SOUTHLAKE, Texas – The Sportscar Vintage Racing Ass’n announced Thursday that NASCAR champion Bobby Labonte has entered the Vintage Race of Champions Charity Pro-Am presented by Chopard Watch.

The race will take place at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Aug. 3.

“Bobby has become a good friend to our sport,” said SVRA President and CEO Tony Parella. “He’s still an active race driver in the NASCAR Whelen Series, and, of course, has TV and various other commitments, so I am honored that he makes the time to race with us for charity. I like to believe it underscores just how quickly our VROC Charity Pro-Am series is ascending.”

Labonte is the first driver to win both the NASCAR Cup Series championship (2000), and the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship (1991). He backed up those accomplishments by winning the 2001 IROC Championship with two victories in the season’s four races. In a NASCAR Cup career that spanned 24 seasons, Labonte amassed 21 wins and 26 poles. In what is now the Xfinity Series, he scored 10 race wins and 10 poles.

He is one of a handful of drivers to rack up victories in all of NASCAR’s top three series: Cup, Xfinity and Trucks. It was announced in May that Labonte will be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in January. He is also a member of the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame.

Labonte has extended his career since leaving NASCAR Cup racing in 2016, both as a driver and motorsports analyst. He is currently running his second season in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series. Labonte is fresh from an appearance in the world-renowned Goodwood Festival of Speed earlier this month. He drove a vintage Joe Gibbs M&M Toyota Cup racer up the famous hill climb. He also serves as an analyst for FOX Sports 1 Race Hub and Race Day TV programs.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Brickyard Invitational VROC Charity Pro-Am will benefit the Morgan Adams Foundation. The foundation supports laboratory and clinical research in the area of pediatric cancer, with an emphasis on tumors on the brain, spine, and central nervous system. Morgan Adams was a five-year-old girl who lost her battle with brain cancer in 1997. The foundation has a history of working with vintage racers to support their cause.

The VROC Charity Pro-Am presented by Chopard Watch is a Saturday feature event at the Brickyard Invitational. The cars are 1963 to 1972 vintage Corvettes, Camaros, and Mustangs of SVRA “Group 6” A and B Production.  The professionals will be paired with amateur drivers. Amateurs will start the race and be required to drive a maximum of seven laps.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. – Wood Brothers Racing have revealed the No. 21 Ford Mustang that Paul Menard will drive during the Bojangles Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on Sept. 1.

The car is inspired by the 1957 Ford Sunliner raced by the team’s late founder, Glenn Wood. The red-and-black paint scheme is patterned after the 1957 Sunliner that Glenn Wood raced in 1957 in his only Darlington appearance as a driver.

Wood, with relief from Fonty Flock, finished 17th in the Rebel 300 after blowing an engine.

Wood also raced the ’57 at Daytona in 1958 in the Convertible circuit’s final appearance on the beach-road course that preceded Daytona Int’l Speedway. He finished sixth in that race.

Wood, one of the top stars of the Convertible circuit, had his best season in 1957, winning four races and two poles and finishing in the top five in 23 of the 46 races that year.

For his 89-race Convertible career, Wood had five wins, 43 top-five and 62 top-10 finishes and nine poles.

He also raced the ’57 in the series now known as Monster Energy Cup, simply bolting on a top to make it legal for the elite division.

The original car had an interesting history. It started its life doing endurance testing at Ford’s proving grounds in the desert.

“They were going to scrap it once the endurance testing was over, but my Dad found out about it and called John Cowley, who ran Ford’s NASCAR effort back then,” said Eddie Wood, Glenn Wood’s son. “He gave the car to my Dad and they made a race car out of it.”

“They kept the red-and-black paint scheme that was on the car during the endurance tests.”

Wood said he, his family and the entire Motorcraft/Quick Lane team are thankful for the chance to honor his father, who died Jan. 18 of this year.

“You want to honor your dad the best way you can,” Eddie Wood said. “And for racers, the throwback weekend at Darlington provides the perfect opportunity to do that.”

Wood said his family and the race team considered honoring Wood at Darlington last year, but chose to recognize former driver Cale Yarborough on the 50th anniversary of his first Southern 500 triumph, which came aboard the Wood Brothers’ No. 21 Mercury. It also was the first Southern 500 win for the Woods.

“It would have been nice to do it last year, but it’s nice to do it now,” Wood said. “It’s really a special paint scheme, for sure.”

The Colorado Avalanche have signed restricted free agent J.T. Compher to a four-year contract -- avoiding an arbitration hearing.

According to The Athletic, the deal carries an annual average value of $3.5 million.

"J.T. has been one of our most versatile forwards over the past two years," Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic said in a statement. "He plays on our power play, kills penalties and has played up and down our lineup. He has scored some big goals late in games and we are counting on him to have an even more expanded role moving forward. We are excited to have him under contract for the next four seasons."

In his third season in the league, the 24-year-old Compher set career highs with 16 goals and 16 assists. He added four goals and two assists in 12 playoff games.

The Avalanche have had a busy offseason. They drafted defenseman Bowen Byram and added forwards Nazem Kadri, Andre Burakovsky, Joonas Donskoi and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare.

DETROIT -- A police report says the death of former Nashville Predators captain Greg Johnson was an apparent suicide, according to the Detroit News.

The paper said Wednesday it had obtained a Rochester Police report, and that Johnson was found by his wife shortly before 10 a.m. on July 7. A gun and a single bullet were found near him. No suicide note was left.

The Oakland County Medical Examiner declined to discuss findings from an autopsy, according to the paper.

Johnson was with Nashville for the franchise's first season in the league. He spent the last seven years of his career with the Predators. He also played for Detroit, Pittsburgh and Chicago during his 12 years in the NHL.

The Detroit News said Johnson's agent, Tom Laidlaw, declined to discuss specifics about the former player's death. Johnson was 48.

DETROIT -- The Detroit Red Wings have re-signed defenseman Joe Hicketts to a two-year contract.

The team announced the move Wednesday. Hicketts played in 11 games with the Red Wings in 2018-19. He had 27 points in 64 games with Grand Rapids of the AHL.

The 23-year-old Hicketts has no goals and three assists in 16 career NHL games.

If I were one of the executives hiring Ron Francis as the first general manager of the Seattle Whatevers -- and I'm still all-in on the "Sasquatch" or "Kraken," for the record -- my first question would have been a simple one:

"How much of that was your fault?"

Under Francis, the Carolina Hurricanes had a record of 137-138-53 with Bill Peters behind the bench, the only coach Francis had the chance to hire in his four seasons as general manager. They were an aggressively average team, a source of constant befuddlement for the analytics community:

How could a team that was third in the NHL in expected goals at five-on-five during that stretch end up 26th in goals per 60 minutes (2.07)? How could a team that had the second-best percentage of shot attempts in the league (52.45%) during that time frame, behind only the Los Angeles Kings, fail to make the playoffs in all four seasons with Francis as GM? To put things in perspective: Six of the top seven teams in Corsi percentage during that stretch didn't just make the playoffs with frequency, they all played for the Stanley Cup since 2013.

How much of that was his fault?

Part of the problem was a lack of finishers on the roster. Francis, notably, made few player-for-player trades that forcefully improved his team's scoring. He made 24 trades in total while GM of the Hurricanes. The most beneficial one, by far, was when he acquired forwards Teuvo Teravainen and Bryan Bickell from a cap-strapped Chicago Blackhawks team in 2016. But the glut of the deals he made involved shipping out talent from Raleigh, rather than bringing some back. Part of that was his untangling of the cap mess Jim Rutherford left behind when he moved up and then out to Pittsburgh. Part of that was being a constant deadline seller.

There also were few solutions via free agency, where Justin Williams' return in 2017 was the only major win among value adds (Lee Stempniak) and outright disasters (Scott Darling).

How much of that was his fault?

The solutions didn't arrive at the draft table, either. The first-rounders his team selected:

• Defenseman Haydn Fleury (who has played 87 NHL games) at No. 7 overall in 2014, ahead of William Nylander and Nikolaj Ehlers

• Defenseman Noah Hanifin at No. 5 overall in 2015, ahead of Ivan Provorov, Zach Werenski, Timo Meier and Mikko Rantanen

• Defenseman Jake Bean at No. 13 and right wing Julien Gauthier at No. 21 in 2016, with the former having played two games and the latter zero games in the NHL thus far

• And the promising center Martin Necas No. 12 overall in 2017

In total, Francis oversaw 33 draft picks from 2014 to 2018, and 11 of them made the NHL. Yes, among the 11 were Sebastian Aho, an incredible find at No. 35 overall in 2015, and Lucas Wallmark, at No. 97 overall in 2014. But there were more whiffs than hits.

How much of that was his fault?

Ron Francis is a respected guy in the NHL, but as you can see, one who doesn't exactly have a record to run on. His hiring by Seattle already has met with some criticism -- "Hall of Fame player, yes. Hall of Fame GM, don't know about that," for example -- because of the aftertaste from his job in Carolina.

Look, no matter how much Listerine one gargles, it's hard to get rid of the rancidness of four losing seasons or seeing Scott Darling as his solution in goal -- a devastating story on a personal level, but an undeniable managerial misstep in handing the crease to an unproven commodity on a four-year deal with trade protection. He bet big, and lost, and that signing came to define Francis' tenure in Raleigh.

But if I'm a Seattle executive and I asked Ron Francis how much the rest of this was his fault, I might have heard this response: "Not as much as you'd think."

Where I think he can take the blame was at the draft table. Tony MacDonald, the Hurricanes' recently retired director of amateur scouting, ultimately made the majority of the picks, but Francis let it be known what kinds of players he was looking for and exerted influence. There's an All-Star team of offensive talent that the Hurricanes left on the board while selecting defensemen with their first picks in three straight seasons. Now with an expansion franchise that should have a plethora of picks, Francis can't oversee that many missed opportunities, especially in the lottery.

Otherwise, Francis did a solid job managing his cap. He made some nice, small moves, but without aggressive moves to get over the hump. The perception is that he lacked the audacity to make those moves; the reality is that he wasn't afraid to take risks, but rather never had the money to spend to take them during the majority of his tenure with Carolina. Playmaking centers cost money. Goal-scoring wingers cost money. Even with the trade assets the Hurricanes had, it was difficult to add that kind of payroll. And that financial reality certainly extended to the free-agent pool.

Money is not going to be an issue for Seattle. I've had multiple members of the NHL Board of Governors tell me they expect Seattle will be a top-10 revenue team. I think Seattle will resemble the Vegas Golden Knights in that regard: Money won't be an issue in trying to attract or retain talent. This certainly will be a new flex for him as a general manager.

Vegas, of course, has set completely unreal expectations for Seattle, which isn't going to have the same ancillary catalysts for success off the ice that the Knights had, nor, one assumes, the abject stupidity of other GMs overplaying their expansion draft hands on which to prey. But Seattle will have a roster that, like the Golden Knights', will be a cut above the expansion team dreck we used to witness. And Seattle should have a quality coaching pool, as Gerard Gallant's Jack Adams Award for Vegas no doubt encourages.

For my money, Seattle has a terrific general manager now too. I've been waiting for a second act for Ronnie Franchise after the education he received with Carolina. Were mistakes made? Totally. Were the four years without a playoff berth his fault? Partially.

Is this a general manager I'd like to see paint on a clean canvas, with a palette that's not restricted in its spectrum? Completely.

The Week In Gritty

I'm not predisposed to doubt the veracity of Gritty's news items, but I have some concerns that this may not, in fact, be Area 51, a.k.a. where "them aliens" are kept by the U.S. government.

Let's see them aliens. pic.twitter.com/KFEpuf7Awk

- Gritty (@GrittyNHL) July 17, 2019

Although it is logical that this bastion of experimental aircraft would have Flyers banners up, one imagines.

Would you let your child touch the Stanley Cup?

The summer provides a great opportunity for frivolous debates about Stanley Cup celebration etiquette. Like, for example, blowing a gasket because someone let their dog eat out of a bowl that a horse has eaten from, that a baby has defecated into and that Alex Ovechkin ... well, we'll just assume he did something to the Stanley Cup that we'd rather not discuss here.

So, furthering the frivolity: If you were an NHL player, knowing that you've passed your hockey-proficient DNA on to your children, would you let them touch the Stanley Cup knowing what that connotes?

Babies' first #StanleyCup. pic.twitter.com/aXrnjxDtaY

- St. Louis Blues �� (@StLouisBlues) July 14, 2019

For the uninformed, the superstition goes that no player should touch the Stanley Cup before their team has won it. What happens if one does? The Hockey Gods allegedly will frown upon you, place some sort of hex on thee and you will never win the Cup.

Yet here's St. Louis Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo, letting his moppets get handsy with Stanley.

Personally, I was on team "never let your child touch the Cup" until I heard that T.J. Oshie admitted he touched the chalice as a teen before winning it last year with the Capitals.

"My dad told me not to touch it, he said it was a bad omen," Oshie said, via Russian Machine Never Breaks. "So I put my hand behind it and sure enough, the photographer made me put my hand on the side of it. I only touched it for maybe a millisecond, I pulled my hand back off it and told him I wasn't allowed to do that.

"So I don't know if that counts or not. If it does, then it might not be a curse because obviously we did something pretty special last year and got to hold it over our heads."

Granted, it could be that a millisecond isn't enough to anger the Hockey Gods. Or it could be that all of our superstitions and concerns about decorum for the Stanley Cup are absolute rubbish.

Jersey Fouls

William Nylander recently made news by announcing that he's switching from No. 29 with the Toronto Maple Leafs to No. 88. And by "news" we of course mean "managed to spark widespread criticism of his actions by petty Leafs fans desperate to be mad online in the middle of July, to the point where they would defend the sanctity of Eric Lindros' stint in Toronto as a counterpoint."

Making the switch ... what's old is new again #88

I've got you covered Leafs Nation, go to @realsportstoronto to have your jersey recrested on me. pic.twitter.com/gQWHZVxQMo

- William Nylander (@wmnylander) July 15, 2019

Anyway, we've gotten a lot of inquiries about the Jersey Foul ramifications of this switch. Obviously, it's not a Foul if you continue to wear No. 29 on a Leafs jersey, nor is it a Foul to get that jersey refitted with No. 88 per Mr. Nylander's instructions. It is a Foul, however, to get No. 88 on a 2018 Stadium Series jersey, since Nylander did not wear the number for that game. So hopefully that clears that up.

OK, so go to China

Interesting interview on CNBC recently featuring Scott O'Neil, the CEO of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, which owns the New Jersey Devils, in which he talked about the potential for hockey to overtake basketball in popularity -- in China.

"The key, I think for hockey, just like it is in the NBA ... is just the sense that we have to bring the game here," he said. "And then we have to do a much better job on our terms of creating content, so that the incredible fans of China can see and experience these incredible athletes as people."

The Winter Olympics are in Beijing in 2022. The NHL's participation in the Games remains a thorny issue, highly dependent on what the IOC is willing to share with the league with regard to brand visibility and revenue-sharing opportunities. But when you hear a hockey team executive talk about the opportunity for growth in China -- O'Neil said that "this will be an incredible hockey market" -- the more it becomes obvious that the NHL has to return to the Olympics for Beijing.

Listen To ESPN On Ice

The full season archive of our podcast can be found on iTunes. Give it a listen on the beach, if you please.

Puck headlines

Pro goalie Katie Burk of the Boston Pride takes a summer job as a Boston Red Sox ball attendant.

Are the Hockey Hall of Fame's standards slipping? "The Hockey Hall of Fame has a lot of biases in what it looks for in players."

Another voice asking for the NWHL to fold for the betterment of women's hockey.

Banging the drum for a Josh Ho-Sang trade. "At this point, if the Islanders have no intention of using him in the lineup and are going to get anything of value for Ho-Sang, it's time for him to be moved along."

There's a movement afoot to get Willie O'Ree a Congressional Gold Medal.

The Flames are good. Their goaltending isn't.

Seth Jones tries out sled hockey for the first time.

Hockey tl;dr (too long; didn't read)

Dom Luszczyszyn's look at the "contract efficiency" of NHL teams is pretty interesting, if a little specious in places. Like in Washington, where Nicklas Backstrom's contract earns a B. And like in Minnesota, where the grades are higher than one might expect. ($)

In case you missed this from your friends at ESPN

Our roundtable on the remaining big-name UFAs, including Patrick Marleau and Jake Gardiner.

France under-19 defender William Saliba is set to join Arsenal in a deal worth €30 million despite late interest from Tottenham but will be loaned back to Saint. Etienne, sources have told ESPN FC.

Arsenal appeared to have beaten competition for the 18-year-old centre-back. However, a late bid from Spurs put the move in doubt.

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But, eventually, Saliba chose Arsenal over their North London rivals because he is attracted to the project at Emirates and will sign a five-year contract.

Just minor details need to be finalised before the deal becomes official, with Arsenal's presence in Los Angeles for the International Champions Cup preseason tournament complicating matters.

Since joining the Saint-Etienne academy in 2016, he has represented France in every age group and was part of the squad at the U20 European championships this summer.

On Wednesday, Arsenal boss Unai Emery said his target would target "very big, very expensive" players in the transfer market.

SINGAPORE -- Hugo Lloris has told ESPN FC that Tottenham must move on from being a "young team" with potential and seize the opportunity to take the club to the next level.

Spurs begin their preseason preparations with an International Champions Cup clash against Juventus in Singapore on Sunday (Live on ESPN 2/ Deportes at 7:30 a.m. ET), 50 days after being beaten by Liverpool in the Champions League final.

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But with Mauricio Pochettino's team going so close to glory last season, captain Lloris said he believes the squad has arrived at a crucial moment and must use the experience of that defeat as a springboard to achieving the club's ambitions.

"We used to repeat that our team is a young team, but it has been five years now that we have worked together and I think it is the moment to come closer," Lloris told ESPN FC. "A few weeks ago, it was the final of the Champions League and it has to give us even more motivation and confidence for the future.

"It's always good to learn from what you have done in the season before, but the most important thing is to move on and look ahead of us. There are plenty of challenges and we will do our best like we always do. It is about details and we need to learn from the last two-three seasons.

"We have achieved great things for the club because it is always good to remember where it was a few years ago and where it is today. But it doesn't change -- our motivation is always to push our limits and improve every season."

Having helped France to World Cup glory in 2018 after suffering defeat in the final of Euro 2016, Lloris said teams can take both pain and motivation from losing a major final.

"It's both feelings," he said. "The first one is that it will be a great memory for the Spurs community -- to have so many fans in Madrid was an amazing feeling, but what we have done and lived together as an emotion will not replace the taste of the defeat.

"It's even tougher when it happens in the final, but it is football and the most important thing is how you react after that type of feeling. The best way is to move on together and make a big effort because every season is more difficult than the previous one.

"We know that the Premier League is the most competitive league in the world and it is a big task to win the Premier League and to affirm your ambition. But I think it is the same for the other challengers -- for Liverpool, [Manchester] City, [Manchester] United, Arsenal and Chelsea -- and for us.

"We are going to try to build our season, step-by-step, and get the right feeling from day one in August and look ahead and be ready to fight. Obviously, City and Liverpool made an amazing season last year and they showed the way, in terms of consistency and results.

"But we know that the difference between a very good season and a massive one is so short."

Juventus have completed the signing of Matthijs de Ligt from Ajax for €75 million making him the most expensive defender in Serie A history.

De Ligt, 19, arrived in Italy on Tuesday to undergo a medical before agreeing a five-year contract with the Bianconeri which could increase by another €10.5m in add-ons.

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"It's the news all Bianconeri fans have been waiting to hear all summer: Matthijs de Ligt is officially a Juventus player!" the club said on its website.

Sky Italia reported that the contract includes a termination clause of €150m which is valid from the third year of the deal.

He had attracted interest from Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United and Bayern Munich among others after helping Ajax reach the Champions League semifinal and Netherlands the UEFA Nations League final.

Spanish media reported that De Ligt had also been courted by Barcelona, but the player's agent Mino Raiola said at Juventus' headquarters on Wednesday that the Italian club were always the preferred destination.

"It's not a question of who wanted him most, but Juve are the best team for him. For a defender it is important to come to Italy," Raiola told reporters.

"If you are to become the greatest in the world, it is a necessary stage.

"He's the number one among the youngsters. He's like [Pavel] Nedved, maybe more than him, for his mentality and he's like Zlatan [Ibrahimovic] for his ambition. He has it all."

Although Ajax lost to Tottenham in the Champions League, De Ligt did win the Eredivisie title and Dutch Cup as part of a side that also featured Frenkie de Jong, who has since joined Barcelona.

De Ligt told Netherlands' NOS television in June that Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo asked him to join the Turin-based club at the end of the Nations League final after Portugal beat the Netherlands 1-0.

Capped 15 times by the Netherlands, he made 33 appearances last season and scored three goals.

De Ligt will link up with former Chelsea coach Maurizio Sarri at Juve and fellow new signings Adrien Rabiot, Gianluigi Buffon and Aaron Ramsey as the Bianconeri aim to win a ninth straight Scudetto.

Information from Reuters was used in this report.

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has told coach Zinedine Zidane it will be "very difficult" to sign Paul Pogba from Manchester United this summer, sources have told ESPN FC.

Zidane has made clear his admiration for Pogba both publicly and privately, and on Wednesday evening, during a transfer summit at Madrid's preseason base in Montreal, asked Perez and director general Jose Angel Sanchez to make another effort to sign the midfielder.

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But Zidane was told that, with Madrid having already spent more than €300 million on new players, another big deal was not feasible at present.

Sources have told ESPN FC that United are determined to keep Pogba and believe his value to be well in excess of £150m.

The salary structure at the Bernabeu is another hurdle to Pogba's arrival -- with new tax rules in Italy boosting Juventus' chances of re-signing a player who left Turin for Manchester in a then world record £89.3m deal in 2016.

Pogba's agent Mino Raiola's high standing with the Serie A club following the signing of Matthijs de Ligt from Ajax could also help Juve find a way to get a deal done.

Madrid's financial position would be improved if they could sell out-of-favour Gareth Bale. However the Wales international and his representative Jonathan Barnett are determined to honour a lucrative contract which runs until 2022.

Sources at Madrid told ESPN FC that, while the Bernabeu hierarchy would sanction a sale should they receive an offer of €80m for Bale, Zidane has accepted that he may have to give the winger another chance.