After 174 Starts, a Winston Cup Win Is Craven’s

Ricky Craven held off Dale Jarrett in a last-lap Ford duel Monday and won the Old Dominion 500 at Martinsville, Va., his first victory in 174 starts in the Winston Cup series.

Craven pulled away from Jarrett on a restart with 13 laps to go, opening a wide lead. Then Jarrett began reeling him in, closing in with about two laps left in a race postponed a day because of rain.

On the final lap Jarrett went outside Craven heading into the first turn at Martinsville Speedway. The cars were door-to-door down the backstretch, with Craven hanging onto the inside position that eventually helped him hold off Jarrett.

“It’s never happened in my life,” said Craven, who became a Winston Cup regular in 1995. “But time stopped and I thought, ‘That’s what I’ve worked 20 years for.”’

Craven’s car beat Jarrett’s across the line by .141 seconds, also giving owner Cal Wells his first victory in NASCAR’s premier series.

Points leader Jeff Gordon cruised home ninth in his Chevrolet and added 97 points to his lead over Ricky Rudd. Gordon leads Rudd by 334 points with six races left.

Ward Burton finished third in a Dodge, followed by defending series champion Bobby Labonte’s Pontiac and Jeff Burton, also in a Ford.

Paul Tracy was fined $50,000 and stripped of three championship points by CART for unsafe driving and other violations during the Honda Grand Prix.

The Canadian driver also was put on probation for the final two races of the series, CART chief steward Chris Kneifel said.

The fine is the largest for a CART driver since Alex Zanardi was fined the same amount in 1998, according to CART.

The point deduction drops Tracy from 11th to 12th in the championship. He has 73 points, one behind Roberto Moreno.

Tennis

Defending champion Wayne Ferreira beat Dominik Hrbaty in the first round of the Stuttgart Masters at Germany, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, for only his second victory since June.

Mark Philippoussis beat Alberto Martin, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; big-serving Greg Rusedski lost to qualifier Julien Boutter, 6-3, 6-4; Nicolas Lapentti rallied past Carlos Moya, 4-6, 6-1, 6-3; and Marcelo Rios came back to beat Fabrice Santoro, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.

Jennifer Capriati began her reign as the world’s No. 1 player with a straight-set loss in doubles at the $1.2-million Swisscom Challenge in Zurich, Switzerland. Capriati and Megan Shaughnessy lost, 7-5, 7-6 (4), to Lindsay Davenport and Lisa Raymond in the first round.

In singles, Chanda Rubin defeated Spain’s Angeles Montolio, 6-1, 6-3, and Austria’s Barbara Schett downed Spain’s Magui Serna, 6-1, 6-2.

Capriati officially replaced Martina Hingis as the world’s top-ranked player earlier in the day, although it was a formality after Hingis tore ligaments in her right ankle Saturday in a semifinal against Davenport at the Porsche Grand Prix in Filderstadt, Germany.

Sixth-seeded Meilen Tu of the United States beat Cara Black of Zimbabwe, 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-1, in the first round of the $110,000 Slovak Indoor tournament at Bratislava.

In other action, second-seeded Anne Kremer of Luxembourg defeated Celine Beigbeder of France, 7-5, 7-5, and Kveta Hrdlickova of the Czech Republic eliminated Tatiana Poutchek of Belarus, 6-4, 6-2.

College Basketball

USC senior power forward Sam Clancy and UCLA junior small forward Jason Kapono will be announced today as being among 30 preseason candidates for the Naismith men’s player of the year award.

Clancy averaged 17.3 points and 7.5 rebounds last year for the Trojans, who reached the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament. Kapono averaged 17.2 points and 5.7 rebounds for the Bruins, who were a Sweet 16 team. Eventual national champion Duke eliminated both teams.

Stanford junior shooting guard Casey Jacobsen, of Glendora, is the only other Pacific 10 Conference player named to the preseason Naismith list.

Golf

The first two rounds of the U.S. Open will start on the first and 10th tees, ending a 101-year tradition in which every player teed off on No.1.

The change, approved by the U.S. Golf Assn. executive committee, leaves the Masters and the British Open as the only majors that do not use alternate tees. The PGA Championship went to split tees this year. The 2002 U.S. Open will be played at Bethpage State Park in New York.

The USGA also announced that all its major championships--the U.S. Open, U.S. Women’s Open, U.S. Senior Open and U.S. Amateur championships--will stay on NBC through 2008 under a new contract extension.

Dunlop Slazenger Group Americas has countersued Callaway Golf Co. in the two companies’ ongoing dispute about who stole whose recipe for making a better golf ball.

Callaway, which entered the $650-million-a-year golf ball industry less than two years ago, sued Dunlop on Oct. 3, alleging the makers of the Maxfli A-10 golf ball infringed on Callaway’s technology patent for its Rule 35 ball.

Miscellany

Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona didn’t show up for a scheduled appearance at a charity match in Kingston, Jamaica.

The 40-year-old Maradona was supposed to arrive over the weekend for the annual Bell-Ziadie soccer match, organizer Clive Campbell said.

However, Campbell announced during halftime of the match that Maradona did not make the flight from Cuba because of ill health, according to the former star’s manager.

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Norway natives Gro Espeseth and Ann Kristin Aarones retired from the New York Power of the Women’s United Soccer Assn. because of injuries.

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Olympic gold medalists Lisa Leslie and Stacy Dragila received sportswomen of the year awards by the Women’s Sports Foundation.

Dragila, world record-holder in the women’s pole vault, won the individual award. Leslie, MVP of the WNBA regular season, All-Star game and playoffs for the Sparks, took the team player award.

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The mysterious ailment that killed hundreds of foals and prompted thousands of mares to lose fetuses last spring will cost the horse industry $336 million over the next three years.

A report from the University of Louisville, commissioned by Kentucky Gov. Paul Patton, said most of the loss will be suffered by the thoroughbred industry and will be felt most acutely in 2002 and 2003.