Hockey

Former Pittsburgh Penguin coach and general manager Eddie Johnston, who reportedly will soon replace Scotty Bowman as the Penguins’ coach, has been endorsed by four-time NHL scoring champion Mario Lemieux, whom Johnston drafted in 1984.

“I’ve always loved EJ,” Lemieux said. “We’ve always had a great working relationship. I’m looking forward to working with him.”

Bowman has been hired as coach of the Detroit Red Wings.

Auto Racing

Eager to repeat its victory last year, Peugeot surged to the top two positions in the annual 24-hour Le Mans endurance race early today at Le Mans, France, with racers from challenger Toyota falling behind.

Nine hours into the race, the No. 1 Peugeot 905, the third-fastest qualifier for the tough 24-hour race, was in the lead, with the No. 3 Peugeot 905 one lap behind. No. 1, driven by Frenchman Yannick Dalmas--a member of last year’s victorious team--Belgian Thierry Boutsen and Italian Teo Fabi, began the race in third position.

NASCAR Winston Cup point leader Dale Earnhardt and Mark Martin collided during a practice session on the two-mile, high-banked Michigan International Speedway oval at Brooklyn, Mich., badly damaging Martin’s Ford Thunderbird.

Earnhardt, who leads defending Miller 400 winner Davey Allison by 225 points in the Winston Cup standings, came away from the incident with only minor damage to his Chevrolet Lumina. Martin’s car was crumpled on the right side.

Scott Sharp will start on the pole in today’s SCCA Trans-Am Tour race at Mosport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario.

Sharp had a qualifying lap of 1:18.931, which beat the old mark of 1:19.158 set by Tom Kendall in 1990.

Miscellany

Red Auerbach, the 75-year-old Boston Celtic president, was in stable condition a day after six hours of open-heart surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital.

A team headed by Mortimer J. Buckley Jr., the hospital’s chief of cardiac surgery, bypassed five arteries during the operation Friday, a hospital spokesman said.