INDIANAPOLIS – More than 20 U.S. Air Force recruits were on hand at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Tuesdsay as Conor Daly joined U.S. Air Force Recruiting Service Commander Brig. Gen. Jeannie Leavitt to unveil the No. 25 Indianapolis 500 livery.

Paying tribute to fighter jets throughout America’s Air Force history, Daly’s Indianapolis 500 colors display the iconic shark teeth war paint often carried into battle by the A-10 Thunderbolt, F-16 Fighting Falcon and F-35 Lightening.

“We’ve based the Indy 500 livery off of such a recognizable Air Force paint scheme and a tradition that spans 75 years now – stemming from the 75th anniversary of World War II and honoring our heritage,” said Major Ross McKnight, Chief, Air Force National Events Branch at Air Force Recruiting Service. “It’s meant to be a representation of how we’ve grown from our Air Corp days and WWII and all the way up to now. We’re working to honor and recognize the transition of technology from an American Volunteer Group and the P-40 Warhawk, in transition to the 23rd Fighter Group at Moody Air Force Base with the iconic A-10 and on to our fifth-generation fighters. We think the No. 25 car looks great and is a proper tribute to that history. We are looking forward to Conor getting out on track and officially entering the month of May.”

“Last year the fans loved our iconic thunderbird livery and I have a feeling they will appreciate this one just as much, if not more,” said Daly. “The aggressive look we’ve got going this year is fantastic. Paying tribute to the history of the fighter jet is an incredible honor and I can’t wait to finally get behind the wheel.”

The Indianapolis 500 will take place Sunday, May 26. He’ll be a teammate alongside Indianapolis 500 teammates Alexander Rossi, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti and Zach Veach.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — U.S. 13 Dragway recently kicked off its season in a big way.

After renewing its commitment to the International Hot Rod Ass’n with a new sanctioning agreement, the Delmar, Delaware track enjoyed a big crowd over a sunny weekend.

The historic facility, which opened in 1963, features a quarter-mile drag strip and a half-mile clay oval known as Delaware Int’l Speedway.  For track owner Charlie Cathell, being a part of the IHRA and the Summit SuperSeries makes sense.

The 76-year-old Cathell was one of the earliest supporters of bracket racing. The IHRA Summit SuperSeries program with track champions qualifying for the IHRA Summit World Finals in Memphis is similar to a program ran decades ago at his dirt track.

“A bracket program was something we had initially in the 70s,” he said. “We were also affiliated with a dirt organization where they had a program if you qualified at your local dirt track, you went to their version of the world finals at Syracuse. It was something good to offer the local racers.

“At the time, we were struggling along with everyone else. Class racing was starting to draw back and the tracks didn’t have the same standards. We were ready to fold the drag strip and I put bracket racing on table as a solution that might help us all. Bracket racing has been the salvation of a lot for a lot of drag strips.”

That being said, Cathell isn’t talking about the big-money event, but more supporting the local tracks with programs such as the IHRA Summit SuperSeries, the largest and most prestigious program in bracket racing.

Daryl Beauchamp won Top and Mod track championships, while Brett Holston captured the Junior Dragster titles at US 13 Dragway last season.

Just a few moments with Cathell and it’s easy to hear the passion in his voice. He tells the history of how the track got started.

His parents were the original owners of the track and he describes them as hard working people, who owned a small trucking company and other businesses. When they decided to venture into track ownership, they put a deposit down on a piece of property in Maryland. The local laws prohibited any businesses outside of movie theatres charging admission on Sundays.

One of Cathell’s friends had the land in Delaware, which his parents purchased and soon got a right-of-way off U.S. Route 13. Cathell caught the racing bug, finding success in a number of muscle cars.

The track was late getting started and Cathell said the crowds and race cars were a little shallow.

They opened a dirt track on the property in 1965. It was four years later after a renovation to bring fans closer to the action, that the property started to really take off. Now, the speedway part of the property features such cars as Big-Block Modifieds and Super Late Models.

With his lifetime of experience, Cathell has an appreciation for other track owners.

“Anybody that owns one of these knows it’s an ongoing struggle,” he said. “The biggest competition is Mother Nature.”

As for his part, Cathell is always looking to better the facility with a number of safety improvements unveiled before the 2019 season. A common refrain heard at many IHRA member tracks, Cathell said a key to success is the family atmosphere at US 13 Dragway.

“We’re blessed to have what you call Eastern Shore hospitality,” Cathell said. “When you come here to race, if it’s your first race, you’ll find someone over there talking to you and they will do something to help you. Now when you pull on the starting line, they’re going to try to whip your tail.

“But if you’re broke, you have needs, there are people there to help you get in the buy-back program. It’s not just us, it’s what I call our racer family. We’re in the third generation of ownerships and third generation of racers.”

CONCORD, N.C. – When the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series and zMAX Dragway first made plans for a four-wide drag race in 2010, Cruz Pedregon considered himself a fan of the concept.

Heading into this weekend’s 10th annual NGK Spark Plugs NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at the state-of-the-art facility, not much has changed for the two-time Funny Car world champion.

Pedregon still enjoys the most unique experience in drag racing, picking up his first four-wide win a year ago. It broke a long winless streak and now the veteran driver looks to grab his first win of 2019 in his 10,000-horsepower Snap-On Tools Dodge Charger. Based on previous performances, Pedregon, who is currently 11th in Funny Car points, has high expectations for the weekend as he again looks to thrive at one of the biggest spectacles in motorsports.

“Ten years for this race is a great milestone, and I’ve liked it from the very beginning,” said Pedregon, who has 36 career Funny Car wins. “It’s a little different and it mixes things up a little bit, but I like it. You get four Funny Cars out there, it’s quite a scene. It’s a lot of power. I like the facility and I love the track, and I’ve made some of my best runs in Charlotte.”

Steve Torrence (Top Fuel), Pedregon (Funny Car), and Jerry Savoie (Pro Stock Motorcycle) were last year’s winners. It is the sixth of 24 events during the NHRA season and Pedregon will look to cash in during the special 10th anniversary of the race.

Pedregon thrived in the unique conditions a year ago at zMAX Dragway, and he believes he’s bringing a better car to the race in 2019. He has qualified in the top half of the field at four of the first five races, qualifying third in Las Vegas. It has translated to just two round wins thus far, but Pedregon believes that luck is about to change. Things have come together well early in the season, and Pedregon remains confident in the path his team has taken.

“We’re on track and if we keep chopping wood, we’ll break through,” Pedregon said. “The main thing to do is not try too hard. You can’t press too hard whether you’re tuning or driving, and you just have to be confident in what you’re doing can carry you through. When you start pressing, that’s when you start making mistakes. This isn’t our first rodeo. The car is running well and we’re confident in what we’re doing away from the track and at the track will pay off.”

With the schedule picking up, including a stretch of three races in four weeks and seven in nine weeks, Pedregon knows he will need to be in prime form. Throw in the fact he’ll be competing against the likes of points leader Robert Hight, who has three wins in 2019, defending world champ J.R. Todd, John Force, Ron Capps and Phoenix winner Matt Hagan, and things get even more difficult. But Pedregon likes performing when things get challenging, and he seems to excel during the frenetic pace of the NGK Spark Plugs NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway.

“Every driver has a track where they do well, and for whatever reason Charlotte has been good to me,” Pedregon said. “I love going there. Our car is as good or a tick better than last year, so we’ll just try to go out and do what we did last year. For me, I prefer this type of year when it gets busy. I can get in more of a groove and we feel like the breaks will start to come for us.”

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Vegas Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant called San Jose Sharks coach Peter DeBoer "a clown" for accusing Gallant of trash-talking Sharks players from the bench during their contentious playoff series, which ends with Game 7 at SAP Center on Tuesday night.

On Monday, DeBoer was asked if the chatter between the teams had dissipated as the series has worn on. "There's still chatter," he said. "Their coach is probably doing the most chatter. He's talking to our players constantly, which is something that I haven't seen before. That's probably where most of the chatter is coming from now. The players are playing."

DeBoer said one of the targets of Gallant's taunts was Sharks center Logan Couture, calling his counterpart's behavior "ridiculous."

Gallant heard about those comments and responded on the morning of Game 7.

"I really don't want to talk about that, but I think I'm going to have to a little bit. For that clown to say that in the paper yesterday, it's not right," Gallant said.

"There might have been two incidents that happened, and I'll tell you both of the incidents. Logan Couture -- I thought that was an embellishment, so I'm yelling at the referee. Not Logan Couture," Gallant said, in reference to a Game 5 incident in which Couture had teeth knocked out by a Jonathan Marchessault high stick but the on-ice officials didn't initially call a penalty.

"The other one, Game 2, Evander Kane is yelling at Ryan Reaves between the benches. Evander yells at me and says, 'Hey, Coach, when are you going to send your big guy on the ice and play him more than four minutes?' And I said, 'He's played 10 minutes every game, and he's going to play a lot more.'"

Gallant said those were the only two occasions in which he made comments regarding a Sharks player.

"If I'm going to be a chirper or a loudmouth -- I think people know me as a coach and respect me as coach. If he's going to yap about that, that's a little un-classy for me," he said.

Vegas players including Marchessault said they were unaware of any egregious "chirping" coming from their coach. "I never saw [Gallant] talk to another guy on the ice other than us. I would not assume that," Marchessault said. "Maybe they're a little extra sensitive."

This isn't the first time DeBoer has gotten into it with an opposing coach. In 2012, while with the New Jersey Devils, DeBoer and New York Rangers coach John Tortorella got into a war of words on the benches and in the media. At one point DeBoer dismissed Tortorella's criticisms of the Devils players as "comical."

As each NHL team is eliminated from playoff contention -- either mathematically or by losing in the postseason -- we'll take a look at why its quest for the Stanley Cup fell short in 2018-19, three keys to its offseason and a way-too-early prediction for what next season will hold.

What went wrong

What went wrong? You mean, besides the humbling inequity of the NHL's playoff format, in which the team with the fourth-most points in the Eastern Conference was forced to play the team with the third-most points in an opening-round playoff series? A system that has seemingly created a debilitating "Groundhog Day" scenario in which the Toronto Maple Leafs were forced into a first-round matchup with their primary tormentors, the Boston Bruins, only to suffer another soul-crushing Game 7 loss?

Beyond that, the Leafs remain a team that scores a ton of goals (3.49 per game) but gives up too many of them (3.04), and they continue to have issues with shot suppression, as only seven teams gave up more per game than did the Leafs in the regular season (33.1). The acquisition of John Tavares turned Toronto into a three-lines-deep offensive machine, but there's work to be done to get to true Stanley Cup contention level.

MANCHESTER, England -- Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Pep Guardiola were at the centre of a disagreement over tactical fouls on the eve of Wednesday's crucial Manchester derby.

The Manchester United manager held a news conference early on Tuesday and claimed that City deliberately foul high up the pitch to stop opponents from counter-attacking.

But Guardiola rubbished the claims at his own news conference in the afternoon, insisting he has never set up a team he has managed to foul tactically.

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"We have got to be ready for the press, for their pressing, they have got quality on the ball, so we have got to defend well," Solskjaer told a news conference.

"When we win it we have got to be ready for their aggression, because they will snap at your ankles and heels and kick you, they are not going to allow us easy counter-attacking because there will be fouls.

"I have absolutely no doubt about it because when you watch those games they commit so many players forward and they will be stopping us as high as they can I think."

Asked about making tackles high up the pitch, Solskjaer added: "You don't get the yellow cards, do you? But that's just because they commit so many players forward and you can clearly see that they've got them in that mould of trying to win the ball back, and they do make fouls.

"It's up to us to play through that press, be ready enough, play one and two-touch, don't give them time. If you spend two or three touches... it's not my decision."

Solskjaer's comments left some at City some baffled with one source sharing statistics with ESPN FC that don't reflect well on United.

City have committed 288 fouls to United's 381 this season, with 170 in the opposition half compared to 195 for their neighbours. Guardiola's side are also top of the Fair Play table with United in 19th.

Asked if the comments could influence the performance of the referee, the Catalan coach said: "That is the reason why, of course. I don't think [it could be successful] because we don't do that."

Guardiola said he wants his team to win the ball quickly, but insisted that he had never instructed his players to deliberately foul.

"I know exactly what I said to my players from day one to the last day," he said. "So when a player wants to attack, we have to be honest and of course there is contact, there are fouls, but when it happens and you arrive late and that is why there are referees, to make yellow cards or red cards or whatever they decide

"We want to do our game, sometimes it's not possible. Sometimes it's difficult to understand that, but the other teams play too. But I never said I'm going to do that to punish them or cancel them making having fouls. Never."