing among other things, forcing him to pit for repairs.

The restart quickly turned back to yellow when Kyle Offill spun in the middle of the third and fourth turn. The caution proved costly for Justin Sanders who had just passed Croft for third but got put back a spot.

Kaeding was not to be denied the final six laps holding off both Golobic and Croft.  The Campbell, Calif., third-generation driver did a patented Kaeding victory donuts in the fourth turn to celebrate the victory.  The No. 0 stalled after doing no less than a dozen spins, so Kaeding jumped out of the stopped car and ran across the finish line in “Ricky Bobby” style.

Thirty-five cars signed into the pit area with several cars racing their 360 motored cars against their bigger 410 brothers.

The finish:

Bud Kaeding, Shane Golobic, Willie Croft, Justin Sanders, Colby Copeland, Jason Statler, Cole Macedo, Ryan Bernal, Jeremy Chisum, D.J. Netto, Billy Aton, Brad Furr, Kyle Offill, Nathan Rolfe, Danny Faria, Kenny Allen, Sean Watts, Geoff Ensign, James Ringo, Trent Canalas, Jonathan Allard, Mitchell Faccinto, Dominic Scelzi, Chase Johnson

GREENWOOD, Neb. — Bobby Pierce got his redemption at I-80 Speedway, winning Saturday night’s Imperial Tile 9th annual Silver Dollar Nationals.

Pierce’s first Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win of the season came exactly one year after he suffered the heartbreak of losing the race lead with three laps to go due to mechanical issues.

Pierce took the lead from Chris Madden for the final time on lap 66 and cruised on for the victory to become the twelfth different winner this year on the tour. Madden wound up in second. Brandon Sheppard got around Scott Bloomquist late in the race to take third ahead of Bloomquist and hard-charging Dale McDowell in fifth.

The event continued the tradition of exciting racing at I-80 Speedway with nine lead changes during the 80-lap affair. Tim McCreadie led the first 30 laps until Pierce took over the point for one circuit. Pierce who started sixth then yielded the lead back to McCreadie on lap 32.

Madden was on the move early on reaching third on lap 32 after starting fourteenth on the grid. Madden then went for the lead, taking it away from McCreadie on lap 33. Madden held the top spot until lap 39 when Pierce regained control. Pierce was on top of the scoring pylon for six laps until once again Madden flexed his muscles and wrestled away the lead. Madden started to pull away from Pierce momentarily, but Pierce regrouped and tracked Madden down, finally overhauling him on lap 59.

A caution with 20 laps to go allowed Madden to once again pick up the lead over Pierce. Pierce picked up his speed and momentum for the final time using the outside to pass Madden with fourteen laps remaining in the race and sailed on to the win.

“I felt really good,” Pierce said. “I had some trouble on the restarts. My dad was showing me different signals and wanting me to do more stuff out there. Luckily there wasn’t a caution with a few laps to go because it really could have been interesting. It’s the biggest win of my career. There were times tonight I didn’t think it was going to happen. Thanks to my crew for keeping the bolts tight on everything.”

Madden came home the runner-up after leading for 26 laps.

“It feels good to be back in the car,” Madden said. “Cody Sommer and Scott [Bloomquist] have put their hearts into this giving us everything we needed. What an awesome job they have done the last three days down here in this heat. We never gave up and to come home with a second-place finish I am proud of everyone with the team. He [Pierce] puts his car in positions I am not sure anyone else can. He earned the win.”

After starting eighth, Sheppard rallied in the final 14 laps to claim a podium finish.

“My car just wasn’t where I wanted it to be on the cushion,” he said. “I felt like we couldn’t run down low on the track, like several could. The restarts definitely helped me out. We were good when we restarted on the top, but on the bottom, we weren’t nearly as good. Congrats tom Bobby and Chris, it was a lot of fun racing out there.”

The finish:

Bobby Pierce, Chris Madden, Brandon Sheppard, Scott Bloomquist, Dale McDowell, Jonathan Davenport, Tim McCreadie, Mike Marlar, Devin Moran, Dennis Erb Jr., Jimmy Owens, Shanon Buckingham, Stormy Scott, Ricky Weiss, Hudson O’Neal, Josh Richards, Earl Pearson Jr., Kyle Bronson, Ben Schaller, Corey Zeitner, Cody Laney, Tyler Bruening, Billy Moyer Jr., Tyler Erb, Mason Zeigler.

KOKOMO, Ind. — Chris Windom earned his first NOS Energy Drink Indiana Sprint Week victory in eight years Saturday night at Kokomo Speedway.

Windom led the final 12 laps, including a tight green-white-checkered tussle with Brady Bacon from which Windom prevailed, for his second career ISW victory and the 24th of his USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car career, surpassing A.J. Foyt and Roger McCluskey on the all-time list.

“After winning Sprint Week last year, I honestly kind of forgot that I hadn’t had won one since 2011,” Windom admitted. “I heard that stat this week and it kind of pissed me off.  So, I really wanted to get one this week. Like I told my guys, I wasn’t going to lose that for them after busting balls above the cushion for 28 laps like that.”

That he did, after starting third in the main event which, at first, began much as it started.  Windom and pole sitter Bacon battled for the position on the opening lap while Scotty Weir crashed the party, splitting between the two with an impressive move entering turn three to take the lead.

After nipping both at the line as they remained nearly three-wide coming off turn four, Weir secured the position around Bacon off turn two and began to build a gap of nearly two seconds while the battle raged behind him.  C.J. Leary entered the fray, slipping by Windom on the bottom momentarily off turn four on the second lap.  A lap later, the two swapped positions on both ends of the racetrack, one diving in and the other countering underneath.

Windom used the diamond move off the top of turn three to run down Leary and drive past the ISW point leader into turn one the following lap. Bacon utilized the same diamond maneuver in turn three on lap five. Meanwhile, Windom threw a massive slider into three in front of Bacon. As Bacon was rolling downhill off the top of turn three, his momentum was stifled as Windom drove past to beat Bacon to the line by a car length.

Less than a lap later, Dakota Jackson flipped at the exit of turn four while running 19th.

With 12 to go, Windom began to pressure Weir into turns one and two.  Weir hopped on the curb in turn two, opening the door for Windom to drive underneath for the lead entering the back straightaway. Weir went back into attack mode, sliding across the nose of Windom for the lead entering turn three.

Windom was quick on his feet as he put four wheels above the turn three cushion, drove under Weir once again off four to take the point by a mere car length as the two frontrunners passed under Tom Hansing’s flags.

“I watched the B Main and I actually watched Dave Darland come from the tail,” Windom explained. “He was running that same line, so I knew it would probably end up working in the race. This place, after a few laps, it just seems like momentum always wins here. You’ve got to find out how you can generate the most speed around the track and that’s what I figured out. Once I could get my momentum and run that diamond line the way I needed to, we ran Scotty down. Once he bobbled a little bit, we got by him.”

With seven to go, 2016 ISW champ Bacon maneuvered around the outside of Weir in the second turn for the second spot.  Windom’s advantage was roughly 10 car lengths, but Bacon chopped it up to narrow the distance little-by-little by the time Anthony D’Alessio, making his first career USAC start, spun in turn four to necessitate a yellow with just two laps to go.

After a 23-lap green flag run, Windom was in the zone and certainly didn’t need a caution for any reason whatsoever at that point. The benefit was all to Bacon who now had a chance to take a run at Windom, starting directly from behind his rear bumper with two to go.

Windom had a pleasant restart, tearing away to a four-car-length margin midway down the back straight on the 29th lap. Windom had been using the patented diamond move in turn three lap-after-lap, but as soon as he saw Bacon to his left, Windom changed course mid-stream, aborting the line to move into defense mode, and shifted downward in front of Bacon on the bottom to secure the spot.

“It’s tough to run that line on a restart because you have to slow down on entry,” Windom explained. “It makes it easy for a guy to do what he did and sneak under you. I kind of cheated it some, and ran below it, and lost a little bit of speed on that restart.  That’s how he got next to us there. I knew I had to hit the bottom because he wasn’t going to miss the bottom in three and four. I had to hit the bottom to get back by him.”

Entering turns one and two on the final lap, Bacon surged ahead by a half-car length on the low line. Windom used the momentum from two lanes higher to pull dead-even midway down the back straight. Windom flatly denied Bacon the opportunity to take the bottom line into turn three. As the two nearly collided entering turn three, Windom ripped the bottom line from Bacon for his sole possession.

Rounding turns three and four on the bottom and headed for home, Windom closed out his third USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car victory of the season just a tick under a half second over Bacon, Leary, Kyle Cummins and Weir, who led the first 19 laps.

The victory marked Windom’s third career USAC National Sprint Car victory at Kokomo following wins in both 2012 and 2015.

To see full results, turn to the next page.

NEWTON, Iowa — When Josef Newgarden did not win the pole during Friday’s qualifications, the normally cheerful Team Penske driver was cranky, irritable and short. He believed he had the best car and came up short.

He took his frustrations out on the field with a dominant victory in the Iowa 300 — a race that started Saturday night and ended early Sunday morning.

It was the latest local time start to an IndyCar Series race in history at 10:46 p.m. Central Time (11:46 Eastern) and it was by far the latest finish to a race in IndyCar’s very long history.

The checkered flag waved at 1:30 a.m. local time with Newgarden defeating hard-charging, five-time NTT IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon by 2.8527 seconds.

Newgarden started third and led 245 of the 300 laps in the race. He took the lead for the first time on Lap 49 and on the final time on Lap 258. He was able to defeat Dixon, who at one point was one lap down and in 19th place, after Dixon’s team had him pit under caution late in the race. With fresh tires, Dixon was able to easily race his way up to second place but couldn’t close the gap on Newgarden.

James Hinchcliffe was third followed by Team Penske’s Simon Pagenaud with Spencer Pigot rounding out the top-five. There were five caution periods for 45 laps, but none of the incidents were serious.

It was Newgarden’s fourth victory of the year. He increased his lead over Alexander Rossi in the NTT IndyCar Series points standings from four points entering the race to 29 points after the win.

“I don’t normally like to be short and externally frustrated,” Newgarden said. “But I was just frustrated. Sometimes when you’re feeling competitive, you’re always feeling competitive, but a lot of times you can hold it back if you’re pissed off about something. Sometimes you just want to go back out and redo it. That’s kind of where I was yesterday.
“But after an hour of being pissed about it, we just went to practice and we move on. That’s all there is to it. Yeah, I mean, you’re going to get that. Look, we all want to kick each other’s butts. That’s what it’s all about. Like I was saying, it’s a competitive sport. We all want to be the best. That’s what makes it fun.

“I was fine after we got to practice two.”

The victory also gave Newgarden a sense of redemption from last year’s race, when he led 229 laps, but finish fourth with James Hinchcliffe the winner.

“That’s why I was ready to race immediately,” Newgarden said. “Let’s just go. I’m ready to go, because we got the best car, I thought. So, you know, tried to still take the opportunity obviously in practice two to get better.

“I felt ready to rock. I just wanted to make amends for not getting the pole. The pole is not the most important thing. I kind of look at it like it’s two races in the weekend. Qualifying is its own race and the race itself is its own race. The race specifically is more important. You want to win both.
“That’s where that competitive spirit was. Yeah, I wanted to get it right tonight. That’s when I really wanted to make it work.”

ROSSBURG, Ohio — Brad Sweet earned a whopping $175,000 for his second Kings Royal victory Saturday night at Eldora Speedway.

“A hundred and seventy-five mother grand,” Sweet bellowed out once he regained his breath.

Since the inception of the prestigious event in 1984, it has always paid $50,000, which was still one of the largest purses for sprint car racing. But for the 36th year of the race, track officials upped the ante.

“Sprint car racers make money based off how they finish,” Sweet said. “When you have a race that pays $175,000 to win and basically $20,000 for second, it’s kind of all or nothing coming in here. I’m a fan of it. It’s nerve-racking. It gets the fans’ attention. It’s what we need in this sport.

“It’s intense all night long. All day. Under the red. Basically, if you don’t win the race it’s a missed opportunity. You only get so many of these opportunities. So, I’m just happy and want to cherish the moment.”

Claiming his second Kings Royal victory — 11th World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series victory of the year and 45th Series win over all — required Sweet to battle all night long. Battle the competition and battle through the Kings Royal’s 2019 format.

He started the long night qualifying 18th, which placed him in the fourth starting position for his Drydene Heat race. With a daring slide job on the first lap to go from fourth to the lead, Sweet cruised to the heat win.

With his heat race being the first one of the night, under the event’s format, he was placed sixth in the lineup for the 40-lap feature.

On the pole was three-time Kings Royal winner Sammy Swindell, in his son Kevin Swindell’s No. 39 car. To his outside was 10-time series champion and five-time Kings Royal winner Donny Schatz — who had also won two of the last three races at Eldora during the week; Sweet won the other race.

Once the final sparks of fireworks fell into the dark of the night and the field of 24-cars filed back in line two-by-two, the anxiety and anticipation of the night was about to fade away with the drop of the green flag.

Leading the charge off turn four, Swindell charged to the high side on the start, while Schatz dove underneath him. Swindell had the better run on the top, though, and powered to the lead off turn two.

Behind them, Sweet split Cory Eliason and Aaron Reutzel, charging between them down the frontstretch and launched to fourth-place in the first corner.

Swindell maintained his lead over Schatz for the next three laps, before the first caution of the night flew for Tom Harris coming to a stop on the track. When the race went back green Sweet threw another massive slide job into turn one, going from fourth to the lead. However, another caution came out before the lap was complete – placing cars back in their starting order before the restart.

The field lined up single file and Swindell pulled away from Schatz on the start, putting about a three-car length distance between them.

While Swindell led, Schuchart was forging a strong run. By Lap eight, the Drydene No. 1s car had already made its way from 12th to fourth and then bolted by Sweet for third. Two laps later he torpedoed his car into turn three, diving past Schatz and Swindell by the exit of turn four.

After not transferring into the Kings Royal last year, Schuchart was leading and running away with the event.

Sweet fought his way past Schatz for second-place by lap 15, but couldn’t match Schuchart’s pace. By lap 25, Schuchart had a 2.5-second lead over Sweet and was poised to increase it riding the cushion around the track.

However, with the flash of yellow lights around the speedway, “The Big Cat” Sweet was brought to the bumper of the Shark Racing car.

Due to the long nature of the race, an open red was called, giving crews the chance to add fuel to their car, insuring it could make it to the end of the 40-lap race around the half-mile track.

On the restart, with 15 laps to go, Sweet continued to make a case for claiming the title of “restart king.” He throttled passed the outside of Schuchart before the flag stand and latched on to the cushion for momentum to pull away.

“Honestly, to be dead honest, I didn’t want to see the red,” Sweet said. “I felt like I just found the top in (turns) three and four and Logan hadn’t known about it. I think I found some speed there I was going to be able to make some moves with. We didn’t touch the race car, we put five gallons of fuel in it. I told my guys I was just going to put it to the fence and go for it.”

Schuchart said restarts had been an issue for him all week long. His car struggled to take off from the start.

“That’s part of the game,” Schuchart said. “We didn’t get the job done in that part of the race.”

Sweet used the high line during Wednesday’s Jokers Wild event to out duel Schatz for the win and it was working for him again Saturday night. Schuchart couldn’t build enough of a run again to make a charge at the NAPA Auto Parts No. 49 car.

With about eight laps to go, a new winged-warrior joined the battle. From his 16th starting position, Brent Marks drove by Schatz for third-place like he founded 10 extra horsepower on the track. Schuchart was next. With three laps to go, the two Pennsylvania-natives waged war for second-place. Marks pulled a slide job on Schuchart in turn one and had the position exiting turn two, but Schuchart had the better run down the backstretch and reclaimed second. Marks wouldn’t let Schuchart out of his sight, staying within striking distance lap after lap. However, the laps ran out.

Sweet left the Pennsylvanians to battle for second, while he charged to the Kings Royal victory and the big $175,000 check.

“You have to pinch me. It feels surreal,” Sweet said.

Schuchart crossed the line second with Marks two-tenths of a second behind him in third.

“Hell, we started twelfth and led the Kings Royal, that’s something to be proud about,” Schuchart said. “To be leading this race with all of the people in this pit supporting me, it’s a great feeling. I didn’t make the show last year. We went from not making the show to out here in the top-five every single night.”

While Marks ran out of time to try and make a run at Sweet, he left with confidence in his strong run and the hard charger award.

“This car was badass tonight,” Marks said. “That was a fun race. The track was perfect tonight. You could get up against that wall and just hold the throttle down and carry the momentum. I was trying like hell to get to second.”

To see full results, turn to the next page.

Umpire Kumar Dharmasena has said that the decision to award England six runs instead of five following the overthrow in the last over of the World Cup final was a collective one, and was made in consultation with square leg umpire Marais Erasmus, a conversation that was audible to all match officials on the day. Dharmasena admitted to the error but said he would "never regret" the decision.

"It's easy for people to comment after seeing TV replays," Dharmasena told Sri Lankan publication the Sunday Times. "I agree that there was a judgmental error when I see it on TV replays now. But we did not have the luxury of TV replays at the ground and I will never regret the decision I made. Besides, the ICC praised me for the decision I made at that time."

Law 19.8 of the playing conditions states that the batsmen at the crease - Ben Stokes and Adil Rashid - should have already crossed before Martin Guptill began to throw for the second run to count in the final tally. Replays suggested this was not the case as Guptill's throw ricocheted off Stokes' bat and rolled into the boundary behind the wicketkeeper. In simpler terms, the equation that came down from 9 off 3 to 3 off 2 with Stokes retaining strike should have been 4 off 2 with Rashid on strike.

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Dharmasena, who had been criticised for the erroneous caught-behind decision of Jason Roy during the semi-final, came in for further criticism after the final. While the players themselves had no major problem with either the umpiring or the laws, public opinion was decidedly split - even hostile - about the manner in which England eventually won the title. The perceived reluctance to use technology was one of the talking points.

"There is no provision in the law to refer this to the third umpire as no dismissal was involved," Dharmasena said. "So, I did consult the leg umpire through the communication system which is heard by all other umpires and the match referee. And, while they cannot check TV replays, they all confirmed that the batsmen have completed the run. This is when I made my decision."

"One must understand that there were too many things on our plate," he said. "We had to watch the batsmen complete the first run, the ball being fielded, how it was handled by the fielder and whether the batsmen completed the second run. And where the throw would come from, the striker's end or non-striker's end. In this case, we were all happy that the batsmen had completed the second run because the ball ricocheted off Stokes's bat at the time of him completing the second run.

"So, we assumed that they had crossed each other at the time of fielder releasing the ball. These are things that happen in a cricket field," he said. "For instance, an umpire can call a wide or a no-ball wrongly and just because the TV replays shows otherwise, we cannot go back and reverse the match. This is one such incident."