Less Fuel Means Martin Wins

Kyle Petty had the faster car but Mark Martin had better fuel mileage and won the MBNA 400 stock car race Sunday at the high-banked Dover Downs International Speedway in Dover, Del.

In a race that had only one caution for 11 laps, Martin made three pit stops, Petty made four.

Dale Earnhardt also made only three pit stops and finished about two feet in front of Petty for second.

“Jack Roush won this race on fuel mileage,” Martin said of his car owner. “I’d been grousing about that a lot, and Jack said he’d win me a race on fuel.

“We used to come up short, but [Sunday] we came up big.”

Martin’s first Winston Cup victory at the Monster Mile came in his 22nd Dover start. He had finished second four times, most recently three months ago in Dover’s Miller 500.

The victory was worth $195,305 to Martin, $114,000 of it a bonus for winning from the pole. The bonus--which increases by $7,600 each time it goes unclaimed--had not been collected since series leader Jeff Gordon won at Charlotte in May.

Martin led 194 of the 400 laps in his Ford, three more than Petty, the 1995 Dover winner. Petty dominated from the 162nd lap until he had to pit with 20 remaining.

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Jacques Villeneuve of Canada used a little help from his teammate to win the Austrian Grand Prix at Spielberg, Austria, and draw within a point of Michael Schumacher in the season’s drivers’ standings.

Schumacher got a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for overtaking Villeneuve’s Williams-Renault teammate, Heinz-Harald Frentzen while under the yellow flag on the 39th lap.

“It’s a shame,” Schumacher said about his penalty. “The problem was that I was following two cars and really fighting very hard and I didn’t see the yellow flag.”

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Mechanical problems continued to plague Craig Breedlove’s attempt to set a land-speed record in the Nevada desert about 125 miles north of Reno. Breedlove made a 381-mph in his Spirit of America on Sunday but needs a new fuel pump before making a full-blown attempt at the record of 633.47 mph set by Richard Noble 14 years ago.

Jurisprudence

The trial of Marv Albert, which begins today in Arlington, Va., is expected to include graphic testimony about rough sex, but whether the sportscaster goes to prison likely hinges on whether jurors believe his accuser was a willing participant.

A 42-year-old woman with whom Albert had a 10-year sexual relationship alleges he bit her as many as 15 times and forced her to perform oral sex on him.

The trial in Arlington County Circuit Court is expected to last a week or more.

Boxing

A planned meeting between Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson in Louisville didn’t come off Saturday night because, Tyson claimed, his charter flight from the New York area was delayed because of mechanical problems. Muhammad Ali, who organized the meeting to serve as the finale of a boxing tournament being held in his honor, and Holyfield stood in a boxing ring as a statement to Ali from Tyson was read. Tyson apologized for not making it to Louisville and, at the request of promoter Don King, pledged several hundred thousand dollars to Muhammad Ali Cup youth charities.

Fans who paid up to $40 to see a peace summit between Tyson and Holyfield complained that Tyson should have flown to Louisville earlier. Joe Frazier and George Foreman were also supposed to take part in the event, but it was announced Friday that because of a mix-up neither would attend.

Tennis

Monica Seles won the Toyota Princess Cup at Tokyo by defeating Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5). Seles won with a drop shot on her fourth match point in the third-set tiebreaker.

Up until the final point, Sanchez Vicario said, that “every time she hit a drop shot I came back with a winner. . . . I was surprised she did that on match point. It bounced very weird.”

Pro Basketball

A lot of people believe the NBA made a mistake when it shortened the three-point line three years ago, but league vice president Rod Thorn isn’t one of them.

“Some would say so, but I won’t,” Thorn said on the final day of the NBA meetings in Orlando, Fla. “It seemed like the right thing to do at the time.”

It was decided earlier during the meetings that the three-point line will go back to 23 feet 9 inches from 22 feet. It has always been 22 feet in the corners.

Skiing

Former world champion Julie Parisien is quitting the Pro Race tour to return to the U.S. Ski Team, a move that improves the U.S. chances for gold in the Nagano Winter Games.

Parisien was the world slalom champion in 1992. In the Albertville Olympics that year, she led after the first run, but finished fourth. She quit the ski team in 1994 to turn pro, and has dominated the pro tour ever since.

Rowing

Brazil won the first eight-man regatta race ever held on the Amazon River in Brazil when boats from heavily-favored Cambridge and Oxford universities were hit by river swells and sank after 25 minutes and 33 minutes, respectively. The students were all safely picked up by their support teams.

The race began in a circus-like atmosphere in which the teams were doggedly followed by more than 100 private boats, jet skiers, two helicopters and a hospital ship. Police boats were unable to keep the public away from the crews.

“The boats were alongside of us, kicking up a huge wash,” said Cambridge’s Ethan Ayer in a telephone interview. “We knew from the beginning that we were going to sink.”

Soccer

The Belgian soccer federation demanded tough legal action against rowdy fans who invaded fields during three top division games over the weekend, forcing players to seek refuge in dressing rooms.

In all three incidents, fans spilled onto the field after their clubs conceded the last goal in humiliating losses. No serious injuries were reported.