NORTH AUGUSTA, S. C. — Ultimate Super Late Model Series rookie of the year contender Cla Knight and his team are setting their goals high for this season.

“Over the past few seasons, we have ran races on every scale and with every super late model series throughout the Southeast,” said Knight. “However, this year we want to commit to a series schedule, and we really feel that the Ultimate Super Late Model Series will push our team to new heights. Running for the 2021 rookie of the year in the Ultimate Series is one heck of a goal, but I’m ready to push myself, my car and my team.”

Knight and his team, with backing with Augusta Aquatics and M&W Transport, will kick off the season Feb. 20 – 21 with the Drydene Xtreme Series. Action opens on Saturday night at Lakeview (S.C.) Motor Speedway before moving to Gaffney’s Cherokee Speedway Sunday.

CONCORD, N.C. — Entering her first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season with David Gilliland Racing, Hailie Deegan admits that she has a lot to learn.

Prior to last Friday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series opener at Daytona Int’l Speedway, the 19-year-old Ford development driver only had one start in the series at Kansas Speedway last season.

She has little or no experience on most of the tracks on the Truck Series schedule, something she knows is going to work against her this year because there will be no practice at most tracks on the schedule as part of NASCAR’s downsizing of weekend schedules amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think I am very disadvantaged when it comes to all these race tracks because I haven’t been there before and I don’t have a lot of experience in these trucks,” Deegan said Tuesday. “They handle a lot different than ARCA cars. That is something I am having to learn every single race.”

To help compensate for her lack of experience, Deegan is working with a pair of veteran hands to help her get up to speed faster. This year she’s working with veteran spotter T.J. Majors, who previously worked as the spotter for Dale Earnhardt Jr., as well as NASCAR veteran David Ragan.

Ragan, a two-time winner in NASCAR Cup Series competition, has been helping Deegan during her time on the simulator at the Ford Performance Technical Center in Concord, N.C. She said his experience at nearly every venue on the schedule will prove invaluable to her as she prepares for each event.

“He has been crucial for my development,” Deegan said of Ragan. “Just the level of experience he has and all the knowledge he has that he has been able to feed to me has been so great.

“I think going to all these tracks, I am very new to them,” Deegan continued. “A lot of them I haven’t raced at before. Him having experience there and a lot of notes that he can give me is crucial.”

Having a veteran spotter like Majors has also proven beneficial and she said having him guide her last Friday at Daytona was a major help as she got her feet beneath her during her first superspeedway start in the Truck Series.

“Having someone like T.J. on my team is amazing,” Deegan said. “I like people on the radio that talk a lot and he does exactly that. I told him at the beginning of the year when we first started going over footage for Daytona, ‘Hey, I need you to practically drive this car for me because I have no clue how these trucks handle on superspeedways.’”

This weekend Deegan will head back to Daytona to compete on the infield road course, a track she does have experience on after racing on it last year in the ARCA Menards Series. She explained that race helped her understand the layout of the track, but she now needs to understand how her truck will handle around the 14-turn, 3.61-mile road course.

“I think what ARCA has helped me with is learning the track at the Daytona Road Course. I think where I need to learn is how the truck actually handles,” Deegan said. “The first couple laps will be about being smart, staying out of the chaos and not overdriving and just hitting our marks and learning how the truck feels and what I need out of it.”

Rory McIlroy became the first player not born in the United States to be elected to the PGA Tour policy board.

McIlroy won the player-only election for chairman of the player advisory council and the Northern Irishman will ascend to the policy board in 2022 for a three-year term.

“I’ve enjoyed being on the PAC the last couple of years and I think that with what’s happening between the PGA Tour and the European Tour I have the ear of the PGA Tour and I have the ear of the European Tour,” McIlroy told GolfChannel.com at last month’s Farmers Insurance Open. “I just feel like I’ve been around a long time and I feel I can maybe help facilitate things and maybe guide things in a certain direction for what I think is better for everyone.”

McIlroy defeated Scotland’s Russell Knox and Kevin Streelman in the election and will replace Jordan Spieth next year on the policy board.

The signings of Alexandre Pato to Orlando City SC and Brenner to FC Cincinnati show the different viewpoints observers in Brazil have on Major League Soccer.

- MLS pushes back opening day to April 7
- Stream MLS matches on ESPN+ (U.S. only)

Pato's arrival in many ways reinforces the old perception that some in Brazil have about MLS. Another prominent Brazilian, like Kaka or Denilson, doing a stint in the twilight of his career. Pato was a one-time huge hope, and briefly shone brightly for Internacional in Brazil and AC Milan in Italy. But then came injuries and loss of focus and more column inches in the gossip columns than in the sports pages. He never came anywhere near to fulfilling his potential, and at the age of 31 seems to have been wandering for years -- in England, Spain, China as well as Brazil -- for what could be one last chance in the United States.

That trend had been somewhat reserved in recent seasons as veterans like Joao Paulo at Seattle Sounders FC, Heber at NYCFC, and Artur at MLS Cup champions Columbus Crew SC, have emerged as vital cogs in their sides. Players who may have not established themselves in their native country or elsewhere, but have found a home in MLS.

People in South America, especially in places like Paraguay and Argentina, have seen that MLS is much more than an elephant's graveyard. The league has established itself as both a buyer and a developer of talent in those countries. But the notion of promoting and developing Brazilian talent is uncharted territory.

MLS may well have been out off by the wages paid by Brazilian clubs, considerably higher than elsewhere on the continent. But now FC Cincinnati have taken the plunge, spending a reported €15 million to acquire 21-year-old striker Brenner from Sao Paulo. This is precisely the type of player who in previous years would have gone to Europe.

But the market has been quietened by the coronavirus pandemic. It is more risk averse, with clubs thinking in terms of loan deals with an option to buy. Like Steve McQueen in "The Cincinnati Kid," the Ohio outfit have bet high, putting their money on the table. They have sold the idea to Brenner that the move north can be both beneficial in itself, and a stepping stone to top level European football. He is an electric little striker, the type of player who makes things happen -- and plenty has happened for him in the last twelve months. He had not made the breakthrough at Sao Paulo, and spent part of 2019 on loan in Rio de Janeiro with Fluminense.

But it all clicked last year. Coach Fernando Diniz gave him confidence, and he responded with a sequence of livewire displays. In the end, Diniz was probably a victim of his own success. Sao Paulo soared to the top of the Brazilian league table. But the lack of titles in recent years piles on the pressure. Going into the home stretch Sao Paulo still topped the table. But they buckled under the pressure. Last month, on the way to a game, the team bus was ambushed and attacked by a group of the club's own supporters, enraged by seeing the chances of the title slip away.

It was the kind of moment likely to inspire any young player to head for the exit gate -- and Cincinnati were holding the door open. Has he made the right choice? There are clearly risks involved. Brenner turned 21 last month. It is a cruel reality, but the major European clubs now seem reluctant to spend on anyone from outside the continent who has reached the 24-year mark. They would prefer to mold youngsters.

The example that Brenner could follow is that of Paraguay star Miguel Almiron. Signed by Atlanta United FC from Argentine club Lanus, he was used with great success by Tata Martino and transferred for a sizeable profit to Newcastle United in the Premier League.

Almiron was still 24 when he left MLS for Newcastle. Now in his third season in England, he is clearly doing better. But it took time to find his feet and he has not been a sensation. Brenner, then, will have to hit the ground running -- in a team playing just its third season and opening a new stadium. The good news is that he can rise with it. Both he and Cincinnati are full of ambition, and it will be fascinating indeed to see how high Brenner can go in Ohio.

England's leading multi-format cricketers, including Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer and Jos Buttler, could be forced to miss the two-Test series against New Zealand in June, due to a clash with the knock-out phases of this year's IPL.

The trio, all of whom play for Rajasthan Royals, are the most prominent IPL players in England's Test set-up, although Chris Woakes (Delhi Capitals), Sam Curran (Chennai Super Kings) and Jonny Bairstow (Sunrisers Hyderabad) could also be affected if their respective franchises reach the final four of the competition.

Mark Wood is another potential absentee, if he gets picked up in Thursday's IPL player auction, as is Moeen Ali, who was released by Royal Challengers Bangalore at the end of last season, and whose absence from the final two Tests of the ongoing India tour is due, in part, to the prospect of two further months away from home if he is signed by another franchise.

Currently, the IPL has yet to announce either the dates for this year's tournament, or the venue, but it is likely to be held in India, starting around April 10 through to the first week of June.

That would have implications for England's build-up to their two-Test series against New Zealand, which is scheduled between June 2-14 and is not a part of the World Test Championship, having been added to the ECB's summer schedule in mitigation for their likely absence from the WTC final, which is scheduled for June 18-22.

On Tuesday, the IPL sent out an email to the franchises, seen by ESPNcricinfo, listing out the availability of players from top countries. Along with those from Australia, New Zealand, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Ireland, England players were also listed to be fully available for the IPL, but with a caveat.

"In the event of ECB Selectors wishing to select a player for the 1st Test v New Zealand whose franchise has made it through to the knockout stages of the Tournament, but who is not featuring in the starting XI, the relevant franchise is requested to release such player early so that they can participate in the Test Match," the IPL email read.

The ECB has adopted a more flexible attitude to the IPL in recent years, with the tournament's high intensity and quality being credited as significant factors in England's recent rise in white-ball standards, culminating in their World Cup victory in 2019.

To date, no ECB centrally-contracted player has missed a Test match to take part in the IPL, despite frequent clashes with the English summer schedule in the early years of the tournament.

However, the ECB's rest-and-rotation policy for the ongoing tours of Sri Lanka and India has been designed to factor in the prospect of IPL involvement for their key players, particularly with the T20 World Cup due to be staged in India at the end of the year.

Stokes and Archer both missed England's two Tests in Sri Lanka in January, while Bairstow, Curran and Wood have been on leave in the UK during the Chennai leg of the India tour.

South African players' availability unclear

Some of South Africa's IPL players could also be impacted by the white-ball series against Pakistan at home in April. With the series scheduled between April 2-16, Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje, Delhi Capitals' prominent pace partnership, are among those who are set to miss the opening few weeks of the tournament, along with Quinton de Kock (Mumbai Indians) and Faf du Plessis (Chennai Super Kings).

Cricket South Africa is yet to confirm the window that South African players will be available for in the IPL. But that would not have an impact on the likes of allrounder Chris Morris, who is likely to be one of the players to ignite a bidding war once again. Morris was one of the most expensive buys at the 2020 auction, after being bought by the Royal Challengers for INR 10 crore ($1.4 million USD approximately), but does not hold a central contract with the national team.

Lesser availability could impact Shakib, Mustafizur

There are no such issues concerning Australia and New Zealand players. Cricket Australia has confirmed that it will issue No-Objection Certificates to all its players from April 1 for the entire IPL, including for those that would otherwise be playing in the Sheffield Shield, while New Zealand Cricket has also made its players available for the entire tournament.

Players from South Africa, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, however, will not be fully available. While Sri Lanka Cricket are yet to confirm dates, the Bangladesh Cricket Board has said that "any players selected will be unavailable from May 19 or will leave before if any other series is scheduled during IPL window."

That could impact the prospects of the Bangladesh duo, Shakib Al Hasan and Mustafizur Rahman, who are understood to have attracted interest from a few franchises in the lead-up to the auction.

Additional reporting by Andrew Miller

SYDNEY -- Former Olympic swimmer Scott Miller was in custody Tuesday and has been charged with drug trafficking after Australian police seized methamphetamine valued at 2 million Australian dollars ($1.6 million) and accused him of directing a criminal syndicate.

Police arrested 45-year-old Miller and a 47-year-old man, who has not been named, on Tuesday at their Sydney homes after finding methamphetamine concealed in eight candles in January, a police statement said.

Miller was the director of a criminal syndicate, Police Detective Superintendent John Watson alleged.

"Others, it will be alleged, are working under his instruction,'' Watson said.

The two men were allegedly distributing drugs from Sydney that were bound for regional New South Wales state.

"This was not a small operation,'' Watson said. "They were well organized and well financed.''

Miller won a silver medal in the 100-meter butterfly at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. He was also a member of the Australian 4x100-meter medley relay team in Atlanta that won bronze.

He also won a world championship gold medal in the 100-meter butterfly at Rio de Janeiro in 1995.

Atlanta Hawks head coach Lloyd Pierce told ESPN's The Undefeated on Tuesday that he expects to miss the next two games to attend the birth of his second child in Atlanta.

Pierce expects to miss the Hawks' road games against the Boston Celtics on Wednesday and Friday. Lloyd and Melissa Pierce also have a young daughter, Maya. The third-year Hawks head could be back on the bench for the Hawks on Sunday when they host the Denver Nuggets. Pierce flew back to Atlanta on Tuesday after the injury-plagued Hawks' 123-112 loss to the New York Knicks a night earlier.

Pierce added that first-year Hawks associate head coach Nate McMillan will coach in his absence. McMillan has previously served as head coach of the Seattle SuperSonics (1999-2005), Portland Trail Blazers and the Indiana Pacers (2016-20). The former Sonics star ranks 22nd in wins by an NBA head coach with 661 career victories.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, whose city was picked to host the NBA All-Star Game and skills competitions on March 7, raised major concerns Tuesday about the notion of fans coming to the city for the events.

"People should not travel to Atlanta to party," she said in a statement.

"Under normal circumstances, we would be extremely grateful for the opportunity to host the NBA All-Star game, but this is not a typical year," Bottoms said. "I have shared my concerns related to public health and safety with the NBA and Atlanta Hawks. We are in agreement that this is a made-for-TV event only, and people should not travel to Atlanta to party."

Bottoms also said there will be "no NBA-sanctioned events open to the public" and that the city strongly encourages local businesses "not to host events in the city related to this game."

Four-time NBA MVP LeBron James, two-time reigning NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, two-time NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard and others have spoken out in recent days to express their unhappiness about the idea of playing an All-Star Game during a pandemic -- and wedging it into an already jam-packed and truncated season.

The NBA told teams Monday that strict protocols will be in place for the All-Star events: Players will be allowed a very limited number of guests; all participants must travel to Atlanta by private car or plane; and for the most part, players will be allowed to leave their hotels only for All-Star events at the arena.

Tickets will not be sold. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported earlier this week that some vaccinated front-line workers will be invited to attend, but there will not be events for the general public -- an obvious change from past All-Star Weekends, which attract tens of thousands of fans for the game, parties and atmosphere.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.