NASCAR made the first significant changes to its schedule in years by shuffling the 2020 season into a freshened new sequence that tries to meet the wants of fans to the best of NASCAR’s current ability.

The 2020 schedule was released Tuesday at ISM Raceway outside Phoenix, which got the season finale following a $175 million renovation to ISM Raceway.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway got July 5 to give the iconic track back-to-back summer holiday weekends; the event will follow the Indianapolis 500, a mere 42 days after that Memorial Day staple. IMS President Doug Boles said the Brickyard was the correct “venue to throw a massive party for our nation’s birthday.”

The July 4th holiday had belonged to Daytona International Speedway, but it gave up the traditional and often rain-wrecked event to claim the final race of the regular season on Aug. 29 when the championship field is finalized.

TENNIS

JURISPRUDENCE: A man who stabbed two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in her home was sentenced to eight years in prison on Tuesday in the Czech Republic.

Radim Zondra, 33, was convicted of causing Kvitova serious bodily harm by a regional court in Brno.

The state prosecutor requested 12 years for Zondra, who pleaded not guilty to attacking Kvitova in December 2016 in her apartment in Prostejov.

Kvitova’s spokesman, Karel Tejkal, said she “respects the ruling of an independent court.”

MIAMI OPEN: Top seed Novak Djokovic was upset by Roberto Bautista Agut 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 in the fourth round in Miami Gardens, Florida.

The world No. 1 was looking to win his 850th match but fell short.

Djokovic was leading 6-1, 4-5 when rain delayed play for 30 minutes. Returning to the court, Djokovic surrendered his serve on a second break point in the 12th game to lose the second set.

Djokovic recouped one service break in the third set, but he lost his serve again in the sixth game to fall behind 2-4.

Earlier in the day, defending champion John Isner advanced to the quarterfinals with a 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3) win over 19th-seeded Kyle Edmund.

Isner pounded 17 aces and lost one service game in the match. He surrendered the ninth game of the first set at love.

He’s won nine straight matches at the Miami Open going back to hoisting the trophy last year. That victory – the most prestigious of the 14 titles in his career – made him the first American champion of this tournament since Andy Roddick in 2010.

Isner has played five tiebreakers in six sets during his three match wins.

SOCCER

INJURY: Juventus said Cristiano Ronaldo only sustained an “apparently minor” injury when playing for Portugal but did not offer a timeline for his return.

Ronaldo limped off after half an hour of Portugal’s 1-1 draw against Serbia in qualifying for the 2020 European Championship on Monday.

Juventus said Tuesday that tests in Portugal revealed “an apparently minor injury to his right thigh flexors.”

EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: British Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday urged soccer authorities to take strong action against Montenegro after England players faced a torrent of racial abuse during a European Championship qualifying match.

UEFA charged the Montenegro Football Association over its fans’ racist behavior in Podgorica on Monday night after England players Callum Hudson-Odoi and Danny Rose complained about being targeted with monkey chants during the team’s 5-1 victory.

UEFA’s anti-discrimination group had sent a monitor to the game because there was judged to be a “high risk” of racism and their evidence will now feed into a disciplinary case that will be heard on May 16 by European soccer’s governing body.

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