Martin’s Late Move Results in a Victory

Mark Martin took advantage of protege Matt Kenseth’s bad luck to win the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 300 Busch Series race Saturday at Fort Worth.

Martin led only 21 laps, but he took the lead for good when he passed Jeff Green on a restart just two laps before rain began to fall and only eight laps before the race was ended.

Jeff Burton, Martin’s Roush Racing teammate in the Winston Cup series, also got past Green--racing without third gear--and finished second. Mike McLaughlin was fourth, followed by Kenny Irwin, who will start from the pole today in the Primestar 500 Winston Cup event.

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Although Greg Ray’s emergence as the pole-sitter for today’s MCI WorldCom 200 at Phoenix was not unexpected, the margin between first and second in qualifying was. Ray, 32, broke the year-old Phoenix International Raceway record for new-formula Indy Racing League cars with a 177.139-mph lap that earned him his first pole. His qualifying mark was more than 2.5 mph faster than Mark Dismore’s 174.622 and Scott Goodyear’s 174.554.

Miscellany

Boxing promoter Don King apparently was the victim of prankster claiming to be jailed former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, the New York Post reported.

The newspaper said King received a telephone call Thursday night from someone with a high-pitched lisping voice claiming to be Tyson. The caller said he was at the Montgomery County Detention Center in Maryland, where Tyson is serving a one-year sentence for assaulting two motorists.

The caller told King that, despite their falling out last year when Tyson slapped the promoter with a $10-million lawsuit over lost earnings, all was forgiven. The caller said he desperately need to see King.

So King traveled to the jail Friday, only to be told he was not on the list of approved visitors, the newspaper said, citing an unidentified prison official.

“He was stunned,” the official said of Tyson, who refused to see King. “He said he wants nothing to do with King. He hates him.”

USC senior Bela Szabados was fourth in the 200-yard freestyle and sophomore Justin Dumais was third in the platform diving as the Trojans finished sixth in the NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships at Indianapolis.

Auburn won its second title with 467.5 points, well ahead of defending champion Stanford with 414.5.

Scott Shields, a Weber State football player who is expected to be picked in next month’s NFL draft, has been charged with assault and disorderly conduct in Ogden, Utah, after a fellow student was beaten two weeks ago after a Weber State basketball game.

Weber County prosecutors also charged another football player, Phil Hazel, with assault and disorderly conduct.

Rod Laver took another step in his recovery from a stroke last July, conducting a clinic for children at the Lipton Championships at Key Biscayne, Fla.

It was Laver’s first public tennis appearance since the stroke.

Africans dominated the World Cross Country Championships at Belfast, Northern Ireland, winning seven of nine individual medals.

Virginia and California recorded the fastest women’s and men’s times in qualifying for the 26th San Diego Crew Classic, beating the defending champions from Washington. USC was among the others advancing to the women’s final.

Al Lerner, owner of the expansion Cleveland Browns, announced a five-year, $10-million education initiative for Cleveland’s public and parochial schools.