Kenseth Wins Cup Title

The pressure that has been Matt Kenseth’s constant companion for the last few months is gone.

“I feel like the world has been lifted off my shoulders today,” Kenseth said Sunday after a fourth-place finish in the Pop Secret 400 at Rockingham, N.C., clinched his long-anticipated Winston Cup championship.

Kenseth took the points lead in the fourth race of the season and kept it the rest of the way. He said the tension kept building even as he moved out to what seemed to be an untouchable lead.

“I kind of spun out in August and September a little bit reading everybody’s columns,” Kenseth said. “Those things actually add pressure because I don’t want to be the guy that goes in the record book that had that big of a lead and blew it.”

Bill Elliott won Sunday’s race, but it was Kenseth who got most of the attention after wrapping up the first Cup title for himself and car owner Jack Roush.

Kenseth came into Sunday’s race knowing that he needed to finish seventh or better to end the suspense.

“There’s a feeling you get in your stomach when you’re leading the race and you see somebody coming up behind you,” Kenseth said. “It’s an empty feeling in the pit of your stomach, and that’s what it feels like, like I’ve been leading a race for the last three months.”

The champion took a slow victory lap in his No. 17 Ford.

The 31-year-old driver from Cambridge, Wis., took the title in his fourth season in NASCAR’s top stock car series with consistency, winning only once but coming up with 11 top fives and 26 top 10s in 35 races.

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Miscellany

Former NFL quarterback Jim McMahon was charged with drunken driving after police said his car was swerving across the center line of a highway before being pulled over in Navarre, Fla.

McMahon failed a field sobriety test and had a blood-alcohol level more than three times the legal limit in Florida, said Santa Rosa County sheriff’s spokesman Jerry Henderson. One breathalyzer exam put McMahon’s blood-alcohol level at 0.261%, another put it at 0.258%. The legal limit in Florida is 0.08%.

Cincinnati Red outfielder Dernell Stenson was kidnapped in a robbery of his sports utility vehicle and killed while trying to escape, Phoenix police said. Four men have been arrested in connection with Stenson’s death.

Canada and Cuba clinched spots in the 2004 Olympics in Athens with easy wins in a baseball qualifying tournament at Panama City.

Justin Morneau of the Minnesota Twins homered for Canada in an 11-1 rout of Mexico. Cuba beat Puerto Rico, 10-0.

The U.S. Open and CBS Sports agreed to a five-year contract through 2008 that could usher in a new package of tennis tournaments leading up to the Grand Slam event, a tennis source told Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The deal will be officially announced today.... Cammi Granato scored her second goal of the game in a penalty shootout and the U.S. defeated Canada, 2-1, in the Four Nations Cup women’s hockey final at Skovde, Sweden.... England defeated Wales, 28-17, while France defeated Ireland, 43-21, in the quarterfinals of the Rugby World Cup in Australia.

Jennifer Rodriguez of the U.S. won the women’s 1,500-meters to become the only double winner at the World Cup speedskating opener at Hamar, Norway.

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Passings

Dick White, 63, former public-relations director of the Lakers, Kings and general manager of the Sports Arena, died in Rancho Mirage of a heart attack Nov. 3. A memorial service will be held today at 3 p.m. at Green Hills Memorial Chapel in San Pedro.