Gordon Comes Back to Win Southern 500

Jeff Gordon spun out early, then spent most of the rest of Sunday working his way back to the front to win the Southern 500 stock car race at Darlington, S.C.

Gordon spun out his Chevrolet Monte Carlo on the 137th lap of the 367-lap NASCAR event at Darlington Raceway, falling from second to 13th place and causing one of the many caution periods that held the race’s average speed down to 121.231 m.p.h.

Dale Earnhardt led 208 laps and was up by 13 seconds by lap 242 in his bid for his 10th victory at Darlington. But several wrecks late in the race allowed Gordon and the rest of the field to reel him in, and Gordon took the lead with 34 laps to go.

“Yeah, I got frustrated a little bit and I thought we’d lose the race and lose points to those guys,” said Gordon, who earned $70,630 and extended his Winston Cup points lead to 217 points over Sterling Marlin by winning for the sixth time this year. It was Chevrolet’s 18th victory in the 23 races.

Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace traded passes, with Earnhardt finishing 0.66 seconds behind Gordon and in second place. Wallace was right behind.

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Al Unser Jr., the defending race and Indy car series champion, passed Michael Andretti for the lead on Lap 60 and sped away with the Vancouver Molson Indy race in Canada, beating Gil de Ferran by 14.97 seconds and averaging 95.54 m.p.h. Robby Gordon was third.

Jacques Villeneuve, who could have wrapped up the series title by finishing sixth or better, wound up 12th after a late-race crash with Scott Goodyear. Villeneuve holds a 170-132 lead in points over Unser, with one race to run and 21 more points in dispute over Unser’s disqualification after apparently winning in June in Portland. An appeal of that disqualification will be heard Sept. 18, eight days before the season finale in Monterey.

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Al Hofmann earned the largest single-day purse in National Hot Rod Assn. history, winning $100,000 in a special event for funny cars during the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

Hofmann beat Cruz Pedregon with a quarter-mile run of 5.139 seconds at 299.50 m.p.h. in a Pontiac Firebird.

Golf

Scott Hoch bogeyed the first hole, then reeled off a six-under-par 65 to win the Greater Milwaukee Open by three strokes over Marco Dawson.

Hoch had seven birdies in a final round that gave him a four-day total of 15-under-par 269 at Brown Deer Park Golf Course and earned him $180,000.

Dawson’s $108,000 for finishing second gives him a comfortable spot on the PGA Tour money list and ensures that he will keep his playing card for another year.

Tony Jacklin won his second Senior PGA Tour title, closing with a five-under-par 67 for a one-stroke victory over six players in the Franklin Quest Championship in Park City, Utah.

Jacklin had a 10-under 206 total on the 7,026-yard Park Meadows Golf Club course.

Betsy King and rookie Emilee Klein shot their second consecutive five-under-par 67s to share the second-round lead in the LPGA Rail Classic at Springfield, Ill. Beth Daniel is two shots back.

Sweden’s Mathias Groenberg earned his first European Tour victory by shooting a three-under-par 69 to finish at 18-under 270 in the European Masters at Crans-Sur-Sierre, Switzerland.

Football

After losing to Northwestern, Notre Dame almost disappeared from the Associated Press college poll, falling from ninth to 25th.

Florida State, with 38 first-place votes and 1,518 points, remained No. 1 after beating Duke, 70-26. Defending national champion Nebraska stayed at second with 14 firsts and 1,467 points after beating Oklahoma State, 64-21.

Texas A&M; is No. 3, with Penn State, Florida, Auburn, USC, Tennessee, Ohio State and Colorado rounding out the Top 10. UCLA climbed to 12th from 15th after beating Miami, 31-8. The Hurricanes dropped from 12th to 19th.

Texas freshman Ricky Williams scored two touchdowns, one on a 65-yard run, Saturday night as the Longhorns defeated Hawaii, 38-17, at Honolulu.

Miscellany

Anthuan Maybank, who had won the 200-meter gold medal, anchored the U.S. 1,600-meter relay, which won the final event of the World University Games in 3 minutes 0.40 seconds and gave the Americans their 24th gold medal.

That tied the United States with Japan for the most golds at Fukuoka, Japan, and gave the Americans the most medals of the competition, 69 to Japan’s 64.

Tammy Liley of Westminster had 32 kills and two aces for the U.S. women’s volleyball team, which wasted a two-set lead against Japan, but rebounded for a 15-7, 17-15, 11-15, 13-15, 18-16 victory and first place in the $2-million World Grand Prix in Tokyo.

Names in the News

Dan Galbreath, a former president of the Pittsburgh Pirates and prominent horse owner, died of cancer at the family’s Darby Dan Farm near Columbus, Ohio, at 67.