GIBSONTON, Fla. — Mark Whitener went to victory lane for the second consecutive night in Crate Racin USA competiton at East Bay Raceway Park during the 45^th annual Winternationals Friday night.

A field of 77 crate late models filled the pit area.

The 30-lap feature was completed in 8 minutes and 51 seconds, running caution free with exciting action all over the third-mile race track.

Kyle Lukon grabbed the early lead and set the pace that sent the leaders into lapped traffic by the sixth circuit. Thursday winner Whitener stalked Dylan Knowles for second, finally making the pass on lap 13 for the runner-up spot.

As Lukon wound through traffic, Whitener closed the gap, moving inside on lap 22 to contest the top spot. That attempt did not yield a lead change, so Whitener tried the high side three laps later. This maneuver would prove fruitful as Whitener took the top spot for the second consecutive night.

Lukon, Knowles, Jeremy Shaw and Logan Roberson rounded out the top five.

The Thursday non-qualifiers dash, postponed to Friday, was won by Shan Smith. Michael Maresca, in his first start of the week, took the Friday non-qualifiers.

The finish:

Mark Whitener, Kyle Lukon, Dylan Knowles, Jeremy Shaw, Logan Roberson, Keith Nosbisch, Cory Hedgecock, Doug Horton, Jake Knowles, Joseph Joiner, Jake Rainey, Nevin Gainey, Drew Kennedy, Colton Leyendecker, Kyle Hardy, Tom Fiebelkorn, Cody Smith, Hunter Sweet, Jason Welshan, Mac McCarter, Tanner Collins, Braeden Dillinger, Bo Slay, Richie Stephens, Kyle Bronson, Phillip Cobb.

BARBERVILLE, Fla. — Five separate DIRTcar UMP Modified features raced, four first-time winners went to Volusia Speedway Park victory lane on Friday night.

Night four of the 50th DIRTcar Nationals was all about appreciation for each and every one of the 96 UMP Modified drivers signed-in for competition; everyone got to form-up in the four-wide salute to the fans and race a 15-lap feature for $700-to-win.

Each race was lined up by the overall event points standings going into the evening, inverting both the top-10 starters in each race and the order the features ran in. When all was said and done, four brand-new faces and one repeat winner from last year stood in victory lane, collecting their Volusia Gator trophies as DIRTcar Nationals Feature victors.

First Feature

David Reutimann’s first DIRTcar Nationals victory came on Friday last year in the quad-feature night, setting the stage for his second act as Friday night’s only repeat winner of the five features contested.

“We’re not in the race we need to be in, but it’s a far cry from dropping out nine laps into the feature because we were terrible last night,” Reutimann said. “Track’s a little bit different; they’ve done a great job. Track’s got a little moisture in it, so it was fun.”

Reutimann started 15th on the grid and advanced through the field rapidly, using the wrecks and restarts to his advantage to gain his first chunks of position. By lap three, he had already cracked the top-five and was hot on the trail of the leaders.

Reutimann finally reached the back of leader Taylor Cook as they got the two-to-go signal, and that’s when he pulled the trigger. A great run down the backstretch set Reutimann up for the pass on the high side coming out of turn four, which he executed perfectly to take the lead and the eventual win for his second career Volusia Gator trophy.

Crossing the stripe third was none other than the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano, making his DIRTcar Nationals debut in a UMP Modified. Starting dead-last 19th place on the grid, Logano avoided multiple wrecks in front of him and made several clean passes under green-flag conditions to grab the final podium spot in what was a very impressive first competitive start in a UMP Modified.

“I only got one gear and it was to go,” Logano said. “It was a good time, I finished third, that’s great, and learned a little bit. Got a little bit of damage to fix, and we’ll come back at it tomorrow night.”

Second Feature

The first of four first-time Volusia Gator trophy winners went to Florida’s own Clay Harris.

Harris, a notable 602 late model driver, wasted no time, getting right to work on leader Troy Johnson from his fourth-place starting spot in the early going. He got a good run on Johnson on lap five, completed the pass and cruised home for the win after a late restart, despite making an error in car setup.

“We tightened it up for the slick and it ended up being hammer-down,” Harris said. “We had a little hiccup, but we recovered and [the car] was awesome tonight.”

Third Feature

The third UMP Modified feature was mostly a game of attrition and staying out of trouble. Chad Roush did this the best out of his 18 other competitors.

While several wrecks took out multiple cars before a single lap was ever completed, Roush kept his nose clean up front and wasted zero time, making the pass to go from third to the lead on lap two.

A few restarts were thrown at him with high pressure behind from names like K.C. Burdette and Tony Anderson, but Roush held strong out front to pick up his first career DIRTcar Nationals victory.

“We gave one away a couple years ago down here, so I had to redeem myself,” Roush said.

Fourth Feature

In what was easily the best race of the night for the lead, Nick Allen squared off with three-time NASCAR Truck Series champion Matt Crafton and came out on top in the end for his first Volusia Gator trophy.

Allen pulled out to a comfortable lead from the outside pole in the early going but was quickly met by a challenge from seventh-starting Crafton, who was a rocket ship on the bottom.

Crafton pulled up alongside Allen and took the spot away for two consecutive laps as the field eclipsed halfway; their side-by-side battle bringing those in attendance to the edge of their seats. Allen then cracked the whip on the top side and wrestled the lead back, fending Crafton off in the final laps and crossing the stripe first.

“I knew [Crafton] was good around the bottom; I just couldn’t hold the bottom like he could,” Allen said. “I was just trying to carry a little more momentum through the middle.”

Fifth Feature

With Strickler, Hoffman, Stremme, Nicely, Arpin, McKinney and Hughes all in the same Feature, Richard Michael Jr. knew he had to be on his A-game if he wanted to win his first Volusia Gator trophy from outside the front row Friday night.

When the green flag dropped on a re-do of the original start after polesitter Kyle Strickler hit the turn-two wall, taking him out of the race, Michael pulled that A-game right from out of his pocket and put it on full display, leading all 15 en route to his first DIRTcar Nationals victory in dominant fashion.

“This is probably the biggest one of my career,” Michael said. “We used to come down here a lot; haven’t been down here in about eight years. Every time we came down here, we didn’t have any good equipment.”

Once he got the lead on the original restart, Michael took off and flat-out ran away with the win, pulling away from the stacked competition in his Elite Chassis, built by Nick Hoffman, who finished fourth.

“We just put this car together about a week and a half ago at Nick [Hoffman’s] place. I’ve just got to thank him; if it wasn’t for him, there’s no way we’d be in victory lane,” he said.

The finishes:

Feature #1 (15 Laps) 1. OOD-David Reutimann [15]; 2. 21-Taylor Cook [1]; 3. 15L-Joey Logano [19]; 4. OO-Buzzie Reutimann [17]; 5. 11-Jesse Rupe [2]; 6. 11Z-Zane Oedewaldt [18]; 7. 25P-Robert Poole [6]; 8. 62E-Kim Edington [8]; 9. 22J-John Baker [3]; 10. O2-Chris Cook [11]; 11. 89W-Rick Weitekamp [5]; 12. 4-Craig Shaw [13]; 13. 40-Shawn Reiss [16]; 14. 88B-Chris Bolyard [9]; 15. 27C-Billy Cevaal [12]; 16. M41-Steve Maisel [7]; 17. 27G-Jason Garver [4]; 18. 27-Tom Wakefield [10]; 19. 7F-Bryan Foy [14]

Feature #2 (15 Laps) 1. 21J-Clay Harris [4]; 2. 2J-Troy Johnson [2]; 3. 12-John McClure [1]; 4. 57-Mark Grosvenor [12]; 5. 88S-Chris Smith [8]; 6. 11N-Gene Nicholas [5]; 7. 97-Mitch Thomas [7]; 8. 60-Shannon Fisk [3]; 9. 47-Collin Thirlby [15]; 10. 7+7-Jeff Solinger [9]; 11. 20-Tyler Hendrix [6]; 12. 9PG-Percy Gendreau [11]; 13. 6B-Dave Baldwin [13]; 14. O1-Earnie Woodard [19]; 15. 8-David Pinkerton [17]; 16. 59-Doug Stine [18]; 17. A1-Gary Bentley [14]; 18. 83-Brianna Robinson [16]; 19. 21D-Danny Schwartz [10]

DIRTcar Feature #3 (15 Laps) 1. 32-Chad Roush [8]; 2. 44-KC Burdette [11]; 3. 176-Scotty Owens [16]; 4. 22T-Tony Anderson [6]; 5. 2A-Matt Altiers [10]; 6. 6-Ryan Fowler [19]; 7. 463-Daniel Sanchez [18]; 8. 15B-Dave Baker [7]; 9. 22K-Dale Kelley [3]; 10. Z1-Zac Oedewaldt [1]; 11. 33-Ken Mihalik [15]; 12. 114-Clayton Bryant [5]; 13. 72-Todd Neiheiser [12]; 14. 15-Joey Miller [2]; 15. 24-Travis Dickson [4]; 16. 8A-Austin Holcombe [9]; 17. 11M-Tyler Morehouse [14]; 18. 74-Mike Franklin [17]; 19. 81-Steve Axtell [13]

Feature #4 (15 Laps) 1. 21A-Nick Allen [2]; 2. 88-Matt Crafton [7]; 3. 67-Garret Stewart [1]; 4. 12L-Lucas Lee [11]; 5. 77-Ray Bollinger [5]; 6. 4T-Zeke McKenzie [4]; 7. 45H-Kyle Hammer [12]; 8. 99-Hunt Gossum [17]; 9. 6A-Ryan Ayers [10]; 10. 95-Michael Altobelli [15]; 11. 23-Ryan Cripe [16]; 12. 17T-Tyler Evans [18]; 13. 45-Johnny Broking [14]; 14. 7D-Brad DeYoung [13]; 15. 31G-Stephen Pedulla [19]; 16. T9-Ryan Thomas [9]; 17. 3L-Jeff Leka [8]; 18. 7T-Drake Troutman [6]; 19. 9-Ken Schrader [3]

DIRTcar Feature #5 (15 Laps) 1. 17X-Richard Michael [2]; 2. 7-Justin Allgaier [4]; 3. 96M-Mike McKinney [3]; 4. 2-Nick Hoffman [10]; 5. 25-Tyler Nicely [9]; 6. OOEH-Steve Arpin [6]; 7. 5S-Curt Spalding [8]; 8. 18L-Michael Long [15]; 9. 12H-Jason Hughes [5]; 10. 25W-Allen Weisser [13]; 11. 49-Brian Ruhlman [17]; 12. 35-David Stremme [7]; 13. 11H-Spencer Hughes [19]; 14. K19-Will Krup [14]; 15. 36-Kenny Wallace [12]; 16. O5-Dave Wietholder [20]; 17. 51-Brandon Green [18]; 18. 80-Rich Dawson [16]; 19. 8S-Kyle Strickler [1]; 20. 11J-Justin Haley [11]

A dog who repeatedly invaded the pitch during a friendly match between Serbia's second-tier teams Radnicki 1923 Kragujevac and Kolubara Lazarevac was sent off after play had been stopped several times in bizarre fashion on Friday.

Belgrade daily Sportski Zurnal published a photograph on its website of referee Marko Ivkovic flashing a red card to the dog who had chased the ball relentlessly every time it ran onto the pitch before it finally scampered off.

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Radnicki 1923, who top the 18-team first division standings at the winter break on 40 points from 17 games, lost 3-0 against Kolubara, who are fourth on 29 points, in the warm-up match.

The league is due to resume on Feb. 20.

The top two teams at the end of the season will be promoted to the Balkan nation's 20-team Superleague, which resumed on Friday with seventh-placed TSC Backa Topola grinding out a 1-0 win at third-placed Vojvodina Novi Sad.

Sydney Sixers 6 for 188 (Vince 95, Tye 2-29, Richardson 2-45) beat Perth Scorchers 9 for 161 (Livingstone 45, Dwarshuis 3-37) by 27 runs

Finally on home soil after the Covid-19 summer kept them at neutral venues for all 15 of their previous games, the Sydney Sixers rode on the back of another James Vince special to become the second Big Bash League club to claim back-to-back titles. Fittingly, at a joyous SCG, they defeated the Perth Scorchers, the only previous club to claim two crowns in a row, to get there.

Vince's contribution was elegant as ever and summed up why the Sixers had the measure of the Scorchers in both of their finals meetings. This is not to say things could not have been different. Perhaps overly influenced by showers that passed through Sydney comfortably before the 7.40pm start time, the Scorchers had decided to bowl first upon winning the bat flip and then did not use the full allocation of the wristspinner Fawad Ahmed, comfortably their best bowler on the night.

Those mis-steps aided the Sixers in compiling a total that, while not match-sealing, was going to be unreachable if the hosts put in a solid shift with the ball and in the field. Blessed with plenty of experience to bowl the right spells at the right times, the Sixers were never seriously challenged after the exit of Liam Livingstone.

The seasoned trio of Jackson Bird, Steve O'Keefe and Dan Christian all put in excellent displays with the ball. Christian has now been part of nine domestic T20 title-winning combinations; the coach Greg Shipperd was at the helm for his sixth Australian T20 tournament win spanning both state and club-based eras. Old blokes do indeed win stuff.

Vince turns platform into launchpad
Back against the Scorchers after his decisive 98 in Canberra which vaulted the Sixers into the final, Vince carried on almost as though he was continuing the same innings. Commanding through the off side as ever, but also feasting on short stuff from Jhye Richardson, Vince was almost totally at ease, even if the Sixers' early progress was pockmarked by a horrid mix-up to end in the run-out of Josh Philippe after he and Vince ended up at the same end.

One of Vince's sixes, an inside-out lofted drive well over the cover boundary on the long side of the ground, was almost worth the price of a ticket alone, and the rest of the Sixers order contributed a series of complementary cameos around him. Denied a century by a possible accidental wide from Andrew Tye at Manuka Oval, Vince began to look a little ragged as he neared the milestone for a second time in as many innings, being dropped twice. He fell when slicing Ahmed to gully, a dismissal that hinted at how the wristspinner might have been better used.

Fawad Ahmed: 3-0-16-1
On an SCG pitch that had to offer some assistance for spin, the Scorchers' captain Ashton Turner appeared to get his sums wrong. How he managed not to find room for Ahmed to bowl his full four overs, conceding just 16 from three and also claiming the wicket of Vince, while bowling Livingstone's occasionals for two that cost 21, stretched credulity. Certainly the exit of Daniel Hughes opened up a vast array of right-handers for Ahmed, and they proved far more adept at attacking pace.

Richardson's late-tournament fade continued with his most expensive analysis, while Aaron Hardie was also notably expensive. The final over of the innings had Carlos Brathwaite coming to the middle for his first ball and finding himself able to cosh a pull shot and then a straight drive after a typically effective contribution from Christian ended with a tight call on a full toss that may or may not have been worthy of a no-ball call. The Sixers walked off satisfied with what they had to defend.

Sixers correct early errors in line
The sight of Cameron Bancroft walking out to open the batting must often cause intriguing thoughts for opponents, who respect his dogged attitude but can question his shot-making ability. Bancroft tried to clear the boundary in Bird's opening over but saw the ball mistimed and plugged short of the rope, but he was to be rather more successful in subsequent overs as the Sixers bowlers drifted too short and straight, allowing him to ping the leg-side boundary numerous times.

At length, the hosts made the requisite corrections, and Bird had Bancroft skewing a pull-shot attempt to mid-on. After having scored 36 from three overs, the Scorchers managed only 22 from the next four and lost the vital wicket of Colin Munro. Josh Inglis was promoted, and for a time he and Livingstone appeared to be rebuilding for a well-positioned dash at the target, doing just enough to keep the required rate around 10 per over.

A successful squeeze to the title
Bird returned for the 11th over of the innings with the game very much open. His subtle variations in length and line were successful in slowing the Scorchers, however, and made a pivotal contribution when Livingstone was pouched on the midwicket boundary. What followed were a pair of outstanding overs from the wily O'Keefe, who went from figures of 0 for 17 from two overs to a critical 0 for 26 from four: four dots and seven singles in those final 12 balls put an extreme squeeze on the Scorchers.

Suddenly the required rate was pushing 13, and wickets followed inevitably even as the Scorchers took the Power Surge. Mitchell Marsh was wonderfully caught off Ben Dwarshuis - who picked up three overall - by Vince moving as smoothly in the field as he had done at the crease, and Inglis' muted final innings of a successful campaign was ended with a miscue to mid-off. Christian delivered a typically canny follow-up over, and though Brathwaite conceded 16 from the 17th over, the Sixers always appeared to have enough in reserve.

Having had to make homes away from home this summer, they celebrated as though the SCG decider was a long-awaited Saturday night house warming.

After days of speculation that his free-agent decision would come down to the Los Angeles Dodgers or New York Mets, Trevor Bauer chose to join the reigning world champions on Friday afternoon. Bauer and the Dodgers agreed on a three-year, $102 million deal that has opt-outs after Years 1 and 2, sources told ESPN's Jeff Passan, and will pay the 2020 NL Cy Young winner an MLB-record $40 million in 2021.

What would Bauer have to accomplish on the mound in 2021 to be worth that kind of money? What should the Mets do next after missing out on the winter's top free-agent pitcher? Is Bauer even the most likely member of the Dodgers' staff to win a Cy Young next season? We asked ESPN MLB experts Bradford Doolittle and David Schoenfield to weigh in on those questions and much more in the aftermath of Bauer's record-setting contract.

Without as much as a line-out thrown or a maul formed, Paul O'Connell's approval rating as Ireland forwards coach is through the roof.

The end still tastes bitter. A hamstring tear in the final group stage match of the 2015 World Cup was no way to close the curtain on an illustrious 108-Test career.

That unsatisfactory finale is among a myriad of reasons why, in normal circumstances, the first glimpse of O'Connell on the screens inside the Principality Stadium this Sunday would be greeted with an almighty roar from the travelling Irish support - rest assured though, the cheers will still come from living rooms across all four provinces.

The adoration 'Paulie' enjoys is, similar to the optimism surrounding his new coaching position, two-fold.

O'Connell's world-class leadership and technical ability have always gone hand-in-hand, one fuelling the other - the question is whether or not he can translate them into coaching.

Listening to those who played alongside him, you might conclude he has been doing exactly that for quite some time.

"He coached Ireland probably the whole time I was there anyway," says O'Connell's former international team-mate Stephen Ferris.

"He worked under a couple of different forwards coaches but he was the line-out master. He was the focal-point of Ireland's pack week in, week out."

"He was up there with the best team-mates you could ask for. Selfless. Everything he did was with the team in mind and he's no different now," says current captain Johnny Sexton.

"He worked under some of the best coaches over the years and he's strongly influenced by a couple of them.

"He's very strongly influenced by Joe Schmidt in and around his work at the ruck and how he thinks about the game."

Ireland's line-out will be watched closely during this tournament having been identified as a weak spot during Andy Farrell's first year in charge.

The introduction of O'Connell will only intensify the scrutiny on Ireland's set-piece in Cardiff, and throughout the championship.

The expectation emerges from the reputation.

"On the technical front he is a world class line-out operator, he always was," says Eddie O'Sullivan, the coach who gave O'Connell his international debut in 2002.

"He ran the line-outs for Ireland brilliantly, that's his forte and he's coming into an area that he has real expertise in."

'When he speaks, you listen'

This week Rory Best, the man who succeeded O'Connell as Ireland captain, explained how in international rugby, motivation is as important a coaching attribute as the technical side with windows relatively short and mountains of pressure on each game.

"Everybody says 'you don't need motivation to get up for playing for your country', well I'll tell you what, you do," agrees Ferris.

"When you're playing week in, week out getting absolutely battered, you have niggles, you're struggling to get yourself up.

"It can be very difficult to get yourself up for that both physically, emotionally and psychologically.

"Somebody like Paul who has been there and done it, has been a proven test player whether in an Irish jersey or Lions jersey.

"He's just the type of person that when he speaks, you listen, And a lot of the stuff that comes out of his mouth makes a lot of sense."

O'Connell's leadership saw him named captain of the 2009 Lions tour of South Africa, and his speeches that were caught on camera across his three Lions tours give an indication of his locker room presence.

There have been two words of caution amid the fanfare that greeted his latest appointment: he may need time to find his feet as an international coach, and he may need time to figure out how he approaches a coaching relationship with players who were, for years, team-mates.

Even in those doubts there remains a hope, verging on an expectation, that his approach to the game will allow for a seamless transition.

"The guys who have played with him, they know O'Connell, there will be no soft option with him," says O'Sullivan.

"He just says it how it is and if you don't like it, that's your problem, not his."

CLEWISTOWN, Fla. – Todd Gracey opened the Silver Anniversary season for the USCS Outlaw Thunder Tour with a victory on Friday night at Hendry County Motorsports Park.

Gracey, at the wheel of the No. 3T 360 winged sprint car, held off Pennsylvania sprint car ace Matt Smith to pick up the opening night victory at the third-mile dirt oval.

Connor Leoffler finished third, with veteran Danny Smith and Ryan Timms completing the top-five finishers on Friday night.

The finish:

Todd Gracey, Mark Smith, Connor Leoffler, Danny Smith, Ryan Timms, Brent Crews, Greg Wilson, Brett Wright, Terry Gray, Davie Franek, Chris Martin, Phil Gressman, Sean Rayhall, Frank Neill, Jeff Bye, Paulie Colagiovanni, Mark Ruel Jr., Dennis Misuraca, Jeff Willingham, R.J. Jacobs, Connor Morrell, Terry Witherspoon, Terry McCarl.

Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos will undergo knee surgery this weekend, sources have confirmed to ESPN, and is expected to be out for at least six weeks.

The Madrid captain took the decision to repair the meniscus in his left knee on the recommendation of the club's medical team and will certainly miss the Champions League round-of-16 first leg with Atalanta on Feb. 24 in Bergamo and most likely the return in the Spanish capital on March 16.

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Ramos, 34, whose Real Madrid contract expires in June and is yet to agree terms on an extension, injured his knee early this season and has attempted to manage the issue until now.

He missed Madrid's Spanish Supercopa match with Athletic Bilbao on Jan. 14, which saw the club eliminated at the semifinal stage, and was absent for their embarrassing Copa del Rey knockout by third-tier Alcoyano a week later.

Ramos was also unavailable for the team's 2-1 La Liga defeat to Levante last weekend which saw Madrid slip 10 points behind league leaders and local rivals Atletico Madrid.

Sources told ESPN that Ramos had wanted to avoid surgery, but the advice of Real Madrid's doctors was now to take that step, and then hope for a full recovery as soon as possible.

As well as the clashes with Atalanta, a six-week absence would rule Ramos out of the La Liga matches with Huesca, Getafe, Valencia, Real Valladolid, Real Sociedad and the derby with Atletico, being a major doubt for the subsequent games with Elche and Celta Vigo.

There has been persistent speculation about Ramos' long-term future at Real Madrid due to a lack of progress being made on his contract talks, with the player free to speak to other clubs since Jan. 1.

Madrid travel to Huesca on Saturday afternoon with a matchday squad made up of 17 players due to a series of injuries, the most notable being that of Eden Hazard, who is expected to be out for a month.

Bayern Munich's preparations for the Club World Cup were thrown into chaos on Friday night when they were forced to spend the night on a plane after their flight to Qatar was denied permission to take off.

Bayern had just beaten Hertha Berlin 1-0 at the Olympiastadion in a match which had been moved forward by 30 minutes to 8 p.m. CET (2 p.m. ET) to allow the Bavarians time to catch their flight from BER Airport, located in the state of Brandenburg and not Berlin, at 11.15 p.m. CET (5.15 p.m. ET).

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However, with snow and freezing temperatures delaying operations at the newly opened airport, Bayern were prevented from leaving by a strict ban on night flights. between midnight and 5 a.m. CET (11 p.m. ET).

After spending the night on the plane, Bayern returned to Munich, where the crew was changed and they then left for Qatar shortly after 9 a.m. CET (3 a.m. ET) -- over nine hours late.

"They don't know what they have done to our team," Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge told Bild. "We feel like the authorities in charge in Brandenburg politics have taken us for a ride."

Bayern are due to face Egyptian side Al-Ahly in the semifinals of the Club World Cup on Monday evening

FIFA regulations state that every club "shall arrive at the venue of its first match at the venue of its first match at least three days before the match."

Strict COVID-19 protocol is also in place, but FIFA has said it will fast-track its testing process to ensure the game can go ahead as planned.