Earnhardt on the Move

Dale Earnhardt Jr. kept his slim Winston Cup championship hopes alive Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Ariz.

Earnhardt passed Jimmie Johnson for the lead with 51 laps left in the Checker Auto Parts 500 and stayed out front through a series of restarts in a race marred by a record-tying 10 caution flags.

The final restart came nine laps from the end of the 312-lap race on the one-mile oval and Earnhardt easily pulled away from Johnson, beating the second-place car to the finish by 0.735 seconds -- about five car-lengths -- in the battle of Chevrolets.

Matt Kenseth, the series points leader, finished sixth but saw his lead over second-place Earnhardt cut from 258 to 228 points. Kenseth can wrap up his first title by finishing in the top 30 in the final two races.

“This was fun. We’ve been pretty good all year and we’ve improved in a lot of places,” Earnhardt said. “We’ve got a lot of guys who have been with us and some new guys and, if we keep everybody next year, we’re going to win a championship. If we don’t win it this year, we’re going to win it next year.”

Kenseth started 37th in the 43-car field and worked his way toward the front, battling Michael Waltrip for fifth place late in the race.

Ryan Newman, who started from the pole, finished third, followed by Kurt Busch and Waltrip.

The victory was Earnhardt’s second of the season and the ninth of his career. Five of the nine have come at Daytona and Talladega, where NASCAR requires carburetor restrictor plates to sap horsepower and keep the cars under 200 mph.

This was Earnhardt’s first win at a non-restrictor-plate track since taking the fall race at Dover in 2001.

Johnson moved to third in the standings, trailing Kenseth by 241 points.

Miscellany

New Zealand held off Wales, 53-37, at the Rugby World Cup at Sydney to set up a quarterfinal with South Africa.

A rally by New Zealand prevented what would have been the biggest upset in World Cup history. Wales was trying to beat the All Blacks for the first time in 50 years.

England routed Uruguay, 111-13, in the day’s other game.

The Harlem Globetrotters, with help from Magic Johnson, beat Michigan State, 97-83, in an exhibition at East Lansing, Mich.

Behind 38 points from former UCLA guard Darrick Martin, including 18 in the last 6 1/2 minutes, the Globetrotters avenged a 72-68 loss to the Spartans in November 2000 that ended a 1,270-game winning streak.

Johnson, in town for a weekend reunion of the 1979 NCAA championship team, was two for three from the field and had five points and four assists in 16 minutes.

Former New York Met manager Bobby Valentine agreed to return to Japan to manage the Lotte Marines.

He arrived in Tokyo on Saturday and met with officials of the Pacific League team, agreeing to a three-year deal. An announcement was expected today.

Valentine, who replaces Koji Yamamoto, guided the Marines to a 69-58 record in 1995.

Russia’s Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov won the ice dance championship at Skate Canada in Mississauga.

The Russians won $25,000 in edging Bulgarians Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviyski. Canada’s Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon finished third.

The United States beat Argentina, 25-11, 25-14, 25-14, in volleyball to improve to 2-0 at the Women’s World Cup in Tokyo. The top three teams in the 12-team tournament qualify for next summer’s Olympics.

Lindsay Greco and Iris Mora scored goals to help the No. 3-ranked UCLA women’s soccer team defeat USC, 2-0, and clinch at least a tie for the Pacific 10 Conference title.