Larson extends streak, dominating at Nashville

Kyle Larson won again — that’s all he does these days — this time in the Cup debut at Nashville Superspeedway, where Hendrick Motorsports’ new star drove to victory lane for the fourth consecutive week.

Larson led 264 of 300 laps Sunday for his third consecutive win in a points race, fourth straight including last weekend’s All-Star race.

That win at Texas Motor Speedway kicked off a stretch of four wins in seven days as Larson collected the $1 million All-Star payout then traveled to Ohio to pocket the $6,000 purses in two sprint car races.

Rick Hendrick’s cars have been to victory lane six consecutive weeks dating to Alex Bowman’s May 9 win at Dover.

Nashville Superspeedway re-opened this weekend after a decade of dormancy to host its first ever Cup race. .

Next up for Larson is a trip to Brandon, S.D., for World of Outlaws races tonight and Tuesday.

“All of the racing helps for everything I do. I win a Cup race and it helps me for dirt racing,” Larson said. “I think just racing a lot — I’m in racing situations more than anybody else in the world, really — but especially in Cup and I think that helps me stay sharp, it helps me be aggressive and understand what things are doing and tracks changing.”

Larson’s fourth Cup points win of the season was the first with sponsor Valvoline on his hood, which marked just the third time in 17 races this season that Larson featured a non-Hendrick company on his car.

He’s largely unsponsored after missing all but four races last season during a NASCAR suspension for using a racial slur while participating in an online race.

Ross Chastain finished second for Chip Ganassi Racing and Hendrick driver William Byron was third in a Chevrolet podium sweep.

• Formula One championship leader Max Verstappen overtook Lewis Hamilton on the penultimate lap to win the French Grand Prix and extend his lead over his rival to 12 points.

Verstappen used the DRS (drag reduction system) to catch Hamilton on Lap 52 and pass him on the inside before zooming off to clinch his third win of the season and 13th of his career.

It was a close call, though, with Red Bull’s gamble on a two-stop strategy for Verstappen countered by a onestopper for Hamilton as Mercedes kept him out on the same tires.

With five of 53 laps left, Hamilton was only 3.5 seconds ahead.

Verstappen quickly ate into that lead, kept calm and then positioned himself perfectly to attack on a long straight in the way Hamilton has done countless times in his record 98 wins.

Verstappen, who won by 2.9 seconds, has 131 points to Hamilton’s 119 after seven races.

• Alex Palou sailed past Josef Newgarden with two laps remaining to win at Road America and reclaim the IndyCar points lead as Team Penske lost its third consecutive race because of a late caution in Elkhart Lake, Wis.

Newgarden started from the pole and led 32 of the 55 laps until Ed Jones’ spin brought out the yellow with four to go. Newgarden got a good jump on the restart but Palou dipped left and sped around him for the lead.

Newgarden appeared to have a mechanical problem and plummeted from the lead to a 21st-place finish. He’s led 99 of 125 laps the last two IndyCar races but was denied a win a week ago in Detroit when Pato O’Ward ran him down following another late restart.

The driver who led the most laps has not won in IndyCar the last six races, and Team Penske is still seeking its first win of the year after nine races. It’s the deepest into a season Penske has gone without a victory since its 1999 winless season.

Jabeur first Arab female WTA winner

Second-seeded Ons Jabeur became the first Arab woman to win a WTA singles title with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Daria Kasatkina in the Viking Classic final in Birmingham, England.

It was also the Tunisian player’s first victory against Kasatkina.

The fourth-seeded Russian, who was going for her third title this year, had won both previous contests against Jabeur, but they were not on grass.

The 24th-ranked Jabeur lost her two previous singles finals — against Kasatkina in Moscow in 2018 and at Charleston earlier this season.

• Qualifier Liudmila Samsonova completed a remarkable week by beating Belinda Bencic 1-6, 6-1, 6-3 to win the German Open in Berlin.

Samsonova rallied after losing the opening set and hit 14 aces to on her way to her first ATP Tour title at the grass-court Wimbledon warm-up tournament.

The 106th-ranked Russian came through two rounds of qualifying and pulled off major upsets on her way as she ousted twotime Australian Open winner Victoria Azarenka in the semifinal after eliminating two former Grand Slam finalists, Madison Keys and Marketa Vondrousova, in earlier rounds.

• Ugo Humbert defeated Andrey Rublev 6-3, 7-6 (4) in the Halle (Germany) Open final for the biggest title win of his career.

• Big-serving Matteo Berrettini dropped a set for the first time at the Queen’s Club tournament before going on to beat Britain’s Cameron Norrie 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3 in the final in London.

Berrettini, 25, became the first newcomer to triumph at Queen’s since Boris Becker in 1985. Becker went on to win Wimbledon in the same year.

Mississippi St. tops Texas in record effort

Will Bednar struck out a career-high 15 over six innings, the most at the College World Series in 25 years, and Mississippi State held off Texas 2-1 in Omaha, Neb.

Bednar and Landon Sims set a CWS team record, combining for 21 strikeouts, and the Bulldogs (46-16) ran their season total to a Division I record-tying 766.

No. 2 national seed Texas (47-16) put only four balls in play against Bednar: three flyouts and Mitchell Daly’s base hit up the middle in the fourth.

Bednar (8-1) is the brother of Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher David Bednar. He fanned seven in a row from the first to third innings and broke the school’s single-game CWS record in the fourth with his 11th strikeout.

• Logan Michaels homered for the first time this season, Andrew Abbott pitched six shutout innings and Virginia beat Tennessee 6-0 at the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.

Rosskopf, Stephens win national titles

Joey Rosskopf timed his attack perfectly in the final mile to win the U.S. road cycling national championship, while Lauren Stephens won the first title of her long and decorated career by simply riding away from the rest of the field in Knoxville, Tenn.

Italy extends its unbeaten run to 30

Matteo Pessina scored the only goal and Italy extended its unbeaten streak to a record-tying 30 matches with a 1-0 victory over Wales at the European Championship in Rome.

Italy, which won its opening two matches 3-0, finished Group A with a perfect nine points.

Wales came second with four points and qualified for the last 16 at only its second European Championship.

• Xherdan Shaqiri scored two goals to give Switzerland a 3-1 victory over Turkey in Baku, Azerbaijan, and a likely place in the European Championship round of 16.

Switzerland finished third in Group A and will likely qualify as one of the four best third-place teams.