Jones races to Xfinity win at Fort Worth Denver captures NCAA crown
FORT WORTH — Erik Jones led 112 of 200 laps to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the repaved and reconfigured Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday.
Jones, 20, got his seventh career Xfinity victory, getting this one at the 1½mile track where he first made it to Victory Lane two years ago.
Jones finished the No. 20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing a half-second ahead of Ryan Blaney, another full-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver. Blaney led 43 laps and went into his final pit stop still with the lead before Jones went back in front for good on lap 156.
Kevin Harvick, the pole-sitter for Sunday’s Cup race, finished third.
In other motor sports news:
• Helio Castroneves won the pole for Sunday’s IndyCar race at Long Beach for the third consecutive year. The Team Penske driver held off five Hondas to secure the top starting spot on the temporary street course through Long Beach. He had the only Chevrolet in the final round of qualifying and needed a track-record lap of 1 minute, 06.22 seconds to win the pole. Scott Dixon qualified second.
• Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton set a track record in capturing his sixth pole position at the Chinese Grand Prix, breaking the 13-year-old mark held by Michael Schumacher by more than half a second. Hamilton, a four-time champion at Shanghai, had a time of 1 minute, 31.678 seconds.
TENNIS U.S. stays alive in Davis Cup
Late substitute Jack Sock and partner Steve Johnson kept the United States alive in its Davis Cup quarterfinal with Australia, beating Sam Groth and John Peers 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 in doubles.
The win on a hard court at Brisbane’s Pat Rafter Arena reduced Australia’s advantage to 2-1 ahead of Sunday’s reverse singles.
U.S. captain Jim Courier replaced scheduled doubles player Sam Querrey with Sock about an hour ahead of Saturday’s match, despite Sock having lost his singles match to Jordan Thompson on Friday.
HOCKEY Capitals, Bruins may do it again
Kevin Shattenkirk scored the go-ahead goal 56 seconds after Boston tied it in the second period, and NHL-leading Washington sent the Bruins to a season-ending 3-1 loss at Boston that set up a potential first-round playoff matchup between the NHL Eastern Conference teams.
Earlier in the day, Ottawa beat the visiting New York Rangers 3-1 to clinch the No. 2 spot in the Atlantic Division with one game remaining. And Toronto beat visiting Pittsburgh 3-1 to wrap up its first playoff spot since 2013 and move into a tie with Boston at 95 points; the Bruins hold the tiebreaker.
Jarid Lukosevicius scored three goals in the second period as Denver beat Minnesota-Duluth 3-2 in Chicago to win its first NCAA hockey title since 2005.
Troy Terry had two assists, and Tanner Jaillet made 38 saves as the Pioneers moved into a tie with North Dakota for second on the NCAA list with eight men’s hockey titles. Denver (33-7-4) also made it to the Frozen Four last year but lost 4-2 to the Fighting Hawks in the semifinals.
Lukosevicius’ three goals in a 7:39 span finished off the first hat trick in an NCAA final since Pioneers coach Jim Montgomery accomplished the feat in Maine’s 5-4 victory over Lake Superior State in 1993. It also helped Montgomery become only the fourth man to win the championship as a head coach and player.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL Ex-Baylor QB shines at Auburn
Jarrett Stidham supplied fans at Auburn’s spring game with hope that a passing game that frequently has sputtered the past few seasons is due for some improvement, deep balls and all. The former Baylor quarterback, who arrived in January after sitting out last season at a community college in Waco, made a good impression after three months of hype.
Playing only in the first half, Stidham completed 16 of 20 passes for 267 yards in leading the first-team offense. He also scored on that 1-yard run after collecting the fumble — which he called “offense by accident” — and had four completions topping 30 yards.
“It was a blast,” Stidham said.
HORSE RACING Gormley claims Santa Anita race
Gormley won the $1 million Santa Anita Derby in Arcadia, Calif., by a half-length in the West’s major prep for the Kentucky Derby.
Ridden by Victor Espinoza, Gormley ran 11⁄8 miles in 1:51.16.
Battle of Midway was second and was followed by Royal Mo and Reach the World. Illiad, the 3-1 favorite, finished fifth in the 13-horse field. In other news: • Irish War Cry won the $750,000 Wood Memorial by four lengths at Aqueduct in New York. Ridden by Rajiv Maragh, Irish War Cry ran 11⁄8 miles in 1:50.91. Battalion Runner, co-favorite at 2-1 with Cloud Computing, was second, and Cloud Computing took third.
• Long shot Irap won the $1 million Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland for his first career victory, holding off Practical Joke by three-quarters of a length as favorite McCraken made a late charge to finish third. Jockey Julien Leparoux guided Irap over 11⁄8 miles in 1:50.39.
BOXING Pacquiao agrees to take on Horn
Manny Pacquiao will fight Australian Jeff Horn on July 2 at Brisbane’s 52,500-seat Suncorp Stadium in a defense of Pacquiao’s World Boxing Organization welterweight title.
Promoters for Horn, a 29-year-old former schoolteacher and the No. 2 contender, had been working on a possible deal to fight Pacquiao since January.
Pacquiao and his camp had attempted to line up a higher-paying fight with Britain’s Amir Khan in the Middle East, stalling the negotiations for several months.
Pacquiao, 38, is an 11time world champion over eight weight divisions and is a senator in the Philippines. He has a record of 59-6-2 while Horn is 16-0-1.