Win Pushes Harvick Closer to Busch Title

Not much more than a few formalities stand between Kevin Harvick and his second Busch Series championship after he held off Matt Kenseth in a green-white-checkered shootout Saturday at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan.

Harvick’s victory in a caution-filled Yellow Transportation 300 also made him the first Busch driver to win seven races in a season since Dale Earnhardt Jr. did it en route to the 1998 title. Harvick had five victories when he won the title in 2001.

“I felt like we were a little off on our mile-and-a-half program,” Harvick said. “So they built a brand new car, tuned up two engines, and I felt like we were pretty good right off the truck.”

Harvick’s win, the sixth consecutive victory in Busch and Nextel Cup competition for Richard Childress Racing, was the 24th of his Busch career and gave him a 729-point lead over Carl Edwards in the standings.

Harvick probably won’t clinch in a Childress car, though. He’s scheduled to drive his own No. 33 car, which Tony Stewart drove to a fourth-place finish Saturday, at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on Oct. 13.

“We’re still sticking to our plans from the beginning of the year,” Harvick said.

Harvick could pull off an unprecedented double with a strong finish in NASCAR’s top circuit.

He is fifth in the Chase for the Nextel Cup standings -- 54 points behind leader Jeff Burton -- going into today’s Banquet 400.

“We don’t like to worry about things too far in advance,” he said. “It would be an incredible accomplishment if we could pull it off.”

Season points leader and defending champion Fernando Alonso took the pole position in wet conditions during qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai. Michael Schumacher was sixth.

Alonso had a time of 1 minute 44.360 seconds at the 3.387-mile Shanghai International Circuit. Alonso’s Renault teammate Giancarlo Fisichella was second at 1:44.992.

It was Alonso’s 15th career pole and sixth this season, but his first since June when he won his last race at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Reigning top-fuel champion Tony Schumacher had a 4.440-second pass at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa., in the lone qualifying session for today’s $1.5-million Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals.

Schumacher’s run, the fourth quickest in history, placed him on the qualifier podium next to funny car’s Tommy Johnson Jr., pro stock’s Greg Stanfield and pro stock motorcycle rider Angelle Sampey.

TENNIS

Blake, Ljubicic to Meet in Thailand Final

Top-seeded Ivan Ljubicic had little trouble beating Paradorn Srichaphan, 6-3, 6-2, to reach the Thailand Open final at Bangkok.

Ljubicic will face third-seeded James Blake in today’s final. He rallied from a set down to beat former world No. 1 Marat Safin, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3).

Blake, who has never beaten Ljubicic, is chasing his fourth ATP title this year.

Fourth-seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues ground out a 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 win over Tzipi Obziler to advance to the Guangzhou Open final at Beijing.

Medina Garrigues will face No. 3 Anna Chakvetadze after top-seeded Jelena Jankovic retired because of heat illness in the second set of their semifinal while trailing, 7-5, 2-0.

Francesca Schiavone will try to end her losing streak in seven career finals when she meets Alona Bondarenko for the Fortis Championships title at Luxembourg.

Schiavone outlasted Agnieszka Radwanska, 7-5, 2-6, 6-1, and Bondarenko saved a match point in rallying past Kveta Peschke, 6-3, 5-7, 7-5.

Filippo Volandri advanced to his third successive Palermo International final at Palermo, Sicily, when Nicolas Almagro retired from the clay-court tournament with a left ankle injury.

Volandri’s opponent will be Nicolas Lapentti, who beat Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo, 6-2, 6-1.

Dmitry Tursunov stunned top-seeded Tommy Robredo, 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-1, to set up a Mumbai Open final against third-seeded Tomas Berdych.

GOLF

Trahan Maintains His Lead With a 71

D.J. Trahan shook off a double bogey to maintain a two-stroke lead in the Southern Farm Bureau Classic at Madison, Miss., birdieing the final two holes for a one-under-par 71 at Annandale Golf Club.

Trahan, who has led after all three rounds, had a 12-under 204 total after opening with rounds of 65 and 68. Two-time U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen (67) was second, and Daniel Chopra (68) and Brad Faxon (72) followed at nine under.

Andy Bean remained in position for his first Champions Tour victory, shooting a two-under 70 to take a two-stroke lead into the final round of the Greater Hickory Classic at Conover, N.C.

Ji-Hwan Park used clutch putting for a bogey-free final round of two-under 70 and thus became the first amateur to win the California State Open Golf Championship since Jason Gore in 1997.

MISCELLANY

Canadiens Acquire Niinimaa From Stars

The Montreal Canadiens acquired defenseman Janne Niinimaa from Dallas in a trade that sent center Mike Ribeiro to the Stars. Niinimaa has 54 goals and 262 assists in 700 games with Philadelphia, Edmonton, the New York Islanders and Dallas. Ribeiro had 50 goals and 103 assists in 276 games for Montreal.

Paul McCoy ran for 658 yards in a high school football game at Delbarton, W.Va. McCoy’s school, Matewan, defeated Burch, 64-0.

The total tops the National Federation of State High School Assns’ listed record of 619 yards set by Ronney Jenkins of Oxnard Hueneme in 1995. But high school records historian Doug Huff said the record is 739 yards by John Giannantonio of Netcong, N.J., in 1950, against Mountain Lakes.

Shani Davis won the 1,000-meter and 3,000-meter races in short track speedskating at West Allis, Wis., securing a spot on the World Cup team that will compete in China.