Kyle Busch picks up 100th NASCAR victory

Kyle Busch grabbed a souvenir for his victory lap Saturday: a white “100” flag that rippled out the window of his No. 18 Toyota, one special number and a giant slice of NASCAR history.

Whether purists like it or not, Busch joined an elite list in auto racing history, becoming the third NASCAR driver to win 100 races.

Busch’s victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon also tied him with Mark Martin for first place in career Nationwide Series victories with 49. Busch has 22 Sprint Cup wins and 29 in the truck series.

“It will stick out for a long time because it is No. 100,” Busch said. “But I’m not going to say it’s the biggest one. This is certainly a special day.”

It might not even be his biggest victory this weekend if he wins the Sprint Cup race Sunday.

Richard Petty is NASCAR’s career leader with 200 wins and David Pearson is second with 106. Petty won all of his races at the Cup level. Pearson won 105 Cup races and one Nationwide race.

“You set your goals high and get out there and try and do it,” Busch said. “It’s down the road, but hopefully one day we get to 200.”

Kevin Harvick was second Saturday and Kasey Kahne finished third. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Aric Almirola rounded out the top five.

SOCCER

Argentina loses in Copa America

The Copa America is over for host Argentina, and its drought in major championships will extend to at least 20 years.

The host country’s run in the tournament ended in a dramatic 5-4 shootout loss to Uruguay in the quarterfinals, disappointing fans watching the match in Santa Fe and millions more countrywide hoping to see the national team win its first major title since 1993. The score was 1-1 after extra time and Uruguay won, 5-4, on penalty kicks after Carlos Tevez had his shot blocked.

Uruguay joined Peru in the semifinals of the South American competition. Peru needed two extra-time goals to get past Colombia, 2-0, in Cordoba. The Colombians missed a 65th-minute penalty kick and had two shots defect off the goal frame in the final minutes.

Ryan McGivern and Shaun Wright-Phillips scored first-half goals and England’s Manchester City kicked off its North American tour with a 2-0 win over Mexico’s Club America in the World Football Challenge at San Francisco.

ETC.

Kirk leads by one at Viking Classic

PGA Tour rookie Chris Kirk shot an eight-under-par 64 and took a one-stroke lead going into the final round of the PGA Tour’s Viking Classic at Annandale Golf Club in Madison, Miss.

Kirk finished at 18 under. Sunghoon Kang, D.J. Trahan, George McNeill and Peter Lonard were tied for second.

Kirk, 26, has been one of the PGA Tour’s most successful rookies this season. He tied for second behind Phil Mickelson at the Shell Houston Open and is 51st on the money list.

Juan Carlos Ferrero rallied past Federico del Bonis of Argentina, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, and will play fellow Spaniard Pablo Andujar in the final of the Mercedes Cup at Stuttgart, Germany. Andujar beat Lukasz Kubot of Poland, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

Local favorite Robin Soderling will play David Ferrer of Spain in a Swedish Open final between former champions. The fifth-ranked Swede routed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, 6-1, 6-0, at Bastad, Sweden, and second-seeded Ferrer beat defending champion Nicolas Almagro, 6-1, 6-3 in a matchup of Spaniards.

Polona Hercog of Slovenia reached her second WTA final in row, defeating top-seeded Flavia Pennetta, 6-2, 6-2 at the Palermo Open in Italy. Seventh-seeded Hercog will play four-time Palermo champion Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain. Fifth-seeded Medina Garrigues defeated Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic, 7-5, 6-3.

Austria’s Patricia Mayr-Archleitner routed Ksenia Pervak of Russia, 6-0, 6-0, at the Gastein Ladies in Bad Gastein, Austria, and reached her first WTA Tour final. She will play Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain, who defeated Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine, 6-1, 7-6 (5).

For the first time in the 65-year history of the Little League Baseball World Series, a team from Africa will be in the field. Rev. John Foundation Little League from Kampala, Uganda, won the Middle East and Africa Region Tournament with a 6-4 victory against a 17-time World Series qualifier, Arabian American Little League from Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

Ricky Burns of Scotland stopped former champion Nicky Cook of England in the first round, retaining his WBO super-featherweight title at Liverpool, England. … Marco Huck of Germany knocked out Hugo Hernan Garay of Argentina in the 10th round at Munich, retaining his WBO cruiserweight title.