Gordon Outlasts Rudd for Victory

Jeff Gordon survived two restarts Sunday and a tense battle with Ricky Rudd in the final two laps of the Kmart 400 at Brooklyn, Mich., to give Hendrick Motorsports its 100th victory.

“That’s a true mark of a championship-caliber team--to be able to stay calm, regroup and come back in,” said Gordon, who led 143 of 200 laps.

Gordon, coming off two consecutive disappointing seasons, won for the second consecutive week and took the Winston Cup points lead by 26 over Dale Jarrett.

Gordon led Rudd and Sterling Marlin into the pits on lap 175 but came out sandwiched between the two. That’s when his crew radioed Gordon to come back in because the lug nuts on his tires were loose.

Rudd, who had his own tire problems, followed him in and, after a second stop, the two went back on the track in 10th and 11th.

They worked their way to the front, eventually passing leader Marlin. Then Rudd passed Gordon on the next-to-last lap. But Gordon passed him on the last and held off Rudd to win by .085 of a second.

Marlin finished third. Shawna Robinson, the first woman to drive in a Winston Cup race in 12 years, finished 34th.

Ralf Schumacher of Germany outdrove older brother Michael, pulling away to an easy victory in Formula One’s Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal. Michael led in his Ferrari from the start but Ralf, in a BMW, never let him get too far ahead, stalking the leader until he made his pit stop on the 46th of 69 laps. Ralf led the rest of the way and steadily pulled away to win by 20.2 seconds.

A furious duel between rookie Featherlite Southwest Series driver Ben Walker of Santa Clarita and veteran M.K. Kanke of Frazier Park came down to the final 25 laps late Saturday night as Kanke held off Walker in the Food 4 Less 150 in front of 5,126 at Irwindale Speedway.

Soccer

France completed a title sweep with a 1-0 victory over Japan in the Confederations Cup final at Yokohama, Japan. Patrick Vieira’s headed goal gave France the victory in the eight-nation event, a tuneup for the World Cup, and added another title to a country that won the world and European soccer championships.

Kelly Smith scored off her own rebound to lead the Philadelphia Charge to a 3-0 WUSA victory over the Carolina Courage in front of 5,862 at Villanova, Pa. The Charge improved to 5-2-2; the Courage is 2-6-1.

Lakeysia Beene stopped nine shots, including a penalty kick by Tiffeny Milbrett, in a 0-0 tie for the Bay Area CyberRays (2-4-2) against the New York Power (4-1-4) in a WUSA game played before 7,658 at Uniondale, N.Y.

Miscellany

Tari Phillips had 15 points and a career-high 13 rebounds as the New York Liberty ended a three-game losing streak with an 81-80 WNBA victory over the Washington Mystics in front of 17,715 at Washington. . . . Janeth Arcain made a buzzer-beating basket to give the Houston Comets a 60-58 victory over the Phoenix Mercury in front of 8,883 at Phoenix.

Light heavyweight Willie Pastrano of the U.S. and champions from four other countries were among those inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame at Canastota, N.Y.

Ismael Laguna of Panama, Cuban-born Ultiminio Ramos of Mexico and Laszlo Papp of Hungary, the first boxer to win three consecutive Olympic gold medals, were also honored. Enshrined posthumously was Randy Turpin of England, who became a national hero in 1951 when he upset Sugar Ray Robinson for the world middleweight title.

Martinez Diogenes Luna and Damian Austin of Cuba won on the final day of the World Amateur Boxing Championships at Belfast, Northern Ireland, giving Cuba its sixth and seventh gold medals, one short of its record of eight in 1993.

A rare Game 7 in the Stanley Cup finals drew the NHL championship’s best overnight rating since at least 1997. The Colorado Avalanche’s 3-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils to clinch the title Saturday night generated a 5.6 preliminary rating on ABC.

The United States defeated Germany, 32-30, 25-15, 25-16, in a World League volleyball match at Colorado Springs, Colo.

Gilberto Simoni of Italy won the Giro d’Italia, ending a cycling race marked by a police drug raid. Simoni finished seven minutes ahead of Spanish runner-up Abraham Olano. Simoni’s victory was overshadowed in the final week by a police raid that brought the cancellation of one stage, the withdrawal of Simoni’s top challenger, Dario Frigo, and talk of possible drug suspensions. . . . Fred Rodriguez cruised to a five-second victory over Trent Klasna in the First Union USPRO cycling championships at Philadelphia. Rodriguez won the 156-mile race in 5 hours 57 minutes 56 seconds.

The USA national rugby team will play England on Tuesday at the UCLA soccer field at 3 p.m. It will be the first international rugby match in Southern California since 1994. Tickets are $10 and are available online at https://www.usa-eagles.org or by calling (866) 784-2948. The Eagles also play England in a test match Saturday in San Francisco.