DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Harrison Burton knows he’s not necessarily regarded as one of the top road course racers in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, but he’s working to change that.

He finished eighth during the series’ inaugural visit to the 3.61-mile Daytona Int’l Speedway road course last August,and hopes to build on that mark Saturday during the Super Start Batteries 188 at Daytona.

The upcoming round at the Daytona road course is the second race of the Xfinity Series season and Burton comes into it fresh off a third-place finish during the season opener on the 2.5-mile Daytona oval last weekend.

At one time, Burton admitted road racing might not have been a vital skillset for NASCAR drivers to have. Now, however, with road courses in both the regular season and the playoffs, Burton knows the discipline is important to success and to the pursuit of a championship.

Burton told SPEED SPORT Thursday during a media conference call that he’s spent a lot of time preparing for improvement at the road course races on the schedule with Joe Gibbs Racing.

“There are a ton of road races, so it makes being good at them super important for playoff points, for race wins, for whatever your goals are. Road courses are something now where you’re going to have to find a way to win at them,” Burton noted. “It’s really important. Recently, I’ve been working really hard on road races. I went to COTA in a Trans-Am car — a TA2 car — to try to get better. I raced there with some Toyota teammates. That was a good time. We didn’t race, but we tried to race in practice. That was good.

“My dad (Jeff Burton) and I actually both got go-karts. We are both ripping around road courses in go-karts all the time. I’m trying to get better and he’s trying to stay in shape and have fun,” Burton added. “I’m trying to be fast, so it’s a good mix of father-son rivalry. We have a good time with that. A lot of it has been in-person seat time and a lot of it has been watching film, trying to get better that way too.”

As he’s been absorbing information and trying to improve, Burton explained his biggest challenge as far as learning the art of road racing has been becoming more aggressive under braking.

“The guys that separate themselves are amazing in the braking zones. If you watch in the Clash; Chase Elliott is the road racing guy now. He’s the favorite to win at all of the road races. You could see him in the braking zone just slamming the car in there, using all of the brakes but not locking up, aggressive things like that,” Burton said. “That’s the biggest challenge — getting yourself past that next level.

“If you look at the data, I’m just as fast as anyone from center to exit, but those guys that have that braking technique and have dialed that down over years are very good. They are very hard to beat and they are always getting better like you are,” he added. “If you show up to the race track and you think, ‘Hey, I’m better now, I’m going to come in here and whoop everyone’s tail,’ well, everyone else got better too, so you’ve got to be almost doubling their rate of growth.

“It’s a big challenge but it’s fun.”

He knows he’s not the favorite to win, but Burton wasn’t quite ready to put a grade on his road-racing acumen yet, either. He admitted that designation is still to come.

“I’ll tell you better after this weekend, but I’ve been working really hard to be better,” said Burton. “I think last weekend was my best superspeedway race I’ve ever driven. I felt like I made a lot of gains in that regard. I really hope I made a lot of gains in the road racing regard too. I’ve been working really hard on it. I think last year I was fast. I was kind of in contention for the best of the rest of last year.

“You had your road racing ringers and then there are the guys like me and Riley Herbst, Noah Gragson — the guys that were not quite as fast as Chase (Briscoe) and Austin (Cindric), but guys that were close and pretty quick on lap time and were able to contend in the end,” Burton continued. “I put myself in there as of last year but, hopefully, this year I made that jump to be better, contend for wins and lead laps.”

While he’s busy trying to lock himself into the Xfinity Series playoffs this weekend, Burton hopes to be able to enjoy his return to Daytona’s iconic road course layout — nearly identical to the course used for the Rolex 24 At Daytona endurance race by the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

“It’s a fun race track. It’s a place that was really, really cool to run at, just because I never thought I would,” tipped Burton. “I’ve always seen the Rolex race there and I always dreamed of racing at Daytona, but I was never dreaming about racing the road course at Daytona as a little kid. To do that was a cool experience and something that I never thought I would do. The race track in and of itself is so fun. It’s a low-grip infield with a high grip outside of the track. It leads to a lot of great passing zones, a lot of great opportunity for good racing.

“We saw that in the (Busch) Clash. The Clash this year was a crazy finish at the end and I expect more of that this year.”

The Super Start Batteries 188 is scheduled for a 5 p.m. ET start Saturday, with live coverage on FS1, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.

INDIANAPOLIS – Brian Carber has teamed with Hayward Motorsports to compete in select events during the USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series season.

The pairing’s first outing together will be during the April 9-10 T-Town Midget Showdown at Port City Raceway in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

From Pipersville, Pa., Carber has been a standout in micro sprints, recently winning in both the Stock Non-Wing and Winged A-Class at the Tulsa Shootout in January.

Carber broke through nationally just prior to that, scoring the victory in last November’s $15,000-to-win KKM Giveback Classic at Millbridge Speedway in North Carolina.

Given the choice to accept the prize money or a ride with the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports team for the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals, Carber opted for the money.

However, through a groundswell of fan support, a GoFundMe was set up to put him in the KKM ride for the prestigious January indoor midget racing event.

Carber had a fine showing during his midget racing debut, finishing 12th in his preliminary night feature, then finishing 12th in the C Main on the final night.

Now, Carber will jump into the potent Hayward midget, a team which has collected a total of six victories in USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget competition over the years.

Hayward Motorsports won twice with Bryan Clauson in 2016 and four times with Tanner Thorson last year. That winning pedigree has Carber eager for his new opportunity.

“(I’m) looking forward to running the Brodie and Sarah Hayward owned, B&H Contractors midget throughout this season, with Austin Wenrich as crew chief, as well as multiple other supporters,” Carber said. “Hayward Motorsports has been one of the top teams in USAC for the last few seasons and the car showing up 100 percent nightly will never be in question.”

The Chili Bowl served as Carber’s first look at the midget side of racing, where he admits he learned quite a bit and anticipates the learning curve to be eased somewhat with the people and crew that surround him at Hayward Motorsports.

“(I) learned a lot about midget racing and can only get better racing night after night with the Brodie Hayward owned team,” Carber noted. “Finding feel and momentum should come easy working with Austin. We have known and worked together for years (in) various dirt open wheel racing (series).”

While Carber, the 2013 National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum 360 Sprint Car Rookie of the Year, relishes the chance to compete in midgets, team owner Brodie Hayward also shares the same sentiment and sees a lot of upside with what Carber brings to the team.

“(We’re) excited to give the Brian the opportunity to race with us,” said Hayward. “I see tremendous potential in his driving ability, and I cannot wait to see what he does over selected events this season.”

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Renger van der Zande hadn’t even crossed the finish line at Daytona before he was on his way to Sebring.

That’s how professional racers deal with devastating losses.

Van der Zande was chasing down Filipe Albuquerque for the lead during the final laps of the 59th Rolex 24 At Daytona on Jan. 31 when a punctured right rear tire sent him to the pits and ended any chance of his third consecutive victory in the famous endurance race.

Instead, he returned to the track to finish fifth, then immediately turned his focus to another famous endurance race – the 69th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts on March 20. It’s the next event on the 2021 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship schedule.

“When I finished the race, I was already over it,” van der Zande said Wednesday. “At the moment we crossed the finish line, the only thing I took out of it was that we were in a chance to win that race – and we were in a really good chance to win that race.”

That’s what van der Zande and his Chip Ganassi Racing teammates, including full-time co-driver Kevin Magnussen and endurance co-driver Scott Dixon, are taking from Daytona: Their No. 01 Cadillac DPi-V.R is fast enough to contend for the Daytona Prototype international (DPi) championship.

“You look to the positive in what people would perceive to be the most negative situation,” said Mike Hull, Chip Ganassi Racing’s managing director. “Your mindset is totally different. I think that probably represents people in business or people in other sports situations. I mean, there was only one team that won the Super Bowl. What’s every team in the NFL doing today? They’re working on next year’s Super Bowl right now.”

The impetus for looking forward with enthusiasm lies in what happened before the tire went down at Daytona. Throughout the race, van der Zande, Magnussen and Dixon had the car in contention, even recording the fastest lap of the 24-hour, 807-lap marathon on Daytona Int’l Speedway’s road course.

“It just shows that we had a really fast car,” van der Zande said. “I hate finishing fifth when I can’t fight for the win, but I was fighting for the win and finished fifth. That’s a whole different story between those two ways of finishing fifth. It just shows that the potential for the rest of the year is huge. That’s what I’m looking forward to.”

He’s doing it with a team that – while in its first season with the Cadillac DPi – is hardly inexperienced with the car or the series. CGR has seven IMSA championships and 64 victories to its credit, including eight Rolex 24 wins.

“The people the team attracts are people that want to be with the best. They want to be at Chip Ganassi Racing,” van der Zande said. “The people who are new to the team are very high-end people, as well. I always feel it starts with the philosophy at the top – Mike Hull and Chip and Mike O’Gara (CGR’s IMSA team manager). They are really in it to go racing and race for the wins.”

It also has a stellar driver lineup suited for the car, which Hull says favors open-wheel drivers. Van der Zande has an extensive history in Formula 3 in his background, Magnussen spent the previous seven years in Formula One, and Dixon is, well, Dixon – the owner of six IndyCar championships and 50 race wins, which rank third all-time in Indy car racing, trailing only A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti.

Dixon and van der Zande had previous experience in the Cadillac, with van der Zande winning the Rolex 24 for Wayne Taylor Racing the previous two seasons. Dixon joined him with WTR for last year’s victory.

“The (Cadillac) is more suited to a fire-breathing, open-wheel race driver,” Hull said. “With a single-seater driver, the drive style it takes is much more so than it’s ever been before. That’s our opinion. We have three really good single-seater drivers – with different backgrounds, obviously, but they have that in common.”

The trick of moving forward after disappointment, though, could be persistent positivity. The core group around the No. 01 car – Hull, O’Gara, lead engineer John Hennek and crew chief Phil Binks – knew they were on to something good at Daytona in spite of the bad result.

“They’re not finger-pointing,” van der Zande said. “They’re only very critical about what happened in order to become better. They’re not focused on fault; they’re just focused on moving forward and getting better. That’s why they’re so good at swallowing these kinds of losses.”

Mostly, team members say, it’s because they’ve been through the wringer of racing. What appears to be victory can turn to disappointment in an instant. Sometimes, though, disappointment hides potential.

“Did the result measure up to what we were doing?” Hull asked. “Yes, it did. In order to finish first, you have to have a car that’s capable of finishing first. We certainly showed that we were able to create that opportunity for us as a team. Just like Renger, I’m thinking Sebring’s coming pretty quick here.”

EDMONTON, Alberta -- - Oilers captain Connor McDavid has joined an elite club.

McDavid notched his 500th NHL point with a first-period assist in Wednesday night's 3-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets.

The 24-year-old center, from Richmond Hill, Ontario, is the 21st player in NHL history to accomplish the feat before his 25th birthday. He was quick to minimize the feat, which came in just his 369th NHL game.

"It's a little milestone, I guess. A little thing along the way here, which is nice," McDavid said. "And onward."

Fans didn't have to wait long to see the achievement play out. McDavid slid a quick pass to Jesse Puljujarvi 3:45 into the first period, and the Finnish winger snapped a wrist shot past Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck to open the scoring. McDavid added another assist on Leon Draisaitl's power-play goal midway through the second period.

"It's incredible. He's done it all his career, he's going to continue doing it," Draisaitl said.

The German forward added that he's even more impressed by how his teammate handles himself off the ice.

"He's just someone you can learn a lot from. So we're very lucky, very fortunate to have a guy like that as our leader," Draisaitl said.

McDavid now has 171 goals and 330 assists in his career and leads the NHL in points this season with nine goals and 22 assists in 18 games.

"I know he doesn't look at milestones like that very much," Oilers coach Dave Tippett said. "But I think, probably, later on in life, he'll look back and be very proud of some of those milestones he's put forth. I know he still wants the team milestone ahead of the individual milestone, so that's what he's striving for."

Picked first overall by the Oilers in 2015, McDavid's career-best season was in 2018-19 when he had 41 goals and 75 assists for 116 points in 78 games. He was awarded the Art Ross Trophy as the league's top scorer in 2016-17 and 2017-18, and was also picked by his fellow players as the NHL's most outstanding player in both seasons. He also took home the Hart Trophy, awarded to annually to the league's most valuable player, in 2016-17.

McDavid signed an eight-year, $100-million extension with the Oilers in July 2017.

DALLAS -- The NHL game between Tampa Bay and Dallas scheduled for Saturday has been postponed, marking four straight home games for the Stars to be called off because of frigid conditions and power outages in Texas.

The postponement announced Thursday also means the first four meetings between the teams from last season's Stanley Cup Final have been postponed.

The NHL said the decision to postpone was made after consultation with city and state officials. Dallas mayor Eric Johnson was among the first to encourage the club to postpone games as the city struggled with outages.

The first two postponements were Monday and Tuesday against Nashville.

The defending champion Lightning and the Stars were supposed to play twice in the first week of the season before COVID-19 issues with the Stars forced them to postpone their first four games. And now two meetings in Dallas have been called off due to the weather.

Dallas now has eight games that need to be rescheduled. The next scheduled game for the Stars is Monday at Florida, the start of five road games in eight days. Two of those scheduled games are against Tampa Bay.

The NHL's COVID-19 list was down to 13 players Thursday, marking the second-lowest total since the league began publishing it on Jan. 13.

The 13 players are the fewest since there were 12 listed on Jan. 17, and the total continues a steady decline since a league-high 59 players were listed on Feb. 12.

Wild goalie Andrew Hammond was the only new addition in becoming the 15th Minnesota player to appear on the list. His addition came the same day four Wild players were removed from the list: Jonas Brodin, Victor Rask, Carson Soucy and Cam Talbot.

Hammond became the 124th player to appear on the list, which includes those who either test positive, are identified as close contacts or are in mandatory quarantine after traveling from another country.

The Philadelphia Flyers are down to six players listed after forward Morgan Frost was removed after a seven-day stint. Los Angeles Kings forward Andreas Athanasiou was cleared after spending a league-high 21 days on the list.

The drop coincides with enhanced health and safety measures the league introduced over the past two weeks in an attempt to stem further outbreaks.

STATELINE, Nevada. -- The NHL has moved up the starting time of the outdoor game Sunday between the Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers at Lake Tahoe by one hour to avoid the bright sunshine forecast for later in the afternoon.

The game at Edgewood Tahoe Resort will start at 11 a.m. PT instead of the originally scheduled noon local start.

The league made the announcement Thursday night, saying it was in the interest of player safety "due to Sunday's forecast of sunlight with no cloud cover."

The Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights will play on the specially built rink Saturday, followed a day later by the Bruins and Flyers.

LOS ANGELES – The clichéd judgment is that 7-woods are only used by players in an over-50 men’s group and by beginners. World No. 1 Dustin Johnson isn’t interested in clichés, but he is interested in his 7-wood.

Johnson initially added the 7-wood to his bag prior to last year’s PGA Championship and he began his round on Thursday at the Genesis Invitational with it at the par-4 10^th hole.

“I hit it pretty much where I wanted to, it was just left of the green. It actually went a lot further than I thought,” he said of his tee shot at the 309-yard 10^th hole.

Although the 21-degree club, which he estimates he carries about 255 yards, has become a staple in his bag, he didn’t think it would be something he’d be able to use when he initially started tinkering with it.

“I had a hybrid and then the 5-wood. A 5-wood and my 3-wood I hit like the same distance, so [TaylorMade] made me a 7-wood,” he said. “When I first looked at it I'm like, I thought I was going to hit it straight in the air, but I hit it and it came out kind of nice and low with some spin. I was like, all right, put it in the bag.”

LOS ANGELES – Playing in just his second PGA Tour event, Willie Mack III didn’t look like a player who was simply happy to have a spot in the field at the Genesis Invitational on Thursday. He also didn’t sound like someone who was just happy to be at Riviera.

“I'm out here trying to win like everybody else. I tee it up just like everybody else, so why not come out here and try to win?” Mack said following a first-round 1-under-par 70 that left him six off the lead and one clear of the projected cut line.

Mack, who received the Charlie Sifford Memorial Exemption which is given to a minority golfer by the Tiger Woods Foundation, made his first Tour start last month at the Farmers Insurance Open, where he missed the cut.

Mack struggled early in his round with two bogeys through his first four holes but he was 2 under par the rest of the way thanks to eight one-putts over his final 14 holes that included a 20-footer for birdie at No. 9.

“It was a little firmer, you really have to keep the ball below the holes out here," he said. "I kind of managed to do that and got in with an under-par score."

LOS ANGELES – Abraham Ancer was originally scheduled to take a commercial flight from San Antonio to Los Angeles on Monday to play this week’s Genesis Invitational. That was before a winter storm blanketed Texas with snow.

“At some points I thought I was coming, at some points I was like, there's no chance I'm coming,” Ancer said following his opening round at Riviera Country Club.

With all commercial flights grounded because of the weather, Ancer turned to a friend with a private jet.

“We had a one- or two-hour gap to take off. Then while we took off, it got closed again,” he said, following his first-round 71. “We just found that little window to be able to take off.”

Ancer arrived in Los Angeles Wednesday and wasn’t able to play a practice round. Sergio Garcia, who lives in Austin, had similar weather issues and was also a late arrival

“I see [Garcia] here, I was like, what happened? He was like, 'Well, they told me, we've got a little 30-minute window and if you want to go, it's right now,'" Ancer said. “So, we both made it last night and here we are.”

Cameron Champ withdrew from the event late Wednesday to remain at home in Houston.