Matt Kenseth wins on his birthday

Matt Kenseth won on his 41st birthday for his new Joe Gibbs Racing team, barely holding off Kasey Kahne in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series for his third victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday.

Kenseth earned the 25th victory of his career in only his third start in the JGR Toyota after leaving Roush Fenway Racing in the off-season. He took the lead away from Kahne out of a late restart and fended off Kahne’s Chevrolet over the final laps, adding another trophy to his Las Vegas victories in 2003 and 2004.

Pole sitter Brad Keselowski finished third, with hometown driver Kyle Busch in fourth and Carl Edwards fifth. Jimmie Johnson, the overall points leader, was sixth and Dale Earnhardt Jr. seventh.

ETC.

Scott Brown went from a one-shot deficit to a one-shot victory in the Puerto Rico Open when he made a four-foot birdie putt on the par-five 18th hole at Rio Grande to beat Fabian Gomez and capture his first PGA Tour title.

Brown closed with a two-under 70, his final birdie set up with a three-iron that he kept low to avoid palm trees and leave himself a 30-yard pitch short of the green. Gomez closed with a 71.

Brown finished at 20-under 268 to set the tournament record.

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Rumor defeated 4-5 favorite Teddy’s Promise by half a length to win the $100,000 Las Flores Stakes at Santa Anita.

Ridden by Hall of Fame member Mike Smith, Rumor ran 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:15.44 and paid $15, $5 and $3.

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The Cal Poly Pomona men’s basketball team will open the NCAA Division II tournament against Chico State this week in Bellingham, Wash., with the day and time to be announced. Pomona, which won the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. regular-season title before defeating Chico State to win the conference tournament Saturday night, has a 27-2 record and was seeded second in the West Region.

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Overall champion Tina Maze of Slovenia beat Mikaela Shiffrin in a World Cup slalom at Ofterschwang, Germany, to overtake the American teenager in the discipline standings and close in on becoming the first woman to win five crystal globes in a season.

Maze also got a piece of another record in a season in which she has already broken several, equaling Austrian great Hermann Maier’s mark of 22 World Cup podiums in 1999-2000. The Slovenian earlier broke Maier’s record for points in a season.

Maze finished her two runs in 1 minute 52.85 seconds to beat Wendy Holdener of Switzerland by 0.25 of a second.

Ivica Kostelic of Croatia won a rain-drenched World Cup slalom, and Marcel Hirscher of Austria clinched the season title in the event after his sole rival skied out in the opening run.

Kostelic mastered the difficult conditions at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, to finish in a total time of 1 minute 45.81 seconds. Hirscher was 0.19 behind in second and fellow Austrian Mario Matt came in third, 0.34 behind Kostelic.