Fox, NBC, TBS Win Rights to Lucrative NASCAR Races

Fox and NBC-TBS won the bidding war for television rights to NASCAR, the only sport whose ratings have increased each year this decade, three industry sources told the Associated Press on Wednesday.

The deal, which begins in 2001, was expected to be worth about $400 million a year for consolidated rights to televise stock car races. That would be about four times what NASCAR is making under the current arrangement, which covers many separate deals for races.

In 1985, NASCAR received only $3 million for TV rights to 28 races.

Terms of the new deal were not immediately disclosed. An official announcement was expected today.

Fox, along with cable partners Fox Sports Net and FX, will get the first 18 weeks of the NASCAR season, while NBC and TBS will split the second half, the industry sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The sport’s premier event, the season-opening Daytona 500, will alternate each year between the networks.

NASCAR said in February that it will no longer allow tracks to negotiate separate deals, returning to the setup it had until 1978, when it was in charge of the sport’s television rights.

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Current Indianapolis 500 champion Kenny Brack will drive next season on the CART circuit in a car owned by former 500 winner Bobby Rahal. Brack, 33, replaces Bryan Herta, whose contract was not renewed.

Olympics

The International Olympic Committee established an international agency to combat drugs in sports and hoped its leading critic--the United States--will take part.

The agency is temporarily based in the IOC’s home city of Lausanne, Switzerland, with IOC vice president Dick Pound the chairman.

The new group will operate under Swiss laws and be known as the World Anti-Doping Agency, the IOC said at a London meeting.

One of the most outspoken critics has been Barry McCaffrey, director of the White House drug office. He called the agency a “starting point” and emphasized he does not think it will be sufficiently independent from the IOC.

“In the long run we’ve got to do better,” he said in Washington. “The United States continues to view the current framework for the WADA as inadequate to protect the world’s clean athletes.”

The Sydney Olympic organizing committee released more than a half-million tickets for next year’s Games that had previously been withheld for premium packages.

Basketball

The WNBA’s 12 existing teams will be allowed to protect five players each for the expansion draft Dec. 15 to stock new clubs in Indiana, Miami, Portland and Seattle. The draft will consist of six rounds. The picking order will be determined Monday.

Auburn senior forward Chris Porter was the leading vote-getter on the AP preseason All-America team. The other top four vote-getters were DePaul sophomore swingman Quentin Richardson, Ohio State senior guard Scoonie Penn, Michigan State senior guard Mateen Cleaves and Maryland junior forward Terence Morris. . . . Arizona guard Ruben Douglas said he has ironed out his concerns with Coach Lute Olson and has resumed his battle to start for the ninth-ranked Wildcats after missing an exhibition game Sunday.

Tennis

Top-seeded Martina Hingis of Switzerland made short work of Chanda Rubin, 6-3, 6-0, in the second round of the Advanta Championships at Villanova, Pa. Second-seeded Lindsay Davenport beat Alexandra Stevenson, 6-2, 6-3, in their first meeting since Davenport beat Stevenson in the Wimbledon semifinals. . . . Jan-Michael Gambill of the United States upset second-seeded Tim Henman of Britain, 7-5, 6-3, to reach the quarterfinals of the Stockholm Open. Third-seeded Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador also reached the quarterfinals by downing Belgium’s Filip Dewulf, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3. . . . Fabrice Santoro of France upset sixth-seeded Marat Safin of Russia, 7-6 (7-3), 7-5, in the first round of the Kremlin Cup at Moscow.

Soccer

Abe Thompson and Landon Donovan scored as the United States beat New Zealand, 2-1, in the opening match of the FIFA Under-17 Championship at Auckland. . . . First-half goals by Bryn Ritchie and Greg Foisie led Washington to a 2-1 victory over UCLA to clinch its second consecutive MPSF championship. . . . Cesar Andrade, a 21-year-old midfielder for Atlas, was in serious but stable condition after a car crash early Wednesday in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Obituary

Dick Todd, a high school football star in the 1920s who went on to coach the Washington Redskins in the 1950s, died Tuesday at a nursing home in Bryan, Texas. He was 85.