NEWSWIRE : Earnhardt Gets Checkered Win in Bristol Race

In recent years, Dale Earnhardt has left some Winston Cup fans wondering if he has lost his competitive edge. On Saturday night in Bristol, Tenn., many of them questioned whether he had too much.

Earnhardt spun out leader Terry Labonte on the final lap, then went on to take the checkered flag in the Goody’s 500 as many fans in a record Bristol Motor Speedway crowd of about 140,000 cascaded him with boos.

Earnhardt’s response? Bring it on.

“I’ve got big shoulders,” he said. “I can take the blame or take the pressure or whatever.”

It was the 73rd career win for Earnhardt and it gave him his first multiple-victory season since 1996.

In Victory Lane, Earnhardt tried to explain his move, which came on the 36-degree banking of the second turn of the .533-mile oval. Earnhardt tapped Labonte from behind, sending him into a spin that eventually sent his car slamming into the backstretch wall.

Earnhardt slipped past, took the checkered flag, drove to Victory Lane and offered his side of the story as the fans almost drowned out his words with their derisive cheers.

“I didn’t mean to turn him around,” Earnhardt said, “but I wanted to rattle his cage.”

Labonte was unimpressed.

“He never has any intention of taking anybody out,” Labonte said. “It just happens that way.”

NASCAR officials reviewed videotape of the collision from several angles and elected to let the race results stand.

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Greg Ray claimed his third IRL pole of the season, needing a tiebreaker to edge Sam Schmidt in a tuneup for the Colorado Indy 200 at Fountain, Colo. For the first time in IRL qualification history, two drivers posted identical pole-setting speeds. Ray and Schmidt were clocked in 20.424 seconds over Pikes Peak International Raceway’s one-mile oval for matching speeds of 176.263 mph. Ray was given the pole because, according to the IRL rule book, he posted the speed first.

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Mika Hakkinen of Finland claimed his 10th pole of the season and 20th of his career today for today’s Formula One Belgian Grand Prix at Francorchamps.

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Mike Bliss, winless for almost a year, squeezed his Ford around the trucks of Jay Sauter and Boris Said with fewer than six laps remaining and held on to win the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series O’Reilly Auto Parts 275 at Topeka, Kan.

Swimming

Lenny Krayzelburg, formerly of USC, set his third backstroke world record of the Pan Pacific championships in a special 50-meter time trial in Sydney, Australia.

So far, 12 world records have been broken at the games, including at least one in seven consecutive days, in the pool that will be used for next year’s Summer Olympics.

Krayzelburg’s time of 24.99 seconds beat the 25.13 set by fellow American Jeff Rouse before the event was given world record status two years ago by FINA, the sport’s governing body.

Tennis

Venus Williams showed she’s ready for the U.S. Open, defeating top-seeded Lindsay Davenport, 6-2, 7-5, for the Pilot Pen championship at New Haven, Conn.

It was Williams’ fifth singles title of the year, one fewer than top-ranked Martina Hingis. Williams has beaten Davenport in their last two meetings. Davenport, ranked No. 2, has an 8-3 advantage in their career meetings. Williams is ranked a career-high No. 3 in the world.

Sixth-seeded Marat Safin of Russia rallied to defeat Sjeng Schalken of the Netherlands, 5-7, 6-3, 6-1, in the semifinals of the U.S. Pro Championships at at Brookline, Mass. In today’s final, he will meet top-seeded Greg Rusedski of Britain, a 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 winner over unseeded Arnaud Clement of France. . . . Second-seeded Alex Corretja of Spain rebounded from a slow start to defeat Daniel Vacek of the Czech Republic, 6-4, 6-1, and advance to the final of the Hamlet Cup at Commack, N.Y. Corretja, a wild-card entry, will face Magnus Norman of Sweden, who beat Jason Stoltenberg of Australia, 7-6 (7-3), 5-7, 6-3. . . . Australian Mark Philippoussis, seeded 11th, withdrew from the U.S. Open because of a knee injury suffered this summer at Wimbledon.

Miscellany

Unbeaten Dariusz Michalczewski of Germany stopped Montell Griffin in the fourth round of a light-heavyweight bout at Bremen, Germany.

YoungAmerica, one of five U.S. challengers for the America’s Cup, sent its second boat to Auckland, New Zealand, for the Louis Vuitton races in which 13 boats from eight countries will vie for the right to challenge Team New Zealand for the trophy. The Vuitton Challenge, which begins Oct. 18, is a series of races that takes place over three months. The winner will go on to challenge Team New Zealand for the America’s Cup. The final series is set to start Feb. 18.

The Sacramento Kings extended the contract of director of player personnel Jerry Reynolds.