Labonte Beats Nemechek in Talladega Photo Finish

Terry Labonte beat Joe Nemechek in a photo finish Saturday in the Touchstone Energy 300, a race marred by a 23-car crash at Talladega, Ala.

The finish of the Busch Series race at Talladega Superspeedway was so close that NASCAR officials told both Labonte and Nemechek to drive their cars to the entrance to Victory Circle and wait while they looked at a photo.

It showed Labonte’s Chevrolet inches ahead of Nemechek’s. The official margin was 0.002 seconds.

“I knew I was going to be first or second,” Labonte said. “Other than that, I didn’t know. It was too close.”

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Dale Earnhardt outfoxed fellow NASCAR star Rusty Wallace at Talladega Superspeedway for a victory in the second round of the 1999 International Race of Champions series.

After feinting toward the bottom of the track, Earnhardt whipped his car right to the top of the banking, nearly scraping the concrete wall as he moved past Wallace and won by 0.075 seconds.

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T.K. Karvasek pulled away from Mike Price on the final lap to win the NASCAR Superstock race before 2,500 at Irwindale Speedway.

Timmy Woods III of Chino Hills led all 50 laps and held off pole-sitter Brian Barron to win the Super Late Model Race.

Jim Smith of Orange won the 25-lap Legends Series race.

Tennis

Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil defeated Spain’s Felix Mantilla, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, to advance to the final of the $2.2-million Monte Carlo Open in Monaco. Kuerten will play Marcelo Rios of Chile, who beat Frenchman Jerome Golmard, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2. . . . Unseeded Guillermo Canas of Argentina reached his first ATP Tour final when seventh-seeded Christian Ruud of Norway retired in the first set of their semifinal of the Clay Court Championships at Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Canas will play eighth-seeded Magnus Norman of Sweden, who cruised to a 6-2, 6-1 victory over qualifier Max Mirnyi of Belarus. . . . Top-seeded Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario of Spain and fifth-seeded Irina Spirlea of Romania advanced to the finals of the Egypt Classic at Cairo. Sanchez-Vicario, No. 7 in the world rankings, defeated unseeded Emmanuelle Gagliardi of Switzerland, 7-5, 6-0. Spirlea defeated Canada’s Maureen Drake, 6-3, 6-0.

Track and Field

Seneca Lassiter wasn’t awed or intimidated by the presence of Michael Johnson, Marion Jones and Maurice Greene at the Penn Relays. The Arkansas senior stole the show before a Franklin Field crowd of 44,639 that brought the three-day attendance to a meet-record 96,358.

Lassiter, rapidly becoming the nation’s best miler, anchored Arkansas to relay championships in the four-mile race and 3,200-meter event, after having anchored the Razorbacks to the distance-medley relay title Friday.

Derrick Adkins beat local favorite Joey Woody in the 400-meter hurdles at the Drake Relays at Des Moines.

A strong surge in the backstretch put Adkins, the 1996 Olympic champion, in the lead and he held on to win in 48.99 seconds. Woody, the 1997 NCAA champion at Northern Iowa and last year’s winner, finished in 49.26 in his first race of the season.

Names in the News

Quarterback Kerry Collins, who is starting a new phase of his NFL career with the New York Giants, plans to plead no contest Monday to driving while impaired in November. Collins, 26, likely faces a $100 fine, the maximum monetary penalty for a first DWI conviction. . . . Buffalo Bill rookie wide receiver Peerless Price suffered a sprained knee on the first day of mini-camp, but should recover within four weeks, Buffalo Coach Wade Phillips said. . . .Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines retained his World Boxing Council flyweight title, knocking out top-ranked challenger Gabriel Mira of Mexico in the fourth round at Manila. . . . Guard Young (vault) and Cortney Bramwell (rings) won individual titles for Brigham Young at the NCAA men’s gymnastics championships at Lincoln, Neb.