SPORTS DIGEST || Sharon Speedway adds new feature race

Sharon Speedway adds new feature race

Hartford

This season, Sharon Speedway will host a separate race for drivers that have never won a feature event in a full-size race car (excluding Mini Stocks) nightly for the HTMA/Precise Racing Products-sponsored division.

This new program called the “Wheelman” Bonus Event will be presented by C&R Tire and Ohio Intra Express. RUSH will provide the separate points fund for RUSH members that will pay five positions with the “Wheelman” Champion receiving $300.

The event will pay $75 to win nightly and will be a limited number of laps based on car count per night. The event lineup will be determined based on an invert four of eligible drivers from the night’s regular heat race results.

Sharon Speedway is owned by the Blaney, Weller and Kirila families and is a 3/8-mile dirt track located on Custer-Orangeville Road.

For more information, check out the website at www.sharonspeedway.com or call 330-772-5481.

NCAA concerned on gambling, esports

ORLANDO, FLA.

NCAA President Mark Emmert sounded alarms Thursday on the potential impact of sports betting on college sports, along with how esports should be handled by schools, and stressed a need for additional strides toward diversity at the coaching and administrative levels.

Emmert, speaking at the NCAA’s annual convention, told the membership that they’ll need to stick to “values-based bold leadership” to handle those challenges and others going forward.

He voiced concern about esports for a number of reasons, airing those worries a day after Marquette announced that it would become the first major-conference school to offer esports as a varsity team starting in the fall semester.

One of the challenges of esports could be having it adhere to Title IX compliance rules. Emmert said 95 percent of esports players are male, though there are other studies that suggest the gap between male and female players — while still tilted heavily toward men — is much smaller than the number the NCAA president cited.

On sports wagering, which the NCAA steadfastly opposes — and prohibits athletes, coaches and other athletic department employees from participating in — Emmert again urged the membership to stick to its principles.

“Sports wagering is going to have a dramatic impact on everything we do in college sports,” Emmert said. “It’s going to threaten the integrity of college sports in many ways unless we are willing to act boldly and strongly.”

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling in May overturned federal law prohibiting states from legalizing sports betting. The NCAA says that ruling is not affecting its bylaws pertaining to betting in any form, even the participation of wildly popular NCAA bracket pools common in office settings around the country during the Division I men’s basketball tournament.

NFL says concussions dropped 29 percent

NEW YORK

The NFL is encouraged by progress made in reducing concussions while stressing there is much more work to be done.

On Thursday, the league said the number of concussions dropped 29 percent in 2018 from the previous season, according to preliminary data. It added that there were 135 documented concussions, down from 190. By including preseason games and practices, concussions fell from a high of 281 to 214, a 23.8 percent decrease. That was the lowest total since the 2014 season (206 reported concussions).

Of the 538 evaluations for concussions, the league says, 75 percent ultimately showed no concussions.

The league began releasing concussion data in 2012.

“It’s a significant decrease ... but we’re also more interested in why that decrease happened, as opposed to what the number is,” said Jeff Miller, the NFL’s executive vice president of health and safety.

Staff/wire report