Gordon Ends Victory Drought

Jeff Gordon bumped his way past Rusty Wallace with three laps to go to win the Sharpie 500 on Saturday night and end his 31-race victory drought.

Gordon, the four-time and defending Winston Cup champion, passed Wallace by driving his Chevrolet up onto Wallace’s bumper and sliding past him in Turn 4 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.

Wallace, riding a 50-race winless streak, finished second and wasn’t pleased with Gordon’s bump-and-run, claiming Gordon wouldn’t have got past him without a tap.

It was Gordon’s 59th career victory and fifth at Bristol.

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Brazilian Cristiano da Matta won the pole for the inaugural Montreal Molson-Indy, posting a qualifying time of 1 minute 18.959 seconds, or 123.512 mph, on the 2.709-mile Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in his Toyota-powered Newman-Haas Racing Lola.

Da Matta earned another championship point, raising his lead over Patrick Carpentier and Bruno Junqueira to 44 points.

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Mission Hills’ Rip Michels increased his lead in the Jani-King Super Late Model series by winning his third consecutive race and seventh of the season at Irwindale Speedway in front of 4,926.

In the first Grand American Modified series feature race since the suspension of the previous series point leader, Roger Carufel Jr., Travis Thirkettle earned his second win of the season, holding off Rod Johnson and Lloyd Mack in the 35-lap feature. The new leader of the division, John Watkinson, finished fifth.

In the 40-lap Modified 4’s feature race, Long Beach’s Terry Limberopoulos took advantage of a final-lap slip by Guy Tripp to earn his fourth win of the season.

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Scott Brant won the scratch and handicap main events at Costa Mesa Speedway for the second time this season.

Brant outdueled Josh Larson on a restart in the four-lap scratch main event for speedway motorcycles in front of about 5,300.

Boxing

Germany’s Sven Ottke stopped Canadian Joe Gatti in the ninth round at Leipzig, Germany, to retain his International Boxing Federation super-middleweight title.... Derrick Gainer retained his World Boxing Assn. featherweight title with a second-round technical draw in his title defense against Puerto Rican Daniel Seda at Carolina, Puerto Rico..... Interim champion Oscar Larios defeated Manabu Fukushima by technical knockout in the eighth round at Tokyo to retain his World Boxing Council super-bantamweight title.

Miscellany

Jenny Johnson Jordan and Annett Davis defeated top-seeded Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs, 19-21, 21-16, 18-16, at Chicago to win the U.S. Championships of Beach Volleyball.

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Russia defeated Italy, 5-4, and Hungary beat Yugoslavia, 7-5, in the semifinals of the water polo World Cup at Belgrade.

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El Segundo scored 10 runs in the second inning and defeated Beaverton, Ore., 17-11, in the championship game of the Babe Ruth World Series (ages 13-15) at Connersville, Ind.

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Norwalk defeated Levittown, P.R., 10-0, to win the Pony League World Series in Washington, Pa.

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Rio de Janeiro was selected to play host to the 2007 Pan American Games.