The Engine Smoke Smells Sweet to Wallace

Rusty Wallace ended a two-month victory drought in the Goody’s 500 at Bristol (Tenn.) International Raceway on Saturday night.

Wallace took the lead 45 laps from the finish when a piston in Geoff Bodine’s engine burned, then held off a late challenge from Mark Martin to earn his sixth victory of the season and 37th of his NASCAR Winston Cup career.

“I could see the smoke from Geoff’s car and I could smell it too,” Wallace said. “When that thing went, I really needed that because he was double tough tonight.”

Bodine led 168 of the 500 laps on the .533-mile oval; Wallace led 105. Wallace averaged 91.363 m.p.h. and earned $53,015.

Dale Earnhardt finished third and lost virtually no ground to either Martin or Wallace, the two drivers chasing him for the Winston Cup championship. He still leads Martin by 201 points and Wallace by 203 with nine races remaining.

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Rubens Barrichello of Brazil won the pole for today’s Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium, when no driver was able to approach his top speed Friday of 113.052 m.p.h.

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Scott Pruett lapped Road Atlanta’s 2.52-mile road course at 116.334 m.p.h. to win the pole for today’s Blockbuster Trans-Am at Braselton, Ga.

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Ernie Irvan, critically injured a week ago in a crash during practice at Michigan International Speedway, was upgraded to serious but stable condition.

Track and Field

Hurdler Robert Foster of Jamaica, an NCAA indoor and outdoor champion from Fresno State, became the second competitor in two days to be disqualified because of drugs at the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada.

The day after Ghanaian bantamweight boxer Godson Sawah was stripped of his bronze medal for using a weight-losing diuretic furosemide, Foster was sent home for using the banned stimulant ephedrine after finishing sixth in the 110-meter hurdles final.

Tennis

Fifth-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia rallied to defeat Richey Reneberg, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, and sixth-seeded Cedric Pioline of France defeated Renzo Furlan of Italy, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-0, in the semifinals of the Hamlet Cup tennis tournament at Commack, N.Y.

Top-seeded Alberto Berasategui of Spain needed only 92 minutes to defeat countryman Jordi Arrese, 6-3, 6-3, and eighth-seeded Karol Kucera of Slovakia, who had never before reached an ATP Tour final, defeated Horst Skoff of Austria, 0-6, 6-4, 6-3, in the semifinals of the Croatian Open at Umag.

Larisa Neiland upset top-seeded Amanda Coetzer, 6-3, 6-4, and eighth-seeded Judith Wiesner of Austria upset fourth-seeded Nathalie Tauziat of France, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, in the semifinals of the OTB International at Schenectady, N.Y.

Gymnastics

National champion Dominique Dawes of Gaithersburg, Md., became the second gymnast ever to sweep each event in the National Gymnastics Championships when she added four individual gold medals to her all-around title at Nashville, Tenn.

In an unprecedented occurrence, two-time world champion Shannon Miller of Edmond, Okla., won silver medals in each individual event after finishing second in the all-around.

The women’s performances overshadowed that of UCLA’s Scott Keswick, who added gold medals in the high bar and still rings and a bronze in the pommel horse to his all-around title.

Boxing

Unbeaten featherweight Roberto Garcia of Oxnard stopped Frank Avelar of Campo in the second round of a scheduled 10-round bout at the Grand Olympic Auditorium. Garcia, 19, is 15-0 with 12 knockouts. Avelar, 25, is 16-6 with eight knockouts. In an earlier bout, junior-welterweight Pepe Reilly of Glendale stopped Antonio Mora of Mexico at 2:24 of the first round. Reilley is 8-1, Mora 11-15-1.

Former champion Alexis Arguello, 42, won a majority decision over Jorge Palomares in a junior-welterweight bout at Miami Beach. It was Arguello’s first fight in eight years.

Jake Rodriguez retained his International Boxing Federation junior-welterweight title with a nine-round technical knockout over Sweden’s George Scott at Bushkill, Pa.