Earnhardt Wins Wire to Wire

It was all Dale Earnhardt Jr. in Friday night’s Winn-Dixie 250 NASCAR Busch Series race, as he led all 100 laps in his Chevrolet at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Earnhardt has won all three Busch Series races he has entered this year. He also won his last Busch start last year in Richmond, Va.

Michael Waltrip, Earnhardt’s Winston Cup teammate but driving his own Busch Series Chevrolet, tried in vain to catch him. The Daytona 500 winner was unable to challenge Earnhardt and finished 0.161 seconds -- about three car-lengths -- behind on the 2 1/2-mile oval.

Waltrip had one last shot at Earnhardt on a restart with nine laps left after a crash brought out the last of three caution flags. But Earnhardt stayed out front and Waltrip couldn’t get close enough to make a run.

Jamie McMurray, another Winston Cup regular, finished third in a Dodge.

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Rip Williams improved his standing as the Sprint Car Racing Assn.’s winningest driver as he earned his 60th victory by taking the Firecracker 50 at Perris Auto Speedway.

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Five-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher was a bit too quick practicing a pit stop, and it cost Ferrari $10,000 in a practice session for Sunday’s French Grand Prix at Magny Cours.

Schumacher and his crew were practicing tire changing. He was waved to move back to pit lane. Mark Webber, however, was coming down the pit lane at the same time. Schumacher’s Ferrari crashed into Webber’s Jaguar and Webber’s car lost its front wing. The Ferrari was relatively undamaged. Race organizers ruled Ferrari released Schumacher from the pit stop position before it was safe to do.

Track and Field

Bernard Williams, the U.S. champion in the 100 meters, upstaged former world record-holder Maurice Greene to win the event at the Golden League track and field meet in Saint-Denis, France.

Williams was clocked in 10.05 seconds, his best performance of the season, to beat Nigeria’s Deji Aliu, who was timed in 10.07. Greene was third in 10.11.

Olympic 5,000-meter champion Gabriela Szabo of Romania used a late sprint to overtake Morocco’s Zhor El Kamch and win the 3,000 in 8:34.09, the fastest time in the world this year.

Allen Johnson of the U.S. turned in one of the top performances of the meet when he won the men’s 110-meter high hurdles in 12.97, the fastest time in the world this year.

Allyson Felix, who graduated from Los Angeles Baptist High in North Hills last month, finished third in the women’s 200 meters.

Felix, 17, making her debut on the European circuit, clocked 22.66 seconds to finish behind fellow American Kelli White, who ran 22.43, and Muriel Hurtis of France in 22.62.

Miscellany

The Dallas Mavericks have signed forward Josh Howard of Wake Forest, their first-round draft choice, to a contract. He was the 29th pick in the draft and according to the 2003-04 NBA rookie scale his three-year deal would be worth about $2.1 million.

Defending champion Harvard beat the Dartmouth Rowing Club by half a length to advance to the semifinals of the Temple Cup for student eights in the Henley Royal Regatta at Henley-on-Thames, England.

In the same category, Princeton’s “A” crew beat London’s Imperial College by three lengths. Later, Princeton’s “B” crew also advanced, beating National University of Ireland by half a length.

In the quarterfinals of the Remenham Cup for women’s eights, Brown University, which won the women’s eight event at the Henley Women’s Regatta two weeks ago, beat an English crew by a length.

Passings

Briggs Swift Cunningham Jr., the captain of the winning yacht in the 1958 America’s Cup and a longtime sports car racing figure, died at 96. Story in Section B.