GEORGETOWN, Del. – On Saturday, Georgetown Speedway returns to action with the Deron Rust Memorial, bringing auto racing back to the Sussex County half-mile oval for the first time since March 8.

Fans are permitted in the grandstands for this event. The Deron Rust Memorial can also be viewed online via Dirt Track Digest TV, a SPEED SPORT TV affiliate.

L&J Sheet Metal Modifieds headline the event with the $3,960-to-win, 33-lap main event offering $296 just to take the green flag.

A star-studded field is lining up for the annual race in memory of promoter and racer Rust, who passed away in March 2013. Among the expected invaders are Billy Pauch Sr. and Jr., Jeff Strunk, Mike Gular, Danny Bouc, Duane Howard, Ryan Watt, Brandon Grosso, Neal Williams and many more.

The Delaware contingent will look to defend home turf led by defending Delaware Int’l Speedway champion Jordan Watson, who also topped the Mid-Atlantic Championship Race at Georgetown last November.

Both the Chesapeake Paving/J.W. Brown Trucking Crate 602 Sportsman and RUSH Late Models will compete in 20-lap mains offering $1,396 to win.

The Modifieds, Crate 602 Sportsman and RUSH Late Models will be competing for Georgetown’s Sunoco Championship point standings.

Also on the card are Southern Delaware Vintage Stock Cars (12 laps), Little Lincolns (12 laps), Delmarva Chargers (12 laps) and Delaware Super Trucks (12 laps).

Pit gates open at 4 p.m. Grandstand gates unlock at 5 p.m. Hot Laps get underway at 6:40 p.m., with racing at 7:30 p.m.

Grandstand admission is $20 for Adults, $16 for Seniors (ages 65 and up) and Students (ages 13-17), $10 for Kids (ages 9-12) and Children 8 and under are FREE.

Pit admission is $35 (ages 13 and up), $10 for Kids (ages 6-12) and $2 for Children 5 and under.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. – The Solid Rock Carriers CARS Tour is back in action for the first of two visits this year to Hickory Motor Speedway on Saturday night, one week after a wild race at Ace Speedway.

Saturday’s Race Face Tel-Med 300 at Hickory Motor Speedway is the series’ 12th trip to the historic three-eighths mile track – and through the years, Hickory has produced many highlights for both the CARS Late Model Stock Tour and the CARS Super Late Model Tour.

In the CARS Super Late Model Tour, which returns to action for the first time since Southern National Motorsports Park in March, eight different drivers have visited victory lane – including NASCAR stars William Byron and Christopher Bell. Last August, Matt Craig became the third repeat winner at Hickory when he held off Bubba Pollard during the Throwback 276.

Eight drivers have also won in CARS Late Model Stock Tour competition at Hickory. Both races at Hickory last year saw first-time winners, as Taylor Gray won in the spring and Ryan Repko took the Throwback 276.

Last weekend at Ace Speedway, Ryan Millington became the 21st different winner in series history, edging out Layne Riggs in a photo finish.

The big news heading into Saturday’s race will be the absence of 2017 CARS Late Model Stock Tour champion and JR Motorsports driver Josh Berry. Berry was suspended for one race due to an incident with race leader Bobby McCarty with five laps to go at Ace Speedway that saw Berry wreck McCarty on the frontstretch after an incident between the two earlier in the evening.

Berry was immediately parked by series officials and disqualified from the results of the Race at Ace 125 as a result. His suspension was announced a few days later.

However, JR Motorsports will still be represented Saturday at Hickory by CARS Late Model Stock Tour rookie Connor Mosack. The young gun finished an impressive third in his debut outing with the team in March at Southern National Motorsports Park, followed by an 11th-place finish last Saturday at Ace Speedway.

Mosack hopes he can rebound at Hickory Motor Speedway, a track where he has run well in late model stock car competition.

“I think we really need to focus on qualifying well,” Mosack said. “If we can start inside the top 10, we’ll have a good chance of finishing up front. We have the speed. We ran there a couple weekends ago, and I think if we start up front, we can stay up front and race our way forward. It’s tough to come from the back.”

Mosack is a former champion in Legend car competition, winning championships in 2018 at the Summer Shootout, Asphalt Nationals and Road Course World Finals. He also picked up a championship in the Winter Nationals in 2019 before making the move to late model stock cars. Now running in the Solid Rock Carriers CARS Tour, Mosack believes he’s in the best place to learn and gain experience.

“Obviously I’m happy to be racing with these guys,” he said. “It’s tough competition so it’s the best place for me to continue learning and improving in these cars. I like racing with the same guys every week, traveling to different places. There are going to be a lot of tracks I haven’t been to so I’m using this as a learning experience while trying to run well and have solid finishes.”

The late model stock car field also features a number of high-profile entries, including two-time and defending series champion Bobby McCarty, 2016 series champion Deac McCaskill, Ace Speedway winner Millington, Layne Riggs, Corey Heim and Drew Dollar, among others.

In the super late model division, Tyler Church is hoping to turn past successful runs at Hickory Motor Speedway into his first victory with the CARS Tour.

Church’s best CARS Tour finish was fifth at Tri-County Motor Speedway in 2017, though he is a previous winner in super late model action at Hickory. He comes into Hickory with confidence after a strong test earlier this year. He also helped Annabeth Barnes-Crum score her first late model stock car win at Hickory this past weekend.

“I’m so excited to get back in the car, especially here at home,” Church said. “I’ve worked through the winter months trying to figure out the all-new setup for the car. We tested a couple months back and I was really happy with it. The car had a lot of speed on old, worn out tires. I’ve been anticipating this race for two months. I’ve been helping Annabeth Barnes Crum this year at Hickory with whatever they need and to go to victory lane this past Saturday was awesome. I told them I would have to back that up this weekend.”

Winning in the Solid Rock Carriers CARS Tour would mean a lot to Church.

“I want to get a win in the CARS Tour and do something my racing mentor, Preston Peltier, hasn’t done — win in both the former PASS South Series and the CARS Tour,” Church said. “I’d love to have that one over him. He’s still a great friend and I miss him out here. There are so many friends that have passed away in the last eight months and I more importantly want to win for them.”

Other super late model competitors on the entry list include defending super late model champion and the tour’s most recent Hickory winner, Matt Craig, Georgia ace Bubba Pollard, Kyle Busch Motorsports drivers Chandler Smith and Sammy Smith, Kodie Conner and more.

The event will be closed to fans, but the series will be broadcasting the event live via SPEED SPORT TV partner Pit Row TV. Fans can watch the action by visiting www.pitrow.tv or carstour.tv.

It was all going so well for Jordan Spieth. Six under par and bogey-free in Round 2 of the Charles Schwab Challenge, Spieth led the tournament by two strokes entering the par-4 third, his 12th hole of the day.

After hitting the green in regulation, and only having 29 feet for birdie, and being a confident Spieth, the chance to extend his advantage was legit.

But, perhaps overly confident, Spieth ran his birdie putt 3 feet past the hole. He then ran his par effort another 3 feet past. And then missed his bogey putt, you guessed it, 3 feet long. Here's a look at the series of three putts from 3 feet.

The four-putt double bogey dropped Spieth to 9 under par for the tournament, and into a share of the lead, at the time, with Xander Schauffele. He then went wayward with his tee shot at the par-4 fourth, his 13th, and made bogey to fall one back.

I was supposed to be in Rome on Friday for the Euro 2020 opener, watching Italy take on Turkey. Maybe you were going to be there too, or perhaps in Baku, Azerbaijan, for Switzerland vs. Wales, or Copenhagen for Denmark vs. Finland. Or maybe, like most, you were going to be in front of your TV, ready for that most delicious of summer rituals: a major football competition.

There's nothing quite like it. Leagues finish and, depending how our team did, we either get to carry over the high of success or grasp a second chance at glory by transferring our passion and adrenaline to the international game. If the last scratch card we bought came up trumps, we ride our luck because we have the hot hand. If it didn't, we're hungry for another shot.

We're desperate for sports, but instead, we've gone nearly three months without competitive football during the coronavirus pandemic. The Bundesliga is back, La Liga is back, Serie A and the Premier League are behind the corner and while it's our salve at this time, who we kidding?

It's not just the cavernous empty stands, either; it's the fact that they'll be playing in the summer. This is a time for a different kind of football, one played without sponsor names on the front of the jersey. With anthems before kickoff and nations uniting behind 11 men (and 12 subs). And a sense that, over five weeks and seven games -- unlike in the club game -- anything can happen. Even little Greece, as they did in 2004, can become champions of Europe.

Instead, Euro 2020 is frozen in time. So much so that when it is played next summer, it will still be known as Euro 2020. (Editor's Note: The Euros will be on ESPN networks in the USA next summer.)

Relive Euro finals on ESPN2 (U.S. only) today:
- 2016: Portugal vs. France (7 p.m. ET)
- 2012: Spain vs. Italy (9:30 p.m. ET)

UEFA have a date for the opener -- June 11 -- and not much else. We'll know more next Wednesday after the executive committee meeting, but truth be told, like the rest of the world, they've had to defer to the terrible pandemic few imagined and fewer still can control.

Their slogan for the competition was "Building Bridges," and it takes on a particularly poignant significance at this time, particularly since most of us have spent the last few months creating distance and fostering isolation, at least physically. In the 60th anniversary of the first Euro, rather than having one or two host nations, former UEFA president Michel Platini had envisioned a competition that would span the continent, bringing together 12 cities, from Rome in the south to Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the north, and from Dublin in the west all the way to Baku in the east.

It would be a Euro of European unity, air travel and crowds in countries that would likely never get to host the competition. The irony that those three qualities -- European unity, air travel and crowds -- have all been deeply hurt by the pandemic isn't lost on anyone. (We don't know yet if the multihost format will still be viable in 2021 either.)

We can wait, obviously. We have no choice but to wait. What these past three months have taught us is that for all our technology and science, all our confidence and bluster, our race -- the human race -- is vulnerable.

And, in fact, it all remains vulnerable. We trust there will be a vaccine, we trust there will be an effective treatment, we trust that testing and tracing will prevent more of the horrors we've witnessed. We trust that, for the time being, we can live with the virus and do so with some semblance of safety. But we don't know for certain.

Yet we press on. Not just football, but the rest of the economy, the rest of life. We haven't hit the pause button on that. We can't. We find ways to cope: closed doors, work from home, government bailouts, distance learning, social distancing, education, washing hands ... all terms that are now part of our daily lives. All part of our fight back. And football -- for many of us, the most important of the least important things in life -- is a part of it too.

- Stream ESPN FC Daily on ESPN+ (U.S. only)

At the height of the pandemic, in the northern Italian city of Bergamo, where antigen tests reveal that more than half the population was infected, children displayed signs in their windows that read "Andra' tutto bene." ("Everything will be all right.")

Everything's not all right now and it won't be for a while. And for those who lost loved ones, it may never be. But we have to believe that it will. That this too shall pass. We are the human race. We're survivors. We'll put up with the new normal, believing that at some point we'll get something very close to the old normal back.

It will be all right. And when Euro 2020 rolls around a year late, when we smell the cut grass, drink in the frenzy, hear the band and watch the players stride out set against the backdrop of cheering men, women and children, most of us will know we're all right again.

Organisers of the Euro T20 Slam are aiming to stage the competition in Ireland this year. That is despite potential complications linked to Covid-19 and the fact that the inaugural edition of the competition, which features six city-based franchise teams, was postponed in 2019 due to financial concerns.

But the organisers - who are also responsible for the Global T20 Canada - remain hopeful that they may be able to take advantage of the lack of cricket elsewhere in the world and are scheduling it to run with a start date of August 20, with the intention of Malahide hosting all games. A final decision is expected to be taken on June 18.

Last year's Euro Slam cancellation came days after the GT20 had run into financial difficulties, which included the non-payment of player wages. However, it is understood that the GT20 is unlikely to run this year, due to the Canadian government's coronavirus-related restrictions and the costs associated with flying in international cricketers and keeping them in isolation.

The Euro Slam is planned to feature two sides from each of Scotland, Ireland and the Netherlands. While it looks likely to coincide with the CPL season, it is possible the lack of cricket elsewhere will increase the availability of players. If English counties are not playing at the time - or are only playing red-ball cricket - their players could certainly appear in the Euro Slam.

Daniel Vettori, Lance Klusener, Mark Ramprakash and Herschelle Gibbs were among the head coaches announced for the competition last year. Rashid Khan, Dale Steyn, Eoin Morgan, Babar Azam and Faf du Plessis were among the players.

With inputs from Peter Della Penna

A new Florida law will allow college athletes in the state to make money from endorsements starting next summer.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill Friday afternoon, adding an expected increase in urgency to the nationwide movement toward creating more opportunities for athletes to benefit from the billions of dollars generated each year by the college sports industry.

In a response to legislative action in other states, the NCAA has taken recent steps toward revising rules that currently prohibit student-athletes throughout the country from accepting money from third-party sources. Florida's law puts additional pressure on NCAA leaders by significantly shrinking the timeline for them to enact the type of uniform, national changes they say they prefer.

"This whole issue of student-athletes and being able to receive compensations for their likeness or image is something that's been bubbling to the surface in the last couple years," DeSantis said during a press conference at the University of Miami's indoor football practice facility Friday afternoon. "I viewed it as something that was a matter of fairness."

Florida's law is similar to those passed in California and Colorado in the past 10 months. California and Colorado's laws are not scheduled to go into effect until January 1, 2023. Florida's legislation is schedule to into effect July 1, 2021 - 18 months sooner. Roughly two dozen other states are in various stages of considering similar proposals.

NCAA President Mark Emmert and other college sports stakeholders are strongly opposed to individual states creating new laws that dictate the rules for how college athletes can profit from the use of their names, images and likenesses (NIL). Emmert is concerned that a "patchwork" of state laws would cause student-athletes to pick their schools based on where they can make the most money and give some athletic programs an unequal recruiting advantage.

The NCAA's Board of Governors said in April that they supported a proposal to allow athletes to accept endorsement money with some restrictions or "guardrails" designed to maintain a clear distinction between college sports and professional leagues.

The proposal, however, does not provide specifics on how the NCAA would solve many of the most vexing problems with establishing those guardrails and deciding who should enforce them. College sports leaders are planning to iron out those details by the end of October and vote on the proposed changes at their annual meeting in January 2021. There is no guarantee that the proposal will become an NCAA rule.

Florida's law includes some restrictions, such as stating that payments to athletes must be "commensurate with market value" in order to "preserve the integrity, quality, character, and amateur nature of intercollegiate athletics and to maintain a clear separation between amateur intercollegiate athletics and professional sports. The law also states explicitly that colleges and universities are not allowed to pay athletes directly.

Part of the NCAA's April proposal included a plea to Congress to create a federal law that would both supersede the state-by-state legislation and codify the guardrails they say are important to preserving the "collegiate model" of sports. Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, a former college and NFL football player turned Ohio congressman, said he is working on a federal bill that would open the market for college athletes to make money while also putting some restrictions in place to make sure endorsements don't become a thinly-veiled way to pay players for their participation in sports. Gonzalez expects to formally introduce that bill at some point in the next month.

Now that Florida's law is official, though, Congress has less than 13 months to pass federal legislation if it is going to pre-empt state law. The need for a relatively short turnaround comes at a time when Congress is moving much slower than normal and focused elsewhere due to the global coronavirus pandemic. The months ahead will also present challenges as attention shifts to what many assume will be a contentious presidential election in the fall.

"In terms of interest and political will, I think it's there," Gonzalez said last week during an online panel discussion of the issue. "What is more of a complicating factor right now is just the calendar. ...I think the much bigger potential hurdle Congressionally is the reality of the calendar."

Fellow panelist Val Ackerman, who is commissioner of the Big East Conference and co-chaired the working group that came up with the NCAA's proposed rule changes, said help from Congress is the preferred outcome. Even if the NCAA is able to pass its proposed changes in January, they may include restrictions that conflict with Florida's newly-passed law. Ackerman said the NCAA may also seek help from the Uniform Law Commission, a non-profit organization that crafts legislation in an effort to create more practical, consistent laws from state to state. If neither of those groups intervene in the next 13 months, Ackerman said she fears the outcome will be a problem for college sports.

"I'm not sure I'm the one to articulate what would happen next," Ackerman said during last week's webinar. "I do think it would create a very chaotic environment for our schools."

The NCAA previously threatened to challenge the legality of state laws like the one passed in California last September, saying that it would violate a clause of the U.S. Constitution that prevents state from creating laws that burden interstate commerce. Advocates for change in college sports and some legal scholars disagree with that assessment.

Ramogi Huma, president of the National Collegiate Players Association, said there are several existing examples that show the NCAA is able to conduct its interstate business while dealing with state laws that create disparate situations for college sports teams. As one example, Huma recently pointed to the NCAA's decision to support some of its member schools resuming sports activities sooner than others based on how individual states were lifting coronavirus-related restrictions.

"The NCAA claims that the ability to govern college sports is impossible if differences in state NIL legislation is allowed to take place," Huma said. "However, it voiced no reservations about state laws dictating different re-opening opportunities for college sports or against allowing its members to operate within the confines of those laws."

Florida lawmakers such as state Rep. Chip LaMarca, who was instrumental in crafting the state's new law, are not concerned with any legal challenges the NCAA may mount in the future. LaMarca and DeSantis both said they see Florida's new law as an important victory for college athletics.

"For far too long, the collegiate athletic system professionalized everyone associated with athletics except for the young women and men who put in all the hard work," LaMarca said Friday in a statement. "Today, we changed that. I cannot thank the countless students, parents, professional athletes, coaches, and directors enough for helping to get this bill over the goal line."

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced Friday that the league will recognize June 19 as a company holiday, with NFL offices closed on that day.

Called Juneteenth, June 19 is celebrated as the effective end of slavery in the United States. Although the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect Jan. 1, 1863, it wasn't until June 19, 1865, after the April 1865 conclusion of the Civil War, when the last of the newly freed slaves were read President Abraham Lincoln's decree in Texas.

"This year, as we work together as a family and in our communities to combat the racial injustices that remain deeply rooted into the fabric of our society, the NFL will observe Juneteenth on Friday, June 19th as a recognized holiday and our league offices will be closed," Goodell said in a statement. "It is a day to reflect on our past, but more importantly, consider how each one of us can continue to show up and band together to work toward a better future."

The recognition of Juneteenth comes a day after the NFL announced it is increasing its financial commitment to social justice causes to $250 million over 10 years to "combat systemic racism and support the battle against the ongoing and historic injustices faced by African Americans."

"The power of this historical feat in our country's blemished history is felt each year, but there is no question that the magnitude of this event weighs even more heavily today in the current climate," Goodell said in his statement Friday. "Juneteenth not only marks the end of slavery in the United States, but it also symbolizes freedom -- a freedom that was delayed, and brutally resisted; and though decades of progress followed, a freedom for which we must continue to fight."

The NBA has given teams a full training camp timeline, with head coaches allowed to work with players beginning June 23, according to a memo obtained by ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.

Players traveling outside of the U.S. need to report by June 15 to team markets -- with the rest of players arriving by June 22, according to the memo.

Beginning on June 23, a head coach can be one of the two coaches working with players in voluntary workouts, the memo outlines.

Training camp is scheduled from July 9-29 at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort in Kissimmee, Florida with three intersquad scrimmages, according to the memo.

Other key dates, according to the memo:

• Season re-starts on July 30.

• Playoffs begin Aug. 17 and conclude no later than Aug. 29.

• Family and guests of teams may arrive in Kissimmee on Aug. 30, as teams that have been eliminated from the playoffs are departing.

The league expects the NBA Finals could start by Sept. 30.

Teams are allowed to bring as many as 17 players to Florida, including 14 or 15 players on a standard NBA contract and additional two-way spots.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Myatt Snider confirmed Friday morning that he has expanded his NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule to a full-time effort, continuing to split time between Richard Childress Racing and RSS Racing.

Snider first made the announcement on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s The Morning Drive.

The 25-year-old began the year with select races in RCR’s No. 21 Chevrolet Camaro, earning the pole at Daytona Int’l Speedway in February before later adding a handful of races in the RSS No. 93 Camaro.

Now, in addition to starts at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, Martinsville (Va.) Speedway and Phoeniz Raceway in Avondale, Ariz., with RCR, Snider will fill out his 2020 calendar with RSS – making him eligible for a playoff run.

Snider has competed in all eight Xfinity Series races held so far this year, with a best finish of fifth in the RCR No. 21 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway on June 1. His highest result in the RSS No. 93 is 11th at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., in March.

He sits 15th in points entering a doubleheader weekend for the series at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“I’m so excited to go full-time racing this year with great partners in TaxSlayer, Louisiana Hot Sauce and Superior Essex,” Snider said. “We’re going to have great looking race cars all year.

“I think with the way we’ve been running, we will have a really good chance to make the playoffs in 2020. I’m really looking forward to getting the rest of the season going during the next couple of races. We’re going to slay it!”

Snider pointed specifically to his longtime association with Louisiana Hot Sauce during his SiriusXM appearance on Friday, noting that his full-time run this season wouldn’t have become possible without the company’s support of his motorsports endeavors.

Louisiana Hot Sauce was the primary partner on Snider’s entry with Cunningham Motorsports – now Chad Bryant Racing – when he won in his ARCA Menards Series debut at Toledo (Ohio) Speedway in 2016.

“It’s thanks in part to a great partnership with Louisiana Hot Sauce that all this is happening,” said Snider. “They’ve supported me since I started my racing career on the bigger levels, in ARCA, and now they’re continuing it on with a partnership that has helped me to fill out the rest of my schedule in the Xfinity Series. I’m so stoked and thankful for all the support they’ve given me over the years. The fact that they’re back and in this capacity just makes me happy and excited for the future.”

Among the races that Snider has added to his schedule in light of the full-time move include both ends of the Homestead doubleheader, June 20 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway and June 28 at Pocono.

All but the Pocono race will be under the RSS umbrella, and Snider noted that he’s seen growth from the team led by owner Rod Sieg and driver Ryan Sieg that has him excited to see what they can accomplish.

“A lot of the up and coming races for me are going to be with RSS Racing, so I just have to come in with a little bit different expectations knowing that,” Snider noted. “A top-five (finish) is pretty much a win for those guys and for that day, but we’ve been running really well the past couple of weeks with that No. 93 car. I probably should have finished really well at Atlanta, but we had a loose right rear that set us back.

“We’ve just been running really strong here lately. We almost had a top 10 at California, so the improvement and the pace is there,” he added. “It’s a little bit of a different expectation than the RCR car, but I’m all for it. The fact that I’m running full time is just a really big moment for me.”

NBA great Shaquille O'Neal may not able to travel across the pond to support his favourite soccer club Northampton Town but his face will be in the stands during their League Two playoffs.

- Leagues vs. Leagues: Bundesliga or La Liga?
- Stream ESPN FC Daily on ESPN+ (U.S. only)
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Although coronavirus guidelines mean matches will be played without spectators, Northampton are looking to fill the stadium with cardboard cut-outs of fans when they face Cheltenham Town in the first leg of the semifinal on June 18.

A cut-out of O'Neal, the former Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat and Orlando Magic center, wearing his Cobblers scarf will be at the match as part of a crowd mosaic at the PTS Academy Stadium.

⚽️ Hi @NorthantshourUk - this time next week we will be playing in the play offs, and the images of many supporters will be inside the stadium thanks to #CobblerintheCrowd - among them is basketball legend @SHAQ https://t.co/w7pvPLBOj5

— Northampton Town (@ntfc) June 11, 2020

O'Neal, a four-time NBA champion, has been a vocal supporter of Northampton for many years, and co-owns an internet radio station in America with club chairman Kelvin Thomas.

"Shaq, widely regarded as one of the greatest players in basketball history, has thrown his support behind Northampton Town and the Cobbler in the Crowd scheme and his cut out will be included in the crowd as the Cobblers take on the Robins," Northampton said in a statement.

Northampton visit Cheltenham for the return leg on June 22, with the playoff final scheduled for June 29 at Wembley Stadium.