Gordon Bails Out His Crew With His Winning Finish

Jeff Gordon’s crew, known as the Rainbow Warriors, has won plenty of races for the young NASCAR star.

On Sunday, it was Gordon’s turn to pick up his crew after an uncharacteristic slow pit stop.

“I really don’t know what happened in the pits,” Gordon said as he celebrated his second consecutive Bud at the Glen victory on the road course at Watkins Glen International at New York. “I was a little disappointed at the time.”

After starting from the pole and dominating the first two-thirds of the race, that pit stop, on lap 59 of the 90-lap, 220.5-mile event, combined with some early stops by drivers hoping to win on pit strategy, left Gordon 15th.

Worse, he found himself behind Mark Martin and Rusty Wallace, two of the strongest competitors in the 43-car field.

Gordon was able to chase down Martin and Wallace on the 11-turn Watkins Glen course. Much to his surprise, he then found out that it was Mike Skinner who was leading by more than seven seconds.

Skinner, who held on for a career-high third-place finish, nearly made a big risk pay off with the upset of the season. But his chance ended when he had to slow in the late going to squeeze out enough mileage to finish.

*

Adrian Fernandez and Scott Pruett are teammates, but that didn’t keep them from fighting for first place like any two other drivers would in the final 26 laps of the Miller Lite 200 at Lexington, Ohio.

Fernandez held off his Patrick Racing teammate by 0.247 seconds in winning the CART event at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

After the race, CART punished drivers Alex Zanardi, Greg Moore and Bryan Herta for taking unjustifiable risks.

Zanardi was fined the CART maximum of $50,000, the largest fine in series history, for his actions in crashes involving drivers JJ Lehto and Helio Castro-Neves. He also was put on probation.

Moore was fined $5,000 for unsafe action in the pits when his car collided with Andre Ribeiro’s.

Herta was put on probation, but was not fined for contact with Dario Franchitti on the first lap.

*

The father of NASCAR driver Mark Martin died in a plane crash near the Great Basin National Park at Ely, Nev., authorities said.

KARK and KTHV television stations in Little Rock, Ark., reported that Julian Martin, his wife and a daughter were confirmed dead by authorities in Nevada on Sunday.

Mark Martin was told of the deaths after finishing second in the Bud at the Glen Winston Cup race.

Soccer

In a match-up of the world’s top two women’s youth national teams, Norway defeated the United States, 2-1, to take the 1998 Nordic Cup championship at Stadskanaal, Holland.

The Nordic Cup is the world’s top competition for Under-20 women and is played annually in Northern Europe.

The United States qualified for next year’s FIFA World Youth Championship by routing Trinidad and Tobago, 6-1, at Port of Spain, Trinidad, as Chris Albright and Nick Garcia scored two goals each.

David Kramer made seven saves and five different Clash players scored as San Jose defeated the New York-New Jersey MetroStars, 5-1, in a MLS game before 9,102 at San Jose.

Miscellany

The U.S. basketball team earned a bronze at the World Basketball Championship by defeating Greece, 84-61. The Americans were led by Jason Sasser’s 23 points.

Yugoslavia rallied to beat Russia, 64-62, for the gold and a record fourth world title.

Tony Baker, whose eight-year NFL career included playing in the 1969 Pro Bowl, died at Mediapolis, Iowa in a car accident. He was 53.

Baker played the 1973-74 seasons for the Los Angeles Rams.

University of Louisville President John Shumaker and nine of his top athletic officials appealed to the NCAA Division I Infractions Committee not to impose the death penalty on the men’s basketball program over recruiting violations.

At a closed meeting, enforcement investigators and university officials discussed an assistant coach’s telephone call in 1996 that might have broken the five-year probation imposed by the NCAA two years ago.

The Infractions Committee could stop short of the death penalty--a one-year shutdown of the program--with other punishment or accept Louisville’s self-imposed penalties.

Karch Kiraly and Adam Johnson won their second consecutive title and fifth of the year by defeating Brent Frohoff and Rob Heidger, 15-12, in the final of the Pro Beach volleyball tournament at Atlanta.