Gordon and New Crew Chief Win Again

Jeff Gordon caught and passed Bobby Labonte with seven laps to go Monday, pulling away to win the rain-delayed UAW-GM Quality 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.

Gordon is two for two since Brian Whitesell became his crew chief Sept. 28, when Ray Evernham resigned to form his own team.

In their first race together, Whitesell made a late-race decision to keep Gordon on the track while the other contenders pitted, and Gordon held on to win in Martinsville, Va. This time, Whitesell and the Rainbow Warrior crew gave their driver fast pit stops and kept improving the car throughout the day.

“I really should seriously consider retirement right now,” Whitesell joked after climbing down from his race perch on the Hendrick Motorsports tool box.

It was the series-high seventh win this season for Gordon, who moved into a tie for 10th on the Winston Cup career list with Rusty Wallace at 49.

Labonte, now 222 points behind Winston Cup season leader Dale Jarrett, dominated the 334-lap race, leading five times for 136 laps. Labonte appeared on the way to an easy victory before getting hung up in lapped traffic in the late going.

Gordon’s Chevrolet crossed the finish line about 10 car lengths ahead of Labonte’s Pontiac. The winner, who led three times for a total of 16 laps, earned $140,350, while pole-sitter Labonte totaled $157,250.

Basketball

Latrell Sprewell was back at practicefor the New York Knicks after his unexcused, virtually unexplained absence from the first week of training camp, but his teammates want an explanation.

Coach Jeff Van Gundy addressed the team and told them the matter merits more discussion, and the rest of the players wondered whether Sprewell would stand before them and take the heat.

“Some discussion should take place out of respect,” Allan Houston said. “We want to hear something from him, but we’re not going to pull teeth. I’m not going to lose sleep by him not coming forward, but we would like to hear from him.”

While Sprewell remained nonchalant about his absence, it remained an issue that could potentially splinter the team into pro-Latrell and anti-Latrell factions. That was why Van Gundy, acutely aware that the Knicks were a fractured unit last season, told his team it should air its grievances now.

“Latrell should address the team about his explanation, because there is no excuse. He knows that,” Van Gundy said. “And it should generate a discussion of what the team wants this year.

Marcus Camby, one of Sprewell’s better friends on the team, said, “We definitely have to sit down and talk so we can hear his explanation.” Sprewell drove his Mercedes-Benz across country and stopped in Milwaukee, but never bothered to call and report his whereabouts, saying, “That’s what agents are for.”

The Indiana Pacers, in trimming their roster to 17 players, cut former Clipper Terry Dehere, a first-round draft pick in 1993, and veteran Adrian Caldwell.

The Houston Comets’ Cynthia Cooper, a two-time WNBA most valuable player, withdrew from the U.S. national team because she is “unable to fully participate in the team’s training program.”

Cooper, 36, formerly of USC, is a two-time Olympian who helped the U.S. win a gold medal in the 1988 Summer Games and two golds in world championship play.

The U.S. national team, which began training Sept. 7, will play 12 games against top teams beginning Nov. 1 at Stanford. The tour includes a stop at UCLA Nov. 5.

Former University of Illinois basketball player Matthew Heldman and his father were among four people killed when a sports car collided with a minivan, police in Libertyville, Ill., said.

Killed in the sports car were the 23-year-old Heldman, a point guard on the Illini’s Big Ten championship team of 1997-98; and his father, Otis, 53. Killed in the minivan were Frances Osterman, 69, and his wife Joann, 61. All were Libertyville residents. Heldman graduated from Illinois in 1998. He was the fourth-best three-point shooter in school history and spent last season playing professionally in Greece and Finland.

Baseball

Henry “Dutch” Dotterer, a major league catcher for five seasons and teacher at Santa Ana High School for nearly two decades, died Saturday in Syracuse, N.Y., of complications from diabetes. He was 68.

Primarily a backup catcher with the Cincinnati Reds (1957-60) and Washington Senators (1961), Dotterer batted .247 with five home runs and 33 runs batted in in 107 games.

Pitcher Pep Harris and infielder Justin Baughman, both sidelined by injuries for the 1999 season, were designated for assignment by the Angels. Harris, 27, underwent reconstructive surgery on his right elbow last December. Baughman, 25, underwent surgery for multiple fractures in his left leg, an injury he suffered Nov. 7, 1998, while playing in the Mexican League. The Angels also assigned pitcher Steve Mintz to triple-A Edmonton.

Tennis

Second-seeded Magnus Norman of Sweden rallied for his fifth title of the year with a 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory over top-seeded Marcelo Rios in the Heineken Open at Shanghai, China. . . . At Vienna, Austria, top-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov, ranked No. 2 in the world, beat Thomas Enqvist of Sweden, 6-3, 6-4, in the opening round the $800,000 CA Trophy ATP tournament. Jan Siemerink of the Netherlands beat France’s Arnaud Clement, 5-7, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (8-6). Fifth-seeded Greg Rusedski beat Sweden’s Thomas Johansson, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3). . . . At Zurich, Switzerland’s Patty Schnyder returned from a five-week injury layoff to beat Amy Frazier, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, in the first round of the Swiss Indoors.