DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – NASCAR competition officials announced Wednesday that single-car qualifying will return for all three national series at all oval tracks, effective immediately.

In addition, multiple elimination rounds have also been dropped from the qualifying procedure. The changes take effect starting this weekend at Dover (Del.) Int’l Speedway.

Wednesday’s rules adjustment ends more than five years of group qualifying, which was brought into play prior to the start of the 2014 season.

At all tracks larger than 1.25 miles, teams will receive only one timed qualifying lap. Meanwhile, at all tracks that are 1.25 miles and shorter, the best of two timed qualifying laps will be used to set the starting field and determine the pole winner.

The changes came after multiple instances of teams trying to “game the system” this season, particularly in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, where the 2019 aerodynamic package placed a premium on the aerodynamic draft.

In March at Auto Club Speedway, all 12 drivers in the final round of qualifying failed to log a lap before time expired, while two weeks later another messy qualifying session at Texas Motor Speedway led officials to begin considering other options besides the group format.

“(Returning to single-car qualifying) was (a) unified (decision) between broadcasters, teams and NASCAR,” NASCAR senior VP of competition Scott Miller told NASCAR.com. “One of the other things to make a compelling program out of it is (that) we’ve seen the use of the ghost car (on television). That’s going to be a big element in presenting a quality show. I think fans are going to be able to see which drivers drive in deep, which drivers roll the middle faster and get off the corners faster and (it will) really give the talent in the booth something to talk about.

“Another interesting aspect is every team has a good shot of getting covered during the qualifying session,” Miller added. “We’re building in a few two-minute breaks to where TV can get some spots in and not break away from live action. That’s one of the goals in this, and I think with those designated spots and breaks, we will be able to present almost a whole qualifying session live without going away.”

The order for qualifying draw will be determined by the starting lineup from the previous week. In the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, the top 20 starters from the most recent race will draw for positions in the second half of the line (21-40), while the bottom 20 starters from the previous event will pull for positions in the top half of the line (1-20).

The group qualifying system will remain in place for the road course events in the three national series.

Jack Hughes, the likely No. 1 pick in the 2019 NHL draft, has committed to play for Team USA at the upcoming IIHF Men's World Championship, a source confirmed to ESPN.

He will join a roster that already includes Patrick Kane, Johnny Gaudreau, Jack Eichel, Ryan Suter and Hughes' older brother Quinn, who made his NHL debut late in the 2018-19 season with the Vancouver Canucks.

At 17 years old, Jack Hughes will become the youngest player ever to suit up for Team USA at the senior world championship. Hockey Hall of Famer Phil Housley, who played for the U.S. in the tournament two months after his 18th birthday in 1982, is the next youngest on the list.

In addition to Hughes, recent New York Rangers acquisition and Harvard junior defenseman Adam Fox, and Ottawa Senators defenseman Christian Wolanin were also added to Team USA's roster, per a source.

Hughes, who is projected to go No. 1 in the draft to the Devils, recently completed a bronze-medal performance at the IIHF World Men's Under-18 Championship in Sweden. The Orlando, Florida-born center notched 20 points in seven games to lead all players in the tournament. It was the second-highest point total for a player in a single tournament in that event's history. Hughes also became the U18 world championship's all-time leading scorer, topping a record long held by Alex Ovechkin, with Hughes having collected 32 points over two appearances.

The last player to represent the United States in his draft season was Quinn Hughes, who appeared in last year's tournament at age 18 before being selected seventh overall by Vancouver at the 2018 NHL draft. Assuming Jack gets selected as high as predicted, the Hughes brothers will become the highest-drafted American brothers in back-to-back drafts. The two also represented the United States at the 2019 World Junior Championship, where Team USA took silver, in January.

Jack Hughes will become the first U.S. player to appear in the U18 World Championship, World Junior Championship and Men's World Championship in the same season.

The world championship will also feature one last head-to-head matchup between Jack Hughes and the consensus No. 2 draft prospect, Kaapo Kakko, who will be representing Finland. Their teams are scheduled to meet May 13 during the preliminary round of the tournament. The two players have faced off in previous IIHF World Championship events, with Kakko and Finland coming out on top in the gold-medal game in both the 2018 IIHF World Men's Under-18 Championship and 2019 World Junior Championship.

Fox, who was acquired by the Rangers in a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes Tuesday, completed his junior season at Harvard earlier this spring. The offensive defenseman had 48 points and was named a finalist for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award as college hockey's top player. Wolanin appeared in 30 games with the Ottawa Senators this season and had 12 points.

Team USA, which claimed the bronze medal in last year's world championship, will open play against tournament host Slovakia on May 10.

The Colorado Rapids have fired manager Anthony Hudson, with assistant coach Conor Casey taking over on an interim basis, the club announced on Wednesday.

"We appreciate Anthony's commitment to the Rapids organization during his time with the club," said Rapids executive vice president & GM, Padraig Smith "This is a pivotal period in the development of our team and it's in the club's best interest to make a change now. We still have a lot of season left and we look forward to getting back on track."

Carlisle: Don't worry about the Timbers, Portland finding form

With a record of 0-7-2, the Rapids are the only winless team in the league. This follows on from an 11th place finish in the 12-team Western Conference last season. The Rapids attempted to retool their offense during the offseason, bringing in the likes of midfielder Benny Feilhaber and forwards Diego Rubio and Kei Kamara, but the results have been poor, with the Rapids conceding a league-worst 24 goals in nine matches.

But what sealed Hudson's fate was a postmatch interview he gave following last weekend's 1-0 road defeat to Atlanta United, in which he pointed out the shortcomings of the Rapids' roster.

"Today was just another example of the real gulf in class," Hudson said. "I think every single game we're playing against teams and their DPs are making a difference. People think we are on the same level, we're not."

Hudson added: "If this was a promotion-and-relegation league, we'd have been relegated by now."

Hudson joined the Rapids following the 2017 campaign after a three-year stint as manager of the New Zealand men's national team, though his only prior experience managing at club level had been with American fourth-tier side Real Maryland Monarchs, and English non-league side Newport County. Hudson's overall record with Colorado was 8-27-9.

It will now be up to Casey, a former Rapids and U.S. international forward, to get the team back on track. He has been an assistant with Colorado for parts of the last three seasons.

Casey's playing career spanned 17 seasons, beginning in Germany with the likes of Borussia Dortmund, Hannover 96, Karlsruher and Mainz 05. The remainder of his career was spent in MLS, six years of which were with Colorado, including a run to the 2010 MLS Cup title. He also spent time with Toronto FC, the Philadelphia Union and the Columbus Crew.

At international level, Casey made 19 appearances with the U.S. national team, scoring two goals.

The ECB is set to review the balance between player safeguarding and public disclosure in its policy regarding the use of recreational drugs, after conceding that the existing protocol has "failed its stress test" amid the fall-out from Alex Hales' banishment from the England World Cup squad.

On Monday, Hales' management team accused the ECB of placing player welfare "low on their list of priorities", after the board allegedly reneged on a commitment to uphold his selection in England's preliminary squad for the World Cup, in spite of the news breaking that he was serving a 21-day ban for a second failed drugs test.

Privately, however, the ECB has come to the conclusion that their existing policy, formulated in conjunction with the Professional Cricketers' Association, in fact puts too much emphasis on welfare, and leaves too little room for manoeuvre when the sport is confronted with the sort of high-profile case that is currently dominating the news agenda.

At the nub of the issue is the policy's existing focus on player confidentiality, a well-meaning attempt - in the wake of the death of Tom Maynard in 2012 - to protect the vulnerabilities of those who may be struggling with addiction, rather than risk exacerbating their problems through public exposure.

However, the provisions of this protocol have left the ECB exposed to accusations of a cover-up, given that Hales' situation would not have been made public at all but for the story emerging on The Guardian and ESPNcricinfo on Friday afternoon.

In fact, at the point of his second failed test, and the imposition of the 21-day ban, only Tom Harrison, the chief executive, and Ashley Giles, the managing director, were allowed to be made aware - the levels of secrecy surrounding his case were such that even England's head coach, Trevor Bayliss, had to learn of the situation through the media. ​

A PCA spokesman told ESPNcricinfo that the provisions of the policy were constantly under review, and that they had been amended twice since their adoption in 2013, most recently in March this year, to allow PCA welfare officers to become involved in any given case at the point of the first failed test.

However, the embarrassment for the ECB was heightened on Tuesday when their official website was found to be stating that a player's name could be made public after a second failed test. That has since been put down to human error, and amended, but not before adding to the perception of a governing body that is struggling to stay in control of the story.

Either way, sympathy for Hales - both at board level and among his team-mates - is in short supply, after a weekend training camp in Cardiff at which Hales reportedly missed his opportunity to apologise to the wider squad for actions which have undermined their preparations leading into England's most significant campaign in recent memory.

To date, his only public comments on the matter have been made through his management company, and the consensus within the camp would appear to be that Hales has exhausted the England squad's patience.

He is still serving a four-match suspended ban for his part in the brawl outside the Bristol nightclub in September 2017 that led to the arrest and subsequent trial of Ben Stokes - but unlike Stokes, who has attracted rave reviews from Bayliss for his commitment to training since being acquitted of affray in August last year, Hales' latest misjudgement seems to reveal a player with little inclination to learn from his mistakes.

It is understood that Hales' ban will elapse ahead of Nottinghamshire's Royal London Cup clash with Durham at Grantham on Friday, the same day that his team-mates play Ireland in the first ODI of the summer in Dublin. An assessment of his mental readiness is expected to be taken by Notts' head coach, Peter Moores, after the player himself was said to be left "devastated" by his England axing.

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MS Dhoni has hit 554 runs in 227 balls in the 20th over of an IPL match. That's 13% of all the runs he's ever made in this tournament. How does he do it?

"Watch the ball, hit the ball," the CSK captain told Star Sports after putting in a sensational performance to beat Delhi Capitals in their last home game of the 2019 season. "Also by that time, you've spent enough time to know what are the variations that are really working on that wicket, how is it coming onto the batsmen, whether you can play a few shots that are maybe not your stronger points. I think by 20th over you're almost ready and you swing at everything."

Dhoni's been especially aggressive this season, hitting 70 runs off 21 final-over deliveries. That translates to a strike-rate of 333. So it was fairly straightforward that he would call Ambati Rayudu through for a sneaky single after the new batsman was beaten outside the off stump by Trent Boult.

Once he was back on strike, Dhoni sent the last two balls of innings for sixes and finished with 44 off 22. At the start of the 19th over, he was 13 off 12

"It's easier for somebody to play 10-15 deliveries than somebody who has just come in to bat. It was just holding on a bit. It was not a wicket where it was coming on nicely and I felt it was slightly difficult for Rayudu to come and hit and [wicketkeeper] Rishabh [Pant] helped, he didn't take the gloves off [Dhoni does that a lot to prevent giving away such runs when he's behind the wicket] and that gave me an extra few seconds to finish my run."

In addition to his usual big-hitting exploits, Dhoni showcased immense skill in the field, stumping Chris Morris and Shreyas Iyer even though their back feet had barely risen from the ground.

He managed to catch them out largely thanks to his unique technique of waiting for the ball with his hands right on top of the stumps. Other wicketkeepers have a little give - cushioning the ball by swinging the hands back before thrusting them forward to clip the bails - but Dhoni doesn't. He collects the ball and clips the bails. No back swing.

"It's something that has come from tennis-ball cricket which I've played a lot," Dhoni said. "But you need to do the basics right first and then graduate to the next level. I feel if you want to keep like that, then this is what you practice. You may commit a lot of errors so what's important is you stick to the basics and then get to the advanced course. If you can reduce the time where you can clip the bails off, it always helps."

After the game, Dhoni went around the ground, hitting tennis balls into the crowd and thanking them for their support. But just before that, he was asked whether he liked being called thala.

"I've always said it's very special to get that kind of a nickname. It's a big nickname that has been given to me. It feels truly special. I never realised it was part of the first song that was made on CSK, that thala was part of it. And after hearing it, I realised [how important it is]. And the way I got accepted, the whole of Tamil Nadu, down south, it's always thala that they yell [not my name] and the moment I hear it, I know he's a fan of CSK and that he definitely comes from down south and he's slightly different. It feels special. At the same time, they've been very nice not only to me but to the whole team. So a big thanks to them."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

The No. 7 will likely be worn by a Washington Redskins player this season for the first time since 1985.

Former quarterback Joe Theismann, the last player to wear the number for the team, told 106.7 The Fan on Wednesday that he spoke with quarterback Dwayne Haskins, picked by the Redskins in the first round last week, and gave him his permission to wear the number this season.

No. 7 isn't retired by the Redskins, but the number is one of several that the team has "protected" by keeping it out of circulation. Sammy Baugh's No. 33 is the only number that has been officially retired by the franchise.

"I just got off the phone with Dwayne just a little while ago, and I told him it was OK to wear No. 7," Theismann told the radio station. "Given him permission. Not that I felt like I needed to, but he was respectful enough to ask.

"We had a really nice conversation. It's important to him. And hey, I want the kid to be successful. He doesn't need to worry about, 'Well, I wish I could've worn a different jersey. I wish I could've worn a number.' If this is one less thing that puts any problems out there or issues out there for him ... let's make his life as easy as possible, so that we can get the success from him that we're hoping and expecting."

Theismann, the Redskins' all-time leading passer, was asked if Haskins might ultimately decide to wear a different number despite being given permission to wear No. 7.

"I think he's decided that he wants to do it, so let me just say that," he said.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana Pacers general manager Kevin Pritchard says Victor Oladipo continues progressing from a right knee injury, but Pritchard remains uncertain when the All-Star guard will practice.

Oladipo suffered a season-ending ruptured quad tendon Jan. 23. He did not even return to Indiana until the Pacers' season-ending playoff loss to Boston on April 21.

Pritchard told reporters at Wednesday's season-ending news conference that following surgery, Oladipo needed about 12 to 13 weeks before he could start physical therapy, and that Oladipo is only now beginning that second phase.

But after again declining to set a timetable for Oladipo's return to the court, Pritchard said he hopes to have more answers before free agency begins and that Oladipo promised to return as a better player.

The NBA has rescinded technical fouls called Tuesday night against Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green and Houston Rockets center Nene, according to ESPN's Brian Windhorst.

The league's decision means Green's total number of postseason technical fouls has been reduced from four to three.

Seven technicals in one postseason span results in an automatic one-game suspension.

The technicals were called against Green and Nene late in the third quarter of Game 2 between the Warriors and Rockets, when the players exchanged a few words and were quickly given double technicals by official Ed Malloy.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after the game that the team would speak to the NBA in hopes they would rescind the technical foul before Game 3 on Saturday.