International rugby chiefs have until Friday to decide whether to back the Nations Championship planned for 2022.

World Rugby needs unanimous support from the 10 unions that make up Europe's Six Nations and the southern hemisphere's Rugby Championship.

While there are concerns about relegation and promotion, the Rugby Football Union broadly backs the idea.

"We support the concept and think it makes sense," RFU boss Bill Sweeney said.

In April, Six Nations unions agreed to a period of due diligence while weighing up offers from private equity.

"It's coming to the sharp end of that," added Sweeney. "It is well known publicly that June is a key month for where that is going.

"It's good for the global growth of the game. From a financial point of view, the numbers are good to enable us to reinvest back into the game.

"It is such a complex proposal. There are a number of issues around governance, around competition structure, and player welfare that we need to see a bit more detail on before we sign on the dotted line and I think that is the same with some of the other nations, so we are right in the middle of that process right now."

Scheduled to launch in 2022, the Nations Championship would see a top division of 12 teams from both hemispheres play each other once in a calendar year, either through traditional competitions like the Six Nations or the Rugby Championship, or in summer or autumn Test windows.

The top two teams would then meet in an end-of-year showpiece final.

A major sticking point is the concept of promotion and relegation, with Six Nations unions such as Scotland and Ireland yet to be convinced on the sustainability and vibrancy of the second division.

The proposals would also see November international schedules redrawn, with second-tier campaigners fearing the shake-up would reduce opportunities for smaller nations.

However, a 12-team first division would see regular exposure against the top nations for the likes of Fiji and Japan, who would each benefit from as many as 11 matches each year against top-tier nations.

GAS CITY, Ind. — Top sprint cars drivers from the Midwest will converge on Gas City I-69 Speedway this Friday night in hopes of adding their name to the Jerry Gappens Sr. Memorial Cup and collect the $2,000 prize.

Last year this event generated one of the most exciting and closest finishes in Gas City I-69 Speedway history, as C.J. Leary won the inaugural Jerry Gappens Sr. Memorial non-winged sprint car race by inches.

The final two laps featured three-wide racing for first place, as Leary used the top groove to narrowly nip Matt Westfall and Shane Cockrum at the line. Leary, 23, was also in the news last weekend for winning the USAC Eastern Storm title.

The sprint cars will be joined by UMP-style modifieds, street stocks, hornets and AMSA mini-sprints at Gas City this Friday night.

Intermission entertainment will feature the Korporal Candyman Coin and Candy Scramble for kids on the front straightaway.

An adult general admissioncosts $15, and kids 12 and under are free. A pit pass costs $30. The pit gate opens for competitors at 3 p.m., while the grandstands open at 5 p.m. Hot laps are scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and the first race is slated to begin at 7:30 p.m.  Parking is free.

There were a few movers and shakers this week in the SPEED SPORT Power Rankings, but does that mean there is a new No. 1? Click below to find out!

CONCORD, N.C. — Drag racing fans may want to consider jumping on the Mike Salinas bandwagon.

Who is Mike Salinas?

He’s a 58-year-old Top Fuel driver in his second full season of NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series competition. He’s no racing rookie, however, having spent eight years competing in the nostalgia ranks before stepping into a Top Fuel car in 2009.

The owner of a salvage and garbage business, Salinas has used patience and determination to turn his passion for drag racing into a profession.

His talent was on display during the April 26-28 NGK Spark Plugs NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway. During a windy and brisk evening qualifying session where drivers in both nitro categories struggled to make it down the track, Salinas did so in record time.

Salinas, driving his own Scrappers Racing dragster, reset the zMAX Dragway Top Fuel elapsed-time record with an impressive 3.687-second run. That secured Salinas his second No. 1 qualifier honor of the season, though his weekend was cut short when he was knocked out in the semi-final round of eliminations.

Salinas picked up his first Top Fuel victory earlier in the year, winning the four-wide event at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

At least part of Salinas’ success can be attributed to his crew, which includes a pair of very familiar names. During the offseason, Salinas, frustrated with a disappointing 2018 season that saw him end the year seventh in the Top Fuel ranks, hired legendary tuner Alan Johnson and championship crew chief Brian Husen.

“Alan has been coaching me well and teaching me some amazing things,” Salinas said. “They know what they’re doing and they just basically let me go out there and they give me instructions on how to run this thing and it’s working.”

Johnson and Husen most recently worked with John Force Racing and Brittany Force, propelling her to the 2017 Top Fuel championship. For Salinas, the opportunity to add such a potent pair to his family-run Top Fuel program was a no-brainer.

“It’s pretty amazing to watch them work and what they’re doing,” Salinas said. “I’m just the guy they let drive the car. So it’s kind of cool. They’re really good at what they do. We expect big things from them, too.

“The flip side of this is they work for me and I expect a lot out of all of them. We expect from each other and it’s a happy marriage.”

A happy marriage is a good choice of words. Since linking up with Johnson and Husan, Salinas has earned two No. 1 qualifiers and his first Top Fuel victory (as of late April). The results are speaking for themselves and Salinas is happy.

In fact, he was so happy with his team that prior to the start of eliminations at zMAX Dragway, Salinas surprised his entire team with new Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

Now that’s a way to reward performance.

“This is what happens when you do good things,” Salinas said. “We’ve done pretty well in life, and we want to give back. These guys have given me something that very few people in the world have.”

Getting to this point in his career hasn’t been easy, but such things generally never are. Salinas made his first Top Fuel start in 2011 in Pomona, Calif., and progressively worked his way to full-time status by 2018. He wasn’t in a hurry and knew he had a lot to learn before attempting to take the full-time leap.

“I could have gone to Schumacher and paid to go drive a car, but at the end of the day I’m not showing my children how to be successful in life and business,” Salinas said.

Ironically, Salinas says he knew for some time that he was eventually going to add Johnson to his Top Fuel program. He didn’t know how and he didn’t know when, but he knew it was going to happen.

“I had Alan Johnson on my hit list for five years, he just didn’t know it,” Salinas admitted. “I eventually knew I was going to get him, or he was going to retire. I’m just lucky. I was like the cat watching the birds land in the trees and when it was my turn, it was my turn.”

Salinas admits there is still a lot for him to learn.

“I want to run these guys. I don’t want to win because they spun the tires,” Salinas said poignantly. “I want to do like we did in Vegas. I want to run them so it’s a true win. I don’t think there is any honor in winning when you spin the tires.”

CONCORD, N.C. – In racing, drivers need a short memory, according to Daryn Pittman. He probably would have quit a long time ago without one.

He’s found himself needing to use that quality lately, due to a recent stretch of races he called “embarrassing.”

After sweeping the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series season opening races at Volusia Speedway Park, his results went from consistent top-five finishes to top-10s and a recent string of four finishes in-a-row outside the top-10 at the beginning of June.

“Our last month has been an embarrassment for Dennis and Teresa (Roth, owners of the team) and myself, you know really everybody involved,” Pittman said. “For us to start off as good as we did and to find ourselves in the position and running for the positions we have been over the last several races aren’t acceptable and just got to do a better job.”

However, after a string of three top-five finishes in-a-row – which include two podiums at Knoxville Raceway; a track Pittman claimed he wasn’t good at – he and his Roth Motorsports team may have hit upon something.

“I feel like we’ve pin pointed a few areas that we’ve gotten off base,” Pittman said. “Only time will tell if we’ve got that straightened out or not. But hopefully so.”

Withholding the specifics of what the team has been working on, Pittman said certain things they’ve been doing with the car weren’t working.

“When you start looking back on paper and seeing results and seeing certain things you’re doing that are resulting in those bad results, we need to stop doing them,” he said. “I mean, it’s not easy. There’s no guarantee what we’re doing now is going to fix it. But we’re working hard, and nobody is giving up hope that we can get back to where we started the season at.”

Coming from Kasey Kahne Racing, where he won the Series championship in 2013, Pittman said he’ll look at some of the information from his old No. 9 car, but he doesn’t use a lot of it with Roth Motorsports. In part, because it’s different equipment, but also, he said, what he’d been doing with the No. 9 car wasn’t working that well, either. He’s focused on building something new with Roth.

The new driver and team combination are just a third of the way into the season working together, but Pittman said there has been no communication issues amongst them.

“Even as bad as things have been, I feel like their attitudes have been, for the most part, have been pretty good,” Pittman said about his team. “Which is hard to do when you’re running consistently 14th. It’s easy to get frustrated and let that get the best of you. They’ve done a good job, we just have to execute better.”

Their recent string of success has come at the perfect time to redeem their season with several big races coming up, Pittman said. Next on the Series schedule, on Saturday, June 22, is one of Pittman’s favorite tracks, Beaver Dam Raceway.

He won at the third-mile raceway last year – his fourth win at the Wisconsin track – and currently holds the track record of 11.071 seconds there.

“It’s always been a place I feel like I’ve had success at and always ran well,” Pittman said. “It’s nice to roll into a race and feel like you’re one of the drivers to beat that night.”

Following the $20,000-to-win race at Beaver Dam Raceway, the World of Outlaws, on Sunday, June 23, will visit the three-eighths-mile Dubuque Speedway in Iowa. It’ll be the third new track the Series goes to this year.

To Pittman, new tracks tend to suit him well, he said.

This year, he finished fifth at the new three-eighths-mile Bridgeport Speedway and 14th both nights at the new quarter-mile Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.

To prepare for a new track, Pittman said he’ll usually watch race videos from the speedways to get an idea of the size and what it’ll be like.

“When you get there, you try to pin point what track it is most similar to,” he said. “Start with a gear and a set up and go from there.”

Whether it’s a new track, or one he’s had success at before, Pittman is hoping he and his Roth Motorsports team can find the consistency, again, that had them leading the points at the start of the year. He currently has a 134-point deficit to make up, sitting third in points.

“It’s a humbling sport,” Pittman said. “So, when you’re struggling you’ve got to do your best and just check that and leave it at the last race and come in and know your team’s capable and, as a driver, you’re capable of winning no matter how you’ve been running. That can be easier said than done, but I try really hard to come in with a fresh outlook each night and let the past be the past and focus on that night.”

The Tampa Bay Lightning have re-signed defenseman Braydon Coburn to a two-year, $3.4 million contract, general manager Julien BriseBois announced Tuesday.

On a high-flying offensive unit, Coburn was a steady defensive influence last season. He finished with 23 points, his highest output since 2011-12 with the Philadelphia Flyers.

Coburn, 34, is coming off a three-year, $11 million contract that he signed with Tampa Bay.

After acquiring defenseman Jan Rutta from Chicago, the Lightning extended the defenseman for one year. His presence led to Coburn being a healthy scratch for two of Tampa Bay's four playoff games this past season.

The final mock ahead of the NHL draft is always the most difficult to pin down. At this stage, teams are tightening up their information, with smokescreens and misdirection thrown out into the public space to shake things up. And the wide range of opinions on this 2019 draft class makes it even trickier.

Here's my final prediction for how Friday's first round will go, not necessarily how I think it should go. The Devils are on the clock ...

Top 100 rankings | Best goalies | Late-rounders
Best by skill | Risers | Draft order

1. New Jersey Devils

Jack Hughes, C, USA U18 (NTDP)

The Devils get their franchise center and an easily marketable star all wrapped into one. The temptation of Kaapo Kakko is real, but Hughes' elite skating and skill are too tantalizing to pass up.

2. New York Rangers

Kaapo Kakko, RW, TPS (Finland)

The Rangers land a franchise cornerstone with an NHL-ready game. With high-end hockey sense and a frame that allows him to win a lot of battles in the hard areas, he could be an instant-impact player.

3. Chicago Blackhawks

There are two basic ways for teams to reconfigure their rosters during the NHL offseason. The first is the time-honored tradition of overcompensating veteran players through unrestricted free agency while refusing -- through a gentlemen's agreement among general managers or outright fear of repercussions -- to dabble in restricted free agency for younger talent via offer sheets.

The other way is through the trade market.

In theory, a combination of both is the right recipe. Look no further than the Stanley Cup champions. The St. Louis Blues signed Tyler Bozak, David Perron and Patrick Maroon to free-agent deals prior to last season, and then they swung for the fences with a multiplayer deal for Ryan O'Reilly, whom you may remember from winning the Conn Smythe Trophy. (We don't speak about that Chad Johnson signing from last summer. Hey, they can't all be home runs.)

With Jacob Trouba off the board after a trade to the New York Rangers as of Monday, here's a look at the trade asset tiers for the coming week and beyond.

Note: Players are sorted alphabetically within each tier.

Jump ahead: C: Game-changer | C: Other targets
W: Game-changers | W: Other targets
D: Game-changer | D: Other targets
G: Game-changer | G: Other targets
Problem contracts | Wild cards

Centers: Game-changer

Nazem Kadri, C, Toronto Maple Leafs

Stats: 16 G | 28 A | 31 Pts | 44 games
Contract: $4.5 million AAV (average annual value) through 2022; submits 10-team trade list

Kadri isn't that far removed from back-to-back 30-goal seasons, which puts him in rarefied company for a 200-foot center. There are teams that are going to covet that, and there's no question they'll sense an opportunity this summer because the Leafs are facing cap headaches and because Kadri can't stop getting himself suspended in first-round playoff series against the Bruins. Toronto is probably a better team with him as their third-line center, but if a chance to improve the blue line arises, could they consider it?