Kahne Holds Off Stewart for Victory

Kasey Kahne outran Tony Stewart on two restarts in the last 14 laps Saturday night to win the NASCAR Nextel Cup Chevy American Revolution 400 at Richmond, Va.

“Tonight’s just the night,” said the 25-year-old Kahne, a six-time pole-sitter with six second-place finishes. “We’ve come so close and always thought when it comes the time, we’re going to win a race.”

Even better was how he did it.

Kahne’s crew gave him a lot of help, getting his Dodge out of the pits just ahead of Stewart with about 67 laps to go. Then the Evernham Motorsports driver stayed there on restarts with 61, 43, 14 and seven laps remaining.

It took Kahne a lap to get clear of Stewart, but once he did, he left Stewart to battle Ryan Newman for second and won by 1.67 seconds.

Victory came in his 47th career Nextel Cup race, and gave Dodge its first win in a Charger since Neil Bonnett on Nov. 20, 1977, at Ontario Speedway.

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Ron Hornaday Jr. won the pole for today’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series’ UAW/GM Ohio 250, turning a lap at 110.585 mph on the half-mile Mansfield Motorsports Speedway. Hornaday edged Ricky Craven by 0.014 of a second.

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Australia’s Mat Mladin raced to his fifth AMA Superbike Championship series victory of the year, beating fellow Suzuki rider Aaron Yates by 8.969 of a second at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma.

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Mike Price reclaimed the lead with 20 laps to go and held off Ron Johnson to win a collision-filled Lucas Oil Super Late Models Series race at Irwindale Speedway.

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Tennis

Top-ranked Roger Federer of Switzerland beat 15th-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, 6-3, 6-4, and Richard Gasquet of France beat Christophe Rochus of Belgium, 6-1, 6-1, in the semifinals of the Hamburg Masters in Germany.

Gasquet, 18, upset Federer in April in the quarterfinals of the Monte Carlo Masters.

Top-seeded Maria Sharapova of Russia lost to eighth-seeded Patty Schnyder of Switzerland, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, in a semifinal and defending champion Amelie Mauresmo of France reached her fifth consecutive Italian Open final by defeating sixth-seeded Vera Zvonareva of Russia, 6-2, 6-4, at Rome.

James Blake defeated Dusan Vemic of Serbia and Montenegro, 6-3, 6-4, in the final of the Forest Hills Clay Court Classic in New York.

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Hockey

Canada nearly blew a four-goal lead before hanging on to beat Russia, 4-3, and the Czech Republic defeated Sweden, 3-2, in overtime in the semifinals of the world championships at Vienna.

Wade Redden, Sheldon Souray, Dany Heatley and Ed Jovanovski scored for Canada.

The Czech Republic won when Radek Dvorak scored on a wrist shot that struck the goal cam and bounded out of the net 4:43 into overtime. A video replay confirmed the goal.

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Miscellany

A Boston College rower died after passing out just as his crew won the men’s lightweight eight in the Dad Vail Regatta at Philadelphia.

Scott Laio, a junior, collapsed as the Eagles’ boat moved just past the grandstand and under a large stone bridge. Laio was taken to a hospital, where he died.

College spokesman Jack Dunn said Laio apparently suffered a heart attack. A hospital spokeswoman said the family had requested that no information be released.

Canadian Olympic medalists Alexandre Despatie and Emilie Heymans won gold medals in the FINA diving Grand Prix at Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Despatie won the men’s three-meter event with 480.39 points. Cesar Castro of Brazil was second with 457.38 points.

Heymans won the women’s platform with 377.91 points. Jia Dongjin of China was second with 352.38 points.

The U.S. women’s softball team will play in the four-nation International Sports Invitational in June at Chula Vista, its first competition since winning the gold medal in the Athens Games. The U.S. will play Canada on June 9, China on June 10 and Australia on June 11. The final will be June 12.

Amir Khan of Britain out-pointed Olympic champion Mario Kindelan of Cuba, 19-13, in a four-round amateur fight at Bolton, England, in a rematch of last year’s lightweight boxing final at the Athens Olympics.