Old Maneuver Pays Off for Stewart at Atlanta

Tony Stewart dipped into his past Sunday, and the result was his first career 500-mile victory.

Stewart slid under Ward Burton for the lead with 24 laps to go and held off Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win the MBNA America 500 NASCAR race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. It was Stewart’s 13th career victory.

“I wanted to get by [Burton] as fast as I could,” Stewart said. “I thought if we could get by him and get in clean air, we’d be all right.”

The decisive pass came in Turn 1, when Stewart moved to the inside and slid in front of Burton. It was similar to the “slide-job” passes Stewart used throughout his sprint car days, although most of those were on dirt.

This was on pavement, and at 190 mph.

“I had four or five of those today,” Stewart said of the technique. “You have to know where their weak spot is on the race track. The biggest thing was, even if I had to check up when I got in front of him, I just had to get in front.”

Stewart beat Earnhardt by about five car lengths. Rookie Jimmie Johnson continued his surprising start, finishing third.

Brazilian Cristiano da Matta started the season the way he ended 2001--with a victory.

Da Matta successfully defended his title in Mexico’s Monterrey Grand Prix, his third consecutive CART FedEx Series victory.

Dario Franchitti finished second and Christian Fittipaldi was third.

Michele Jourdain, in his first drive for Team Rahal, finished fourth.

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Nicky Hayden dominated aboard his Honda RC51 to win his first Daytona 200 By Arai by 18.225 seconds at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.

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Baseball

Boston’s search for a new manager will take longer than expected after the team contacted more clubs seeking permission to talk to potential managerial candidates.

The Red Sox wanted to add former Twin skipper Tom Kelly to a list that included Felipe Alou, Grady Little, and Mike Cubbage, but Kelly rejected Boston late Sunday.

“When they called Tom, he declined the interview,” said Twin General Manager Terry Ryan, who granted Boston permission late Sunday.

Red Sox interim General Manager Mike Port said “the field is still wide open, so to speak.”

The team wanted to hire a manager by today--and officials worked into the night Sunday--but acknowledged it may be as late as next weekend before it’s done.

“We have aspirations, and we have realities,” Port said when asked if next weekend is realistic. “Only in terms of aspirations, that would be great. In terms of reality and practicality, we just have to see what develops.”

Port refused to identify what teams were contacted.

Catcher Ramon Hernandez and the Oakland Athletics agreed to a $9.5-million, four-year contract.

Hernandez is credited with helping develop Oakland’s young pitching staff.

He batted .254 last season with 15 home runs and 60 runs batted in.

Left-hander Jose Rosado, 27, a two-time All-Star who has had two shoulder surgeries since 2000, was placed on unconditional release waivers by Kansas City.

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Winter Sports

Michael von Gruenigen of Switzerland won a World Cup men’s giant slalom at Flachau, Austria, the season’s final race, but Frederic Covili of France won the championship, denying Stephan Eberharter a sweep of the four season titles.

Bode Miller finished in fourth place overall, the best World Cup showing by an American man since 1994.

Miller had 952 points overall.

Triple Olympic gold medalist Janica Kostelic of Croatia won the final women’s World Cup slalom, at Flachau.

France’s Laure Pequegnot finished fifth to win the championship. American Kristina Koznick was 13th at Flachau and finished second overall.

Canadian speedskater Catriona LeMay Doan won the 1,000-meter race in the World Cup finals at Inzell, Germany.

LeMay Doan was clocked in 1 minute 17.39 seconds. Jennifer Rodriguez of the U.S. finished second in 1:17.80.

The men’s 1,500 was won by Ande Soendral of Norway, with Olympic champion Derek Parra of San Bernardino finishing third.

Shannon Bahrke of the U.S. won the women’s moguls title and Sami Mustonen of Finland was the men’s winner in a freestyle skiing World Cup meet at Iiyama, Japan.

Sweden’s Magdalena Forsberg won her last World Cup biathlon race.

Forsberg, 34, retiring this month, won by 10 seconds at Ostersund, Sweden, to close in on an unprecedented sixth consecutive overall title.

Forsberg had only one miss in capturing her 41st World Cup victory, more than any other female or male biathlete.

Sven Hannawald of Germany won the ski jumping world championships on the giant hill at Harrachov, Czech Republic, after the second day of competition was canceled because of strong wind.

Hannawald took the lead Saturday with two jumps of 202 meters.

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Miscellany

U.S. pole vaulter Jeff Hartwig cleared 19 feet 9 at Sindelfingen, Germany, a height reached indoors previously by only Sergei Bubka of Ukraine, who holds the world record at 20-2, and Radion Gataullin, who also vaulted 19-9. Bubka had other vaults above 19-9.

Martin Buser pushed through wind gusts to 48 mph along the coast of Norton Sound and was moving at a record pace in the Iditarod trail sled dog race.

Buser reached Unalakleet, Alaska, three hours ahead of the pace set by Doug Swingley in 2000, when he finished the 1,100-miles race in just over nine days.