Gordon Credits His Crew Chief for 10th Victory

Race driver Jeff Gordon gave crew chief Ray Evernham all of the credit Sunday for a call that helped him beat Ernie Irvan in a tense duel on a very slick race track to win the CMT 300 at Loudon, N.H.

“There’s a lot of magic between him and me,” Gordon, 26, said after earning his 10th victory of the season and the 29th of his Winston Cup career.

All of the leaders made their final pit stops on Lap 228, during one of the eight caution periods in the 300-lap race.

Irvan, who had been leading before Hut Stricklin hit the wall in turn two, took on right-side tires and came out fifth. Gordon, running second before the caution, got only enough gas to get to the end of the race and drove back onto the track with a lead he never relinquished.

“We were having radio trouble, so I didn’t really hear a whole lot about it,” Gordon said. “That’s why I’m glad I don’t make those calls. Ray is great on seeing the whole picture. . . . He made the call for two tires for our first win here at New Hampshire [in 1995].

“If we had taken tires this time, we definitely wouldn’t have gotten out first and it might have been a different story. My car handled the best out front. It was definitely a great call.”

Gordon, who needs three victories in the final seven races to match Richard Petty’s modern NASCAR record of 13 in a season, won by less than two car-lengths.

*

Cory McClenathan continued his charge toward the top of the NHRA Top Fuel standings by beating Kenny Bernstein in the final of the Keystone Nationals at Mohnton, Pa., for his fifth victory in the last six races,

McClenathan covered the quarter-mile in 4.753 seconds at 305.29 mph in a dragster owned by former NFL coach Joe Gibbs. McClenathan pulled within 75 points of leader Gary Scelzi, who lost in the first round.

Other winners at the NHRA Winston Drag Racing Series event were John Force in Funny Car, Jim Yates in Pro Stock and Matt Hines in Pro Stock Motorcycle.

Force earned his fourth victory of the season by beating Chuck Etchells in the final and extend his lead to 194 points.

Yates beat Mike Bell for his sixth victory this season, extending his points lead to 185. First-time finalist Bell fouled, leaving the starting line seven-thousandths of a second too soon.

Hines earned his sixth victory of the season and extended his points lead to 266 by beating John Smith. Hines finished at 7.343, 178.04 on a Suzuki GSXR. Smith trailed at 7.403, 183.78 on a Suzuki.

*

Cash-strapped Craig Breedlove received $50,000 from Shell Oil and an equal amount from AutoZone to help his bid for a sixth world speed record at Reno.

Breedlove is expected to match up against Briton Richard Noble on Tuesday. Noble holds the record of 633.47 mph.

*

Race driver Derek Israel, 28, of Oakland, died shortly after his vehicle collided with another car during a race at Sears Point Raceway near Sonoma. The Pacific Coast Road Racing Championship was suspended as Sonoma County coroner’s officials investigated the accident.

*

Mark Evans drove to his fourth consecutive victory, winning the Bayfair Muncey Cup unlimited hydroplane race on San Diego’s Mission Bay and taking the lead in the national points standings over Mark Tate and Mark Weber, who finished second and third, respectively.

College Sports

An overwhelming majority of Americans believe there is gender bias in the funding for college sports, according to a CBS News poll.

Eighty-six percent of respondents say funding for men’s and women’s sports should be equal. Seventy-seven percent say funding should be equal even if it means cutting men’s sports.

Though female undergraduates outnumber men, they are awarded only a third of all athletic scholarships. And for every $1 colleges spend on female athletes, $3 is spent on men, according to an NCAA study of Division I athletic programs.

One in 10 Americans, 18% of men and 4% of women, believe funding shouldn’t be equal.

The most popular reason given for unequal funding is that men’s college athletics generate more revenue and interest.

Majorities of both men and women say they regularly follow men’s sports, while only about one-third of both men and women regularly watch women’s sports.

Names in the News

Col. Tiger Phong, the Vietnamese soldier whom golfer Tiger Woods was named after, died in a political re-education camp eight months after the golfer was born, Golf Digest reported.

Phong, a battlefield friend of Woods’ father, Earl Woods, lived barely a year after the fall of Saigon, dying Sept. 9, 1976, in the squalor of a Communist camp, the magazine said. Woods was born Dec. 30, 1975.

Miguel Figueroa, 33, an apprentice jockey from New Hampshire died of injuries he sustained in a fall from his horse during a race at the Great Barrington (Mass.) Fairgrounds.

Figueroa fell during a race Friday and suffered head and other injuries when he was hit by his own horse and another horse, said state police Lt. James Lane.

Dr. Paul W. Brechler, the Western Athletic Conference’s first commissioner, died at his Denver home at the age of 86.

Brechler, who wrote the WAC’s original code of rules and regulations, was commissioner from 1962-69. He also presided over the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference from 1976-90.

Miscellany

Olympic champion Dimitry Sautin of Russia earned his second gold medal of the 10th World Cup Diving Championships, winning the 10-meter platform on the final day of the competition at Mexico City. Sautin also won the gold in the 3-meter springboard on Friday.

Shi Lei and Zhang Jing won the gold medal in the women’s 3-meter synchronized diving, bringing China’s total to six gold medals, three silver and five bronze.

Pakistani cricketer Inzamam Ul-Haq, 27, a 10-year international veteran, was suspended for two matches after going into the stands at Toronto during a game between Pakistan and India to confront a fan with a megaphone who had been taunting him all afternoon.

HBO will rebroadcast Saturday’s Oscar de la Hoya-Hector Camacho WBC welterweight title bout Friday at 10 p.m.