This Busch Victory Is No Problem for Harvick

Kevin Harvick stayed out of trouble on and off the track Saturday and held off several challenges from Tony Raines to win the NASCAR Busch Series Channellock 250 in Bristol, Tenn.

Harvick led for the final 97 laps at Bristol Motor Speedway, passing Scott Wimmer for the lead and hanging on. There were 13 cautions -- one short of the race record -- for 77 laps, and only 23 of 43 cars were running at the end.

It was at this race last year that Harvick first got into trouble with NASCAR. After being knocked out of the race by an accident with Greg Biffle, he waited for Biffle to finish and charged after him on pit road. NASCAR put Harvick on probation.

The final caution came out with eight laps to go when Ron Hornaday and Kasey Kahne wrecked. NASCAR stopped the race for seven minutes to clean up the track and the field went green with five laps to go.

Raines, who tapped Harvick from behind at least four times over the final 38 laps in an attempt to pass him, didn’t get a good jump and Harvick opened up a lead and won easily.

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Fernando Alonso ended Michael Schumacher’s streak at the Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang and became the youngest driver to win a pole position in Formula One. Alonso, 21, drove his Renault around the 3.45-mile circuit in 1 minute 37.044 seconds.

Schumacher was third in 1:37.393.

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Rookie Sebastien Bourdais of France now has two poles in as many races after taking the top spot in final qualifying for the CART Tecate Telmex Grand Prix in Monterrey, Mexico. Bourdais turned in a lap of 1:15.397, 100.460 mph.

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Tony Kanaan became the fifth driver in Indy Racing League history to earn consecutive pole positions when he qualified fastest for the Purex Dial Indy 200 at Phoenix International Raceway. Kanaan was the 16th of 22 drivers on the mile oval and drove his Honda-powered Dallara at 178.51 mph.

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Ted Musgrave wasn’t bothered by a two-year absence from Mesa Marin Raceway at Bakersfield, winning the pole position run for today’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Lucas Oil 250 race. Musgrave, winner of the 2001 edition of the 125-mile race, covered the half-mile oval at 93.293 mph. The pole was the sixth of Musgrave’s trucks series career.

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Yamaha’s Chad Reed won his fourth 250cc Supercross Series race of the season, edging Honda’s Ricky Carmichael at St. Louis.

Tennis

Andre Agassi opened his bid for a sixth title at the Nasdaq-100 Open in Key Biscayne, Fla., by beating longtime rival Michael Chang, 6-4, 6-2.

Showing no signs of the sore shoulder that forced him to skip the tournament at Pacific Life Open at Indian Wells last week, Agassi hit six aces and lost a total of only 16 service points. Chang, who hasn’t won a set against Agassi since 1996, simply didn’t have the firepower to pull off the upset.

The only service break of the opening set came in the seventh game when Chang lost his serve with four backhand errors.

In other men’s play, seventh-seeded Marat Safin of Russia was upset by Davide Sanguinetti of Italy, 7-6 (9), 7-5 and eighth-seeded Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic lost to Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. Thomas Enqvist of Sweden upset 15th-seeded Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil, 6-3, 6-4.

In the women’s draw, second-seeded Venus Williams beat Shinobu Asagoe of Japan, 6-3, 6-1, and sixth-seeded Jennifer Capriati beat Anastassia Rodionova of Russia, 7-6 (3), 6-2. Amelie Mauresmo also advanced.

Winter Sports

Adam Malysz of Poland clinched an unprecedented third straight World Cup ski jumping overall title, finishing second in the season’s next-to-last event at Planica, Slovenia. He had jumps of 224.5 meters and 209.5 meters for 432.3 points, 1.2 points behind Matti Hautamaki of Finland.

Overall champions Mathias Fredriksson of Sweden and Bente Skari of Norway won the final individual World Cup cross-country races of the season at Falun, Sweden.

Miscellany

The Galaxy will be without high-scoring forward Carlos Ruiz tonight when it attempts to close out its first-round CONCACAF Champions’ Cup series against C.D. Motagua of Honduras at Cal State Fullerton’s Titan Stadium.

In the first leg of the series, Ruiz received two yellow cards and now must sit out tonight’s game.

Tickets for the 6 p.m. match range from $12 to $20. Details: (877) 342-5299.

Cory Spinks, the son of former heavyweight champion Leon Spinks, took the IBF welterweight title from Italian Michele Piccirillo with a unanimous decision at Campione d’Italia, Italy. Spinks, 25, improved to 31-2.

Miguel Barrera stopped Roberto Leyva with a straight right to the body at 1:07 of the third round to retain his IBF mini-flyweight championship at Las Vegas.

USC took third, its highest finish since a national title in 1997, in the 2003 NCAA women’s swimming and diving championships at Auburn, Ala. USC had 284 points. Auburn won with 536 points and Georgia was second at 373.

Sophomore Blythe Hartley was second in platform diving with 456.90 points, trailing only Natalia Diea of Ohio State (476.65). Kaitlin Sandeno was third in the 1,650-yard freestyle in 15 minutes 58.58 seconds.

Flavia Rigamonti of Southern Methodist won in 15:43.90. Georgia’s Maritza Correia won the 100 freestyle (47.29) and teammate Mary DeSescenza won the 200 butterfly (1:53.51).

Oklahoma State won its 31st national team wrestling championship, and its first since 1994, at Kansas City, Mo. Minnesota, the two-time defending champion, finished second, 39 points behind the Cowboys. Oklahoma was third and Lehigh finished fourth.

The 2004 U.S. Olympic gymnastic trials will be moved from Boston’s FleetCenter because of a scheduling conflict with the Democratic National Convention. USA Gymnastics will reopen the bidding process for the event on Monday.

Passings

Bob Hillen, who founded the USC crew program in 1947 and served as head coach until he retired in 1990, died March 16 in Los Angeles. He was 86.

A memorial service will be held Thursday at St. Augustine Catholic Church, 10195 Washington Blvd., Culver City. Details in Section B.