WEST LIBERTY, Iowa — For the second time in three days, Bobby Pierce showed his toughness as he dominated the Lucas Oil MLRA main event at the West Liberty Raceway.

Pierce’s win netted him a $5,000 pay day, and makes it his third on the season with the MLRA.

Heavy rains early in the week provided for a challenging track as a softer than normal racing surface left drivers searching for the smoothest line around the super-fast half-mile speedway in the twenty-five lap A-Main. For the second time this season Chad Simpson locked up the pole after a dominating heat race win after starting in the eighth position.

Pierce rolled off alongside of Simpson with both drivers making a deep run into turn one at the drop of the green flag. Side-by-side through the corner both drivers showed a sense of urgency to assume the lead and it was Pierce using the top side momentum to seize control down the back stretch. Simpson would stay within striking distance until the events first caution on lap six for a slowing Jeremy Grady.

As he would do all night, Pierce showed his strength on the restart to again distance himself from the field. A red flag would slow the pace two laps later as contact down the front stretch between Jordan Yaggy and Dave Wada would see Yaggy barrel rolling down the frontstretch multiple times.

The event would also see its fair share of drama among the leaders. Fourth-running Billy Moyer would exit the track during the red flag, while a hard charging Hudson O’Neal suffered a flat right rear tire after climbing into the runner-up spot on the 17th lap.

In the end, Pierce showed the way for the entire 25 laps and giving him back-to-back wins with the series. In the closing laps, series point leader Will Vaught was able to sneak past Chad Simpson for second, while Jason Rauen and Sunoco Rookie candidate Jake Neal completed the top five.

“I’ve got to give a big thanks to my crew, I guess all the nuts and bolts stayed tight on this thing. It was a little choppy out there, so just glad we hung onto it. Besides the track being a little rough it was a pretty fun place,” Pierce said. “There was actually a cushion on the inside of the track right next to the tires and if you hit it right you could sail through there pretty good. “It definitely had a lot of characteristic in this race track tonight that’s for sure, and you can’t complain about that.”

Chris Zogg won the modified feature.

The finish:

Feature (25 Laps): 1.Bobby Pierce 2.Will Vaught 3.Chad Simpson 4.Jason Rauen 5.Jake Neal 6.Rich Bell 7.Logan Martin 8.Hudson O’Neal 9.Chad Holladay 10.Mitch McGrath 11.Dave Eckrich 12.Joseph Gorby 13.Billy Moyer 14.Jordan Yaggy 15.Dave Wada 16.Chris Simpson 17.Nick Marlof 18.Ray Guss Jr. 19.Jeremy Grady 20.Jay Johnson 21.Tim Simpson 22.Skip Frey 23.Jonathan Brauns

LAS VEGAS — A dramatic and emotional night of racing capped off the Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship with the crowning of three first-time champions in Las Vegas at the Monster Energy Supercross Finals.

The Sam Boyd Stadium sold-out crowd of 39,509 packed the seats to witness Red Bull KTM’s Cooper Webb bring home the title with a third-place finish, giving him the championship by 18 points over event winner Eli Tomac.

The Western Regional and Eastern Regional 250SX Classes faced off for the same set of championship points in the second 250SX East/West Showdown of the year. Going into the night’s event only eight points separated the top two Western Regional riders and just nine separated the Eastern Regional riders. Western Regional athlete Monster Energy/Star Racing/Yamaha’s Dylan Ferrandis won the main event and also his first Monster Energy Supercross title. For the Eastern Region, a fourth-place finish was more than enough to give GEICO Honda’s Chase Sexton his first Monster Energy Supercross title.

After winning his first 450SX class event during round three, then backing it up with six more victories, Cooper Webb needed only to qualify into the Main Event and finish 20th out of 22 riders to ensure his first ever Monster Energy Supercross Championship. Twenty-three points back, and the only rider still with a shot at the title, Eli Tomac, could only win and then hope for a disastrous finish for Webb.

Tomac did his part, holeshotting the race and steadily pulling out a lead that reached over eleven seconds by the end; he was untouchable and other than a few close calls on the hardpack track had no challenges to his lead. Cooper Webb was second off the start but was passed in the opening corners by his Red Bull KTM teammate Marvin Musquin.

Webb settled into third with Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Zach Osborne on his rear fender for the first few laps. Webb pulled out some breathing room, but five minutes into the 20-minute plus one lap race, Team Honda HRC’s Ken Roczen blitzed past Osborne and set his sights on Webb.

At the midpoint of the race Roczen was within a half second of Webb, but Webb kept his composure, as he has all season, and found a little additional speed, as he has also done all season, and within a few laps he put three seconds on Roczen. The riders closed up again at the checkers but Webb held his podium position and earned his first 450SX Monster Energy title, in his third season of racing in the premiere class.

“It’s been an incredible journey, I mean, just the changes here,” Webb said. “I was a washed up tenth place guy last year and this KTM team believed in me and this group of guys took me in and transformed me and got me back to what I knew I could always be. And I really just can’t believe it; this year was not expected at all but, man, I just can’t thank those guys enough for giving me this opportunity to get back to this level and to do it this way. It’s unreal. It’s a dream come true since I was a little kid. Never thought I’d be a 450 champion, that’s for sure, but you just gotta dream at something, and this is what we did, and now we did it… It’s an incredible feeling.”

Tomac won the night, but not the title; he earned second overall in points.

“That’s all I could do tonight was control my destiny, getting out there, out front early,” Tomac said. “Just got out front with that holeshot and really rode a clean race that time, better than that heat race, more mistake-free. Great way to cap it off. Congrats to Cooper on the championship. It’s just, gosh, I gave it my all today so it’s a good way to end it.”

WHEATLAND, MO. — Winning his 11th-career POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League main event, Logan Seavey drove by his Keith Kunz Motorsports teammate Jesse Colwell on lap 23 to snag the win at Lucas Oil Speedway on Saturday night.

The 30-lap POWRi National/West Midgets main event was quickly lit up by some opening lap fireworks, as front row starters Tucker Klaasmeyer and Jesse Colwell made contact in turn three, resulting in a flat left-rear tire for Klaasmeyer. Colwell recovered and led the field back to green, while Klaasmeyer tagged the tail.

Colwell checked out in the early running as Tyler Thomas, Cannon McIntosh and Logan Seavey fought for the runner-up spot. A bobble from McIntosh sent Seavey into second just shy of halfway and lapped traffic allowed them to reel in Colwell for the lead as well.

With 10 laps left, Seavey had approached Colwell and was set to challenge for the lead, even throwing a lap 21 slider at the young gun, but to no avail as Colwell crossed him up and held on. However, a lap 23 caution bunched the field back up and put Seavey on Colwell’s bumper.

Making his move right away, Seavey powered off the bottom of turn two and drove underneath Colwell to steal the lead and command the 24th lap. McIntosh quickly followed Seavey and fired his own slider on Colwell to take second.

McIntosh put forth a valiant effort in tracking Seavey down, but he was unable to close in, as Logan Seavey of Sutter, California parked the Keith Kunz Motorsports, Mobil 1, Bullet/Toyota No. 67 in victory lane at Lucas Oil Speedway for his third win of 2019 and the 11th of his POWRi National Midget career.

The 16-year old Bixby, Oklahoma sensation, Cannon McIntosh, snagged a career-best finish of second aboard his Dave Mac Motorsports, Drive WFX, Toyota Racing No. 08.

Jesse Colwell, who led 23 laps in pursuit of his first-career triumph, came home with a solid podium finish of third. Rounding out the top five was the No. 5d Zach Daum in fourth and the No. 3n Jake Neuman.

The finish:

Feature (30 laps): 1. 67-Logan Seavey (5); 2. 08-Cannon McIntosh (7); 3. 71-Jesse Colwell (2); 4. 5D-Zach Daum (12); 5. 3N-Jake Neuman (17); 6. 21KS-Jason McDougal (6); 7. 67K-Holley Hollan (8); 8. 7M-Chance Morton (13); 9. 71K-Tanner Carrick (14); 10. 9-Daison Pursley (18); 11. 27-Tucker Klaasmeyer (1); 12. 28-Ace McCarthy (9); 13. 3B-Shelby Bosie (4); 14. 19S-Korey Weyant (22); 15. 91T-Tyler Thomas (3); 16. 5T-Presley Truedson (21); 17. 8M-Kade Morton (23); 18. 42-Hank Davis (15); 19. 44-Wesley Smith (10); 20. 20G-Noah Gass (19); 21. 32-Trey Marcham (11); 22. 7S-Pat Schudy (20); 23. 41-Brad Wyatt (16); 24. 44S-Andrew Felker (24).

VENTURA, Calif. — Reclaiming the lead from Jake Swanson on lap 27, Troy Rutherford won Saturday night’s AMSOIL USAC-CRA Sprint Car Series feature at Ventura Raceway.

Racing his No. 11 Trench Shoring / Grimes Rock Maxim with an iron block 360 cubic-inch engine, Rutherford started 11th and earned his second career AMSOIL USAC/CRA Sprint Car triumph.

Hard charger Austin Williams, Swanson, A.J. Bender and point leader Brody Roa followed Troy to the checkered flags.

Williams earned the Specialty Fasteners Hard Charger Award with a 22nd to second-place run.

Damion Gardner scored his 84th Woodland Auto Display Fast Time Award over the 23-car field by posting a time of 12.454 seconds.

The finish:

Feature (30 laps): 1. Troy Rutherford (11), 2. Austin Williams (22), 3. Jake Swanson (5), 4. A.J. Bender (8), 5. Brody Roa (10), 6. Austin Liggett (3), 7. Chris Gansen (19), 8. Damion Gardner (6), 9. Rick Hendrix (12), 10. Steve Hix (21), 11. Matt McCarthy (23), 12. Trent Williams (7), 13. Verne Sweeney (16), 14. Ryan Timmons (13), 15. Jeremy Ellertson (1), 16. Ricky Lewis (15), 17. Joel Rayborne (9), 18. Brent Owens (17), 19. Jeff Dyer (20), 20. Eddie Tafoya Jr. (14), 21. Austin Ervine (18), 22. Matt Mitchell (2), 23. Tommy Malcolm (4).

The San Jose Sharks won a tightly played game against the Colorado Avalanche. It looked like the Boston Bruins were going to win the same way, and then things got wild in the third period against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Here's what happened in the NHL last night (check out replays of every playoff game on ESPN+) and what to watch for tonight, in today's edition of ESPN Stanley Cup Playoffs Daily:

Jump ahead: Last night's games | Three stars
Play of the night | Today's games | Social post of the day

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About last night ...

Game 5: Boston Bruins 4, Columbus Blue Jackets 3 (Bruins lead series 3-2)

Boy, did this game ever get interesting in a hurry in the third period. The Bruins had a 2-0 lead and appeared ready to roll to victory with Tuukka Rask stopping everything in sight. Then a Seth Jones shot appeared to sneak through Rask, and a laborious video review confirmed it was a goal at 10:33 of the third. David Pastrnak looked like he snuffed out any rally with a goal 43 seconds later on a 4-on-1 break, but Ryan Dzingel answered it 51 seconds later to make it 3-2. The Blue Jackets' Dean Kukan then scored his first career goal to tie the game at 3-3.

Was this going to be yet another miraculous rally in a postseason full of them? Nope. Pastrnak scored again at 18:32 -- after Artemi Panarin turned the puck over in the attacking zone and then couldn't get back defensively in time -- to give Boston a wild Game 5 win and leave John Tortorella vowing there will be a Game 7.

Game 5: San Jose Sharks 2, Colorado Avalanche 1 (Sharks lead series, 3-2)

Sharks coach Pete DeBoer put it this way after his team's win: The team that has "deserved" to earn a victory has won the game when that's happened. It's hard to argue with that, or with the notion that the Sharks were the better team in Game 5. Tomas Hertl provided the offense. Marc-Edouard Vlasic -- in a superlative effort -- and Martin Jones provided the defense. And, most importantly, the Nathan MacKinnon line was held off the score sheet.

Three Stars

1. Tomas Hertl, C, San Jose Sharks. Hertl hadn't scored a goal since Game 7 of the previous round, but he netted both the Sharks' goals in Game 5 with a presence around the Colorado net that was lacking in Game 4. "He was a horse tonight," DeBoer said. (But not, like, the kind that wins but then gets disqualified, we assume.)

2. Tuukka Rask, G, Boston Bruins. The score got a little wild in the third period, and he probably wants that Seth Jones goal back, but Rask was superb for most of Game 5 with 33 saves and came up big as the Blue Jackets pressed to tie the game again late in the third period. (Full marks to defenseman Charlie McAvoy in that effort, too, with a painful blocked shot late in the game.)

3. Philipp Grubauer, G, Colorado Avalanche. The Avalanche can take solace in the fact that their goalie followed up his 32-save shutout with a stellar 37-save effort that included 28 saves in the first two periods. The Sharks were circling around his net all night, but Grubauer was solid. (And feisty, as he mixed it up with Joe Thornton at one point.)

Play of the Night

Seth Jones gets the @BlueJacketsNHL>https://t.co/TMToFGqgcC>pic.twitter.com/HKytZBU4m4 - #StanleyCup on NBC (@NHLonNBCSports) May 5, 2019

It was one of the longest video reviews of the season, and a critical one: Did a shot from Seth Jones sneak through between Tuukka Rask and the goal post? Was that dark blob between the pad and the netting the puck, and was it clear of the goal line? The NHL situation room, in consultation with the officials, ruled "Seth Jones' original shot completely crossed the Boston goal line. Good goal Columbus." The Blue Jackets got new life, although not enough to overcome Boston in Game 5.

Dud of the Night

Don Cherry vs. the Hurricanes is the best rivalry of the playoffs �� pic.twitter.com/kC6UzbF7mx - Gino Hard (@Ginohard_) May 5, 2019

It's another round of "Don Cherry vs. the Carolina Hurricanes." This time, Cherry once again said that the team's "Storm Surge" regular-season celebrations don't belong in professional hockey and added that the Hurricanes fans that have helped the team go undefeated in Raleigh during the playoffs with their incredible passion and volume are "frontrunners." One would think Cherry would just move on after the Hurricanes turned his "Bunch of Jerks" taunt into a rallying cry that propelled them to the conference final, thus owning him. One would be wrong.

On the schedule

St. Louis Blues at Dallas Stars, Game 6, 3 p.m. ET (Stars lead series, 3-2)

Where are the Blues in this series? The eye test says the Stars owned Game 5. The stats test says there wasn't a period where St. Louis didn't have a shot attempt advantage. Where the Stars have been better: preventing the Blues from getting too many dangerous chances inside against Ben Bishop. "We just have to get inside more," forward Jaden Schwartz said. "Pucks were laying there. We just have to find a way to get inside, get body position, and get a little more traffic." They better, or their season is over.

Social post of the day

Hey, Maximum Security. Sometimes it be like that ��

Not sure if you're reading this though because you're a horse ��#KentuckyDerby2019 - Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) May 4, 2019

The Vegas Golden Knights' attempt to find kinship with a horse that had the officials take a victory away from him. The different of course being that Maximum Security didn't still have a chance to win the Kentucky Derby in overtime.

Quotable

"You know the answer. Don't ask stupid questions right now, guys. Ask me some questions that mean something, not that you have the answer to." -- Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella, when asked what kind of lift Columbus got from their first goal.

Chelsea captain Gary Cahill has launched a stinging attack on Maurizio Sarri, saying he struggles to show any respect for the manager who has sidelined him at Stamford Bridge.

Sarri has publicly said that Cahill is not technically good enough to play a possession-based style of football, leading to the defender not making a single competitive appearance since November and being in the matchday squad on only four occasions since then.

Cahill, 33, has now told the Daily Telegraph Sarri's treatment of him has left a sour taste, after the Italian did not discuss the situation directly with him.

"It's been really terrible for me personally," Cahill said of his final season at Chelsea, with his contract expiring in the summer. "It will just be erased out of my head when I leave Chelsea. My last memory will be last season's FA Cup final [1-0 win vs. Manchester United].

"It's been very difficult. I have played on a regular basis over the previous six seasons and I've won everything with Chelsea, so to be watching from the stands is something I didn't expect. I know how the whole club works, I've got a big relationship with all the players and staff, and yet none of that has been utilised.

"If you are not playing a player, any player, for two, three, four games, then you don't have to give a reason for that. But if it gets to eight or nine games, then you have to explain the situation. What's going on? But the manager hasn't done that.

"I see some of the situations with players who won the title with Chelsea, not just myself, and it just hasn't been right. It makes it very hard for me to have respect for someone who has not respected what some of us have won with the club."

On the subject of Sarri's claim that he is not good enough technically to play possession football, Cahill added: "I've adapted to the different tactics, formations and philosophies of all the managers I've played under and will continue to learn from my next coach. Every experience, good or bad, is a learning process."

Cahill chose to see out his Chelsea contract rather than take the option of a move away during the January transfer window, and he has refrained from talking publicly about Sarri's treatment of him until now.

"I'm quite proud with how I have dealt with it," he said. "I've not been disruptive and I've trained hard every single day.

"I've got a respect for all the other people at the club, the players and the staff and the people who helped to give me a chance, so it's been important to me to conduct myself in the right way. And when you see an Ethan Ampadu, or another young player coming through, he can see how you behave every day, so you have to set the right example."

Cahill will look for a new club in the summer, and insists he leaves the Bridge "with my head held high."

50 overs West Indies 381 for 3 (Campbell 179, Hope 170, McCarthy 2-76) v Ireland

Willey c Adair b Little 20.
Campbell c Porterfield b McCarthy 179.

Between those two moments, separated by two days, Ireland bowled 62.1 overs, conceded 463 runs, and failed to take a single wicket.

The bulk of those 463 runs - 365 of them - came on Sunday, as John Campbell and Shai Hope put on the biggest opening partnership in ODI history. They came within seven runs of the biggest ODI partnership for any wicket - a record held by another West Indies pair, Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels. They came within 17 balls of becoming the first opening pair to bat through the entire first innings of an ODI. They did, however, become the first openers to both score 150 in an ODI innings.

Ireland's assortment of medium-fast seam and honest fingerspin must be the least threatening bowling arsenal of all the Full Member teams at the moment, and Campbell and Hope took it apart in an utterly controlled and clinical manner. Watching this, it was hard to believe that these two teams were both in the same ODI boat, fighting to make the World Cup grade, the last time they met.

Plenty has happened since then, and much of it has been encouraging for West Indies, to the extent that they will be counted among the most dangerous line-ups at the World Cup that they so nearly didn't qualify for. Today's partnership didn't even come from their first-choice opening pair. Campbell, who clattered six sixes today in a 137-ball 179, isn't in the preliminary World Cup squad, and Hope, who stroked a cultured 170 off 152, doesn't usually open the batting.

Both, though, were too good for Ireland's modest attack. They were watchful early on, but once they had seen off the initial new-ball nibble - Tim Murtagh and Mark Adair went past the edge on a fair few occasions, with Campbell in particular taking time to get his feet moving - they pretty much did as they pleased.

More to follow...