Larson steals win in Cup regular-season finale
RICHMOND, Va. — Kyle Larson and his Chip Ganassi Racing team needed a break, and it came with two laps to go.
Running second to a dominant Martin Truex Jr. and itching for fresh tires and a shot at victory in overtime, Larson got it when Derrike Cope’s car hit the wall, bringing out the seventh yellow flag of the night. Larson grabbed the lead on pit road and sailed to the victory late Saturday.
“I guess we stole the win, I guess you could say, or our pit crew, I felt like, stole the win because they got me off as the leader,” Larson said.
The victory was his fourth of the season, tying Truex for the most this year.
“I’m really pumped for the playoffs, we’ve got a really good shot at the championship,” Larson said. “I’ve got the greatest team out here and definitely the best pit crew. They were money all night long to gain spots. This win is a huge congrats to them.”
And to Cope, 58, who was starting his 13th race of the season and hasn’t finished better than 31st. He was 38th at Richmond.
Truex, who clinched the regular-season NASCAR Cup title last week, had the race easily in hand until Cope crashed with under four laps remaining.
Truex then wrecked in overtime while racing with Denny Hamlin for position. The sequence cost him his fifth win of the season.
“A caution for a guy who shouldn’t even have been out there,” Truex said about Cope. “It’s kind of ridiculous.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. was officially eliminated from the playoffs with a 13th-place finish. He is retiring at the end of the season, and never has won a Cup title.
Truex will still start the 10-race playoff stretch as the favorite to win the championship because he earned the most bonus points during the regular season. He and his Furniture Row Racing team were presented with the regular-season championship trophy.
Chaos erupted with 140 laps remaining because an ambulance clogged the entrance to pit road as cars headed to their stalls. When traffic bottlenecked, Matt Kenseth ran into the car in front of him, and his contending car was knocked out with a crumpled hood.
The incident could have knocked Kenseth out of the playoffs had there been a first-time winner, but Larson fixed that, allowing Kenseth, Chase Elliott and Jamie McMurray to make the 16-driver field as the only non-winners.
GOLF U.S. victorious at Walker Cup
The United States won back the Walker Cup from Britain and Ireland in an unprecedented runaway that atoned for a big loss two years ago.
Collin Morikawa, Doug Ghim and Maverick McNealy each went 4-0 — a first for a team in Walker Cup history — to lead the United States to a 19-7 victory Sunday in the biennial amateur matches at the exclusive Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course.
Norman Xiong, at 18 the youngest player in the competition, came painfully close to also going 4-0 before halving his match with Scott Gregory. Xiong, one of three Southern Californians who had huge performances this weekend, had been up 2 with two holes to play before Gregory caught him.
It was a big turnaround from two years ago, when Britain and Ireland won 16½-9½ at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. The 19 points for the Americans matched the most in Walker Cup history. That came in 1993 when the United States won 19-5 at Interlachen.
It was special for Morikawa in helping the United States extend its lead to 36-9-1 in a series that dates to 1922.
Morikawa, who is from La Canada Flintridge and plays at California, beat British Amateur champion Harry Ellis 2 and 1 to cap his perfect weekend. In other news: • Colin Montgomerie made all the putts he needed on Narita Golf Club’s massive greens to win the Japan Airlines Championship — the first PGA Tour Champions event in Japan.
The 54-year-old Scot two-putted for par from 50 feet on the par-4 18th hole, hitting his first to within 1½ feet, for a 5-under 67 and a one-stroke victory over Billy Mayfair (66) and second-round leader Scott McCarron (71).
COLLEGE FOOTBALL Missouri fires D-coordinator
DeMontie Cross was fired as Missouri’s defensive coordinator after a year and two games in the position.
The move was made a day after the Tigers (1-1) lost 31-13 to South Carolina and a week after they gave up 43 points to Football Championship Subdivision opponent Missouri State.
Cross’ firing is effective immediately, and no immediate replacement was named in the school’s announcement.
It comes ahead of Missouri’s matchup with Purdue on Saturday.
A former Missouri safety from 1994-96, Cross was stripped of his playcalling duties seven games into the 2016-17 season.
Even after head coach Barry Odom took over play-calling, the Tigers finished the season ranked worst in the Southeastern Conference in yards allowed per game.
PRO BASKETBALL Sun’s Miller top WNBA coach
Connecticut’s Curt Miller is the WNBA’s Coach of the Year, and the Sun’s Jonquel Jones earned the league’s most improved player award, the league announced.
Miller led the Sun to a fourth-place finish in the standings after the team lost Chiney Ogwumike to an injury before the season.
Connecticut lost five of its first six games before winning 17 of the next 21..
Jones broke the singleseason rebounding mark in becoming the first WNBA player to top 400 rebounds in a season.
CYCLING Froome claims Vuelta crown
Chris Froome paraded into Madrid to clinch his first Spanish Vuelta title and secure the elusive Tour de France-Vuelta double, while Spanish great Alberto Contador celebrated the end of his remarkable career in front of his home crowd.
Froome virtually secured victory with a solid performance in the difficult climb up the Alto de l’Angliru on Saturday, which marked the last competitive stage of the three-week race.
Froome, who earlier this year clinched his fourth Tour de France title, had finished runner-up in La Vuelta three times, including last year.
The Team Sky rider became the third man to complete the Tour-Vuelta double in the same season after Jacques Anquetil in 1963 and Bernard Hinault in 1978, when the Vuelta was still held in the spring months before the Tour de France.
PRO BASEBALL Skeeters defeat New Britain
Albert Cordero drive in a pair of runs, Joe Benson and Anthony Giansanti each had two hits, and the Sugar Land Skeeters defeated the host New Britain Bees 7-3 in Atlantic League play.
Andrew Johnston tossed a scoreless inning of relief to earn the victory for the Skeeters (63-71).