JJ storms Bristol to go back-to-back
Jimmie Johnson has won back-to-back races in NASCAR’s top series for the 11th time in his career with a rare win at Bristol Motor Speedway.
The seven-time NASCAR champion doesn’t consider Bristol to be his best track, and yesterday’s victory was only the second at Thunder Valley in his career. But Johnson’s Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports was strong enough to contend with Kyle Larson, the points leader and most dominant driver of the day. A speeding penalty on Larson late in the race allowed Johnson to make it look easy in the end.
Clint Bowyer finished second and Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kevin Harvick was third in the race postponed a day by rain.
Matt Kenseth was fourth, Joey Logano fifth and Larson rallied to sixth. Chase Elliott finished seventh and the top 10 was rounded out by Martin Truex Jr., Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Denny Hamlin.
NFL: Vikes’ Long retires
Jake Long, the first overall pick in the 2008 draft and a four-time Pro Bowl left tackle for the Miami Dolphins, decided to retire after a torn Achilles tendon ended his ninth NFL season early with the Minnesota Vikings. Long announced via Twitter that a lack of progress on his latest rehabilitation has outweighed his desire to continue playing. . . .
Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones’ court case was continued to May 16, when there will be a pretrial hearing. Jones faces three misdemeanor charges in Ohio after police say he pushed a hotel security employee and poked him in the eye in January, then kicked and head-butted as officers tried to put him into a police vehicle. . . .
Former Green Bay Packers cornerback Sam Shields will pay a $500 fine after pleading no contest to marijuana possession in Wisconsin stemming from an October arrest. Shields suffered his fourth concussion in the 2016 regularseason opener, spent several months on injured reserve and was released in February.
Colleges: UNC to NBA
Juniors Joel Berry II and Theo Pinson, who helped North Carolina to the national title this month, will join freshman Tony Bradley in declaring for the NBA draft, though they won’t hire agents. Berry was the Final Four’s most outstanding player. . . .
Oklahoma will play Southern California and St. John’s will take on Arizona State in the second annual Basketball Hall of Fame Classic on Dec. 8 in Los Angeles. The event is backed by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield. . . .
Michigan hired Mel Pearson as its new hockey coach. Pearson, who spent the past six seasons coaching Michigan Tech, replaces Red Berenson, who retired earlier this month after more than three decades at the helm.
Misc.: No Nazi ties
Holocaust survivors and supporters celebrated the termination of German insurance giant Allianz’s sponsorship of a PGA Champions Tour event in Boca Raton, Fla., which may boost survivors’ efforts to collect some $2.5 billion in World War II-era Jewish policies. Allianz has acknowledged collaborating with the Nazi regime in the 1930s and 1940s. ...
Serena Williams is briefly back at No. 1 in the Women’s Tennis Association rankings, despite not playing a match since January — and with plans to take the rest of 2017 off because she is expecting a baby. Thanks to a calendar quirk, Williams swapped places with now-No. 2 Angelique Kerber. ...
Former Red Sox pitcher Jonathan Aro, now in Triple A with the Seattle Mariners, was suspended 50 games for an unspecified violation of baseball’s drug policy. Also, former All-Star pitcher Steve Delabar, now in Triple A for the Cleveland Indians, was suspended for 80 games following a positive test. . . .
Russian heptathlete Tatyana Chernova was stripped of her 2008 Beijing Olympics bronze medal for doping with an anabolic steroid. Her urine sample revealed traces of turinabol in a retesting program. . . .
Jockeys Javier Castellano, Victor Espinoza and Garrett Gomez and the horse Goldikova were elected to the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.