John Andretti Feels a Draft and Gets Daytona Victory

John Andretti always thought he had the best car for a super speedway. With a little help, he finally proved it Saturday in the NASCAR Pepsi 400 at Daytona Beach, Fla.

Andretti earned his first Winston Cup victory after 110 starts in a one-lap sprint to the finish, leaving Dale Earnhardt, Dale Jarrett and a six-car collision in his wake.

Andretti, driving a Ford, averaged 157.791 mph to defeat Terry Labonte’s Chevrolet by .029 seconds and earned a first-place check of $109,525.

Andretti, a nephew of Mario Andretti, needed drafting help from Bill Elliott to get by Mark Martin on the 137th of 160 laps, something he didn’t get at Talladega.

“I got behind Mark and thought, ‘Not like Talladega again,’ ” Andretti said. “I knew Mark wanted to keep his position. We got a run on him and got below him.”

Nine weeks ago at Talladega, Andretti needed drafting help and dropped out of the lead pack when no one went with him.

“Luckily for me, Bill Elliott pushed me on through,” Andretti said. “I guess I owe Bill a check for this.”

The prearranged help from the lapped car of Elliott put Andretti in a commanding position with 23 laps remaining on the 2 1/2-mile track at Daytona International Speedway. The accident with five laps to go precluded a hard run at him by a pack of contenders.

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Taking advantage of a late-race caution flag, Ron Hornaday used the restart to put an aggressive move on leader Jack Sprague and won by 1.055 seconds in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series DieHard 200 at the Milwaukee Mile at West Allis, Wis.

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Michael Doohan, closing in on a fourth consecutive 500cc world championship, set a track record to earn the pole position for the Imola Grand Prix motorcycle race at Imola, Italy.

Boxing

Former world champion Michael Nunn knocked out Lonnie Horn with one second left in the first round of a light-heavyweight bout in Moline, Ill.

Nunn, a former IBF and WBA middleweight champion, improved to 52-3 with his 34th knockout. Horn is 26-4.

Raul Marquez knocked down Romallis Ellis in the second round and stopped him with a series of lefts at 1:10 of the fourth to retain the International Boxing Federation junior-middleweight title at Lake Charles, La.

After knocking his opponent down twice, Khalid Rahilou of France stopped Marty Jakubowski with 20 seconds left in the seventh round to retain the World Boxing Assn. junior-welterweight title at Casablanca, Morocco.

Overcoming a first-round knockdown, Steve Collins of Ireland stopped Craig Cummings 1:17 into the third round of a super-middleweight bout at Glasgow, Scotland.

Soccer

Marcelo Salas scored three goals as Chile routed Colombia, 4-1, at Santiago to move into fourth place in South American qualifying for the 1998 World Cup in France. . . . Esteban Cambiasso and Diego Quintana scored goals and defending champion Argentina defeated Uruguay, 2-1, for its record-tying third World Youth Championship at Shah Alam, Malaysia. . . . One person was killed when a family celebrating the victory of its club team in an Egyptian national match was attacked with stones and thick sticks by enraged neighbors, who supported the losing team, at Cairo. Seven others were injured in a separate incident after el-Ahly defeated el-Zamalik, 3-1, Friday for the country’s national championship.

Miscellany

Wayne Cashman, an assistant coach with the San Jose Sharks, will be hired as head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday, the Philadelphia Daily News reported.

Salsipuedes remained in the lead in the Transpac yacht race from California to Hawaii, but second-place Medicine Man gained ground. Salsipuedes was 513 miles ahead with 1,032 miles remaining.

Carlton Myers scored 19 points, including two free throws in the final 12 seconds, to lead Italy to a 67-65 victory over Russia in the semifinals of the European Basketball Championship at Barcelona, Spain. In today’s final, Italy will play defending European champion Yugoslavia, an 88-80 winner over Greece.

Kong Linghui defeated Chinese teammate Ma Lin, 17-21, 21-18, 21-19, 14-21, 21-19, in the men’s singles final of the U.S. Open table tennis tournament at Fort Lauderdale, Fla. China’s Wang Nan defeated Ryu Ji Hye of Korea, 21-16, 21-16, 21-16, in the women’s final.

Frank Johnston, a lineman on Notre Dame’s undefeated 1949 team and a longtime Canadian Football League assistant coach, died Friday of pneumonia. He was 67.

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* Bill Plaschke is on vacation.