Gordon, Earnhardt Jr. Are Big Winners

Saturday was a big day for both the present and future of NASCAR at Avondale, Ariz.

Jeff Gordon, the reigning Winston Cup champion, won the inaugural Outback Steakhouse 200 and Dale Earnhardt Jr., who will join NASCAR next season, wrapped up his second consecutive NASCAR Busch Series championship.

Gordon took the lead in the 200-lap event at Phoenix International Speedway with a strong outside pass on Jimmy Spencer with 20 laps to go, then pulled away to win his first Busch Series race since October 1992.

The victory came in his sixth and last start in a limited return to the Busch Series for the driver who moved up to Winston Cup in 1993 and has won three of the last four championships in NASCAR’s top stock car series.

“This is great,” said Gordon, who co-owns the Busch team with his wife, Brooke, and former Winston Cup crew chief Ray Evernham. “We wanted to go to victory lane in our first year out.”

Gordon, 28, had finished second in each of his two previous Busch starts.

Going into Saturday’s race, Earnhardt, who drives for his father, seven-time Winston Cup champ Dale Earnhardt, needed only to add 29 points to his lead to defeat Matt Kenseth, who was also last year’s runner-up. He did it by taking second from Spencer--struggling with a bad set of tires after his last stop--in the late going as Kenseth slipped from fifth to seventh during the last 20 laps on the one-mile oval.

Earnhardt, 24, wound up with a 189-point lead--five more than he needed--with only a race remaining Saturday in Homestead, Fla.

Gordon averaged 115.053 mph.

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David Brabham of England drove a Panoz Roadster to a lap of 120.17 mph to take the pole position for today’s American Le Mans Series Grand Prix of Las Vegas. Brabham will be teamed with fellow Formula One veteran Eric Bernard of France in the sports car endurance race. He unseated his Panoz teammates, Johnny O’Connell of Flowery Branch, Ga., and Jan Magnussen of Denmark, whose car was second at 119.93 mph, for the No. 1 starting spot in the series’ season closer.

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Larry Ragland jumped to an early lead in and won the Baja 1000 off-road race from Ensenada to La Paz for the fifth time. Ragland, of Phoenix, finished the 762-mile race early Saturday morning in 14:26:36, 14 minutes ahead of Hesperia’s Larry Roesler. Ragland’s average speed was 46.57 mph.

Tennis

Andre Agassi endured some sparkling early play from Nicolas Lapentti before easing to a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory in the semifinals of the Paris Open. The world top-ranked player will face unseeded Marat Safin of Russia in the final after the teenager outlasted Michael Chang, 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-5), 6-3, in the second semifinal.

Second-seeded Nathalie Tauziat of France earned a return trip to the final of the $500,000 Sparkassen Cup, outlasting German Anke Huber, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, in a semifinal at Leipzig, Germany. Tauziat will face Kveta Hrdlickova, a Czech qualifier who upset top-seeded Mary Pierce of France, 1-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Continuing a remarkable turnaround, Jennifer Capriati, 23, held off Amy Frazier, 2-6, 6-0, 7-5, to advance to the final of the $180,000 Bell Challenge at Quebec City. Seeded fourth, Capriati will take on Chanda Rubin in today’s all-American final. Rubin, seeded third, eliminated Tara Snyder, 6-1, 6-3.

Miscellany

Racing in the America’s Cup challenger series at Auckland, New Zealand, was canceled Sunday because officials declared the winds were too strong. But within a short time of officials postponing races for 24 hours, the weather improved and syndicates missed a day of near-perfect conditions on Auckland’s Huaraki Gulf.

Racing in the second round-robin of the elimination series to decide which team will take on defender New Zealand for yachting’s most prized trophy next year will continue Monday.

Dana Rosenblatt survived a third-round knockdown Friday night at Mashantucket, Conn., to pull out a split-decision victory over Vinny Pazienza for the super middleweight title of the fringe International Boxing Organization.

Malcolm Marshall, one of the finest fast bowlers in cricket history, died Thursday of colon cancer in Barbados. He was 41.

The parents of former Louisiana State football star Kevin Faulk told police they took more than $5,000 from a man being investigated for his alleged ties to sports agent William “Tank” Black and Black himself, a lawyer for the parents said Friday.

According to their attorney, Faulk’s parents said they received most of the money from Randall “Banks” Menard, who was arrested Wednesday by the LSU Police Department and accused of offering bribes to induce two LSU players to sign with a specific agent.

Gerald and Vivian Faulk made the disclosure during a recent meeting with LSU police, attorney Kevin Tauzin said. Tauzin added that the parents took money, all cash, between the end of Faulk’s junior year and his senior year at LSU, but Faulk did not know about it.

Kenyan Joseph Kagwe will try to win his third consecutive New York City Marathon today. A field of 30,000 is expected, with the men’s and women’s winners guaranteed $50,000 each plus a new car.

Olympic and two-time world champion Cuba defeated Croatia, 25-20, 25-19, 21-25, 28-26, at Tokyo, and remained undefeated in the women’s volleyball World Cup, a qualifying tournament for the Sydney Olympics. Also unbeaten at 4-0 was Russia, a 25-12, 25-19, 31-33, 25-14 winner over Argentina.

Alexei Yagudin of Russia fell twice but still emerged victorious at Skate Canada in Saint John, New Brunswick. Elvis Stojko of Canada won the silver medal and Takeshi Honda of Japan claimed the bronze.

Australia won its second rugby World Cup with a 35-12 victory over France at Cardiff, Wales. Australia, which surrendered only one try (the equivalent of a touchdown, worth five points) in six matches, got tries from Ben Tune and Owen Finegan, and two conversions (two points) and seven penalties (penalty kicks, three points) from Matt Burke.

With the top ranking on the line, the UCLA men’s water polo team defeated Stanford, 10-8, at the Sunset Canyon Recreation Center. UCLA (16-2 overall and 7-0 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) had shared the No. 1 ranking with Stanford (16-3, 5-1).