Harvick Rebounds From Penalty With Bristol Win

Kevin Harvick’s crew chief was at home, forbidden by NASCAR from coming to the track after he was caught cheating.

His car owner was complaining to everyone that the penalties NASCAR levied against Harvick’s team were too severe, and the committee that denied his appeal was unyielding.

Unable to win its case in court, Harvick and his Richard Childress Racing team scored the only victory that mattered.

Harvick broke a 55-race winless streak Sunday in the Food City 500 in Bristol, Tenn., a victory that pulled Childress and the entire team out from the March 13 cheating scandal.

“I think both of us have been beat down pretty far at some point in our racing careers, and you have to learn how to get out of a hole,” Harvick said. “I think that is one thing that RCR has always been really good at -- they always come back stronger than they were before.

“So this was a huge statement made by our race team, and you don’t have to say anything else.”

It has been a long three weeks for the RCR team since crew chief Todd Berrier got caught rigging Harvick’s fuel tank to appear full when it actually wasn’t during qualifying at Las Vegas. NASCAR suspended Berrier for four races and fined him $25,000. Harvick also was docked 25 points in the standings.

Tony Stewart finished third in a Chevrolet. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was fourth in a Chevrolet.

The race was stopped for 14 minutes with 167 laps left when Bobby Hamilton Jr. slammed into the back of Ken Schrader, starting a 14-car pileup.

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Dan Wheldon led an Andretti Green Racing sweep of the top four places in the first street race in the 10-year history of the Indy Racing League’s IndyCar Series in St. Petersburg, Fla.

But it took an aggressive move by teammate Tony Kanaan only nine laps from the end to make the sweep possible.

Rookie Ryan Briscoe, a 23-year-old Australian driving for Chip Ganassi Racing, appeared on the way to his first IRL victory before a pair of late caution flags on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary road circuit.

Kanaan, the defending series champion, took advantage of a restart on the 84th of 100 laps to move from fourth to second. Two-time series champion Sam Hornish Jr. and rookie Tomas Engle then collided on the 87th lap, bringing out the fifth and final caution flag and putting Kanaan right behind Briscoe for the final restart on Lap 92.

Kanaan then began harassing the young leader and heading into Turn 10, Briscoe turned into Kanaan and careened into a tire wall.

The contact didn’t damage Kanaan’s car, but it did slow him enough to allow Wheldon to pull away for a 1.45-second victory.

He and Kanaan were followed by Dario Franchitti and pole winner Bryan Herta.

Fernando Alonso got his second straight Formula One victory in the Grand Prix in Sakhir, Bahrain, as Michael Schumacher had trouble again, dropping out after only 12 laps.

Alonso leads the drivers’ standings with 26 points.

Jarno Trulli was second in a Toyota, finishing 13.4 seconds back. Kimi Raikkonen took third in a McLaren-Mercedes.

Schumacher, the defending champion and seven-time Formula One champion, has only two points after three races -- his worst start in years. A hydraulic problem was the apparent reason for his short race.

Top female drag racer Michelle “Shelly” Howard, 59, and her son, Brian, 36, were killed Saturday after her car went out of control and struck a support vehicle he was in at Tulsa (Okla.) Raceway Park, police said.

There were no other injuries.

Howard was a three-time national event winner, a Division 4 champion in 2001 and 2003 and the 2004 Jeg’s Allstars champion, the NHRA said.

She had eight divisional event wins.

Swimming

Michael Phelps, who yielded his spot on the U.S. gold-medal 400-meter medley relay to Ian Crocker at the Olympic Games last summer, caught his longtime friend and rival at the finish and won the 100 butterfly at the U.S. trials in Indianapolis for the world championships in July.

It was the third victory of the meet for Phelps, who trailed Crocker by more than half a second at the turn but pulled ahead to win in 51.34 seconds.

Crocker, who holds the world record of 50.76, finished at 51.45. Peter Verhoef was third.

In other events, Tara Kirk, who finished sixth at the Athens Olympics, won the women’s 100 breaststroke; NCAA champion Kara Lynn Joyce won the women’s 50 freestyle; Olympian Jason Lezak won the men’s 50 freestyle; and Katie Hoff, 15, matched Phelps as a triple-winner with a victory in the 400 individual medley.

Miscellany

Olympic gold medalists Misty May and Kerri Walsh opened their beach volleyball season the same way they ended 2004 -- looking nearly unbeatable in a 21-18, 21-19 victory over Elaine Youngs and Rachel Wacholder to win the $175,000 Fort Lauderdale Open, the first event of the AVP Tour season.

Lance Armstrong finished 28th in the 159-mile Ronde of Flanders in Brussels won by Belgium’s Tom Boonen in 6 hours 22 minutes 49 seconds.

Patrick Allen earned his third title of the season and first career major, defeating the surprising Chris Loschetter, 235-210, in the title match of the PBA Denny’s World Championship in Taylor, Mich.

Allen reached the final with a 279-198 victory over Mike Scroggins; and Loschetter, a 24-year-old non-exempt PBA member, beat Brian Voss, 231-165.

China dominated the finals of the FINA diving Grand Prix, with Zhang Chen, 15, (523.32 points) beating out Olympic champion Hu Jia (510.96) to win his first gold medal on the men’s platform in Beijing.

The Chinese women took first and second in the springboard event.

Defending champion Wu Minxia (363.72) won the women’s 3-meter springboard, beating her doubles partner Li Ting (356.76) and American Nancilea Underwood (317.34).

Sarah Parsons scored two goals and added an assist to lead the United States past China, 8-2, in its opening game at the women’s world hockey championship in Norrkoping, Sweden.

Finland beat Germany, 5-1, in the other Group B game. In the only Group A game, defending champion Canada routed Kazakhstan, 13-0, at Linkoping.

Chris Dufresne is on assignment.