As they fight to recover from the setback at Headingley and seal the Ashes with victory at Old Trafford, Australia's tourists have called back Steve Waugh to help mentor the team after he was conspicuously absent during the Leeds Test.

Originally scheduled to be with the team for only the first two Tests of the series, Waugh toyed with rushing back from a prior commitment in Australia to be around for Headingley, but in his absence the touring team got to the brink of an Ashes victory before throwing it away in a mad hour up against a rampant Ben Stokes.

It is a measure of how much Waugh's presence was valued, but also how desperate Australia are to finish this Ashes series on the winning side, that he has been flown back into camp, arriving late on Sunday night in Manchester to help oversee the team's preparations for the fourth Test. He will also stay on for the final match at The Oval.

ALSO READ: Ian Chappell - How do the 2019 Ashes compare to 2005?

"He was supposed to come until the end of the second Test but he enjoyed it so much and we saw such great value in having him here," coach Justin Langer said. "Guys like Punter [Ricky Ponting] and Steve Waugh, not only do they have a great presence in the group, but they are great psychologists. They've been in the cauldron before, they've seen it all, so to have that those type of guys, we are talking about developing leadership in Australian cricket, to have our guys to learn from people of that calibre is very important short term.

"Longer term there is huge value in that (too). He's been like a kid at Christmas, to come back after such a long time away from the game, his passion and enthusiasm for the game has been brilliant. We asked him to stay for the third Test but he had to go back for a function, he was actually going to fly there, do the function and fly back the next day. That's how much he is enjoying it and we see great value."

"Any chance we have for our guys to rub shoulders with them is a huge benefit short and long term, but whether that's the difference between us winning or losing a Test match like the other day, you can never tell" Justin Langer

Asked whether or not Waugh's presence had been missed at Headingley, Langer said that while it was hard to quantify, he was in little doubt that the presence of great former players alongside the current group was a significant encouragement to the team.

"You can't measure it. Would it have made any difference in those last 60 or 70 runs? Who knows," Langer said. "These things I've always felt throughout my whole time in Australian cricket to learn from the Dennis Lillees and the Allan Borders and the David Boons and the Ian Chappells and the Greg Chappells, the list goes on. So any chance we have for our guys to rub shoulders with them is a huge benefit short and long term, but whether that's the difference between us winning or losing a Test match like the other day, you can never tell.

"Certainly the way we have gone about our business for the first three Tests, there's a bit of steel there and having those sort of people around helps. I don't think he'd do it full time, a bit like Punter, they have got so many other things in their life, but anytime we can have them with the group... If you could have Punter one day a year you would have him because he has such an impact on the group, same with Tugga."

Having Waugh involved, much like Ponting fulfilled an assistant coaching role during the World Cup, was a priority for Langer after he faced many testing moments during his first home summer as coach. Neither Waugh nor Ponting have come cheaply for Cricket Australia, but there is clearly a desire to have them involved in a semi-regular capacity, especially around major assignments such as the World Cup, the Ashes, or next year's Twenty20 World Cup in Australia.

"We are setting up this mentoring system where we have these great players coming in and being with the guys," Langer said. "It's unsustainable doing it full time, we are seeing that throughout coaching around the world really, but when we can have them we will have them as much as we can.

"This is my chosen profession, you feel it as journalists, it's hard work being on the road all the time but that is our profession, Steve Waugh or Ricky Ponting haven't chosen to become career coaches whereas this is my job. You ride the highs and lows of that and you learn along the way, that's why it's important from a personal point of view to have great friends like Steve Waugh or Ricky Ponting or any of my old team mates, like the other assistant coaches, they share the load if you like."

Waugh inspired part of how Australia tackled the aftermath of Headingley, as Langer insisted upon a ruthless approach to the tour match against Derbyshire while also keeping the whole squad together rather than allowing for those not playing in Derby to take brief breaks elsewhere.

"Steve Waugh's talked about, we've talked about the great Australian teams have been pretty ruthless in winning games of cricket," Langer said. "Before the toss, we said, 'it's not a practice game, it's not a centre wicket hit out, we're going to play a proper game of cricket; we're going to try and win the game no matter what'. They won the toss and batted, usually it's a bigger challenge to do that (win) in a three-day game. The way our guys won the game in two-and-a-bit days was that's a guide to me they're up.

"They were all together, they trained together, sometimes it can become a bit fractured. It's not going to be fractured here for the next few weeks. I thought the attitude of the last few days was really good. Because on the back of a World Cup, you've got to try and give guys as much mental rest as possible. The physical rest is fine; they're all fit now except for some of the fast bowlers at stages. It's always been a philosophy and theme of my coaching is we've got to do things together as much as we possibly can.

"It might be right, it might be wrong, that's just a strong belief I have. Everyone was in Nottingham. They were all together, we'll stick together. There's only a few more weeks of this tour. It's been a long hard tour, we'll stick together as much as we can. Hopefully it'll give us the right outcome."

The Australians will be without one member of their support staff, though, with assistant coach Brad Haddin returning home to Sydney for personal reasons.

NORMAN, Okla. -- Jalen Hurts, in his mind, is back where he belongs.

The senior quarterback transfer had a record-setting Oklahoma debut on Sunday night, leading the No. 4 Sooners to a 49-31 win over Houston with a career-high 508 offensive yards and six touchdowns.

"I'm back where I'm supposed to be," Hurts said afterward.

Hurts was nearly flawless on Sunday. He was accurate (20-of-23 passing). He threw it short, long, from the pocket and outside of it. He ran with relative ease, and while donning the same No. 1 jersey his predecessor wore. For a few moments, he could've fooled the 84,534 present that they were watching Kyler Murray -- who happened to be in attendance himself.

The final numbers were staggering: 332 passing yards, 176 rushing and three touchdowns of each variety. He joined Johnny Manziel as the only other player in the past 15 years to throw for 300 yards and three scores and run for 150 and three scores in a game. It was a moment Hurts, a Houston-area product, has been hungry for.

"He's waited a long time," Hurts' dad, Averion Hurts, told ESPN's Holly Rowe. "He's back where ... you could say he belongs."

It's another chapter in a long, winding journey for Jalen Hurts. He was the SEC's Offensive Player of the Year as a freshman. He led Alabama to consecutive national championship game appearances. Even with his 26-2 record as an Alabama starter, his accolades became background as he was supplanted by Tua Tagovailoa in Alabama's 2018 national title game win over Georgia, and Hurts' potential transfer became one of the most talked-about stories in the country.

For Hurts and those close to him, Sunday was about getting him back to that point. Now, with Murray and Baker Mayfield's previous success as a backdrop, Heisman Trophy buzz is sure to begin in earnest. But Hurts stressed repeatedly that there's a lot of room for improvement for himself and the Sooners.

"The reality is I'm not the same player I was as an 18-year-old freshman, a 19-year-old sophomore," Hurts said. "We did some good things tonight, but we've gotta continue to take steps to be where we want to be."

Said Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley: "He played good. There are several things he can do better, but I thought he handled the moment. You could tell out there that he'd been in it [before] ... I thought he made good, sound decisions and managed the game well."

USC sophomore quarterback JT Daniels will miss the rest of the season after tearing the ACL and meniscus in his right knee during Saturday's 31-23 win against Fresno State, coach Clay Helton said Sunday.

Daniels will undergo surgery in the next few weeks, Helton said, and will be eligible to use the season as a redshirt year.

True freshman Kedon Slovis, who went 6-of-8 for 57 yards with an interception in relief against Fresno State, will start on Saturday against No. 25 Stanford in the Pac-12 opener for both teams. Slovis beat out redshirt junior Matt Fink and redshirt sophomore Jack Sears to win the No. 2 job during training camp.

"We've got all the confidence in the world in his ability," Helton said of Slovis. "We'll look forward to watching him play on Saturday."

Slovis enrolled at USC prior to spring practice following his senior year at Desert Mountain High in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he was named a USA Today All-Arizona honorable mention after throwing for 2,542 yards with 18 touchdowns and six interceptions in 2018.

In his first three years at USC, Fink completed 13 of 18 passes for 89 yards with one touchdown. He redshirted in 2016 before backing up Sam Darnold in 2017 and Daniels last year.

Fink entered the transfer portal in April to seek out a destination where he could play in 2019 before deciding to return. Sears entered the transfer portal last week after finishing fourth in the competition. He is no longer with the team.

The status of Stanford quarterback K.J. Costello is also in question after he left Saturday's win against Northwestern in the second quarter after receiving a hit to the head. If he's unable to play, Davis Mills will start for the Cardinal.

NEW YORK -- Novak Djokovic's left shoulder was aching, his chances were fading in the fourth round against Stan Wawrinka and, soon enough, the US Open's defending champion and No. 1 seed was out of the tournament, leaving to a chorus of boos.

Djokovic shook his head as he walked over to the chair umpire to say he was retiring from the match because of that shoulder while trailing 6-4, 7-5, 2-1 and being thoroughly outplayed Sunday night.

"The pain was constant for weeks now," Djokovic said.

Perhaps confused by the sudden turn of events, and likely disappointed in the brevity of the show they got to watch for their expensive tickets, some spectators jeered as Djokovic walked off the court in Arthur Ashe Stadium to head toward the locker room, his two equipment bags over his other shoulder. He responded with a thumbs-up.

"I'm sorry for the crowd. Obviously, they came to see a full match, and just wasn't to be," Djokovic said at his news conference. "I mean, a lot of people didn't know what's happening, so you cannot blame them."

The 32-year-old Serb explained that he had been "taking different stuff to kill the pain instantly; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't."

Djokovic had won 36 of his past 37 Grand Slam matches, and four of the past five major titles, in one of the most dominant stretches the sport has seen. That pushed his Slam trophy total to 16, moving within four of Roger Federer's record 20 and within two of Rafael Nadal's 18.

"Look, it's no secret that I have, of course, desire and a goal to reach the most Slams, and reach Roger's record. But at the same time, it's a long road ahead hopefully for me. I hope I can play for many more years. I'm planning to. I mean, I don't see an end behind the corner at all," said Djokovic, who had been 11-0 in fourth-rounders at Flushing Meadows until this one. "Now it's a matter of keeping my body and mind in shape and trying to still peak at these kind of events that are majors and that are the most significant in our sport."

When it was over, Wawrinka gave Djokovic a hug.

"It's never the way you want to finish the match," said the No. 23-seeded Wawrinka, who will face No. 5 Daniil Medvedev in the quarterfinals. "I feel sorry for Novak."

Djokovic entered the night with a 19-5 head-to-head edge against Wawrinka across their careers. This, though, was their first meeting since the 2016 US Open final, won by Wawrinka.

According to the ATP, this was the 13th mid-match retirement of Djokovic's career, his sixth at a Grand Slam tournament.

This outcome scuttles the much-discussed possibility of a semifinal in New York between Djokovic and Federer, which would have been a rematch of their historic Wimbledon final in July. Djokovic won that one in an unprecedented fifth-set tiebreaker after nearly five hours.

The winner of Wawrinka vs. Medvedev will face the winner of Federer vs. Grigor Dimitrov in the semifinals.

Djokovic began complaining about his left shoulder during a second-round victory on Wednesday, when he repeatedly got massaged by a trainer during changeovers.

He won his next match Friday, looking good and declaring his shoulder much improved, although he refused to disclose any details of the injury or what type of treatment he had received.

While Djokovic is a righty, he uses his left arm for the ball tosses on his serves and to grip the racket for his two-fisted backhands.

His bid for a fourth US Open championship suddenly dissipated Sunday at the conclusion of what for him amounted to a listless and ineffective effort.

Against Wawrinka, a three-time major champion himself, Djokovic never quite had the usual verve on his shots or range on his formidable service returns. He was out of sorts on all manner of shots, accumulating 30 unforced errors and only 12 winners through the first two sets.

"For sure, I could see some little [signs] that he was in trouble," Wawrinka said.

Djokovic managed to lead 3-0 and 4-1 in the second set, but that was just about all he had in him. Soon he was trying to take shortcuts to avoid lengthy points, and nothing was working.

When that set ended, Djokovic had a trainer on for a massage, but soon thereafter, his title defense was over.

"You just know when you know, I guess," Djokovic said, "when you feel like you're not able to hit [a] shot anymore."

We were sitting in the press box at Wrigley Field on Sunday watching a no-hitter -- of sorts. Milwaukee's Gio Gonzalez hadn't allowed a hit in three innings against the Cubs, but he had walked four, and even if he hadn't you knew that once Chicago reached its third time through the order, Brewers manager Craig Counsell would yank him. Indeed, Gonzalez was gone in the fourth in favor of a pinch-hitter, with a goose egg still on his pitching line under the hits category. It was a fairly obvious move, but even if it wasn't, we've been increasingly conditioned to understand that there are more important things in today's baseball than no-hitters.

When Gonzalez departed, it was about the exact moment when, on my iPad, we watched Toronto's Bo Bichette bounce one to third base on the 120th pitch from Astros ace Justin Verlander, giving the future Hall of Famer his third career no-hitter. And you couldn't help but think that, in these days of openers, five-inning starters and combined no-nos, that, right there, is what domination looks like. And you thought that is what the very concept of the ace starter means to this sport. Above all, when you watched Verlander break into a smile and thrust both arms into the air, you also knew that no one in today's game, save for the possible exception of Washington's Max Scherzer, typifies the archetype of the ace more than Justin Verlander.

Verlander's outing was emphatic even by the standards of a no-hitter. He walked Cavan Biggio, the second batter he saw, and that was it. Verlander faced 28 batters and struck out 14 of them, tied for the eighth-most Ks in a no-hitter. His game score (98) is tied for 13th among nine-inning no-nos. It's the best game score for any pitcher this season and the best of his career.

Every no-hitter seems to carry with it its own quirky set of factoids, and this one is no different. First of all, it's Verlander's third career no-hitter, a total topped in baseball history by only Nolan Ryan (7) and Sandy Koufax (4), and matched by Bob Feller, Larry Corcoran and Cy Young (whose name we'll be bringing up again in a bit).

Of Verlander's three no-nos, two of them have come at the Rogers Centre, which is two more no-hitters than any Blue Jays pitcher has ever thrown. Only Ryan (three) has thrown more road no-hitters than Verlander's two. At 36, he becomes the oldest hurler to throw a no-hitter since Randy Johnson in 2004. (All factoids via ESPN Stats & Info.)

With the historic outing, Verlander puts up another big, flashing datapoint in a couple of different pursuits, one short-term and the other down the line. The near-term chase is this year's AL Cy Young race, in which Verlander was probably already the front-runner even before shutting down the Blue Jays. He is in a tight group in terms of WAR -- both the FanGraphs and Baseball Reference versions -- with Texas' Mike Minor and Lance Lynn, Chicago's Lucas Giolito and Verlander's rotation-mate Gerrit Cole. He leads the AL in win probability added.

In the traditional pitching Triple Crown categories, Verlander is now tied for the big league lead in wins (17, with the Yankees' Domingo German), leads the AL with a 2.56 ERA and, at least for the time being, has surpassed Cole with a big league-leading 257 strikeouts. Now you drop a no-hitter-shaped cherry on top of that sundae, and it's likely going to take a September collapse to turn voters' heads elsewhere. If he gets the Cy, Verlander would join a select group of 19 pitchers to win the honor more than once.

Which brings us to the longer-term chase for Verlander, the baseball version of a marathon, the slow but steady race with a finish line laid out along Main Street in Cooperstown, New York. Verlander almost certainly had achieved no-brainer status even before Sunday, but now he's in the process of climbing the various tiers on which his immortal future teammates reside.

With the 14 Ks, Verlander has reached 2,963 in his career and it now looks all but certain that before the season is over, he'll become the 18th pitcher to crack 3,000. He's now won 221 games and given his stated desire to pitch until he's 45, and the amazing trajectory he's shown through his mid-30s, it appears more and more likely that the membership of the 300-win club has not permanently been closed. He's been AL Rookie of the Year, has one AL Cy Young award (and counting), won the league's MVP trophy in 2011 and has extended his excellence into the postseason, where he has one World Series ring (and counting) and 13 wins.

As for that aforementioned trajectory, it continues to be all but unprecedented and perhaps is the most amazing aspect of Verlander, circa 2019. Since he was traded to the Astros from the Tigers late in the 2017 season, he leads the AL in innings, wins, ERA, WHIP, strikeouts and opponent batting average. His no-hitter was not one of those late-career marvels from a beloved veteran (think Dwight Gooden or Fernando Valenzuela) who has a big day with at 'em balls and guile. He mowed through the Blue Jays with 97-98 mph four-seamers and wipeout sliders. He looks as good right now, nearly 15 years into his career, as he ever has.

Verlander has been in the headlines a couple of times this season for less-than-ideal reasons, first bemoaning the spate of home runs in baseball and suggesting it was intentional, then later causing a sensation by refusing to conduct a postgame news conference if a writer he's beefing with was present. When things like that happen, it invariably triggers a social media backlash and a few days' worth of talking-head debates. And in the end, you're left wondering why we even care.

On Sunday, Verlander reminded us why we care. It's because he's one of the biggest stars in his chosen profession, and in his specific vocation -- pitching -- few have ever done it better.

The ace is dead? As long as Justin Verlander is around, the ace lives on. And the game is better because of it.

ORRVILLE, Ohio – Rain which invaded just after the 4 o’clock hour and returned just after the 7 o’clock hour forced the cancellation of Sunday night’s Pete Jacobs Memorial.

The weather left Wayne County Speedway grounds heavily saturated, with little to no drying time available, forcing Ollie’s Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil 1 and Wayne County Speedway officials to make the tough call.

There were 32 cars signed in for action when the rain returned.

Tony Stewart’s All Stars will return to ‘Orrville’s Historic Oval’ on Monday, September 2. The Labor Day visit will award a $5,000 top prize.

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – Blancpain GT World Challenge America Ferrari drivers Toni Vilander and Daniel Serra were victorious for the second-straight day Sunday at Watkins Glen Int’l.

Sunday’s race also saw repeat wins from Acura team drivers Dane Cameron and Mike Hedlund in Pro/Am and Ferrari drivers Martin Fuentes and Mark Issa in the Am class.

Championship leader and pole sitter Vilander led the field to the green in his No. 61 R. Ferri Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3 and drag raced down the front straight with Maxime Soulet. Soulet was able to nose ahead and take the lead through turn one. Cameron slotted in behind Vilander in third.

Drama ensued as the leaders headed to turn eight on the first lap. Vilander was able to get underneath Soulet as the two entered the right hander and the two contacted with Soulet’s Bentley spinning and Vilander continuing through into the lead. Soulet gathered his No. 3 machine and re-entered the track but not before a substantial number of competitors had passed.

At the completion of lap one, Vilander led Cameron and Pro/Am driver Kyle Marcelli. Fuentes slotted in 12th overall and tops in the Am division. By lap three, Pro division pilot Scott Hargrove was on a charge moving up four positions to slot into fourth overall behind Marcelli.

Through lap 20 the leaders in all categories held their positions with Vilander growing his overall lead over Cameron by over two seconds.

At the 50-minute mark of the race the pit lane opened for driver changes and Soulet brought his No. 3 machine in first to change over to partner Rodrigo Baptista. K-PAX Racing’s second entry, with Andy Soucek behind the wheel of the No. 9 Bentley Continental GT3, came in shortly after for Alvaro Parente to assume the reins.

Vilander and Hargrove brought their cars in a lap later to change over to Serra and Patrick Long, respectively. Cameron and Marcelli stayed out on track until near the close of the pit window when both came in to change over to partners Hedlund and Martin Barkey, respectively.

By lap 30 with the pit window closed, and driver changes completed, Hedlund held the overall lead and top spot in the Pro/Am division with Serra, Parente and Long in pursuit. Issa who had taken over for Fuentes slotted into 13th overall maintaining the lead in Am.

By lap 31, the top three dueled for position with Hedlund defending the lead over Serra and Parente looking for a way around the Ferrari driver for second. Then on lap 33, Serra squeezed by Hedlund for the lead through turns 8 and 9 with Parente following into second.

That set up a 28-minute duel to the checkered between the Ferrari and Bentley drivers. Long then made it a Ferrari, Bentley and Porsche duel passing Hedlund on lap 34. By lap 39 the leaders began to encounter lap traffic closing the gap between the top three and bringing Baptista, who had passed Hedlund, into the picture in fourth.

Serra effectively managed lap traffic and was able to hold off any challenges from Parente extending his gap in front, while on lap 41 Baptista passed Long through the bus stop complex moving into third overall. Hedlund remained in fifth overall leading in Pro/Am, while Issa maintained his 13th overall position leading in Am.

By lap 42, Serra had cleared lap traffic and increased his gap over Parente to .800 seconds. Parente was unable to close the gap back up and at the checkered, the Ferrari driver crossed the line ahead of the Bentley driver by 3.99 seconds, with Baptista, Long and Hedlund closing out the top five.

“What was supposed to be an easy stint for me became like qualifying every lap,” said Serra. “We lost a bit of time on the pit stop and when I got back out, I was behind Hedlund. It was difficult to overtake him because he had much more speed than us on the straight, even when I was in the draft. I had to wait for a mistake or something like that and in turn 8 he went wide and I was able to overtake him. I was pushing and couldn’t put a gap to Parente. It was a nice stint, it’s good to come here and help the team and Toni (Vilander) extend the lead so I’m satisfied.”

With the win, Vilander leaves Watkins Glen with a 21-point lead over Parente and Soucek in the driver’s championship. K-PAX Racing leads R. Ferri Motorsport in the push for the team championship by nine points. Bentley leads Ferrari by six points in the manufacturer’s championships.

Barkey and Marcelli lead the Pro/Am driver’s championship with 143 points each, while Fuentes has a dominating lead in the Am category driver’s championship with 175 points.

OSWEGO, N.Y. – In the ageless Aesop fable The Tortoise and the Hare, the former of the two combatants ended up celebrating a victory by remaining slow and steady across the race distance.

However, Sunday night at Oswego Speedway, seventeen-year-old Tyler Thompson turned that classic script on its head and wrote his own page of history at the five-eighths-mile oval in the process.

Thompson stunned the supermodified world by demolishing the field to win the 63rd annual Budweiser Int’l Classic. The Fulton, N.Y. teenager was a rabbit from the word go, blasting past polesitter Brandon Bellinger on lap 11 of the 200-lapper and never looking back as he opened up a near half-track advantage at times through the race.

Though various combatants closed to within a few car lengths at times during the afternoon, no one had anything for Thompson, who led the final 190 laps uncontested en route to his first Classic victory.

It marked the second-career supermodified win at Oswego for Thompson, who triumphed Aug. 10 at the Steel Palace to become the youngest winner in the 68-year history of the facility.

Sunday’s victory gave Thompson one more notch on his growing resume: that of the youngest Classic champion in the marquee event’s 63-year tenure.

“This is truly amazing,” a breathless Thompson said in victory lane. “I’m just speechless right now.”

Thompson started fifth, but it was clear from the drop of the green flag that his neon-trimmed No. 98 was the car to beat. He went from fourth to the lead in a three-lap sequence, passing Joe Gosek, Dave Jeff Abold and Bellinger in quick succession between the ninth and 11th revolutions.

After that, it was as if Thompson had brought a gun to a knife-fight, despite seven restarts that he had to navigate between the time that he took the race lead and the time that the checkered flag waved.

Each time, however – whether he had a buffer of lapped cars between himself and second place or, like in the late laps, he had Dave Shullick Jr. on his tail – Thompson was able to pull away from the field.

Thompson even made controlling the gap look effortless, thanks in part to guidance from the infield.

“I had one of my guys, Doug, down here the whole time,” Thompson said. “He helped me through this race and that, combined with a really, really fast car, is what made it all happen for us today.”

Sunday’s score was one, Thompson noted, that went according to plan – just not the plan he intended on using at the start of the weekend.

“Getting out front and trying to run away wasn’t what I wanted to do coming into this, but then I checked the forecast and I saw some rain,” Thompson recalled. “I said to myself, ‘well, it’s like a 50-50 shot (that it would rain), so I’ll just go for it and see what happens.’

“I can’t believe it actually worked.”

Shullick spent the entire second half of the race chasing Thompson, taking second from Bellinger on lap 101 and trying every trick in the book to track down the leading No. 98.

A final restart with 20 to go, set up after Lou LeVea Jr. found the turn one wall four laps prior, gave Shullick a final shot to try and motor around the outside, but Thompson was simply too strong.

“That was a good run. Our car was excellent,” noted Shullick. “A half to three quarters of the way through the race, I was cruising and I thought I had the car to beat … because I saw him (Thompson) up running up front and I was like, ‘there’s no way he’s gonna make it. There’s no way.’ And then finally, at about lap 180. I’m like, ‘he might actually make it.’

“We had to turn up the wick there at the end, but he had just enough to hold me off, so hats off to him and his whole crew,” Shullick added. “That thing they had was a bullet tonight.”

Michael Barnes completed the podium, his fifth-straight top-three finish in Classic competition, with Jeff Abold and Doug Didero following in fourth and fifth, respectively.

Bellinger faded from the pole to sixth at the finish after leading the first 10 laps, ahead of Chris Perley, Alison Sload, Michael Muldoon and Keith Shampine.

Recently-crowned track champion Otto Sitterly, who was running third inside of the final 20 laps, was forced to pit road with nine to go with a broken transfer arm. He ended up 16th in the official results.

As for Thompson, tears pricked his eyes as the reality of his accomplishment began to set in.

“Man, I’m feeling a whole lot of emotions,” he admitted. “I’m happy now, but about halfway through that race, I was like, ‘I don’t know if I’ve got it.’ By the end of it, though, I was like, ‘OK, this is a little bit better.’

“To be a Classic champion is beyond my wildest dreams and I’m just so grateful for everyone’s support.”

The finish:

Tyler Thompson, Dave Shullick Jr., Michael Barnes, Jeff Abold, Doug Didero, Brandon Bellinger, Chris Perley, Alison Sload, Michael Muldoon, Keith Shampine, Ben Seitz, Logan Rayvals, Jack Patrick, Camden Proud, Dan Connors, Otto Sitterly, Jamie Timmons, Jerry Curran, Dave McKnight, Bobby Santos, Dave Gruel, Davey Hamilton, Brian Osetek, Lou LeVea Jr., Dave Danzer, Hal Latulip, Joe Gosek, Tim Snyder, Dan Bowes, Bob Bond, Todd Stowell, Lou LeVea Sr., Jason Spaulding, Aric Iosue.

Restricted free agent Ivan Barbashev agreed to terms with the St. Louis Blues on a two-year contract worth an annual average value of $1.475 million, the team announced Sunday.

Barbashev, 23, played in 80 games for the Blues in their Stanley Cup season of 2018-19, recording 14 goals and 12 assists for 26 points -- all career highs.

The Russian center, the last remaining restricted free agent for the Blues to re-sign, added three goals and three assists in the playoffs as part of the Blues' fourth line.