LAKE CITY, Fla. — Citing heavy chances of rain forecast for Friday and Saturday (Feb. 5-6), officials with Layin1 Down Promotions, Dirts4 Racing Promotions and the Valvoline Iron-Man Late Model Series have agreed to cancel this weekend’s Florida Frostbuster events at North Florida Speedway.

The event promotion team and series felt it was best for the fans and late model drivers to cancel before getting everyone there and having to possibly cancel due to the rainy weekend forecast.

Layin1 Down Promotions & Dirts 4 Racing will still hold a practice session this Thursday Night Feb. 4 for any lLate model teams wanting to practice because that forecast looks good.

Layin1 Down Promotions & Dirts 4 Racing will also stay with the program of Thursday for 600 Modifieds and 602 Modifieds, Friday’s program of both 600 and 602 Modifieds and the Street Stocks along with Saturday’s program of the 600/602 Modifieds and Street Stocks will still be held depending on weather.

INDIANAPOLIS — Kyffin Simpson will join Juncos Racing for the Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires.

Simpson will compete in nine events for the reigning Indy Pro 2000 champions this season.

“I am very excited to be working with Juncos Racing,” said Simpson. “The team has so much experience and success in the Road to Indy program, not to mention winning the Indy Pro 2000 title multiple times. Indy Pro 2000 is a great championship and I can’t wait to drive the car in our upcoming tests.”

Simpson will make his official debut in the Indy Pro 2000 Championship this April in the season opener at Barber Motorsports Park. The 16-year-old will also compete on the oval at Lucas Oil Raceway, Road America, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and the streets of Toronto.

Doubling up on race programs for the 2021 season, Simpson joins the Road To Indy Presented by Cooper Tires ladder after confirming a return to the FR Americas Championship, where he earned eight top-10 finishes last year.

“We are thrilled to add Kyffin to Juncos Racing and are ready to begin our work with him this season in the Indy Pro 2000 series,” said team owner Ricardo Juncos. “He is young and has great experience, and we look forward to beginning a great relationship and building on his career through our team driver development program. We want to thank Kyffin and his family for the opportunity to have him a part of our family here at Juncos Racing.”

CALGARY, Alberta -- St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong will be the GM for the Canadian men's team if NHL players participate in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Hockey Canada announced the move Wednesday, tapping Armstrong after he served on the management team that helped Canada win gold medals in Vancouver in 2010 and Sochi in 2014.

Armstrong, who was also GM of Canada's gold medal-winning team at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, guided the Blues to the Stanley Cup in 2019 and was the NHL's GM of the Year in 2011-12.

Canada management staff for the 2022 Olympics also includes associate general manager Ken Holland of the Edmonton Oilers and assistant general managers Ron Francis of the Seattle Kraken, Roberto Luongo of the Florida Panthers and Don Sweeney of the Boston Bruins.

The NHL did not participate in the 2018 Games in South Korea after sending its players to the five previous Olympics. The league and the NHL Players' Association have OK'd negotiations with the International Olympic Committee and the International Ice Hockey Federation on participation at the 2022 and 2026 Winter Games.

USA Hockey doesn't expect to name its management team until there is an agreement among those groups.

When the NHL Awards are handed out each year, there are accusations of geographic bias.

Sometimes it's due to the size of a market. More often it's complaints about how one division or conference is covered by a larger press corps than another -- the storied "East Coast bias" that always seems so severe in theory, but ineffectual in practice. (Fun fact: The Western Conference has four of the past five Norris Trophy winners.)

But in this wacky 56-game sprint of an NHL season, those laments about "bias" creeping into awards voting may have renewed merit, thanks to the existence of the realigned North Division, aka the "We The North" Division, aka the All-Canadian Division.

I do a lot of radio hits in Canada. Recently, the preamble to those chats has been a variation on this: "As you know, we're all obsessively watching the division with all the Canadian teams, where every night is a playoff game and every victory or loss feels like life or death. So since we have no idea what's happening outside of these seven proud Canadian franchises, what's up the Florida Panthers, eh?"

It's not just the media. Everyone is obsessed with following the All-Canadian Division. "You know what the circumstances are in your division. So you maybe focus on that a little bit more than you did in the previous years," Toronto Maple Leafs star John Tavares said this week.

Singular focus isn't exclusive to the North Division. Because there are no games between non-division opponents -- and no conferences at all -- in the 2021 season, fans and media are naturally going to watch more games that impact their teams directly. Combine that with the intra-divisional schedule and there may not be as much time watching other teams as in traditional interconference seasons.

We've gone from a buffet of teams to a prix fixe menu.

That said, I'm confident that the dedicated voters for these awards will survey the entire league for worthy candidates, taking on this responsibility with the stoic seriousness and hyperbolic sense of duty that makes Baseball Hall of Fame voters look apathetic by comparison.

Here's the NHL Awards Watch for February. This is informed speculation, taken from conversations around hockey and with voters, regarding the current contenders for each award. Keep in mind that the Pro Hockey Writers Association (PHWA) votes for the Hart, Norris, Calder, Selke and Lady Byng; broadcasters vote for the Jack Adams; and general managers handle the Vezina. Also keep in mind the "You Gotta Be In It To Win It" protocol for the Hart and the Jack Adams.

Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley announced on Wednesday a partnership with  Augusta University Health to help expand its ability to administer COVID-19 vaccinations throughout the community.

Augusta National Golf Club will provide property in the nearby Washington Square shopping center to serve as a central vaccination site, as operated by AU Health. The space will open on Feb. 8 and stay accessible as long as needed.

Augusta National also announced that it and the Community Foundation for the Central Savannah River Area also will provide matching $1 million contributions to help facilitate operations at the Washington Square location and allow the opening of pop-up clinics in underserved communities, including the Harrisburg and Laney Walker neighborhoods. The contribution also will fund the launch of AU Health’s first mobile vaccination unit.

The $2 million funding will, in addition, enable the East Central Health District of the Georgia Department of Public Health to add a second mobile vaccination unit, which will target services to residents of Richmond County who lack transportation or experience other barriers to vaccination.

“Helping expand access to COVID-19 vaccinations is another meaningful way to do more for our neighbors in the Augusta community that has supported the Masters Tournament for more than 80 years,” Ridley said. “The dedication of Augusta University Health, Georgia Department of Public Health and all health care providers working courageously during this pandemic is inspiring, and they deserve our enduring gratitude and support. We hope these resources will have an immediate impact on their efforts to protect those most vulnerable and our community at large through more vaccinations."

This is the latest in Augusta National’s efforts to support and equip COVID-19 response efforts in its community. It also comes after Chairman Ridley announced in November a joint effort to contribute $10 million to assist in the  redevelopment of the Harrisburg and Laney Walker neighborhoods.

Jose Mourinho has insisted Tottenham "need a good Dele Alli" and believes face-to-face talks with the midfielder will give him the extra motivation to revive his career.

Alli had hoped to join Paris Saint-Germain on loan in the January transfer window -- reuniting with former Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino -- but chairman Daniel Levy blocked the move amid concerns over squad depth and a desire to see the player succeed in north London.

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The 24-year-old has started just six games across all competitions this season but Mourinho confirmed he sat down with Alli yesterday to discuss his future and believes there is a key role for him to play once recovering from what the Spurs head coach has described as a "tendon" injury.

Asked what Alli had to do now he is staying at Tottenham, Mourinho said: "He needs to recover from his injury, he needs to be back to training and he needs to have a fresh start because in the last few weeks, he couldn't even train.

"So that's the most important thing. I had a good conversation with him yesterday. We spoke around this question that you ask me and I think we found very common ground, let's say. It is an important period of the season for the team, it is an important period of the season for him also.

"We need him. We need a good Dele Alli. We are just waiting for him to be back to normality, to be back to training with the team. It is not just Dele, [Harry] Kane, Gio[vani] Lo Celso, we are speaking about players that without all three, we miss a little bit of creation, some magic around the attacking areas so we need him back. I made that very sure to him.

"A conversation doesn't make miracles. A conversation doesn't put a player in great form or without any limitations in terms of fitness but I believe the conversation was maybe the extra motivation he needed to be back as soon as possible, to become available for the team.

"We play Europa League very soon, we are in the Premier League playing every week a couple of matches. We have the FA Cup, I don't believe he will on time for that one. We have a final to play in April so we need a good Dele back. And I believe that when physically he is ready, he will mentally be in a good place to go for it."

Mourinho revealed that Kane will miss Thursday's Premier League clash with Chelsea and Sunday's visit of West Brom but he will return for one of their matches next week.

"He is happy with the progress, of course we are happy too," said Mourinho of Kane, who injured both his ankles against Liverpool last week.

"I think it is not a very optimistic thing to say that next week he will be playing. It will just be a consequence of his good evolution.

"We were a bit scared when everything happened but now we are much more positive and next week we play Everton midweek, [Manchester City at the] weekend, I believe for one of these matches he should be back."

Brazilian club Santos said they have launched an investigation after a former club advisor suggested female footballers are women who are "beaten."

During n live chat on "Blog Soul Santista" on Saturday, following the club's defeat to rivals Palmeiras in the Copa Libertadores final, the club's former advisor Sergio Ramos said: "A football pitch is no place for a woman. Women on a football pitch are the type we beat up and take off there, because they shouldn't be there.

"Women's football is garbage. I don't watch this cr-- at all."

Among the people on the call was current Santos director Fabiano Reis, who did not interrupt the dialogue, while another person on the call laughed at the comments.

"With regards to the comments made by ex-advisor Sergio Ramos during an interview on Blog Soul Santista on Jan. 30, Santos Football Club informs that the incident is already being investigated by the club's legal department and the management committee will make a judgement once it has all the evidence," a Santos statement read.

"Santos FC, as a basic principle, respects all people and rejects any type of prejudice. We reiterate our support for women's football -- on and off the pitch -- and are working towards ensuring misogynist comments become rarer and rarer in our club."

A group of 16 Santos members signed a letter to the club president where they called for Ramos' suspension.

Ramos defended his comments as he claimed "I have the right to my opinion" and said he did not "criticise women as a gender."

In October, Santos terminated a contract which had been signed by Robinho just three days earlier following a public outcry due a nine-year prison sentence for sexual assault while at AC Milan.

A sponsor cut ties with Santos following Robinho's signing "out of respect to women."

Tottenham and England captain Harry Kane has reiterated his desire to become a kicker in the NFL after his playing career.

Kane is an avid follower of the NFL and spoke to the players and watched from the stands when Tottenham hosted a match between Chicago Bears and Oakland Raiders two years ago.

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Kane told ESPN in 2019 that he wanted to turn his attention to the sport after retiring and said he is hopeful of achieving that dream in the future.

"Of course, there's a lot of technically very gifted players and in NFL kicking, a lot of players can kick it far and high, but I guess it all comes down to who can handle the pressure the best and I feel like the more I watch it, the more I see that, you know, in the big situations," he told Houston Texans DE JJ Watt for NFL UK.

"A lot of times the game goes down to a last minute field goal, last second field goal. So I'd like to think kind my experience of dealing with that in soccer would put me maybe at an advantage compared to some of the other guys who haven't had that experience, maybe coming out of college or things like that.

"So I guess that's the I'm banking on, of course. But yeah, like I said, it's early stages, but I look forward to hopefully exploring that one day."

Kane also said he stayed loyal to New England Patriots despite quarterback Tom Brady leaving them to join the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in March 2020.

Brady, 43, will look to clinch his seventh Super Bowl when the Buccaneers face reigning champions Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.

Kane will be unavailable for Spurs' clash against London rivals Chelsea on Thursday after suffering an ankle injury in the 3-1 loss to Liverpool last week.

Speaking in his news conference ahead of the derby, Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel said it will be easier for his side to compete with Kane set to miss out.

"I would say it's always easier if Harry Kane is not playing, that is a given," he said. "Harry Kane is one of the best No. 9s in the world, a role model No. 9 that every coach and team wishes for.

"We assume at the moment he will not play but we will assume everything."

Chalk it up to the endless need to create "a thing," but the all-time "record" (it's in quotes for a reason) for most goals in a career that Cristiano Ronaldo is either chasing or has already broken -- he scored his 760th goal on Jan. 21, which either beats Josef Bican's 759 or keeps him behind Bican's 805-goal mark, depending on your measure -- simply isn't, well... a "thing."

This isn't Hank Aaron chasing Babe Ruth and being chased by Barry Bonds a generation later or, when it happens, LeBron James closing in on Karl Malone and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. It's an artifice. By its very nature, football doesn't work that way: it's broad, messy and unorganised. There's also less of a sense of history. (Even casual baseball fans probably know who Bonds and Mark McGwire are, as well as knowing the guys whose records they broke: Aaron and Roger Maris. Are casual fans of English football as familiar with their equivalents, Jimmy Greaves and Dixie Dean?)

So why is the goal-scoring record really flawed? Let me count the ways.

First and foremost, it's based on adding international goals and club goals in a career that, frankly, nobody really did until recently. If we had, then the guy who held the record before him would be a household name even if only as some legendary unattainable pace-setter, like Cy Young with his 511 wins in baseball or Don Bradman's 99.94 career Test average in cricket. But it's not. Ask around. Poll your friends. If anybody tells you that they knew Josef "Pepi" Bican was the all-time greatest goal scorer in football before last month, they're probably one of three things: Czech, a football historian or a liar.

Then there's the fact that the entire premise is flawed. It counts "official" matches (meaning league games and cup competitions) at the club level, but adds friendlies at international level. Talk about apples and oranges. Why one and not the other? Are we sure that one of those end-of-season international friendlies against Latvia on a drizzly Tuesday, with a maximum 10 substitutions per side, is as meaningful as a competitive club game?

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The other massive issue is that for records to be meaningful, we need reliable data that can actually be compared, and we simply don't have that. It's the nature of the history of this sport. There is no central record-keeping authority, and the professional game evolved in its own untidy way for many years before achieving some semblance of order only in the 1970s. And that's before you get into the minor inconvenience of wars, politics and nationalism getting in the way of sport.

Take Bican, whose career goals total is:

- 703, if you count only top-flight goals and international goals, or
- 759, if you exclude some of his goals in the international club tournaments that existed at the time and that were unsanctioned, mainly because the sanctioning body, UEFA, was founded only in 1954, the year before Bican retired, or
- 800, if you count only first-team goals and internationals, or
- 805, if you pay attention to historical sites like rsssf.com, though they themselves admit they are missing some data (meaning he may have scored more), or
- 827, if you listen to the official historian of the Czech FA, or
- 5,000, if you pay heed to Bican himself, who was probably joking

So which is it? We're not going to force Ronaldo to play into his 80s so he can get to 5,000, are we? (That said, if he could, he probably would.)

Don't look to FIFA for help with this, either. They will tell you the only goal-scoring records they keep are in their own competitions: World Cups and the like. And rightly so. Why would they get involved in this hornet's nest?

(And this isn't a knock on Bican, by the way. He was one of the greatest footballers of his time, a star of Austria's "wunderteam" of the 1930s who, just before the war, fled the Nazis and opted to play for the country of his heritage rather than his birth and spent his career in what was then Czechoslovakia.)

Bican isn't the only one who is objectively difficult to compare. Pele, the byword for goal-scoring prowess, is in a similar situation. Brazil didn't have a national league until 1971, when he was 30. Until that point, most of his league football was played for Santos in the Paulista championship, a regional league in Sao Paulo. It was probably the best region in the country, but simply put, he didn't play some of the top teams in the country -- like Flamengo, Botafogo, Gremio or Fluminense -- on a regular basis.

It doesn't mean he didn't face top opposition, though. In addition to the powerhouses in Sao Paulo state, like Palmeiras, Corinthians and Sao Paulo, he played in the Copa Libertadores (the equivalent of the European Cup), in the Taca Brazil (effectively the National Cup, pitting regional champions against each other) and, of course, plenty of prestige friendlies. Download a spreadsheet of all his goals and you'll see he was touring the world most summers -- in the summer of 1963, for example, Santos came to Europe and played nine games in four weeks -- as well as playing in various regional all-star teams and even for the Brazilian coast guard early in his career.

The tours and the all-star teams don't count toward his "official" (whatever that means) total, but as folks in Brazil point out, he wanted to face the best in the world and this was his way of doing it. (And that, by the way, is how you get to his famous 1,283 goal total.)

This should be enough to convince you of the absurdity of these goals-based comparisons, though you could go further still. You could point out that Bican scored many of his goals during the second World War, when many top players were serving in the military and other suffered malnourishment. Or that Pele, for political reasons, was never allowed to move to Europe and compete on that level.

It's not either man's fault that he played in another era when the world was different and, on top of that, war and politics got in the way. It doesn't diminish either man's achievement, and indeed both belong among the all-time greats; it's just that you can't use goal rankings to measure greatness. It makes no sense.

Heck, I'd go further. While there is an argument to be made that Ronaldo and Lionel Messi (who is a few years younger and whose numbers could end up in the same neighbourhood) can be compared because they're contemporaries, it still feels silly. Yes, they score industrial quantities of goals, despite neither being a center-forward. But the best benchmark? In the past 20 years, nobody in Europe's top four leagues has scored more than 40 league goals. Messi and Ronaldo have both done it three times each. Between them, they've scored 30 or more league goals 16 times -- that's more than the rest of Europe's center-forwards combined have managed in the past 20 years. And just two, other than Messi and Ronaldo, have done it more than once.

If you need goal-scoring totals to validate their respective greatness, try that on for size. But you really don't, do you?

Leave lifetime scoring totals to other sports. Football is far greater than that. Not to mention far more complicated to compare across eras.

Quinton de Kock will not continue as South Africa's Test captain after the Rawalpindi Test, with coach Mark Boucher saying that it's important to "release him from that burden" of leading all three sides in the international arena. But it's not a decision the team needs to make in a hurry, because the "disappointing and disruptive" development of Australia postponing their tour of South Africa means there isn't any Test cricket on the horizon for South Africa.

"When we get back after this tour we've got a bit of time before our next Test series so we can sit down and make a good, solid call on who can take over from him and release him from that burden and try and get the best out of him," Boucher said on the eve of South Africa's second and final Test in Pakistan. "It's been tough on Quinny. If you're not scoring runs it gets highlighted, especially if you're a captain.

"We're not that harsh on Quinny in this environment. We know that he's a quality player and there's a good innings around the corner for him. He has been given the extra burden of being captain and that can be tough and something he's not used to."

"There's probably a feeling that we were laying down the red carpet for Australia, which is frustrating at times. After all of that, it's very disappointing and disruptive to our plans going forward"

Mark Boucher

De Kock was given the role in temporary capacity for the 2020-21 summer until a permanent candidate was found. South Africa may not know who that is just yet, but they seem to have decided that it would not be the wicketkeeper-batsman.

South Africa will not play Test cricket for up to nine months after the Pakistan series following the postponement of their three-match home series against Australia, scheduled for March. Australia withdrew from the tour yesterday, citing an "unacceptable" Covid-19 risk. Cricket Australia had offered to host the series in Perth, but Cricket South Africa refused after they took unprecedented steps to minimise risk for Australia, including government-approved VIP treatment. CSA called CA's last-minute withdrawal "frustrating" and Boucher agreed with that sentiment.

"CSA have expressed their disappointment and it's no different for the players. I know there was a lot of planning going into the Australian tour back home. We haven't really been a part of that, but it seems a lot of goalposts were being moved for that particular tour, for Australia," Boucher said. "For example, the one positive that came out of the bubble against Sri Lanka was the hotel that we stayed at (Irene County Club). We thought it was a great hotel for us as South Africans. It suits our needs and the cultural way that we are, being outdoors.

"And we even surrendered that to Australia. There's probably a feeling that we were laying down the red carpet for Australia, which is frustrating at times. After all of that, it's very disappointing and disruptive to our plans going forward."

Apart from missing out on the opportunity to compete against the Australian Test side, South Africa also made arrangements to send their Test squad home from Pakistan at the conclusion of the Rawalpindi match on February 8 to quarantine ahead of the Australia series, and therefore miss the three-match T20I series in Lahore starting February 11. Although the players no longer need to return home early, a second-string T20I squad has already arrived in Pakistan so South Africa will release their Test players and a significant number of their support staff, as originally planned.

"Myself, (bowling coach) Charl Langveldt and (media manager) Sipokazi Sokanyile will be staying over and looking after the T20 squad. It's not ideal," Boucher said. "There's been a lot of planning that's gone into the two tours, and going back and quarantining for Australia. So the planning was all there.

"We were told at a very late moment that this wasn't going to happen. It's difficult for us to suddenly turn around when there's a T20 series around the corner."

De Kock is among those players who are scheduled to return home, albeit with no Australia Tests to prepare for now. He will also not need to ready himself for another captaincy stint, which might have affected his form with the bat. Since being named captain, de Kock has scored just 45 runs in four innings and, after four unsuccessful reviews in Karachi and questionable bowling and fielding calls, it appeared he may want to relinquish the role, or have it taken from him, sooner than expected. Boucher denied that.

"It wasn't a consideration to make extreme decisions during a tour, especially a two-match Test series. I don't think it's time for panic," Boucher said. "I think it's time for us to get closer as a unit and make some good, solid calls. And understand that if the guys put in performances then we'll be in a better position to win Test matches. It's difficult to put it all on one person, especially a talent like Quinny. It's not his fault that we're 1-0 down. It's some very poor cricket we played on day one (in Karachi)."

South Africa were bowled out for 220 on the first day of the first Test and lost seven wickets for 87 runs, which Boucher put down to a lack of application that he has seen his players try to improve on, both by watching Pakistan and in practice ahead of the second Test.

"Hopefully the guys have learnt their lesson by watching how Pakistan played, and from our mistakes," he said. "I think the mental preparation going into this game has been good because they've witnessed it and seen how Pakistan have played, and how to put a big score together.

"There's a lot more care about keeping their wickets and a lot more intensity when they defend; not so many shots in the nets. You can talk as much as you can. Sometimes they've got to see it to believe that's the way to go about building innings in subcontinent conditions."

This will be the last Test South Africa play in the season, with no indication of when the Australia tour would be rescheduled to or when another Test series comes around. ESPNcricinfo understands that CSA is looking at holding a T20 tournament at home in February-March before Pakistan visit the country for white-ball matches towards the end of March.