Stewart rips NASCAR for being like wrestling

Two-time champion Tony Stewart likened NASCAR to professional wrestling and accused it of using bogus caution flags to shape races in biting comments made on his weekly radio show in Charlotte, N.C.

Stewart’s appearance on his Tuesday night show was his first since skipping a post-race news conference in Phoenix. He dominated Saturday night’s race but lost after a late exchange of leads with winner Jeff Gordon. Stewart said he refused interviews to avoid bashing NASCAR after officials threw four cautions for debris on the track.

“It’s like playing God,” he said on his Sirius Satellite Radio program. “They can almost dictate the race instead of the drivers doing it. It’s happened too many times this year.

“I guess NASCAR thinks, ‘Hey, wrestling worked, and it was, for the most part staged, so I guess it’s going to work in racing too.’ I can’t understand how long the fans are going to let NASCAR treat them like they’re stupid before the fans finally turn on NASCAR.

“I don’t know that they’ve run a fair race all year.”

NASCAR called Stewart’s comments “very, very disappointing.”

Juan Pablo Montoya was fined $10,000 by NASCAR for making an obscene gesture on live television last week after practice at Phoenix International Raceway.

OLYMPICS

Six Austrian athletes receive lifetime bans

Six Austrian cross-country skiers and biathletes received lifetime bans from the Olympics for a 2006 Turin Winter Games blood-doping scheme -- the harshest sanctions given to athletes by the International Olympic Committee.

Those banned were cross-country skiers Martin Tauber, Juergen Pinter, Johannes Eder and Roland Diethart, and biathletes Wolfgang Perner and Wolfgang Rottmann.

It’s the first time the IOC has disqualified athletes for doping violations without positive tests, and the first time athletes have been banned by the IOC for life.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Clemson forward Mays declares for the draft

Clemson forward James Mays made himself available for the NBA draft but did not hire an agent, leaving open the chance of a return for his senior season.

Georgia Tech freshman point guard Javaris Crittenton made himself available for the draft but did not hire an agent.

Eastern Washington sophomore guard Rodney Stuckey made himself available for the NBA but did not hire an agent.

TENNIS

Nadal’s streak reaches 68 on clay courts

Two-time defending champion Rafael Nadal extended his unbeaten streak on clay to 68 matches by defeating Kristof Vliegen, 6-1, 6-2, in the second round of the Open Seat Godo in Barcelona, Spain.

Top-seeded Tathiana Garbin withdrew from the Budapest Grand Prix because of a left thigh injury after completing a rain-delayed 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Nuria Llagostera Vives in Hungary.

Third-seeded Julien Benneteau defeated Michael Russell, 6-3, 6-3, to reach the quarterfinals of the Grand Prix Hassan II at Casablanca, Morocco.

Making the upcoming NCAA championships a priority, the best men’s players from UCLA and USC will not play in the Pacific-10 Conference individual championships today through Sunday at the 107th Ojai Valley tournament at Libbey Park.

MISCELLANY

USC’s Rivers and Cushing have surgeries

USC linebackers Keith Rivers and Brian Cushing had arthroscopic surgeries in the last week and will be ready when training camp begins in August, Coach Pete Carroll said.

Rivers, a senior, had an ankle procedure. Cushing, a junior, a knee operation.

Separately, running back Michael Coleman requested and received release papers that will enable him to transfer, Carroll said. Coleman, a third-year sophomore, did not play last season because of a hip injury.

Brad Smith, a kicker who made 11 of 12 field goals last season for Davidson College, said he hoped to be accepted into a USC graduate program this week and play for the Trojans in the upcoming season.

Smith, an accomplished soccer player who did not play football in high school, played three seasons at Davidson. He would be immediately eligible at USC under the NCAA’s one-time transfer exception for non-recruited students because he was not recruited by Davidson and never received athletic-related financial aid from the school. “I have a year to chase my dreams,” Smith said in a phone interview.

-- Gary Klein

The Bowl Championship Series for college football, a system that has undergone adjustments almost annually since its inception in 1998, will not be changed for next season. No serious discussion of a playoff took place.

The St. Louis Rams’ long search for a return man ended when the team acquired Dante Hall from Kansas City in exchange for a fifth-round pick in this weekend’s draft. Hall, 28, has returned 11 kickoffs and punts for touchdowns.

Two-time defending champion Australia defeated South Africa by seven wickets in St. Lucia to reach the final of the cricket World Cup, setting up a replay of the 1996 championship match against Sri Lanka.

Columbus Crew forward Andy Herron was suspended four games and fined $3,000 by Major League Soccer’s disciplinary committee after he was caught on tape elbowing New England Revolution defender Jay Heaps.

Chivas USA defender Sacha Kljestan was suspended two games and fined $1,000 for a foul on Real Salt Lake’s Andy Williams on Saturday.

UCLA clinched the Lexus Gauntlet Championship for the third time in the award’s six-year history when the Bruins’ golf team finished second at the Pacific 10 Conference tournament in Eugene, Ore., one spot ahead of USC.

The Bruins lead the Trojans, 67.5-22.5 points, in the 18-sport competition.

Alan Ball, the youngest member (21) of the England team that won the 1966 World Cup, died of an apparent heart attack after trying to put out a fire in his garden in Hampshire. He was 61.