Hamilton Jr. Easily Wins Busch Race

Bobby Hamilton Jr. overpowered the field Saturday -- leading all but a handful of laps -- to win the NASCAR Busch Series Tropicana Twister 300 at Joliet, Ill.

Hamilton, the son of former Winston Cup star and current NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Bobby Hamilton, took the lead from pole-sitter Casey Mears on the third lap and led 186 of 200 laps around the 1 1/2-mile Chicagoland Speedway oval, including the last 53.

Hamilton built a lead of almost 16 seconds -- about a half lap -- in his Ford before one of six caution flags gave Winston Cup series leader Matt Kenseth one last shot at catching him.

But Hamilton pulled away on the restart on lap 166 and beat Kenseth’s Ford to the finish line by 4.503 seconds, about 20 car lengths.

Scott Riggs, driving a Ford, finished a lap behind in seventh and extended his lead over David Green in the championship race from two to 23 points. Green finished 11th in his Pontiac.

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Carl Edwards raced to his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory, beating Ted Musgrave by 3.568 seconds in the Built Ford Tough 225 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta.

Edwards, a 23-year-old rookie from Columbia, Mo., finished second last week at Kansas Speedway behind Roush Racing teammate Jon Wood.

Wood, who started on the pole in Kentucky, finished fourth in a Ford, behind Edwards in a Ford, Musgrave in a Dodge and Dennis Setzer in a Chevrolet.

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Paul Tracy, the CART series leader, continued his homecoming celebration by earning the top starting spot for today’s Molson Indy, his first ever pole on Toronto’s temporary street course.

Tracy ran a lap at 58.839 seconds, going 107.378 mph in his Ford-Cosworth/Lola around the winding 1.755-mile course at Exhibition Place.

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Rip Michels earned his fifth win of the season by holding off Tony Bruncati and Nathan Wulff to win the shortened 50-lap Jani-King Super Late Model series feature in front of 4,318 at Irwindale Speedway.

In the 50-lap Auto Club Late Model series feature, Todd Burns earned his eighth straight win and 34th of his career by easily pulling away from Tony Green and Doug McComb.

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Mat Mladin continued to lead the way in qualifying for today’s World Superbike Championship at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey with an average speed of 152.501 kilometers per hour around the 3.61-kilometer track.

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Tennis

Wimbledon champion Roger Federer won his 15th straight match, beating Gaston Gaudio, 6-1, 7-6 (6), in the semifinals of the Swiss Open at Gstaad.

Federer’s opponent in today’s final will be Jiri Novak, who defeated his doubles partner, Radek Stepanek, 7-5, 6-1.

Mariano Zabaleta and Nicolas Lapentti defeated the top two seeded players to reach the final at the clay-court Swedish Open in Bastad.

Zabaleta beat defending champion and top-seeded Carlos Moya, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, while Lapentti beat second-seeded Tommy Robredo, 6-4, 6-2.

It was Robredo’s second match of the day. First he had to finish a 6-4, 6-4 quarterfinal victory over Filippo Volandri in a match suspended at 1-1 in the first set Friday because of rain.

Ninth-seeded Dinara Safina, the 17-year-old sister of Marat Safin, needed only 62 minutes to defeat Ludmila Cervanova, 6-4, 6-0, and advance to the final of the Palermo Invitational in Palermo, Sicily.

She will face fourth-seeded Katarina Srebotnik, who defeated Anabel Medina, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2, in the other semifinal.

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Miscellany

The Mighty Ducks have had talks with the agent for unrestricted free agent left wing Vaclav Prospal, the leading scorer for the Tampa Bay Lightning last season.

Prospal, who had 22 goals and 57 assists and is being courted by several teams, is believed to be seeking a contract worth at least $3 million a year. The Mighty Ducks declined comment Saturday.

Prospal made $1.55 million last year and reportedly turned down a five-year, $12.5 million offer from Tampa Bay.

Ohio State star Maurice Clarett received assistance to pass a class before the Fiesta Bowl, a university professor told the New York Times in today’s editions.

The running back passed African-American and African Studies 101 by taking two oral exams, Paulette Pierce, an associate professor, told the newspaper. She said she worked directly with Clarett and administered the exams after he walked out of the course’s midterm exam during the fall semester.

Former Manchester United star George Best was arrested after an incident at the Chequers Hotel in Tadworth, England. Best, 57, regarded as one of the best soccer players in history, was detained along with an unidentified 31-year-old man, police sources said.

Surrey police said both men were arrested on suspicion of assault causing actual bodily harm. They were later released without being charged and police refused to give any further details of the incident.

Manuel Medina of Mexico won his fifth world featherweight title night by outpointing World Boxing Organization champion Scott Harrison at Glasgow, Scotland.

Medina was the winner on two judges’ scorecards, 118-113 and 116-112, while the third judge scored it 115-113 in favor of Harrison.

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Domenique Manning of Riverside North High placed third in the girls’ 100-meter high hurdles in the World Youth (age 14-17) track and field championships at Sherbrooke, Canada. Manning, who will be senior in the fall, clocked 13.60 after running 13.35 in a semifinal Friday.

Michael Haddan of Irvine Woodbridge finished eighth in the final of the boys’ 800 in 1:53.31. Lionel Larry of Compton Dominguez advanced to the semifinals of the boys’ 200 by winning his first-round heat in 21.73.