Elliott slams brakes on Penske run
Chase Elliott won the second qualifying race for the Daytona 500 yesterday in Daytona Beach, Fla.
The win temporarily put the brakes on what has been a Team Penske route of Speedweeks.
Elliott’s victory gives him a starting spot in the second row of Sunday’s season-opening race. He’ll line up next to Ryan Blaney, winner of the first qualifier last night.
Blaney’s victory was the second of Speedweeks for Team Penske and set the three-car team up as the favorites to win the Daytona 500. Brad Keselowski won last week’s all-star race and Joey Logano has finished second to his teammates in both events.
Elliott’s win was a victory for Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports, which also has driver Alex Bowman on the pole for the Daytona 500.
Golf: Cantlay shares lead
Patrick Cantlay returned to what amounts to his home course on the PGA Tour and shot a 5-under-under 66 to share the lead at the Genesis Open in Los Angeles.
It sounds like a plot that belongs to Tiger Woods, who also grew up 40 miles away and returned to Riviera for the first time in 12 years. Woods lost a ball in a eucalyptus tree, recovered from a rugged start and shot 72.
Cantlay shared the lead with Tony Finau, who had four birdies in his opening five holes.
Cantlay grew up in Long Beach and played at UCLA, where he was the No. 1 amateur in the world. Because of back problems that kept him out of golf for three years, this was his first time playing Riviera in five years . . . .
Jin Young Ko made six birdies on the back nine in her LPGA Tour debut to take a 2-stroke lead in the opening round of the Women’s Australian Open in Adelaide, Australia.
Ko, playing in one of the final afternoon groups at Kooyanga, carded a 7-under-par 65 to move past second-place Jiyai Shin, a fellow South Korean.
Asked about her goals for the week, Ko replied: “First one is make the cut, second one is enjoy.”
Former world No. 1 Lydia Ko of New Zealand was among a large group tied for third with 68s, 3 strokes behind.
NFL: McCarron on market
AJ McCarron has won his arbitration case against the Cincinnati Bengals and will become an unrestricted free agent next month, making him one of the more attractive quarterbacks on the market.
McCarron challenged the Bengals’ decision to put him on a nonfootball injury list his rookie year of 2014, when the fifth-round pick had a sore passing shoulder. The Bengals contended he should be under contract for an additional season in 2018. An independent arbitrator ruled in McCarron’s favor.
McCarron was Andy Dalton’s backup in Cincinnati and wants a chance to start somewhere. He took over when Dalton broke his thumb late in the 2015 season and led the Bengals to the playoffs, where they lost to Pittsburgh . . . .
New Arizona Cardinals coach Steve Wilks says wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald — arguably the most popular and certainly the most prolific player to don a Cardinals uniform — has told him he’ll return for a 15th NFL season . ...
Kicker Sebastian Janikowski’s career with the Oakland Raiders has ended after 18 seasons. Owner Mark Davis released a statement thanking Janikowski for his contributions to the franchise. Janikowski is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent next month and the Raiders told him this week they don’t plan to retain him.
Misc.: Nashville next
The Davis Cup quarterfinal between the United States and Belgium will take place April 6-8 at Belmont University in Nashville . . . .
Top-seeded Kevin Anderson needed a third-set tiebreaker to beat American Ernesto Escobedo 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5) in the second round of the New York Open in Uniondale, N.Y . . . .
In Buenos Aires, Argentina,
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez beat second-seeded Spanish countryman
Pablo Carreno Busta 7-6 (5), 1-6, 7-6 (6) to reach the Argentina Open quarterfinals.