INDIANAPOLIS – Takuma Sato continued the feel the warmth of winning the 104th Indianapolis 500 from last August, even on a very cold day with a foot of snow on the ground at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Sato’s ray of light came from the shining Borg-Warner Trophy that immortalizes the winners of every Indianapolis 500. On Friday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, Sato’s face was unveiled on the trophy for a second time.

“This one is a little shinier and the smile is better,” Sato told SPEED SPORT of his second sterling silver face on the trophy. “Two faces, I can’t believe how fortunate I am to be in this situation. I hope I’m fortunate enough to experience it a third time.

“It’s always a great honor to be here and feel the tremendous joy of excitement that comes from this fantastic event. It’s a little different from the usual time, but it’s nice to see everybody here.”

Typically, the winning driver of the Indy 500 has his face added to the trophy in November or December, generally in conjunction with the Performance Racing Industry Show.

However, because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the PRI show was canceled at the Indiana Convention Center and a virtual week of seminars was held.

BorgWarner officials and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway moved the trophy event to February 19 to kick off the “100 days until the Indianapolis 500” celebration.

This year’s race is scheduled for May 30.

Sato will once again be one of the favorites at Indy in May, because he has won the famed race twice since 2017. That year, he drove the Andretti Autosport Honda to victory.

Last August, he delivered on his promise to Rahal Letterman Lanigan team owners that he would win the Indy 500 to make up for the one that got away on the last lap of the 2012 race.

Nine years ago, he dove to the inside of leader Dario Franchitti entering turn one on the final lap, lost control on the apron and hit the wall. Franchitti coasted to the win.

In 2020, there was little doubt as he defeated NTT IndyCar Series legend Scott Dixon to the checkered flag in a race that had been moved to Aug. 23 and held without spectators because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Any win is really appreciated, but of course 2020 without spectators, we missed them big-time,” Sato said. “We missed that from the sport, but we were so fortunate just to have the race. IMS and IndyCar did an incredible job, and I was happy for them.

“For me, I was so happy to take Bobby Rahal, David Letterman and Michael Lanigan into victory lane on that day. That was a long wait, especially since 2012. I owed that win to them. It took eight years, but I was so happy. The entire team did a great job.”

Sato was able to defeat Dixon, who went on to win his sixth NTT IndyCar Series championship last year. Although Dixon led the most laps in the race, Sato’s Honda was equally fast and was the fastest at the end of the race, when it mattered the most.

“We knew we had the strongest car at the end of the race,” Sato said. “We started third and we knew Dixie had a very fast car, but we were able to use the right strategy over the last two pit stop stints for it to all come together.

“We made no mistakes in the pits and my engineer Eddie Jones built me the best car and I had to thank him for that.”

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INDIANAPOLIS – Chase Randall has announced he will compete for rookie-of-the-year honors in the USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series this season with Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports.

The 16-year-old native of Waco, Texas, and the Arizona-based team will each contest the full schedule for the first time.

Randall competed for the team in the first two events of the season earlier this month at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala, Fla., currently sitting 12th in points following finishes of 22nd and 15th in his first two outings.

He found success in micro sprints and ASCS winged sprint cars before making the transition to midgets late last season with Petry Motorsports, making a total of seven starts and finishing a best of eighth at Wayne County Speedway in Wayne City, Ill.

Randall’s seven series starts entering this year were just under the threshold of the eight-career start mark, making him eligible to contend for rookie-of-the-year with the series alongside his teammate, Hayden Reinbold.

Tyler Ransbottom, the 2018 USAC Chief Mechanic of the Year, will serve as Randall’s crew chief.

“I’m really excited about taking on my first full year with USAC and to work with this team; it should be a lot of fun,” Randall said. “I feel our run in Florida showed great speed and we made tremendous progress within the whole weekend. I can’t wait to see what this year holds for me and the whole Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports team.”

Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports, meanwhile, has found quite a bit of success in USAC racing over the past few years, winning the 2019 USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car Series entrant championship with driver C.J. Leary, as well as scoring a total of five feature victories with Leary, Thomas Meseraull and Logan Seavey.

The team’s midget program enters its second year in 2021, and from what team co-owner Andy Reinbold has already seen from Randall in their brief time together, it has him excited to see how the driver known as “The Quickest Chicken” can develop and perform.

“I am proud to have Chase on board for the year,” Reinbold said. “In the short time he has raced for me, I’ve seen a lot of natural talent. Chase’s upside is very big, and I truly believe he will be making a big impact in USAC soon. I would also like to thank Bush’s Chicken for coming on board as the primary sponsor for the (No.) 19a.”

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Chase Elliott is hoping to put the bad memories of last week’s Busch Clash behind him with a redeeming victory Sunday at the Daytona Int’l Speedway road course.

Should he win the O’Reilly Auto Parts 253 on the 3.61-mile layout, which incorporates parts of the high-banked Daytona tri-oval with the track’s infield road course, it would mark Elliott’s fifth straight points-paying win on a road course in NASCAR Cup Series competition.

It’s a style of racing that Elliott didn’t necessarily grow up cutting his teeth with, but has grown to enjoy.

“Road racing, I feel like, gives you a little bit of everything,” Elliott told reporters during a media conference call on Friday. “The challenges that we see on road courses are just different than the typical oval track that we go to. A lot of times, it’s exciting, too. People are trying to get every inch of the track and, as we saw last week, running through the dirt trying to make it work. It’s just something a little different; a little bit of a change of pace.

“In that respect, I think it’s (a) nice (change) from the regular ovals.”

Over his last four road course wins, Elliott has led 176 of a possible 373 laps and started from as deep as 19th, which he did in 2019 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL en route to the victory that day.

However, he was denied late in the Clash thanks to a combination of older tires and a last-ditch pass attempt on longtime friend Ryan Blaney that went awry in the final chicane.

Kyle Busch ultimately passed Elliott in the final 100 yards for the top spot in the non-points exhibition event, which annually features pole winners and other top performers from the previous year’s NASCAR Cup Series campaign.

Reflecting on the finish of the Clash, Elliott admitted that he’d gone back and watched the video footage, but that he’s “moved on” from the moment and is focused on this weekend’s race.

“I haven’t really studied it, but I know what happened. I don’t get emotional watching it,” noted Elliott. “It’s one of those things where it happened, (and) it’s over with. I hate the result, but you have to learn from it. I think there’s a lot of things I can learn from last week. I think we can be better, from a balance standpoint. I think I can be better behind the wheel. And then obviously, if you get put in those situations like that, how would you go about it differently to have a different result.

“I think that’s kind of the big question from last week – what do you do differently? The bottom lane was there, I was kind of in there, and I don’t know exactly how to change up my approach there to better my chance of winning,” Elliott continued. “But all those things, I’ve thought them through. If we’re faced with it again, we’ll see how it goes.”

Elliott’s crew chief, Alan Gustafson, noted that the No. 9 team’s execution and strategy weren’t up to par during the Busch Clash, and the reigning Cup Series champion hopes they can rectify that this time around at the World Center of Racing.

“I agree with him. I don’t think we were as good as we needed to be last week,” said Elliott. “I think the No. 19 (Martin Truex Jr.) was going to be the guy in that race last weekend. I think we can improve in multiple areas. I think we can make our car better. I think we can do better on pit road and I can do better on pit road, and I think I can do better on the track, too.

“I don’t think we were at our best by any means, and hopefully this weekend we’re back where we need to be.”

Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 253 is scheduled for a 3 p.m. ET start, with live coverage on FOX, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.

LOS ANGELES – A bright smile crept across Brooks Koepka’s face, and it wasn’t his second-round 70 at the Genesis Invitational that had brightened his day.

Although Koepka is back in the hunt for the second consecutive tournament, it was a post-round visit to the therapy room that had him smiling.

“Honestly, yeah, I could care less about the round, my neck's good,” laughed Koepka, who won his last start and was tied for 12^th at Riviera Country Club following his round.

Koepak said he’s had a “stiff neck” for the last month and a half until his therapist was able to “pop” it back in place and alleviate the pain after his round.

“One of the guys just did it. It's a miracle. I feel so good right now, I feel so much better than I did this morning. This morning was absolutely brutal,” he said.

Koepka could also take some solace in his play through two rounds in Los Angeles and an otherwise clean bill of health.

There was a tense moment early Friday when his tee shot at the par-3 16^th hole dropped into an awkward position in a bunker. With his right leg bent and outside the bunker he hacked his next shot across the green. Although he made a double bogey-5 on the hole it was an encouraging test for his left hip and knee which had slowed him the last two years.

“I'm good. Knee's good, there's no complaints. My body feels fine,” he said.

The field for the year’s first World Golf Championship will not include Tiger Woods, although that’s not a huge surprise given his silence since undergoing his fifth back surgery.

Woods had narrowly qualified for next week’s WGC-Workday Championship by remaining inside the top 50 in the world ranking (he’s 48^th) but elected not to play the event which would be about a three-hour drive from his south Florida home.

Woods – who is a seven-time winner of the World Golf Championship which has been played in Miami, Mexico City and now Bradenton, Fla. – skipped the Farmers Insurance Open and this week’s Genesis Invitational, which benefits his foundation, and hasn’t played an official PGA Tour event since the Masters in November.

This year’s WGC-Workday Championship will mark the first time the event will be played without either Woods or Phil Mickelson, who didn’t qualify for the event, in the field since the world events were created in 1999.

Phil Mickelson will look to remain perfect for his PGA Tour Champions career next week at the Cologuard Classic.

Mickelson committed to play the event at Omni Tucson (Ariz.) National Resort. It will be his first start on the over-50 circuit since he went 2-for-2 last year with victories at the Charles Schwab Series at Ozarks National and Dominion Energy Charity Classic.

Lefty has struggled on the PGA Tour this season. He’s missed the cut in half his starts including last week at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am when he collapsed with a second-round 80.

Mickelson isn’t qualified for next week’s WGC-Workday Championship, an event he won in 2018 when it was played in Mexico City and ’09 when it was at Doral, and likely doesn’t have any interest in playing the Tour’s opposite-field event in the Dominican Republic.

If Mickelson were to win the Cologuard Classic he would become the first to start his career with three victories in PGA Tour-sanctioned events.

LOS ANGELES – Social distancing and the age of COVID-19 has drastically changed golf instruction, but Dustin Johnson and his swing coach, Claude Harmon III, have always been ahead of the curve on remote learning.

On Day 1 at the Genesis Invitational, the world No. 1 hit just 3 of 14 fairways, and although he improved on Friday (and he’s leading the field in strokes gained: tee-to-green), Johnson still wasn’t completely comfortable off the tee. Before he’d even signed his scorecard, Harmon was ready.

“I got some texts from Claude, so I know what to do tomorrow when I go to the range,” said Johnson, who was in a four-way tie for second place at 7 under following a second-round 67. “It's not far off, just the takeaway is all, just a little bit off.”

If he’s going to run down Sam Burns, who leads at 12 under, Johnson will need to take advantage of Riviera’s par-5s, which he’s played in 1 under this week, and that means driving the ball in the fairway.

“Still didn't play the par-5s quite as well as I'd like to, especially through the first two rounds,” he said. “To be 1 under is not going to get the job done over the weekend. Definitely need to take advantage of the par-5s the next couple days.”

A bizarre own goal by goalkeeper Illan Meslier gave Wolverhampton Wanderers a 1-0 home win over Leeds United in the Premier League on Friday and enabled them to leapfrog their opponents in the standings.

The result left Wolves 11th on 33 points from 25 games, one more than 12th-placed Leeds, who have a game in hand but missed several chances in a fast-paced encounter at Molineux.

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The home side grabbed a 64th-minute winner when Adama Traore beat two defenders with a mazy run down the left flank and his thunderbolt from 25 metres cannoned off the woodwork before it hit Meslier in the back and trickled over the line.

Leeds missed a sitter barely a minute earlier when Wolves keeper Rui Patricio superbly parried a close-range header by Patrick Bamford, whose follow-up was cleared off the line.

Bamford had a clinical finish from inside the penalty area ruled out for marginal offside after a VAR check in the 79th minute as Leeds pressed in search of an equaliser.

Patricio pulled off a pair of vital saves in stoppage time, keeping out a Helder Costa shot with his feet when the Leeds substitute was through on goal before he tipped a Raphinha header around the post.

Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa was adamant his side were not outplayed, although he rued profligacy up front.

"There were only a few moments in the game where we didn't dominate," he told BT Sport.

"The offensive game we had was sufficient to score at least one goal and in a game of small margins I had the feeling we were the superior side."

An action-packed first half saw Meslier parry two shots by Nelson Semedo after Pedro Neto had him at full stretch with a long-range pile-driver, while Mateusz Klich hit the post from a tight angle at the other end.

Neto was pleased with the outcome and stressed Traore deserved all the credit for the Wolves winner.

"The goal was unlucky [that Traore didn't score himself] because it was a great shot and he did a great job," he told BT Sport. "We are working very well. It was important to keep a clean sheet so we are happy."

Wolves captain Conor Coady told the BBC: "A huge win against a real top team. We want to keep improving every game. We enjoy tonight, it was a fantastic performance. It was a fast game and a tough one to play in."

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has said that the gap between his side and runaway leaders Manchester City in the Premier League title race would be closer in a "normal season."

The reigning champions find themselves 16 points behind Pep Guardiola's men and in a battle to remain in the top four. Liverpool are in sixth position, two points behind Chelsea and West Ham United.

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Klopp conceded that Liverpool were out of the title race after suffering three consecutive league defeats but said his side would have been challengers if they were luckier in terms of injuries.

When asked at a news conference how the club could once again compete at the top after winning the league in 2019-20, Klopp replied: "It was never the case that we thought how can we overtake City, how can we become the finest team again in English football whatever that means.

"We never saw it like this, we wanted to be the best version of ourselves. We have that chance again and if that's good enough then it's good enough. And if not, if another team is better, then they're better that's how sports work.

"You cannot do more than being the best version of yourself, that's what we'll try again [next season] as a team. For that, we need a little bit more luck and a few other things as well. In the beginning, if we had slightly more luck with injuries, that would already help and we could be closer.

"I think we all agree that, I would say and even Pep would say, that in a normal season for both teams, we would not be 16 points away but we are and that's how it is. We accept that but this season is not our concern on how close can we come to City, our concern is how far can we go in the table."

Liverpool have suffered a number of injuries to key players with Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez, Joel Matip and Naby Keita unavailable for the majority of the campaign.

Liverpool bounced back to form with an impressive 2-0 win over RB Leipzig in their midweek Champions League clash ahead of the Merseyside derby against Everton at Anfield on Saturday.

Klopp also expressed concerns that the upcoming international break between March 22 and March 31 could lead to more absentees.

"Yes, I have concerns but not more information," he added. "We are internally in constant talks and we're trying to talk to the specific organisations but at this moment, I cannot tell you exactly how it will be or how we will sort that.

"It is clear that if a player goes away and has to come back and then quarantine for 10 days, that's obviously difficult to accept."

Last week, Guardiola also feared that the break could have a negative impact on City's title bid.

Red Star Belgrade apologised for racial abuse aimed at AC Milan forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic during their Europa League clash on Thursday.

The two sides met in the Serbian capital and Ibrahimovic, who is a Swedish national of Bosnian origin, was the victim of abuse from the sections of the home crowd.

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A video circulating on social media showed a man shouting a derogatory word used for Muslims in Serbia at Ibrahimovic.

"As a club, we have done everything to ensure that the organisation of the match was up to the level of the two big clubs, and we will not allow one primitive individual to cast a stain on the traditionally well-known hospitality of our country and our people," the statement read.

"Red Star, in cooperation with the relevant authorities, will find the aforementioned individual and insist on him bearing all the consequences of such behaviour."

The match finished 2-2 with Red Star, who were down to 10 men, scoring a stoppage time goal to earn a draw.

Milan face city rivals Inter on Sunday in a match with first place in Serie A on the line. (Stream live at 9 a.m. ET on ESPN+ in the U.S.).