While Others Are in Pits, Rudd Gambles, Wins Race

Ricky Rudd remained on the track while the other leaders made a final pit stop, and won the AC-Delco 400 Sunday at North Carolina Motor Speedway at Rockingham, N.C.

Rudd, who averaged 122.320 mph in a Ford, led 81 laps, including the final 74, and beat Dale Jarrett’s Ford to the finish line by 3.39-seconds, nearly a full straightaway on the 1.017-mile oval.

“In that last caution, we only had 12 or 13 laps on the tires, and I knew we had to have track position,” Rudd said. “We decided to roll the dice, and it worked out.”

Terry Labonte never led, but finished third in his Chevrolet to wrest the series lead from Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon, who finished 12th.

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Loris Capirossi of Italy won the Australian Grand Prix 500cc motorcycle race at Sydney after Honda teammates Michael Doohan and Alex Criville collided on the final lap while contesting the lead.

Capirossi passed on his Yamaha after Doohan and Criville bumped each other as Criville attempted an overtaking maneuver. Both fell from their bikes and exchanged angry words before remounting.

Tennis

Mark Philippoussis won his first ATP Tour title by beating Magnus Larsson, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4, in the final of the Toulouse Grand Prix at Toulouse, France.

Jana Novotna beat Martina Hingis, 6-2, 6-2, in the European Indoors final at Zurich, Switzerland.

David Prinosil routed Petr Korda, 6-1, 6-2, in the final of the Czech Indoor at Ostrava, Czech Republic.

Javier Sanchez of Spain beat South Africa’s Marcos Ondruska, 6-4, 7-5, in the final of the Israel Open at Ramat Hasharon, Israel.

Soccer

Three Saudi Arabian soccer players have been expelled from the national team for “immoral acts,” a London newspaper reported.

A report in the London-based Arabic daily Al-Quds said Said a-Aryan, Saleh al-Dawoud and Fahd al-Ghashian were sentenced to three months in jail, but Ghashian fled to the U.S.

The newspaper did not spell out the charges, “immoral acts” usually refers to conduct that violates strict Muslim tenets, such as drinking alcohol.

Kuwait will not play Iraq in the Asian Cup soccer championship even if both teams reach the final, the head of the Kuwait Soccer Assn. said.

Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 and was driven out by a U.S.-led international coalition.

Kuwait and Iraq might be scheduled to play in the second round of the championship, which will be held in the United Arab Emirates in December.

Miscellany

Paul Evans and Marian Sutton, both of Great Britain, won the men’s and women’s divisions of the Chicago Marathon.

They each also posted their personal best times--Evans at two hours, eight minutes, 52 seconds and Sutton at 2:30:41.

For the first time in its 32-year history, the Head-of-the-Charles Regatta, the world’s largest one-day rowing race, was canceled because of torrential rains and heavy winds in Cambridge, Mass.