Kurt Busch wins NASCAR race
Luck finally fell Kurt Busch’s way at his home track, where he pulled out an upset Sunday night at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to sneak his way into the third round of the NASCAR Cup playoffs.
Busch ended an 0-for-21 losing streak at Las Vegas with good timing and then three tremendous restarts. He entered the race 12th in the standings and in danger of elimination from title contention, but the victory earned him an automatic berth into the next round.
The win, the first of the season for the 2004 Cup champion, was celebrated alongside younger brother, Kyle. The reigning NASCAR champion slammed doors with his big brother on the cool-down lap. Busch then took the checkered flag to the finish line and smacked it on each of the letters in Las Vegas.
“This is what kids grow up when they are racing,” Busch said. “They grow up dreaming of winning on their home track and for two decades it has kicked my butt.”
It was the first win of the year for Chip Ganassi Racing and the first in the playoffs for a Chevrolet driver.
■ Valtteri Bottas won the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi after his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton’s race was ruined by penalties. Hamilton had been looking to match Michael Schumacher’s record of 91 wins in F1 but had to settle for third behind Bottas and Max Verstappen. Bottas built a sizeable lead over Verstappen with ease and cruised to his first win since the seasonopening Austrian Grand Prix. Hamilton was already under investigation by the stewards when he started the race from pole. Before the race, he twice stopped to perform practice starts at the exit of the pit lane, rather than in the designated area. That eventually earned him two fivesecond penalties. Hamilton’s championship lead over Bottas was cut to a still-healthy 44 points with seven scheduled races remaining.
College football: No. 6 Ohio State, No. 10 Penn State and No. 14 Oregon returned to The AP Top 25. At the top of the rankings this week, Clemson remained No. 1 with 55 first-place votes, followed by Alabama at No. 2 with three first-place votes.
Golf: Hudson Swafford stopped his slide with a 10-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole, and he finished with an 8-foot par putt to hold on for a one-shot win at the Corales Puntacana Club and Resort Championship in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Swafford closed with a 3-under 69 to finish at 18-under 270 and earn his second career PGA Tour victory. Tyler McCumber (69) was second.
Soccer: Luis Suarez scored two goals in his debut for Atletico Madrid, leading the La Liga club to a 6-1 rout of Granda just four days after his arrival from Barcelona. ... Lionel Messia scored to help Barca top Villarreal 4-0 in Ronald Koeman’s debut as coach of the Spanish power. ... Hoffenheim ended Bayern Munich’s 32-game run without defeat with a 4-1 win in the Bundesliga.