MANSFIELD, Ohio – As the second edition of the Sprint Car World Championship race takes shape at Mansfield Motor Speedway, defending winner Tim Shaffer knows he has an opportunity to repeat.

An epic side-by-side battle with eventual All Star Circuit of Champions champion Aaron Reutzel and Shaffer saw Shaffer come out on top. A turn three slider by Reutzel was returned by Shaffer in turn four, allowing Shaffer to zip to the checkered flag last year.

Shaffer knows it was a great race and win, but like all great races and victories they become a memory.

“It was a big win, a great time here last year,” said Shaffer, who took home $100,000 for his efforts last year. “But I don’t know, they say they worked on the track over the off season as well. We’ll just have to see what we can do.

“It’s about putting ourselves in the right position. And it starts now with making a good draw, then we have to qualify right. Putting ourselves in a good position is important. We can just hope for the best. We have confidence, we have been fast this year, but it still goes back to we have to put ourselves in position. Anything can happen, but we as a team put ourselves in the right situation and give ourselves a chance. The first two nights are all about points. We have to get ourselves some good points, or maybe a win to get into that Dash race Saturday night,” finished Shaffer.

A three day event, the $100,000-to-win race saw Mother Nature put the halt to action early on Thursday, but Friday will be a new day.

However, Friday will be the only opportunity for drivers to secure themselves a guaranteed starting position for Saturday’s Sprint Car World Championship Dash race to set the first three rows.

With a 60-car field of sprint car racing’s best, including series champions, race winners and a handful of Pennsylvania Posse racers in the pit area, Shaffer knows he will have to be at the top of his game.

“I have a great team, and a great crew, I think we will be OK,” Shaffer said. “Just have to keep the speed up and lay down the best qualifying lap I can.”

BRANDS HATCH, England — Alon Day and Florian Venturi ended up first in the free practice sessions for the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series at the famous Brands Hatch Indy Circuit to open the NASCAR GP UK.

Day clocked a 49.154-second lap, beating Loris Hezemans by a mere 0.087 seconds while in the ELITE 2 Division Venturi was fastest by a margin of 0.121 seconds.
In the ELITE 1 Division, 18 drivers were separated by less than one second, showing how close the competition is in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series season. It was two-time champion and current points leader Day who came out fastest on Friday at the wheel of his CAAL Racing Chevrolet SS. The Israeli was just a few thousands of a second faster than Hezemans and his Hendriks Motorsport Ford Mustang.

The Dutchman was 0.148 seconds quicker than Frederic Gabillon, who led the first practice session of the NASCAR GP UK earlier in the afternoon driving his No. 3 RDV Competition Chevrolet SS.

Final Practice was briefly red flagged two times because of cars stuck in the gravel traps of the Indy Circuit, but the session resumed both times after the safety crew cleared the track.
Alexander Graff was fourth in his Memphis Racing Chevrolet Camaro ahead of Nicolo Rocca and three-time champion Ander Vilarino.

Venturi set a lap time of 49.763 seconds in final practice in the ELITE 2 Division. The Go Fas Racing driver was just 0.121 seconds quicker than Freddy Nordstrom, who is coming back to NWES at Brands Hatch with PK Carsport.

Championship leader Giorgio Maggi was third quickest behind the wheel of his Hendriks Motorsport Ford Mustang ahead of Andre Castro and Valencia race winner Nicholas Risitano, who closed the top five.

LONG POND, Pa. – Harrison Burton had the fastest speed in Friday afternoon’s ARCA Menards Series practice at Pocono Raceway, earning the pole for the General Tire #AnywhereIsPossible 200 as a result.

Qualifying, which was scheduled for earlier in the afternoon Friday, was canceled because of poor track conditions. As a result, the starting field was set by practice speeds in Friday’s abbreviated practice session.

Burton’s 52.820-second lap at 170.390 mph put him on the pole for Friday’s race. He is the defending champion of the race.

“It was a little different because we had the mindset that we were going to practice and then qualify, but then it turns out that we’re only going to practice but it counts as qualifying,” Burton said. “Everyone was mocked up to get the fastest lap they could so it wasn’t like a normal practice session.”

Burton’s plan for Friday is simple: lead all 200 miles and pick up his second win of the season.

“We’d like to go out and lead every lap,” said Burton, who won the season opener at Daytona Int’l Speedway. “That’s always the idea. It’s hard to do with pit stops and cautions, but that’s what we’re planning. If we get shuffled back on pit road we’re not going to get discouraged we’re just going to work our way back up to the front as quickly we can.”

Riley Herbst, the 2017 race winner, was second fastest and will start second Friday afternoon. Michael Self, Hailie Deegan and Ty Majeski will start third through fifth, respectively.

Joe Graf Jr., Raphael Lessard, Cole Glasson, Christian Eckes and Bret Holmes rounded out the top-10.

The NHL cleared Washington Capitals star Evgeny Kuznetsov after a video surfaced Monday of him sitting next to a table on which there are two lines of white powder in what appears to be a hotel room.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in a statement Friday that the league "thoroughly reviewed the situation" and considers the matter closed.

"While we certainly do not condone or endorse some of the decisions he made on the night in question, Mr. Kuznetsov's account of the events that transpired aligns with other information we have been able to gather, and we have found no basis to question his representations with respect to what did -- and what did not -- occur," Daly said in a statement.

Kuznetsov also released a statement through the Capitals on Friday.

"While I have never taken illegal drugs in my life and career, I would like to publicly apologize to the Capitals, my teammates, our fans and everyone else, for putting myself in a bad situation," Kuznetsov said. "This was a hard lesson for me to learn."

The Capitals said they met with Kuznetsov to discuss the video.

"While we are disappointed by his presence in the video, we accept his explanation and apology for putting himself in an unfortunate situation," the team said in a statement. "Evgeny has been a terrific player and an active member of our community, and we expect him to learn from this experience and uphold both the standards the organization has for him as well as his own."

Kuznetsov, 27, just finished playing for Russia in the world hockey championship in Slovakia. He had two goals and four assists in 10 games as the Russians won the bronze medal.

He led all players with 32 points (12 goals, 20 assists) in last year's playoffs, which culminated with the Capitals winning the franchise's first Stanley Cup.

Kuznetsov had 21 goals and 51 assists this season for the Capitals, who were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Carolina Hurricanes.

The NHL tests its players for drugs of abuse, though if a positive test is found, the player is not punished. Instead, representatives from the NHL and NHLPA's joint Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health Program can reach out to a player who tests positive and recommend a treatment plan.

ST. LOUIS -- When Vladimir Tarasenko first came to St. Louis in 2012, the Blues assigned their prized Russian winger an interpreter to help him interact with the media. Tarasenko, who grew up in the Siberian plains, knew a little English from school but by no means was conversational. He struggled anytime he had to go to a grocery store and couldn't converse with teammates besides basic on-ice cues.

And he wasn't truly comfortable with the new arrangement. "He wasn't like a real translator," Tarasenko told ESPN in 2017. "He just translated what he wanted to say." The team tried again. Tarasenko still had qualms about the situation. He knew it wasn't just about getting his message across to journalists. If he was going to assimilate to the team, be a member of the community, he would need to figure this out on his own.

With the help of teammates -- often over dinners on the road -- Tarasenko became fluent.

The Blues got exactly what they hoped from their 2010 first-round pick in terms of goal scoring. Tarasenko's wicked shot was well-noted in the draft process, and the only reason the winger slipped to No. 16 was fears that he might stay in Russia and not sign a North American contract. Since his debut, only one right winger (Patrick Kane) has accumulated more goals than Tarasenko's 211. The 27-year-old has improved his production in each of the three playoff series so far, and entering Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final, Tarasenko rides an eight-game point streak. When he and linemates Jaden Schwartz and Brayden Schenn have been on the ice against Boston, they've controlled 70 percent of the shot attempts, 67 percent of shots on goal and 61 percent of scoring chances; the Blues have scored three goals, with only one goal against.

But what has exceeded expectations -- and has been on full display in this improbable Blues playoff run -- is Tarasenko's all-around game, which has steadily improved in each season, as has his leadership. Tarasenko has often used his 6-foot, 225-pound frame to protect the puck well. But he has added new wrinkles.

"He gets harped on a lot; I think lots of fans don't think he's good defensively," defenseman Joel Edmundson says. "But as you've seen in the last three series, he's willing to block shots, he'll finish his checks, I think his game has really come along the last two years. He's a 200-foot player now. We'll toss him out there with a minute left [in the game] in the D-zone, and he's a guy we rely on a lot now."

Adds coach Craig Berube: "I really believed he could be a 200-foot player in this game. That was what we demanded of him. He wanted to do that, too. He wanted to become that player. He wants to be in all these crucial situations. For me, he's gotten better and better over the year. He's really dialed in to the team game."

While Tarasenko's goals per 60 minutes rate was down from last season, he did improve in the Corsi for (shot attempts) per 60 minutes while his Corsi against per 60 minutes significantly improved.

But perhaps the most important factor is this: The team feeds off of Tarasenko's energy. Tarasenko began the season slowly as he worked his way back from offseason shoulder surgery. Perhaps it's no coincidence that as Tarasenko heated up -- he scored 21 of his 33 goals over the final 35 games -- so did the Blues.

"His shot will amaze you anytime you see it," forward Oskar Sundqvist says. "But in terms of his all-round game, when he's on, we're all on."

"We go as he goes," defenseman Colton Parayko notes.

A lot of that comes from the respect Tarasenko has earned in the locker room. It begins with his commitment to learn English and be one of the guys.

"I wasn't with him for the start, but I have so much respect for a guy willing to do that," says veteran forward Chris Thorburn, who has been in the league since 2005. "If it was roles reversed, me going to Russia, I'd just be like 'Man, let's just get this thing over with so I can go back home.' He's embedded in the St. Louis community. He might call it home, but it's his home away from home for sure."

Tarasenko, wife Yana and their two sons, Mark and Aleksandr, fell in love with St. Louis. They're active at school and hospital visits. ("Whenever we do a community event, everyone wants to meet Vladimir Tarasenko," Parayko says.) Not only did Tarasenko enroll his kids in schools and hockey programs in the area, but they built a home. Many European and Russian players return to their native countries after the NHL season; the Tarasenkos now make St. Louis their year-round home.

More than that, teammates say they enjoy the fact that Tarasenko is always smiling when he arrives to the rink. He is the player to greet everyone with a "good morning."

"He's a really good audience," Thorburn says. "We're a team that likes to have some fun, and he likes laughing at the jokes. I like when he's around because he's an easy guy to make laugh. He makes you feel funny."

Robby Fabbri, who missed nearly a season and a half with injuries, says Tarasenko was one of the players on the team who checked in on him most when he was rehabbing. "With everything I've been through, has been always supporting me, always having my back," Fabbri said. "He made me feel supported and a part of the team. He's an all-time guy."

Not only has Tarasenko been a big presence on the ice during the Final but he's ubiquitous off of it, as well. He has held court at long media scrums and podium sessions, and isn't afraid to tell a quip; as he walked off the stage at media day, he joked to a staffer: "You guys should fine the media for bad questions!"

He has come a long way in seven years, and he's showing no signs of slowing down yet.

ST. LOUIS -- Laila Anderson pointed the microphone at St. Louis Blues forward Alexander Steen. He had done plenty of interviews after winning the Western Conference championship on home ice that night, but this one was clearly the most meaningful.

"So tell me, Alex, what emotions are going through your head?" said the 11-year-old, her cherubic face beaming under a Blues snow cap.

"Good question," he said. "It's very special to do this in this town, and to have you here was even extra special."

"Thank you. I appreciate that," she said, before continuing the postgame interview on behalf of a local NBC affiliate. She asked Steen about facing former Blues captain David Backes, now a member of the Boston Bruins team awaiting them in the Stanley Cup Final.

"I understand you guys are friends," Anderson said, "but you gotta get aggressive out there."

Steen smiled. "But we got you. Our lucky charm."

Back in January, almost no one expected the St. Louis Blues to be playing for the Stanley Cup, as they had the fewest points of any team in the league. But even if they turned their season around, the odds felt insurmountable for her and her family that Laila Anderson would be healthy enough to watch one of their playoff games, given her condition.

Anderson is battling hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, or HLH, a life-threatening immune disease. Only 15 other children in the world have been diagnosed with it. In some ways, her battle with the disease -- diagnosis, treatment, surgery and recovery -- has run on a timeline parallel to the Blues' own comeback this season.

Their journeys intersected in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals, when Laila's doctors cleared her to attend the playoff game. You've probably seen the video of her mother, Heather, surprising her with the news, creating a moment of tearful elation that went viral. They would attend Games 4 and 6, as well, celebrating with the team after the Blues advanced to the Final with a win over San Jose.

"I was instantly bawling. I can't believe we're here. And I can already taste that Stanley Cup," Laila said on Fox Sports Midwest after Game 6. "They've inspired me so much. But to hear from the players' mouths that I'm their inspiration in the past two games ... it instantly makes me cry."

But she is an inspiration, according to defenseman Colton Parayko, who has developed a friendship with Laila over the past several months to the point that she wears a jean jacket with her name and his number to the games.

"We get to show up to the rink and be with the guys, do things like that. But you go to the hospital, and you speak with her, and you watch her go through all that stuff. I can't imagine what she's going through. What kinds of things they're putting in her body to try and help her recover," he said before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final. "She continues to have a strong attitude. A positive attitude. It's so special. We might lose a hockey game, and we're frustrated or go home really upset. But there are people out there trying to battle for their lives."

He pauses for a moment.

"It gives me chills. I have chills right now thinking about it."

Parayko got to know Anderson at a Halloween event at St. Louis Children's Hospital last year, although he said he remembers the young Blues superfan before that. "Ever since I've been here, I remember her. When you walk through the tunnel and go to the rink, she'd be there giving you fist bumps and everything like that."

He took her around the hospital, trick-or-treating. She made him laugh. They formed an instant bond.

"He's all-in with her," Heather told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "Ever since then, he's come to visit her in the hospital. Stayed a ridiculously long time. They actually communicate once or twice a week. He just checks on her. It's a genuine friendship."

Parayko said he receives text messages from Laila. "She always has something funny and witty to say," he said. "She has a little swagger."

He stayed in touch as Laila dealt with chemotherapy treatments that began in October, and through the brain biopsy she had that required 65 stitches on her head for the wound. He skated in a game against the Los Angeles Kings in November when the Blues set up a table in their arena so fans could register for a swab kit, to see whether any of them would be a bone marrow match for the transplant she needed. He shared in her joy when, in early December, it was revealed that she had, in fact, found a match. The Blues published a photo of Laila on their Instagram feed holding a sign that read: "A Perfect Match has been found, and they are excited to save my life."

She had a bone marrow transplant in January and had been isolated to her home and the hospital in the days after it. Which brings us to the video:

When the #stlblues>https://t.co/RNtsGKIaXX>pic.twitter.com/M2vVVwl10P - St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) May 14, 2019

Her mother said the doctor was willing to "ease up a little" on the travel restrictions, before asking her daughter to guess where she was going. Laila burst into tears, realizing it meant she was going to see the Blues.

The Blues played the video during the game. It was hard to discern whether there were more cheers or tears at that moment, but there was a significant amount of both.

Parayko knew how much it meant to her.

"I remember doing a signing my rookie year, and she came through. She's been here ever since I came into the league. She didn't just show up on the scene and become a Blues fan. That's the exciting part about her getting the chance to come to the games after being in isolation in six months," he said.

The Blues have many different motivations when it comes to chasing the Stanley Cup. They play for each other. They play for the decades of alumni, and for a franchise searching for its first championship, in its first Stanley Cup Final since 1970. They're playing for the fans.

And they're playing for Laila. That's what Patrick Maroon told her as he hugged her after Game 6. That she was always on their minds.

"Of course. One hundred percent. [She's] meant a lot," Parayko said. "It's hard to describe from my standpoint. She's taught me a lot from outside of hockey. Because there is so much more to life than hockey."

Even if, for many young fans like Laila, hockey is what keeps them going.

It's the tritest of sports fan clichés: That they "live and die with their teams." But it's that notion that overwhelms Parayko. That there are kids like Laila for whom the Blues are a reason to believe, or to keep fighting. That what he does means that much to them.

"We've had some parents tell us that they haven't seen their kid smile like that in six months. One of the kids that I visit was running for the first time in two years," he said.

During his time as a professional athlete, Parayko has grown to appreciate his time working with young fans who need support, especially after his interaction with Laila.

"This [is] the part I enjoy the most outside of hockey. Getting to go to children's hospitals. The kids are so strong. Just to be able to see them battle through it," he said. "We're not there being their doctor or anything. We're not going to cure them. But you just try to give them anything you can on your side. Give them some smiles."

Laila is scheduled to attend Game 3 on Saturday, the first Stanley Cup Final game in St. Louis since 1970.

"Look where we are now. After 49 years, we're here. We're so close to the Stanley Cup, why give up now?" she said after Game 6 last week.

During this run to the Stanley Cup Final, the Blues have prided themselves on that very thing: never giving up. Like when they were dominated in Game 1 against Boston, then rallied to win Game 2 on Carl Gunnarsson's goal in overtime.

"That's just the team we are. We come back like that. We never give up," Parayko said.

How can they, when someone like Laila Anderson is in their lives? When she's fighting as she fights? When her spirit and positive attitude are that overwhelming to everyone around her? When players like Parayko have learned more from her resilience than he thought he ever could?

"The thing that she taught me was to just be a warrior. And that's meant a lot, because she continues to battle," he said.