Daytona winner McDowell adds Brickyard crown to list
Michael McDowell raced to his second NASCAR crown jewel victory Sunday, dominating the Brickyard 200 — and putting himself in the playoffs for the second time in three years.
The 38-year-old Arizona driver who has made more than 450 career starts beat Chase Elliott across the yard of bricks by 0.937 seconds in the road-course race that had only one yellow f lag. Pole winner Daniel Suarez was third as the regular season winds down.
McDowell, also the 2021 Daytona 500 winner, gave Front Row Motorsports its fourth victory.
“We did it, we won Indy,” he shouted into the radio. “So thankful.”
McDowell made it look easy this time, too, winning the first stage, finishing behind only Denny Hamlin in the second stage and then inheriting the lead on Lap 54 during a round of pit stops and never trailed again. He led a career-best 54 laps in the 82-lap race.
He had to sneak through traffic after a wild crash to win at Daytona.
“These guys gave me everything today,” he said. “We had the fastest car. I don’t know if it was dominant, but it felt dominant.”
Brunson, U.S. pass Spanish test
The U.S. World Cup basketball team got its first big test of the summer, and a perfect shooting night from
Jalen Brunson helped ensure the Americans passed.
Brunson was nine for nine from the field on the way to a team-best 21 points,
Jaren Jackson Jr. added 14 and the U.S. pulled away in the fourth quarter to beat Spain 98-88 in a pre-World Cup exhibition between tournament favorites in Malaga, Spain. Spain is the topranked team in the world according to FIBA; the U.S. is No. 2.
Mikal Bridges scored 12 points and three players —
Brandon Ingram, Austin Reaves and Anthony Edwards — each added 11.
Phil Mickelson's bid for his first LIV Golf title ended early and spectacularly. Cam Smith rarely made winning look so easy at LIV Golf-Bedminster. Mickelson, playing in the final group for the first time since joining LIV last year, hit two tee shots in the water and made a quintuple-bogey eight on the par-three seventh hole to end his hopes. Smith closed with five birdies and a clean card for a three-under 68 and sevenshot victory . ... In Memphis, Lucas Glover made three big putts just to stay in the game and then hit the most important shot — on dry land in a playoff — to beat Patrick Cantlay on the first extra hole and win the St. Jude Championship for his second straight victory . ... In Snoqualmie, Wash., Stephen Ames opened and closed with eagles in a runaway victory in the Boeing Classic, his fourth Champions win of the season. Ames, 59, shot a nine-under 63 for a seven-stroke victory over defending champion Miguel Angel Jimenez.
Jordin Canada had 20 points and eight assists,
Nneka Ogwumike scored 17 points and the Sparks beat the Atlanta Dream 85-74 on Saturday night. Canada, who scored 13 second-half points, also had four steals and Ogwumike added seven rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocks.
Layshia Clarendon scored 16 points and Azurá Stevens had 15 points, on seven-of-12 shooting, and eight rebounds for the Sparks.
Seattle Mariners lefthander Marco Gonzales will undergo nerve surgery and miss the rest of the season. Gonzales will have surgery Aug. 22 to decompress the anterior interosseous nerve in his left forearm . ... Red Sox reliever Joely Rodríguez’s
season could be over after another setback in the lefthander’s injury-riddled season, manager Alex Cora
said . ... Texas Rangers AllStar catcher Jonah Heim
(left wrist tendon strain) was activated from the injured list and played in San Francisco.
Jessica Pegula routed Liudmila Samsonova 6-1, 6-0 to win the National Bank Open in Montreal for her third career WTA Tour victory. Pegula, the 29-year-old American seeded fourth, topped Samsonova after the 15th-seeded Russian beat third-seeded Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan 1-6, 6-1, 6-2 earlier Sunday in a rain-delayed semifinal . ... In Toronto, Jannik Sinner won the National Bank Open for his first ATP Masters 1000 title, beating Alex de Minaur 6-4, 6-1 . ... Top juniors Learner Tien, a 17-year-old from Irvine, and Clervie Ngounoue of Washington, D.C., won the USTA Boys’ and Girls’ 18s National Championships, earning each a main-draw wild card into the U.S. Open
Lotte Kopecky made it a trifecta of gold medals at the cycling world championships. After winning the points and elimination races during the track portion of the 11-day event, the Belgian standout shook free from a powerhouse breakaway and rode solo to the finish of the women’s road race in Glasgow, Scotland.
Paris Saint-Germain soccer superstar Neymar reportedly agreed a two-year deal to join Saudi Arabian club Al-Hilal. France’s leading sports daily L’Equipe said on its website that the PSG and Brazil forward will receive a total of 160 million euros ($175 million) over two seasons . ... Italy coach Roberto Mancini surprisingly resigned, ending an upand-down tenure with the national team that included a European Championship title in 2021 but also a failed qualification for last year’s World Cup.