McMurray Extends Busch Streak

Jamie McMurray won the race, Kevin Harvick clinched a title for his car owner and Brian Vickers put himself in position for his first championship in the NASCAR Busch Series Target House 200 Saturday at North Carolina Speedway.

It was McMurray’s fourth Busch Series victory -- and third in a row at Rockingham. He led 126 of the 197 laps in his Dodge and held off Martin Truex Jr., driving a Chevrolet, over the final few laps.

Harvick finished 14th in a Chevrolet to earn the Busch Series car owner title for Richard Childress Racing.

The driver championship will be decided in next weekend’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where six drivers are in contention to win the title in the tightest battle in NASCAR history.

Only 89 points separate the top six drivers, putting Vickers, David Green, Ron Hornaday, Jason Keller, Scott Riggs and Bobby Hamilton Jr. all in position to win the championship.

Vickers took a 22-point lead over Green by finishing sixth in a Chevrolet. Green finished 10th in a Pontiac.

Riggs came into the race as the points leader but crashed his Chevrolet with 32 laps to go. He finished 38th.

Winter Sports

Jennifer Rodriguez of Miami made a strong start to the speedskating season, posting the fastest time in the 3,000 meters in a World Cup opener at Hamar, Norway.

Competing at the oval built for the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics, Rodriguez won Group B in 4 minutes 7.07 seconds. Anni Friesinger of Germany won the Group A race in 4:07.31.

Erben Wennemars led a 1-2 finish for the Netherlands in the men’s 1,500, finishing in 1:47.37. Mark Tuitert was second in 1:47.55 and Derek Parra of San Bernardino third in 1:48.80.

Tennis

Top-seeded Tamarine Tanasugarn lost to unseeded Henrieta Nagyova, 6-2, 7-5, in the semifinals of the Volvo Open at Pattaya, Thailand.

Nagyova will play Lubomira Kurhajcova today for the title. The unseeded Kurhajcova beat fourth-seeded Anca Barna, 6-0, 6-0, in the other semifinal.

Miscellany

The draw for the 12-nation field in the men’s basketball tournament at the Athens Olympics was announced in Madrid.

The defending champion U.S. was put in Group B with European champion Lithuania. They are joined by Angola, Australia, Greece and Puerto Rico. Serbia-Montenegro, the 2002 world champion, and Argentina are in Group A with New Zealand, Italy, Spain and China.

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The U.S. volleyball team was defeated for the first time at the Women’s World Cup in Tokyo, losing to European champion Poland, 25-21, 31-29, 22-25, 21-25, 15-12. The Americans are 5-1 in the round-robin tournament. The top three teams qualify for the Athens Olympics.

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Tim Goebel won the Cup of China figure skating title in Beijing despite falling on a triple jump midway through his routine. He had 205.30 points.

Ukraine’s Elena Liashenko won the women’s free skate. She executed five triple jumps, earning 102.36 points.

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Australia and New Zealand won their quarterfinal matches at the Rugby World Cup and will renew their rivalry next weekend in the semifinals. New Zealand beat South Africa, 29-9, at Melbourne, and Australia beat Scotland, 33-16, at Brisbane.

The other semifinalists will be decided today when France plays Ireland at Melbourne and top-ranked England plays Wales at Brisbane.

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A 20-year-old transient suspected in the death of Cincinnati Red outfielder Dernell Stenson has been arrested.

David Griffith was booked in the theft of Stenson’s vehicle after he surrendered to police on the Salt River Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, authorities said.

Stenson, who was playing in the Arizona Fall League, was found dead Wednesday in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler. He had been shot and run over and apparently dragged by his own car.