Stewart Wins at Richmond After Restart

Tony Stewart won stirring duels with Ricky Rudd, Rusty Wallace and Jeff Gordon, taking the lead with 39 laps to go Saturday night at Richmond, Va., and winning the Pontiac Excitement 400, his first victory this year.

Stewart had a lead of more than a second until Dave Blaney hit the wall in turns 3 and 4 with seven laps to go, bringing out the eighth caution, setting up the rivals for a suspenseful run for the finish.

NASCAR then red-flagged the event with five to go so safety crews could make sure the track was clean and safe, then used two caution laps to prepare for the final sprint.

That left two laps of green-flag racing, and when the green flew, so did Stewart, Gordon and Wallace. But when Wallace pulled even with Gordon and ran him up the banking in turn 2, it gave Stewart clear sailing.

“I thought NASCAR was going to take it away from me,” Stewart said of the final restart. “I sat there and thought about every restart in the book and every restart I had in 23 years and it worked.”

Gordon finished second, followed by Wallace, and the two rivals bumped several times on the cool-down lap, in the same spot where Wallace ran Gordon into the wall several years ago, costing him a possible victory.

Rookie Bruno Junqueira won the pole for the Lehigh Valley Grand Prix at Nazareth, Pa., giving Target/Chip Ganassi Racing its third consecutive top qualifying effort at Nazareth Speedway. The 24-year-old Brazilian sped his Lola-Toyota around the .946-mile oval at 172.873 mph. . . . Car owner Chip Ganassi will announce Monday his driver choices for the Indianapolis 500, with NASCAR’s Stewart and former CART champion Jimmy Vasser believed to be the selections for the May 27 race. . . . Lyn St. James, the second female driver to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 and the first to win the rookie award, is retiring, the Indianapolis Star reported. The newspaper said the 54-year-old driver will announce her retirement from Indy-car racing today at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. . . . Jerry Toliver topped the funny car qualifying in the Advance Auto Parts NHRA Southern Nationals with a quarter-mile run of 4.843 seconds at 310.98 mph at Commerce, Ga. . . . Ted Musgrave, the only double winner on the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series this season, outran Terry Cook to win the pole position for today’s Ram Tough 200 at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill. Musgrave lapped the 1.25-mile speedway at an average speed of 129.971 mph.

Golf

Phil Mickelson, playing in his first tournament since finishing third in the Masters, shot an eight-under 64 to take a three-stroke lead in the Compaq Classic at New Orleans.

Mickelson had nine birdies, among them five in a row, and a closing bogey to finish at 20-under 196.

Harrison Frazar, who has finished among the top three in New Orleans the last two years, was second after a 66 on the 7,116-yard English Turn Golf and Country Club course.

Jim Colbert, seeking his 21st Senior PGA Tour title, shot a four-under 68 to take a one-shot lead over Bruce Fleisher, the two-time defending champion, and Joe Inman into the final round of the Home Depot Invitational at Charlotte, N.C. . . . Annika Sorenstam is positioned for her fifth victory of the year on the LPGA Tour after shooting a six-under 66 to trail the leaders by only one stroke after the second round of the Chick-fil-A Charity Championship at Stockbridge, Ga. Defending champion Sophie Gustafson, Beth Daniel and Heather Daly-Donofrio are on top at nine-under 135, and Sorenstam is tied with Catriona Matthew.

Tennis

Top-seeded Venus Williams used an overpowering serve to defeat Jelena Dokic, 6-3, 6-1, and set up an all-American final in the Betty Barclay Cup at Hamburg, Germany. Williams will face Meghann Shaughnessy, who upset second-seeded Amanda Coetzer of South Africa, 6-3, 6-4. . . . Mariana Diaz-Oliva of Argentina reached her first WTA Tour event final by upsetting top-seeded Kim Clijsters of Belgium, 0-6, 6-2, 6-3, at Bol, Croatia. Diaz-Oliva will play third-seeded Angeles Montolio of Spain, a 6-1, 7-5 winner over second-seeded Sandrine Testud of France. . . . Alberto Martin beat local favorite Carlos Moya, 6-3, 6-3, to reach the final of the Mallorca Open clay-court tournament at Palma de Mallorca, Spain, where he will face Argentine Guillermo Coria today. Coria defeated Spanish Davis Cupper Joan Balcells, 6-4, 3-6, 7-5. . . . Frenchman Anthony Dupuis, a teaching pro in Paris until three years ago, reached his first ATP final, upsetting Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2, in the BMW Open at Munich, Germany. In the second semifinal, Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic had little trouble defeating countryman Bohdan Ulihrach, 6-4, 6-4.

Miscellany

Former Compton Dominguez High standout Tayshaun Prince and Keith Bogans, Kentucky’s top scorers last season, plan to make themselves available for the NBA draft. However, they will not sign with agents, leaving open the possibility of a return to Kentucky if they don’t like their projected position in the June 27 draft. . . . Butler’s third men’s basketball coach in three years is former assistant Todd Lickliter. Lickliter, 46, replaces his former boss, Thad Matta, who was hired by Xavier on Thursday after leading the Bulldogs to a 24-8 record and their first NCAA tournament victory since 1962. . . . John Lotz, who spent seven years as Florida’s coach and eight as an assistant to Dean Smith at North Carolina, died in Chapel Hill, N.C., after a short illness. He was 64.

Dariusz Michalczewski (44-0) successfully defended his World Boxing Organization light-heavyweight title for the 19th time, stopping Alejandro Lakatos of Spain in the 10th round at Braunschweig, Germany.

The United States scored three goals in the first period and defeated Finland, 4-1, to clinch a quarterfinal spot in hockey’s world championships at Hanover, Germany.

Cary Kolat and Kerry McCoy, members of the 2000 Olympic team, scored impressive victories to lead the United States to a 24-5 opening-match victory over Uzbekistan in the World Cup of Freestyle Wrestling at Baltimore. In a night match, the U.S. defeated Iran, 16-15.