Elliott wins race; Kyle Busch is out
NASCAR will crown a new champion this year after Kyle Busch’s elimination in the second round of the playoffs.
Chase Elliott won on the hybrid road course- oval at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N. C., where four drivers, including Busch, were trimmed from title contention. Busch f inished the race 30th. Austin Dillon, Clint Bowyer and Aric Almirola also were ousted.
Elliott advanced into the round of eight with Denny Hamlin and Kurt Busch, who won the f irst two races of the second round, and joins Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano and Alex Bowman.
Logano f inished second in Sunday’s race and was followed by Erik Jones.
Lewis Hamilton matched Michael Schumacher’s record of 91 wins in Formula One with a victory in the Eifel Grand Prix in Nurburg, Germany, as he took another stride toward his seventh championship.
Martin Laird lost a chance to win by bogeying the 18th hole but redeemed himself in a three- way playoff by making a 20- foot birdie putt on the second extra hole to win the PGA Tour’s Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas.
Laird ended seven years without a victory, outlasting Matthew Wolff and Austin Cook at TPC Summerlin. Laird shot a three- underpar 68 to fall into the playoff at 23- under 261 with Wolff and Cook, who each shot a 66. They all parred the parfour 18th in the playoff, and Laird ended it on the parthree 17th.
Sei Young Kim f ired a seven- under 63 in the KPMG
Women’s PGA Championship in Newtown Square, Pa., for a f ive- stroke victory and her f irst major title. ... Ernie Els birdied the f inal two holes for a one- stroke win in the PGA Tour Champions’ SAS Championship in Cary, N. C. ... On the European Tour, Tyrrell Hatton won the BMW PGA Championship in England.
Louisiana State fell out of the Associated Press college football poll for the first time since 2017. USC, which will open its season Nov. 7 against Arizona State, moved into the rankings at No. 25. ... Seventh- ranked Oklahoma State’s game scheduled for Saturday at Baylor has been moved to Dec. 12 because of an increase in COVID- 19 cases in the Bears’ program.
Winger Taylor Hall agreed to sign a one- year, $ 8million deal with Buffalo. The Sabres are Hall’s third team in two years after New Jersey traded him to Arizona this past season. He won the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s MVP in 2018.
In other NHL moves, St. Louis signed free- agent forward Kyle Clifford, a twotime Stanley Cup- winner with the Kings, to a two- year, $ 2- million contract. … Dallas re- signed center Radek Faksa to a f ive- year, $ 16.25million contract. … Detroit signed free- agent center Vladislav Namestnikov to a two- year, $ 4- million contract.
Portugal and France lost their perfect records in this season’s UEFA Nations League after playing to a 0- 0 draw near Paris.