Nemechek Not About to Let It Get Away

A year after losing the Touchstone Energy 300 in a photo finish, Joe Nemechek made sure the race wouldn’t be close Saturday.

Nemechek won the Busch Series race at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama when he easily defeated Buckshot Jones to the finish line. Last year Nemechek, a Winston Cup regular, was edged by Terry Labonte.

The 1999 finish was so close that NASCAR officials sent both Labonte and Nemechek to victory lane to wait while they looked at a photo, which showed Labonte won by 0.002 seconds.

This time, everyone knew he finished first.

Nemechek took the lead away from Jones with seven laps to go and steadily pulled away, winning by 0.224 seconds, about three car-lengths.

“Last year, losing to Terry Labonte by a couple of inches was a tough one,” he said. “But we worked hard today and made some real good pit calls and had a good car.”

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Bobby Labonte held off a late charge from Dale Earnhardt, then watched from his rearview mirror as The Intimidator got lost in a pack of cars in the International Race of Champions race at Talladega.

The traffic prevented yet another Earnhardt victory at Talladega Superspeedway and allowed Labonte to cruise to his first IROC victory in the second leg of the all-star series.

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Ben Walker of North Hills led 39 of the final 40 laps to win the Food 4 Less 75 NASCAR Super Late Model race in front of 5,128 at Irwindale Speedway.

In the 40-lap NASCAR Super Stock race, T.K. Karvasek of North Hills took the lead from Jeff Green on the 12th lap and went on to win.

Other winners were Jon Zernickon of Monrovia (Legends Series), Rip Michels of Mission Hills (Grand Am Modifieds) and Joe Herold of Poway (Ultra Wheels Spec Truck race).

Tennis

Alexandra Stevenson has chosen to play in next week’s Family Circle Cup at Hilton Head, S.C., despite the NAACP’s boycott of South Carolina for flying the Confederate flag on its Statehouse.

The tournament, which begins Monday, lost two players because of leg injuries: top-ranked Lindsay Davenport and Jennifer Capriati.

On Wednesday, Serena Williams withdrew from the tournament to support the boycott. The NAACP has called for economic sanctions until the flag is removed from the Statehouse. The state Senate has passed a bill that would remove the flag, and the House must approve it.

Elena Likhovtseva of Russia upset top-seeded Mary Pierce of France, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, to reach the semifinal of the rain-plagued Bausch & Lomb Championships at Amelia Island, Fla. Pierce will play Conchita Martinez, who beat Austria’s Barbara Schett, 6-4, 6-3.

In the other quarterfinal matches, Argentina’s Paola Suarez defeated Russia’s Anna Kournikova, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4, and defending champion Monica Seles continued her mastery over Spain’s Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, winning 6-1, 6-3.

Carlos Moya of Spain, formerly No. 1 in the world, defeated the rain and Ukrainian Andrei Medvedev to advance to the finals of the Estoril Open at Oeiras, Portugal.

Now ranked 46th, Moya will face either compatriot Francisco Clavet or third-seeded Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador. Their semifinal match was interrupted in the second set as Clavet led, 6-4, 0-2. Organizers hope it could resume today.

In the women’s event, top-seeded German Anke Huber, who is ranked 16th, notched a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Italian Tathiana Garbin.

Huber will play another Italian, fifth-seeded Silvina Farina, or second-seeded Frenchwoman Nathalie Dechy, whose match also was cut short and rescheduled for today. Dechy won the first set 6-4 and the second was tied at 4-4.

The Galleryfurniture.com Challenge will have an all-Australian final after Andrew Ilie beat Michael Chang, 6-3, 1-6, 6-2, and Jason Stoltenberg ousted Jeff Tarango, 6-2, 6-4, at Duluth, Ga.

France’s Sebastien Grosjean defeated Mariano Puerta, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, in the semifinals at the $350,000 Grand Prix Hassan II tournament at Casablanca, Morocco. He will face Spaniard Fernando Vicente in today’s final.

Miscellany

Senior quarterback Mike Van Raaphorst was six-of-eight passing with a touchdown and sophomore Carson Palmer was three-of-four as USC finished spring practice with a 27-play scrimmage.

Korea defeated the United States in men’s volleyball at Pepperdine, but the Americans still hold a 2-1 lead in the five-match series. The Koreans won, 22-25, 25-23, 26-24, 22-25, 16-14, despite 22 kills by Mike Lambert.

The Ice Dogs ended the regular season with a 5-1 victory at Manitoba. Marcel Cousineau started in goal for the Ice Dogs, the first time in 24 games that Nikolai Khabibulin has been rested to prepare for the Turner Cup playoffs, and stopped 28 of 29 Moose shots.

Greg Gardner made 19 saves and six Team USA players scored in a 6-2 victory over Team Canada at Auburn Hills, Mich., in the opener of the North American College Hockey Championship.

Monaco won the French soccer title and Manchester United again punished opponents in the Premier League. Monaco tied Nancy, 2-2, with Dado Prso scoring the tying goal in the final seconds. Manchester United, leading the league by 14 points, routed Sunderland, 4-0, despite resting half its starters for Wednesday’s second-leg quarterfinal at home against Real Madrid in the European Champions Cup.

A former police officer was convicted of soliciting assault for giving a 10-year-old Little League pitcher $2 to bean another youngster with a fastball last May at Allentown, Pa. Jurors deliberated only two hours Friday before convicting Shawn Patrick Phillips of misdemeanor charges of corruption of minors and solicitation to commit simple assault. Phillips, 28, faces up to three months in prison.

Danny Wuerffel, the 1996 Heisman Trophy winner at Florida, made a successful debut in NFL Europe, throwing three touchdown passes to lead Duesseldorf to a 28-17 home victory over Barcelona.