Gibbs records fourth victory, Xfinity title chase wide open
Ty Gibbs upset the field again, racing to his fourth Xfinity Series victory of the season Saturday in Kansas City, Kan., and stopping title contenders AJ Allmendinger and Austin Cindric from advancing to the championship round.
Gibbs passed reigning champion Cindric with 10 laps remaining at Kansas Speedway and the 19-yearold cruised to yet another victory in his part-time Joe Gibbs Racing ride.
The grandson of the Hall of Fame team owner needed only to start the ARCA Series race later Saturday to clinch that championship.
He’ll be full-time in the Xfinity Series next season, but for now, he’s a roadblock for the championship contenders.
Cindric finished second and Allmendinger, a San Jose native, was third. A playoff driver has yet to win in this round of the playoffs, so all four spots in the championship finale are wide open next weekend at Martinsville Speedway.
F1’S VERSTAPPEN EDGES RIVAL >> Formula One’s title race took another turn when Max Verstappen edged title rival Lewis Hamilton for the pole at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, where the seven-time champion Hamilton has dominated.
Hamilton has won the U.S. Grand Prix five times and the Mercedes team was supposed to have the edge over Red Bull.
Verstappen won the pole at the buzzer by a mere .209 seconds.
Golf
FLESCH TAKES LEAD >> Steve Flesch birdied the par-4 18th hole for a 5-under 67 and a two-stroke lead over Bernhard Langer and Steven Alker in the Dominion Energy Charity Classic, the first of three PGA Tour Champions playoff events.
Flesch reached 13-under 131 with his second straight
bogey-free round on The Country Club of Virginia’s James River Course. He has played the back nine in 9 under.
The 54-year-old Flesch won the 2018 Mitsubishi Electric Classic for his lone senior title. He won four times on the PGA Tour.
Langer, the 64-year-old German star who leads the Charles Schwab Cup points standings, also had a 67. He won the Richmond event in 2017.
Alker, the 50-year-old New Zealander who had a one-stroke lead over Flesch after an opening 63, dropped back with a 70. MATSUYAMA HANGS ONTO LEAD >> Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama held on to a one-stroke lead at the PGA Tour’s Zozo Championship after a 2-under 68 which included a bogey on his last hole to make things interesting heading into the final round in Chiba, Japan.
Matsuyama trailed by a stroke after the first round, led by one after the second and had a 54-hole total of 10-under 200 on the par70, 7,041-yard Narashino Country Club course.
Cameron Tringale also shot 68. He trailed by three strokes going to the final hole but his birdie and Matsuyama’s bogey reduced the lead to just one.Sebastian Munoz (68), Brendan
Steele (70) and Matt Wallace (70), were tied for third, four strokes behind Matsuyama.
LIM TOPS LEADERBOARD >> Hee Jeong Lim took a four-stroke lead into the final round of the LPGA Tour’s BMW Ladies Championship after a 7-under 65 in Busan, South Korea. Lim had a 54-hole total of 18-under 198 on the LPGA International Busan course.
Fellow South Korean players Jin Young Ko (67) and Na Rin An (69) were tied for second.
NHL
BLACKHAWKS STAR KANE MISSES PRACTICE >> Chicago Blackhawks star Patrick Kane missed practice because of the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol.
Fellow forward Ryan Carpenter and defenseman Erik Gustafsson also missed practice for the same reason.
The announcement doesn’t necessarily mean that any of the players tested positive. General manager Stan Bowman said during training camp that the team was 100% vaccinated.
Chicago hosts the Detroit Red Wings today. The struggling Blackhawks are off to a 0-4-1 start.
The Blackhawks recalled forward Reese Johnson from Rockford of the American Hockey League. Johnson had a goal and an assist during the IceHogs’ 6-3 loss to Iowa on Friday night.
Gymnastics
BRAZIL’S ANDRADE WIN WORLD TITLE >> Rebeca Andrade of Brazil added a world title to her Tokyo Olympic gold medal in vault and also won a silver medal in uneven bars at the world championships in Kitakyushu, Japan.
Andrade scored 15.133 points on her first vault and 14.800 on her second effort, a double-twisting Yurchenko, for a 14.966 average.
Asia D’Amato of Italy took silver with 14.083 points while all-around champion Angelina Melnikova of Russia was third with 13.966.
In other events, Stephen Nedoroscik won the firstever pommel horse gold for the United States with 15.266 points. Weng Hao of China and Kaya Kazuma of Japan shared the silver with 14.900 points.
Tennis
SINNER TOPS HARRIS AT EUROPEAN OPEN >> Jannik Sinner reached his fifth tourlevel final of the season and stayed in contention for the ATP Finals by beating Lloyd Harris 6-2, 6-2 at the European Open in Antwerp, Belgium.
Second-seeded Diego Schwartzman of Argentina beat American qualifier Jenson Brooksby 6-4, 6-0 in the other semifinal match at the indoor hardcourt tournament.
The final will be the first meeting between Sinner and Schwartzman. KREMLIN CUP FINAL SET >> Anett Kontaveit will face Ekaterina Alexandrova in the final of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow after Maria Sakkari retired from her semifinal match with Alexandrova.
Sakkari was trailing 4-1 in the first set when she retired. Tournament organizers said she cited dizziness.
Alexandrova has a 1-1 career record in finals.