Vickers Makes History With Busch Victory

Brian Vickers became NASCAR’s youngest champion ever on Saturday, winning the Busch Series title with an 11th-place finish behind Kasey Kahne at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The 20-year-old Vickers, in a Chevrolet, regained a lost lap to finish just out of the top 10 in the season-ending Ford 300, but that was enough to hold off 1995 series champion David Green. Kahne, driving a Ford, got his first win in his 54th Busch race.

Green finished ninth in a Pontiac and ended up 14 points behind, the second-closest margin in series history. The closest finish in the series came in 1992, when Joe Nemechek beat Bobby Labonte by three points.

The previous youngest driver to win a NASCAR championship was 21-year-old Rob Moroso, who won the Busch title in 1989.

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The final night of the Budweiser Oval Nationals for non-winged sprint cars at the Perris Auto Speedway was postponed because of rain.

The scheduled 50-lap championship race that will pay $30,000 to the winner has been rescheduled for today. Spectator gates will open at 3 p.m. and racing will begin at 5 p.m. Cory Kruseman of Ventura and Brent Kaeding of Campbell, Calif., will start on the front row.

Golf

South Africa’s Trevor Immelman and Rory Sabbatini birdied six of their first seven holes and finished with a nine-under-par 63 to take a seven-stroke lead heading into the final round of the World Cup at Kiawah Island, S.C.

Immelman and Sabbatini, who led by two strokes going into the best-ball round, are 14-under 202 in the event featuring two-man teams from 23 nations. Jim Furyk and Justin Leonard are tied for second at seven-under with France’s Thomas Levet and Raphael Jacquelin. Both teams shot four-under 68s.

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Dorothy Delasin shot a four-under 68 and took a one-stroke lead after three rounds of the LPGA Tournament of Champions at Mobile, Ala. She had a 54-hole total of five-under 211, one stroke better than Hee-Won Han, who shot a 69. Karrie Webb, Rachel Teske and Mi Hyun Kim are two shots behind.

Miscellany

Sasha Cohen skated a technically daring long program -- completing two sets of triple-double jump combinations in the opening seconds -- to win the women’s singles title at the Lalique Trophy in Paris. World champion Evgeni Plushenko of Russia used a high-energy program to win the men’s singles title. American Michael Weiss fell twice and finished third.... Olympic bronze medalist Jennifer Rodriguez won her second straight 1,500-meter race in a World Cup speedskating event at Erfurt, Germany, beating Olympic champion Annie Friesinger of Germany by 0.79 of a second. Rodriguez finished in 1 minute 57.86 seconds.

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Defensive tackle Gerard Warren of the Cleveland Browns was fined $5,000 by the NFL for his hit last Sunday on Kansas City offensive lineman Brian Waters. Warren hit Waters with his helmet after Trent Green threw a pass to the lineman, who was an ineligible receiver.... Defending champion Australia beat New Zealand, 22-10, in Sydney to reach the Rugby World Cup final. The Australians will meet the winner of today’s semifinal between England and France in next weekend’s final.

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Beibis Mendoza of Colombia won a unanimous decision over South Korea’s Choi Yosam in Osoo, South Korea, to regain the World Boxing Assn. light-flyweight title. The bout was made when Nicaragua’s Rosendo Alvarez was stripped of the title he won from Mendoza in 2001 for breaking regulations on match schedules.