GRANITE CITY, Ill. — Jimmy Owens fought off challenges from Shannon Babb and Josh Richards to win the NAPA Know How 50 Presented by Schoenfeld Headers on Friday night at Tri-City Speedway.

Owens earned his first victory at the Kevin and Tammy Gundaker-promoted facility. It was Owens’ second Lucas Oil win of the season and the 62nd of his career for the three-time national champion.

Owens held the point for the first 11 laps of the race until Babb forged ahead for a lap. Owens and Babb went back-and-forth until just past the half-way mark of the race. Babb held the second spot until he suddenly slowed on the 32nd lap and retired from the race.

Richards picked up the challenge for the lead as he pulled even with Owens on several occasions, but never managed to take the top spot. Earl Pearson Jr. charged by Richards to take the runner-up position on the final lap.

Pearson and Richards joined Owens on the podium as Stormy Scott recorded his best career series finish by taking fourth ahead of 23rd starting Devin Moran, rounding out the top five.

“I want to thank all of my crew, my car owner Leon Ramirez and his family for giving me this opportunity to drive their car,” Owens said. “Thanks to the fans for coming I hope they enjoyed the show. This will give us a lot of momentum heading to Wheatland tomorrow night. We have been leading a lot this year and things have happened. We had a good car last night. We made a few tweaks for tonight and everything went our way.”

Pearson topped off a spirited run with his last lap pass of Richards.

“I got too tight around the bottom, so I went to the top. I could run right through the middle and the car wasn’t so tight,” Pearson said. “To come home second after starting 15th, we worked hard to get there. I really love this track; it’s been good to us in the past. It races so good.”

The finish:

Jimmy Owens, Earl Pearson Jr., Josh Richards, Stormy Scott, Devin Moran, Tim McCreadie, Michael Norris, Gordy Gundaker, Scott Bloomquist, Hudson O’Neal, Shanon Buckingham, Rick Eckert, Mike Marlar, Kyle Bronson, Tyler Erb, Jonathan Davenport, Billy Moyer Jr., Austin Rettig, Shannon Babb, Jeremy Conaway, Chris Simpson, Billy Moyer, Tony Jackson Jr., Daryn Klein, Michael Kloos.

HARTFORD, Mich. — David Gravel used a late-race restart to surge to the front and win Friday night’s World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series feature at Hartford Speedway.

Gravel won his Drydene Heat race and finished second in the DIRTVision Fast Pass Dash, putting him on the front row for the 30-lap feature.

On the initial start, Gravel lost second-place to 10-time series champion Donny Schatz. However, the red flag came out before a lap was completed.

Several cars were involved in an accident on the backstretch, including Series point leader Brad Sweet. The lengthy red flag period — to tow three cars off the track —– allowed Sweet’s Kasey Kahne Racing team, along with team members from several other teams, to get the NAPA Auto Parts No. 49 car fixed and back on track before the race went green again.

Since a lap was not complete, drivers lined back up in their initial starting order, putting Gravel back in second place. This time, his lesson was learned. When the green flag waved, Gravel dove to the bottom of turn one, blocking any attempt by Schatz for another pass.

It also allowed him to get a run underneath leader Carson Macedo down the backstretch and into turn three.

Gravel had his nose in front of Macedo exiting turn four, but Macedo had the better run off the corner and charged back to the lead down the frontstretch.

From there, Macedo held command of the lead for the next seven laps before the caution flew again for a slowed Bill Balog. When the race restarted, Gravel, again, put pressure on Macedo. Inches were left between their bumper for the next two laps. Gravel dived under the rookie in turn three but like before Macedo prevailed.

They stayed first and second, respectively, to the halfway point of the Feature. In that time, Logan Schuchart quietly worked his way from ninth to third with the top two in sight.

With 14 laps to go, Gravel, not willing to settle for second, capitalized on a strong run. While Macedo searched for traction on the high side, Gravel had already found it on the bottom. He powered by Macedo and officially took the lead with 13 laps to go.

“Carson had a good pace. I think he just got free halfway through,” Gravel said. “I just kept working him, working him, trying to keep the pressure up, hoping he would spin his tires and kind of wear his stuff out. Luckily we were able to get by him.”

Cruising around the high side of the track, Schuchart caught Gravel with four laps to go and sped around him with ease through turns one and two. Before Schuchart could run away with his fifth win of the season, the caution came out again for Tim Kaeding coming to a stop in turn four.

With three laps to go and Schuchart now backed up to Gravel, the Jason Johnson Racing driver had one last hurdle between himself and victory

Gravel timed the restart just right, sneaking a nose underneath Schuchart as they raced down the frontstretch. On their charge into turn one, Gravel dove to the bottom leaving no time for Schuchart to attempt a block. They exited turn two side by side and remained that way down the backstretch.

When they made it to turn three Gravel, again, launched his car into the corner, pulling ahead of Schuchart and maintained the run off turn four to clear Schuchart for the lead.

“We’ve been wanting to win so bad,” Gravel said. “Finally getting the win, we’ve been so close. As a driver, I’ve let a couple of wins get away. Just happy I can get another win. You never know when your next one is going to be.”

While Gravel celebrated a special victory – which he got to do with Jason Johnson’s son, Jaxx, for the first time this year in victory lane – Schuchart had to settle for another runner-up finish.

“That stings a little bit,” Schuchart said. “We had one like that last week, we lost the race at the end and did it again tonight. Last week I feel like I blame that on myself. Tonight, the guys did a fantastic job… We qualified bad, didn’t give up and raced hard all night.”

Sweet also had an impressive charge after getting involved in the wreck – which required his front axle to be replaced and his top wing to be replaced – at the start of the race. He restarted at the back of the field and methodically made his way to sixth-place by the end of the race.

“Had a pretty nasty vibration. I think we bent a rear axle,” Sweet said. “Honestly, a good salvage for us. Hung in there and tried not to shake my teeth out… Luckily, we were able to over come it. I think that’s a good sign for us to overcome that adversity tonight.”

He maintains his points lead over Schatz – who finished third – now 44 points over the reigning champion. Gravel still sits third in points – 130 points behind Sweet.

To see full results, turn to the next page.

MECHANICSBURG, Pa. — Jason Shultz won Friday night’s URC sprint car feature at Williams Grove Speedway.

Shultz took the win away from Steve Buckwalter after dogging him for the first 17 laps of the 25-lap event.

Buckwalter and Shultz had the front row for the start of the URC sprint main and Buckwalter got the drop when the green flag appeared.

Shultz assumed second and hounded Buckwalter all during the first eight laps before a red flag appeared for a turned over Derek Locke in the fourth corner.

Mark Smith lined up third for the restart but failed to challenge instead it was back to Shultz and Buckwalter battling for the win with Shultz sticking to the top lane while Buckwalter worked the inside.

And Shultz finally got far enough around in turns three and four with seven laps to go in order to be scored the leader.

Once in front, Shultz pulled away to a 2.095 second lead to pick up his first career 360 sprint car win at Williams Grove.

Lucas Wolfe, who won the 410 sprint car feature, was third followed by Josh Weller and Freddie Rahmer.

The finish:

Feature (25 laps): 1. Jason Shultz, 2. Steve Buckwalter, 3. Lucas Wolfe, 4. Josh Weller, 5. Freddie Rahmer, 6. Kyle Reinhardt, 7. Adam Carberry, 8. Tyler Ross, 9. Ed Aikin, 10. Curt Michael, 11. Chad Layton, 12. Austin Bishop, 13. Tyler Breahm, 14. Cody Fletcher, 15. Mark Smith, 16. Jake Eldreth, 17. Matt Hoyt, 18. Ryan Quackenbush, 19. Tim Perry, 20. Han Donovan  Jr., 21. Ryan Watt, 22. Dereck Locke

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is including Romelu Lukaku in his plans for next season because of doubts about whether Inter Milan have the money to prise the striker away from Old Trafford, sources have told ESPN FC.

Lukaku is keen on a move to the San Siro but talks between club representatives in London this week ended without the Serie A side making a formal offer because of a significant gap between their respective valuations.

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There is a belief at United that in the current inflated market they can make a profit on Lukaku having paid Everton £75 million for the forward just two years ago.

The 26-year-old, who has scored 42 in 96 games since arriving from Goodison Park, still has four years left on his contract. Inter are the only club to express an interest.

Lukaku missed training in Perth on Thursday evening and instead took part in a gym session. He returned to the group on Friday and could play a part in the first preseason friendly against Perth Glory at Optus Stadium on Saturday.

Inter have indicated they would be willing to loan Lukaku with an obligation to buy included in the deal or send players to Old Trafford as makeweights, but United are set to hold out for a significant fee.

The Belgian could line up against Inter in Singapore on July 20 on the next leg of the summer tour.

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The Green Bay Packers reported a profit of just $724,000 in their latest fiscal year, which included their second consecutive season without a playoff appearance, a large contract extension for quarterback Aaron Rodgers and a change in head coach from Mike McCarthy to Matt LaFleur.

Green Bay's profit in the year ending March 31 was down 97.9% from $34.1 million in the year ending March 2018 and down more than 99% from the record $75 million in the previous fiscal year.

"From a financial standpoint, it was a unique year for the Packers," team president Mark Murphy said Friday.

Expenses rose from $420.9 million to $477.2 million, boosted by Rodgers' $134 million, four-year deal and contracts for several free agents: outside linebackers Za'Darius Smith and Preston Smith, safety Adrian Amos and guard Billy Turner.

"We were a little more aggressive than we've been in a number of years," Murphy said.

While overall revenue increased 5.1% to $477.9 million, local revenue improved by only 2.3%, hurt by consecutive losing seasons that affected pro shop visits and tours of Lambeau Field and the Packers Hall of Fame.

"If we can get back to the playoffs and get to the Super Bowl, that always helps," Murphy said. "We have a policy regarding our season-ticket pricing. We want to be just below the league average. We don't want everything to be on the backs of our season-ticket holders."

The NFL's collective bargaining agreement is set to expire after the 2020 season, and the team has $397 million in its corporate reserve fund.

"The plan was that we had enough money to cover expenses for a year. I think we're in very good shape with that," Murphy said. "We don't have a rich, deep-pocketed owner, so we have a $400 million corporate reserve. Three or four years ago, we put $50 million into the corporate reserve. It's grown since then with investment returns, and we've made significant investments in real estate around this area."

As Steven Smith sets up to face Jofra Archer's final spell of the World Cup semi-final, there's a bellowing voice from the RS Wyatt Stand: "Finish the cheat off! Sand him down!" Smith survives the over, but not Jos Buttler's throw between his legs for a run out soon after.

When England bat, David Warner runs back towards the same stand twice in an over to collect boundaries well-struck by the driven Jason Roy. Each time a spectator leaps out of his seat and sprints down to the boundary to hurl more abuse. Warner smiles back at the hostility while collecting the ball.

When the post-mortems for Australia's World Cup campaign are being assembled a couple of hours later, Australia's coach Justin Langer sails fairly smoothly through his press conference until the following exchange with Jacqueline Magnay, the vastly experienced and well regarded Europe correspondent for The Australian newspaper.

Magnay: "Are you concerned at all about the fact Smith and Warner have redeemed themselves on the field but there are still huge question marks about what happened in South Africa, and they haven't been addressed and that may come back?"

Langer: "They've been addressed, oh my gosh, they have been addressed big time. They had a 12-month ban for one."

Magnay: "It hasn't been explained what went on."

Langer: "Within our group it's been addressed, trust me it's been addressed."

Magnay: "But you don't think it'll come back to bite them."

Langer: "What do you mean?"

Magnay: "If they suddenly reveal information that happened or other people reveal what happened..."

Langer: "I think there's been a lot said about what happened in South Africa. We are, I think, honestly moving in the right direction, hopefully we're showing that, the boys have shown that by their behaviours. Not just their batting, I think they've been really good ambassadors on and off the field, they're good people on and off the field, and I'm proud of them for that. What's happened in the past, we all make mistakes, they made some mistakes, hopefully they're redeeming themselves."

That, in a nutshell, is the challenge facing Smith, Warner and Australia during the Ashes series to come. Those three scenes are likely to be repeated unrelentingly, whether it is abuse for Smith, a slightly more raucous kind of the same for Warner, and questions for Australia's leaders about what is left unresolved in the wake of the Newlands scandal.

While there can be no dispute that Australia have improved their behaviour as a cricket team, finding a far better level of aggression to play the game without resorting to personal abuse of opponents, their conduct will have little impact on those insults still being hurled and those questions still being asked.

England tours can have a corrosive effect on players who are targeted by the crowds. Certainly 2009 was a struggle for Mitchell Johnson, who has admitted the Barmy Army's mocking got into his head. When Johnson returned in 2015, he was far stronger mentally, but the old barbs remained an obstacle as Australia were defeated again.

Targeted booing campaigns are nothing new either. Just ask Ricky Ponting, who faced a chorus of them more or less throughout the 2009 series, seemingly for no other reason than the fact he was Ricky Ponting. This history provides context: having not needed much ammunition to target Johnson and Ponting, many of England's supporters will have little hesitation goading Smith and Warner for the length and breadth of the tour.

As for unanswered questions about Newlands and before it, Cricket Australia's chief executive Kevin Roberts stated bluntly earlier this year that those with any relevant additional information should come forward. The Ashes campaign will, meanwhile, take place with that possibility in the background. It is a fragile balance.

"We've been talking about it for 12 months, earning respect back the way we behave on and off the field," Langer said. "I think the spirit of the World Cup's been brilliant. I'd love to see that continue actually. I've really enjoyed watching the spirit of how this World Cup's been played. I think we have, hopefully we have. We can't judge that, we'll just keep behaving well. We talk about culture, behaviour and hopefully we're doing the right things on and off the field. And if we do that we'll do what we set out to do 12 months ago: earn some respect back."

Earning that respect will require an enormous amount of resilience.

MONTEREY, Calif. – Chaz Davies put his ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati bike on the top of the scoring pylon during the opening day of MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship practice Friday at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

Davies raced to the top spot thanks to his best lap of 1:23.387, which was .032 of a second ahead of reigning World Superbike kingpin Jonathan Rea.

“It’s definitely a good start to the weekend even though it’s only Friday, and it was good to see that P1 on the pit board again,” Davies said. “It’s been since Imola and we’ve had some trying times in between but we really felt like we turned the corner in that session. We changed some quite drastic stuff from the morning and just went in the right direction. Overall the bike worked really good, so I’m very happy and hopefully we can take another step forward tomorrow. This is a track where I usually go well at so the target this weekend is to be up there and challenge for the podiums.”

Álvaro Bautista, Rea’s main title rival this year, was third fastest aboard his Ducati. Bautista ended the day .263 off the pace set by his teammate Davies.

BMW Motorrad’s Tom Sykes ended the day fourth overall, followed by Leon Haslam on the second Kawasaki bike.

Loris Baz, Toprak Razgatlioglu, Alex Lowes, Michael van der Mark and Jordi Torres completed the top-10.

American J.D. Beach, making his World Superbike debut, ended the day 15th fastest.

SPARTA, Ky. – Cole Custer converted a dominant second-half performance into his series-leading fifth NASCAR Xfinity Series win of the season Friday night at Kentucky Speedway.

Custer wasn’t the fastest man during the first two stages of the 200-lap race, but he was lights out when it counted. The Ladera Ranch, Calif., native led 87 of the final 90 circuits en route to victory after passing Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Chase Briscoe for the top spot.

From there, it was no contest, as the No. 00 Haas Automation Ford cruised to the checkered flag.

“This one just goes to my team. The car was unbelievable at the end,” said Custer. “They knew exactly what to do with it when the track changed and I was just lucky to drive it there at the end. I can’t thank Gene Haas and everybody at Haas Automation enough. You don’t get cars like that very often.”

The only nervous moment in a caution-free final stage came following Custer’s last pit stop with 51 to go, when rival Christopher Bell erased a 2.7-second deficit by pitting two laps sooner than Custer did.

But Custer used a fast race car to power back away from Bell, slowly and steadily opening up his leading margin to as much as three seconds before crossing the finish line in front by 1.651 seconds in the end.

Friday’s win continues a career season for Custer, who also took the lead in the playoff point tally, with 31 markers banked to Bell’s 30.

“It is pretty unbelievable to win once the last two years … and then this year to go out and win five. It’s a testament to our team,” Custer noted. “My guys made great adjustments throughout the night and knew exactly how the track was going to change. I just can’t thank them enough.”

Bell went virtually unchallenged through the first two 45-lap stages of the race, leading every lap in stage one and 70 of the first 90 overall in claiming his third stage sweep of the season.

However, the handling on Bell’s No. 20 Rheem Toyota went away in the second half of the race, while Custer’s car came to life down the home stretch.

That swing in momentum, combined with a slow pit stop during the second stage break that dropped Bell from the lead back to seventh, was enough to derail his momentum and prevent him from taking home the Crosley jukebox trophy from Kentucky’s victory lane on this night.

“I don’t know what happened. We just got worse … or maybe got too comfortable,” said Bell, who led 72 laps, second only to Custer’s 88 laps led. “We probably needed to free things up a little bit. It’s a bummer night, but our car was really fast and we got a couple more playoff points. Now we just need to work on a couple of things to get the last little bit we’re missing on these mile-and-a-half tracks.”

Tyler Reddick – the third member of the so-called Big Three – completed the top three finishers on Friday night, but he came home a whopping 12.808 seconds behind Custer’s winning car.

Daytona winner Michael Annett crossed fourth and Briscoe completed the top five as the last car on the lead lap. That set a new record for fewest lead-lap cars at the finish in a Kentucky Xfinity Series race.

Noah Gragson, Justin Allgaier, Ryan Truex, Ryan Sieg and Justin Haley finished sixth through 10th, respectively. All of them were one lap down at the checkered flag.

MALTA, N.Y. – Through much of the early season, Kenny Tremont Jr.’s performance at the Albany-Saratoga Speedway has been well below par.

Last week he went back to basics and got back on track, finishing third from deep in the pack.  Friday night, he was even better, charging from 13th on the grid to record his 76th win at the three-eighths-mile dirt oval.

Marc Johnson was almost as good, advancing from 16th to second in the 35-lap DIRTcar modified feature.  With just three laps remaining when he got there, he had no time to challenge the fleet Tremont. Jackie Brown Jr. was a strong third with early leader Rich Ronca and Matt DePew rounding out the top five.

Last week’s winner, Brett Hearn, drew the first yellow on lap three with fuel pressure problems.  The second came on lap 11, when Mike Mahaney and Elmo Reckner tangled in turn four and by then, Tremont was sixth after a strong low groove charge.

When the green returned, Tremont dueled with Bobby Hackel IV for fourth for a few laps, then got a run off turn two and shot down Hackel, DePew and Brown in one fell swoop to show second.

By halfway he’d disposed of Ronca and began building a solid lead. Behind him,  Don Mattison and Matt DeLorenzo battled just out of the top five as Johnson kept getting better and better, making his usual late run on the lead through the late 20-lap range. But by the time he got to Ronca, he was out of time to challenge for the win.

“I was starting to wonder,” said Tremont.  “We put a million different setups under there and finally, last week we were good.  This week we were right on, good in all three lanes.  It feels good to be here again.”

DeLorenzo crossed sixth, trailed by Hackel, Keith Flach, Pete Britten and Jessey Mueller.

In supporting class action, Josh Coonradt bested Chuckie Dumblewski and Brandon Gray in the Pro Stocks while Mike Coffey Jr. claimed the Mark Hughes Memorial over division king pin Tim Hartman Jr. and Daryl Nutting.

Australia's coach Justin Langer believes the absence of Usman Khawaja was critical to the team's failure to put up a defendable total in their World Cup semi-final hiding by England, pinpointing his return to fitness as vital to the Test team's Ashes chances next month.

A hamstring strain in the final qualifying match against South Africa pushed Khawaja out of the line-up at Edgbaston, forcing a batting shuffle that saw Steven Smith at No. 3, Peter Handscomb in from outside the squad at No. 4, and Alex Carey bumped up to five. That rejigged order was soon 14 for 3, a hole from which escape was always going to be difficult.

While Smith and Carey did their bit in a restorative century stand to briefly give Australia a foothold, further wickets were to underline the value Khawaja's top order runs have provided on friendly days for bowling. Langer said Khawaja had been chosen with those very scenarios in mind.

"He was a big loss," Langer said. "We picked him believe it or not specifically for days like today when it was hard, you lose an early wicket, you want that No. 3, your Test No. 3, to score hundreds.

"We didn't have him but that's all part and parcel. We got beaten by a much better team. A few people were laughing about it but I've said from day one England are favourites to win the tournament, they should be. They're a great cricket team and they were better than us today. We were disappointing but they were better than us. And that's okay, you want to be winning all the time but we got beaten by a better team.

"I think you took Jason Roy out of England's side and it made a big impact. You take your best players out of any team, whether it's cricket or AFL or rugby, it's always hard when you lose your best players. There's plenty of talent in Australian cricket, no doubt about that. We're seeing that in the Australia A stuff at the moment, we're going to play 24 guys in two Australian teams leading up to the Ashes, there's plenty of talent there, we just didn't play as well as we should have."

"I've had my heart set on July 14 for probably 12 months so we got to July 11, we fell a few days short. So it's disappointing, we'd have liked to be there in three days' time, I'd rather be in England's dressing room now." Justin Langer

Khawaja's value as a top-order player in challenging conditions was aptly demonstrated in Langer's very first Test as coach, a last day fight to grind out a draw with Pakistan in Dubai last year, and he can be expected to be a similar bulwark on Ashes days where the Dukes ball seams and swings. Reflecting on Australia's semi-final defeat, Langer tried to balance his obvious pain with re-focussing quickly on the Ashes.

"It was just a really, really disappointing day for us but it's been a really good campaign," he said. "Don't underestimate the injury to Usman Khawaja and Shaun Marsh in that first 10 overs against South Africa - we fell 10 runs short of South Africa without one of our premier batsmen, who's been a really important part of the last six months and this World Cup. And Shaun, he broke his arm two days before so that put a bit of a dampener on our campaign. But overall it's been really good hasn't it. We were on top until the last game, fell 10 runs short and then had a really poor game today. So very disappointing.

"I've had my heart set on July 14 for probably 12 months so we got to July 11, we fell a few days short. So it's disappointing, we'd have liked to be there in three days' time, I'd rather be in England's dressing room now, it's always more fun winning than losing, but we have to turn to it now.

"We've known this was going to be an unprecedented time in Australian cricket, a World Cup and then Ashes, so we'll dust ourselves off, recharge our batteries, probably six or seven guys who'll be in the Ashes as well need to recharge and then start a whole new campaign. We'll take some lessons out of this, so it's another big campaign. The Ashes is huge for Australian cricket and English cricket so we'll dust ourselves off and be ready."

In naming the efforts of Mitchell Starc, Alex Carey, the captaincy of Aaron Finch and the contributions of a reintegrated Smith and David Warner among the high points of Australia's Cup, Langer agreed that Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis had cause to analyse underwhelming tournaments. However, he defended Handscomb after a brief and unsuccessful innings in Birmingham.

"They'll both be really disappointed with the whole World Cup won't they," Langer said of Maxwell and Stoinis. "They were working really hard, giving it their best shot, but sometimes when your confidence is down a bit and its not something you can just flick a switch and you're back and firing.

"They still contributed - I think they were three and four in the fielding rankings, they've had little moments where they've had an impact. They'll be disappointed, there's a few guys who'll be a bit disappointed but there's been a lot more positives than negatives I think.

"Pete came in for one game, he came in for a World Cup semi-final. He helped us win an unbelievable series in India, he helped us win five-nil [against Pakistan in UAE], and then was really, really unlucky. Then to have to come into a World Cup having not played any of the games its a really tough ask on him and it would've been for any of our players."

As for England's highly orchestrated four-year drive to the final, in marked contrast to Australia's more chaotic path, Langer echoed Finch in saying that the work of Trevor Bayliss, Eoin Morgan and company would be closely assessed for any valuable lessons. After all, the cup will no longer be Australia's to hold.

"It's a good question. The big turnabout in our fortunes over the last six months was we got really clear with what our plan was, the way we're going to play into this World Cup," Langer said. "I mentioned in the press conference the other day that David Willey told me, they almost set four years ago, this is the squad we're going to stick with, they obviously made a few little changes along the way, but you build up for that.

"We've got lots of other really good competitions and goals to achieve with white ball cricket, T20 cricket there's a World Cup coming up, and obviously Test cricket. We're coming from a certain level and we're making some improvements but we've still got plenty of improvements to make."