Wayne Pivac has brushed aside claims that he is no longer the right man to lead Wales after the Rugby World Cup.

He was announced as Warren Gatland's successor last July - with his Scarlets going on to endure a turbulent season.

The region are at risk of failing both to make the Pro14 play-offs and to qualify for the European Champions Cup for the first time since Llanelli entered the competition in 1996.

"Comments people make are out of our control," said Pivac.

Fans have vented their frustration on social media, with some saying the Welsh Rugby Union appointed Pivac as a knee-jerk reaction after Scarlets won the Pro12 in 2017 and made the Pro14 final and Champions Cup semi-final last year.

• Pivac rejects Woodward's 'lost focus' claim
• Pro14 Play-off hopes and European worries

"God help Wales next season" and "from heroes to zeroes" were among a host of negative comments posted on the BBC Sport Wales Facebook page after Scarlets' home defeat by Edinburgh on Saturday.

Former England coach Sir Clive Woodward had also accused Pivac of losing focus, suggesting he should have taken a sabbatical after his appointment with Wales.

"They appointed me after two pretty positive seasons and a side that's been built over four years," Pivac said.

"I think most people who are astute rugby people will understand that we've had some difficulties this season; it's clear for everybody to see."

Those difficulties include long-term injuries to key players such as Aaron Shingler, James Davies, Jake Ball and Blade Thompson amid Leigh Halfpenny's three-month absence as he recovered from concussion.

Losing John Barclay, Tadhg Beirne and Scott Williams have also not helped Pivac's cause.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live's Rugby Union Weekly Podcast, former England and Lions wing Ugo Monye said he worried about Pivac filling Gatland's boots, likening his succession to David Moyes taking the reins from Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United.

"It reminds me of the coaching and player exodus of 2003 in England," he said.

"Sir Clive Woodward's plan was essentially to win a World Cup, which he did, with not much thought afterwards.

"The slight difference with what Gatland has done is not only try to build a squad to win a World Cup, he's also given so many caps to so many young talented Welsh players. His legacy will be shown in those young guys he's entrusted over the last 18 months.

"It's not a thing against Pivac and Stephen Jones, it's just the person following into Gatland's shoes - it's a thankless task because you'll forever be reminded of what was there before."

Scarlets are fifth in their conference, with the top three making the play-offs, while finishing fourth would give them a chance to qualify for Europe's top club competition.

Pivac's men have two games left to salvage their season. They have to get a maximum 10 points against Zebre at home and against Dragons on Judgement Day while hoping other results go their way.

"Technically there's a lot to play for. For us it's about two games of rugby... we're looking for a good performance with and without the ball over 80 minutes, something we've struggled to do this year," Pivac said.

"Obviously it's our last game at home. We want to put on a special performance for the people that aren't going to be here next year and for our fanbase that have supported us through a turbulent season.

"We want to finish with a bit of a bang."

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MESQUITE, Texas – Oklahoma native Shane Stewart is looking forward to heading home this weekend — kind of.

The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series is returning to historic Devil’s Bowl Speedway this Friday and Saturday — a track Stewart now considers home and has circled on his calendar.

The Mesquite, Texas track — where the inaugural World of Outlaws race was held in 1978 — is about four hours away from Stewart’s hometown of Bixby, Okla. With most tracks in Oklahoma either torn down, or a distant memory, Devil’s Bowl Speedway has become his surrogate hometrack. However, it’s more than just a hometrack.

“Devil’s Bowl has always been one of those bigger races on the schedule,” Stewart said. “Back when I was growing up, Devil’s Bowl, besides Knoxville, was always it for me. If you look at the drivers that have won there, especially Outlaw drivers, the list is pretty deep, with a lot of history there. It’s definitely a track that everybody wants to win at.”

He won at the track in 2016 and had a podium finish at the second race there last year. After an up and down early start to the season, Stewart’s hoping for similar results this year as he and his new CJB Motorsports team continue to learn each other.

Stewart started off the World of Outlaws season strong, finishing second on the opening night of racing at Volusia Speedway Park, but then finished 19th and 21st the next two races. Since then his results have been a mix of top-15 and top-10 finishes — placing him currently eighth in Series points.

“Our finishes haven’t really shown how we’ve been,” Stewart said. “I feel like we’ve been in contention to win three races, and I let one of them sneak away at Volusia, and we were leading the other night and had a flat at Stockton. When we Qualify in the right spot, put ourselves in the Dash, we’ve been in contention to win.”

He spent the past five years driving for Kyle Larson Racing, and while each team is unique with its own personality, Stewart said there’s been no difficulties adjusting to driving the No. 5 car with 2017 Crew Chief of the Year Barry Jackson.

Jackson agrees.

“He (Shane) and I, we communicate real well, and relate real well,” Jackson said.

David Gravel, who moved over to Jason Johnson Racing this year, spent the last three years as Jackson’s driver, and while they found success winning more than 30 races and finishing third in points all three years together, Jackson said it’s easier to connect with Stewart.

“I think with Shane and I, we come from a little bit more similar background,” Jackson said, “We’re closer in age. It’s a little harder for the older guys to work with the real young guys, at least for me. And Shane and I have a lot of similarities, and we’re clicking pretty good in that department.”

What’s hindered the team this year is consistency with races, bad luck and the team’s engine program, Jackson said.

After 12 years of working with Kistler Engines, Jackson said, at USA Raceway, he made the difficult decision to switch to engines from Gray Motorsports — which races in the NHRA Pro Stock division.

“We kind of had some issues, kind of going on for about a year,” Jackson said about the team’s engine program. “It’s going to be a little bit of a learning experience for both them and myself. They’re great engine builders, but it’s like me going over there to try and work on a Pro Stock car or a Funny Car. It’s a whole different ball game.”

He made the decision to switch engine builders after the second race at The Dirt Track at Las Vegas — where Stewart finished 21st — after about 15 hours of talking over the decision with several people. However, Jackson said he’s not sure if the engine switch is his final decision, though. Stewart finished 10th at USA Raceway and 12th at Arizona Speedway last weekend.

But if there was a time to have a slow run in the season, Jackson said he wants it to be now.

“Sometimes you’ve just got to get the season rolling,” Jackson said. “I don’t feel like we’ve got a chance to do that yet with all of the rain outs. If I’m going to have a little bit of a slow time in the season, as far as performance, I want it to be now. Because whenever May rolls around and you start looking at the races we have in May and the races we have in June, July and August, that’s where I want to get on a roll. Hopefully we’re getting this stuff out of the way now and we’ll be set to roll real soon.”

Having run well at Devil’s Bowl Speedway previously, Stewart looks for the team chemistry and momentum to grow this weekend.

“Going to different race tracks and putting yourself in different situations, knowing how to communicate with each other is one of the things that we continue to work on,” Stewart said. “I feel like we’re heading in the right direction.”

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BROWNSBURG, Ind. – The Ollie’s Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil 1 will kick off the championship point season in a big way, with four events in four days throughout two states.

The traveling All Stars, complete with 15 full-time teams vying for the season-ending point fund, will battle for a winner’s share equalling $27,000 over the course of the four-day weekend, opening with the $10,000-to-win/$1,000-to-start, Thursday Night Thunder at Virginia Motor Speedway in Jamaica, Va., on Thursday.

Once action at Virginia Motor Speedway is complete, the All Star Circuit of Champions will turn their compasses north and cross the Mason-Dixon for a three-pack in the Keystone State beginning with the Tommy Hinnershitz Memorial Spring Classic at Williams Grove Speedway on Friday.

Despite a long history in Pennsylvania Posse country, the All Stars have yet to earn a victory during competition at The Grove. Full-time competitors will have 6,000 reasons to end the infamous streak on Friday night, as the Hinnershitz will award a $6,000 payday.

Competition will resume with the annual Keith Kauffman Classic at Port Royal Speedway on Saturday. The $6,000-to-win program, honoring ‘The Man From Mifflintown’ who owns more than 300 victories and 18 track championships over the course of his career, will be the first of three appearances by Tony Stewart’s All Stars in 2019 at Port Royal. The series will return in September for the two-day Tuscarora 50, which will award a $52,000 payday on Sept. 7.

The four-race weekend will come to a close with a visit to the historic Bedford Fairgrounds Speedway on Sunday. Although a short history with the traveling sprint series in terms of overall appearances, six total visits since the series first visited Bedford in 2001, Bedford Speedway has been nothing short of competitive, as six different winners have been crowned in the first six contests.

Tony Stewart, who his celebrating his fifth season as the commander-in-chief of the All Star Circuit of Champions, will not only make an appearance at Virginia Motor Speedway on Thursday evening, but the three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion plans to join-in on the action, vying for the five-figure payday and another win to add to his ever-growing open wheel resume.

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CONCORD, N.C. — OK, I’ll admit it. It was difficult to accept the fanfare and hoopla that followed Kyle Busch’s 200th NASCAR national series victory.

Don’t all the whippersnappers know Richard Petty is “The King?” Most of his 200 victories came before every NASCAR race was televised, or before the sanctioning body had three national tours. They all came before Busch was born on May 2, 1985.

Petty won his 200th NASCAR Cup Series race on July 4, 1984, at Daytona Int’l Speedway with President Ronald Reagan in attendance. He never won again and retired at the end of the 1992 season.

Busch picked up victory No. 200 at California’s Auto Club Speedway on St. Patrick’s Day. It was his 53rd Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win.

The Las Vegas native grabbed victory No. 201 six days later at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, when he earned his third Gander Outdoors Truck Series triumph of the season.

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MOORESVILLE, N.C. – Myatt Snider, the 2018 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series Rookie Of the Year, will race full-time in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series this season.

The 24-year-old Charlotte, N.C., native will drive in the ELITE 2 Division behind the wheel of the No. 48 Racing Engineering Ford Mustang, competing for the overall classification and the Rookie Trophy.

The son of popular NBC Sports pit reporter Marty Snider, the younger Snider earned four top fives and 12 top 10s in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series and will cross the ocean to race in Europe for the first time. He will take part in seven Euro NASCAR events, held in seven different European countries on some of the most prestigious tracks in the Old Continent, starting with April 13-14 season opener at Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, Spain.

“I think it will be a lot of fun to race in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series. It will be my first ever chance to race in Europe and that’s not an opportunity you get very often. It is going to be an interesting change of pace and it is a fantastic opportunity to take on this challenge with a such a top-level team as Racing Engineering. I am really excited,” said the 24-year-old Snider “(NWES founders) Jerome & Anne Galpin and their team have put together a great series which goes to amazing tracks I have only seen as a very young Formula 1 fan, so excitement is the perfect word to describe what I’m feeling now.”

Snider will share the No. 48 Ford Mustang fielded by Racing Engineering with three-time NASCAR Whelen Euro Series champion Ander Vilarino in the team’s debut season in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series.

One of the most successful European teams in recent history, Racing Engineering was founded in 1999 by Alfonso de Orléans-Borbón and won 11 titles in eight years, including the Spanish Formula 3 and GT championships, the World Series title in 2002 and the GP2 drivers title in 2008 and 2013. Racing Engineering was GP2 vice-champion team twice in 2015 and 2016 and fielded cars for some of the most talented drivers in the world.

“It is really great to have Myatt with us this season. He is a big talent with an impressive track record. We are looking forward to working with him and getting his feedback and experience,” said de Orléans-Borbón. “It will be a completely new challenge for him, but we will do everything possible to have him in Victory Lane right from the first race meeting.”

Snider is not setting any specific goal, but the competitor in him says that bringing wins to the Racing Engineering team is what he’s coming to Europe for.

“I’m going to Valencia with an open mind. Despite having raced some road courses when I was a kid, I raced mostly on ovals after that and going back to road courses is definitely cool. I’m going in with an open mind but of course I want to perform because I’m a competitive guy and I want to win. I am with a great team like Racing Engineering and I will share the car with multiple champion, so I think winning is definitely a realistic expectation, I just have to get into the right mindset and see what these cars are capable of.”

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WEST ORANGE, N.J. – Lincoln Technical Institute, a national leader in specialized automotive training, will continue its relationship with Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports.

As part of the relationship, Lincoln Technical Institute will send Kyle Martin, a student from the Denver, Colo., campus, to the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach from April 12-14.

Martin will participate as a member of the Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports team which competes in the NTT IndyCar Series. He is the first of five students to be chosen this season as Lincoln Tech and Arrow SPM continue the associate partnership and the student Mentorship Program first established in 2017.

Lincoln Tech’s President and CEO, Scott Shaw, says the organization is excited for the opportunity to give students from its auto and diesel training programs the chance again this year to be part of the pit crew for the No. 5 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda and driver James Hinchcliffe.

“We’ve seen how our students can benefit from this kind of firsthand experience with Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports,” Shaw said. “One of last year’s mentorship participants, Benjamin Driskell, was offered a full-time position and started working for the team in January. We believe this speaks to the quality of training our students are receiving, and to the commitment Arrow SPM has shown to giving our students every opportunity to succeed.”

Martin, and other Lincoln Tech students chosen for this year’s Mentorship Program, will work as a team member during the race weekend, with full pit and garage access. Students and selected Lincoln Tech instructors will also have the opportunity to meet Hinchcliffe and team co-owner Sam Schmidt.

“Sam, James, and Cole Jagger [Arrow SPM front end mechanic and a Lincoln Tech graduate] are ideal role models for Lincoln Tech students looking to begin hands-on auto careers,” Shaw added.

“Every year the Lincoln Tech mentorship program moves from strength to strength and fills our pipeline with talented young mechanics who help us win at the race track,” said Jon Flack, president of Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. “We now have two Lincoln Tech graduates as full time employees at Arrow SPM and we’re excited to put the 2019 class through their paces starting with Kyle at Long Beach.”

For Martin, a resident of Aurora, Colo., this will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for someone who grew up watching racing with his father on television.

“It was wild when I found out I’d been chosen,” Martin said. “My jaw dropped. I’m looking forward to meeting James Hinchcliffe and learning as much as I can from the team.  Applying myself in school has definitely paid off.”

Kelly Moore, President of Lincoln Tech’s Denver campus, cites Martin’s stellar academic record as a reason he was nominated by his instructors, and ultimately selected for the first race.

“Kyle has found his niche and his passion,” Moore said. “He has a near-perfect GPA and attendance record, and rose quickly to the top of our applicant pool.  We’re incredibly excited for him.”

As someone with a lifelong interest in cars and the technology that powers them, Martin can look forward to hands-on experience with the Arrow SPM team.  It’s a natural extension of the skills he’s already building in his Lincoln Tech training program, a program that has helped him discover what he wants to do in his future career.

“Auto technology is something I really enjoy working with, and learning about, and this accomplishment makes me want to perform even better going forward.  When I start my career, I want to be someone making a difference in this field that I love.”

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GAFFNEY, S.C. – Tyler Matthews has joined JD Motorsports with Gary Keller to make his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut this Friday at Richmond Raceway.

Matthews will drive the No. 15 Linetec Services Camaro in his Xfinity Series debut.

Matthews, who won the 2016 North Carolina NASCAR Whelen All American Series championship racing late model stock cars throughout the state, will be right at home at the three-quarter-mile short track in Richmond.

“Man, I can’t stress enough how much this opportunity means to me,” said Matthews. “Getting the chance to drive for one of the most respected team owners in the garage area in Johnny Davis is huge. I know that this will be a big step up in my career, coming from racing late model stocks and all, but I’m treating this as just another racecar. If we can stay out of trouble and keep the car within the Top 25, I think that would be a solid day for us. I know we can do it, and I’m just counting down the hours until I can get on track to practice.”

Linetec Services, an electric utility service company based out of Alexandria, La., will serve as primary sponsor for Matthews’ debut race.

Last season, Matthews made three NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series starts. This season, he plans on putting together a three-race deal with JD Motorsports, should Friday night’s race go well. Other planned races will include Iowa Speedway and one race at a 1.5 mile track that is yet to be determined.

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POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – Chris Dyson has hired open-wheel dirt racing star Kevin Thomas Jr. to drive his USAC Silver Crown Champ Car Series entry at select events this year.

Thomas is slated to drive the No. 9 Thetford/ProtectAll Beast during three USAC Silver Crown Champ Car Series events. Their first race together will be this weekend at the Terre Haute (Ind.) Action Track.

Thomas is also slated to compete for CD Racing at Pennsylvania’s Williams Grove Speedway on June 14 and Ohio’s Eldora Speedway on Sept. 28.

“Sean (Michael, team crew chief) and I both know Kevin and we really appreciate his talent and determination,” Dyson said in announcing that the 27-year-old Thomas would drive for CD Racing.  “Kevin’s team will have a car for him everywhere except those three races and he’s going for the USAC National Triple Crown this season. We want to make sure CD Racing has a chance to score Silver Crown team championship points even when I’m not available to drive the car, and we could not have found anyone better than KTJ to come and fill in for me. It is a win-win for all of us.”

In last year’s Silver Crown dirt races Thomas scored three second-place finishes. For the past three seasons the Alabama-born Indianapolis resident has been USAC’s winningest non-winged driver and the runner-up in the National Sprint Car point standings.

“His results say it all,” said Michael. “Kevin’s got a chance to win in just about any car he gets into. He qualified for the A-Main at the Chili Bowl when he ran for me two years ago in the Heffner car, and he’s gone really well when he’s driven sprint cars for me. I know Kevin will do a great job for us.”

“I’m really pleased that Chris and Sean have asked me to drive for them when Chris isn’t able to run the car himself,” Thomas said. “My friends at FOXCO have provided me with great cars that are capable of winning, so it was as disappointing for them as it was for me that they weren’t able to do the half-mile races this year. I’m so grateful that for those three races I’ll still be running in really top equipment. I have a terrific working relationship with Sean and have great respect for Chris, who’s done so much in the sport. I can’t wait to get to Terre Haute this weekend.”

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