Hamlin gets win at Richmond Raceway; Embiid (knee) nearing return for 76ers
Virginia native Denny Hamlin ran away in a green-white-checker shootout to win the NASCAR Cup Series’ Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway on Sunday night.
After Bubba Wallace
brought out a caution by spinning Kyle Larson
with two laps to go and with Martin Truex Jr.
seemingly headed to victory, the 16 lead-lap cars pitted with Hamlin emerging as the leader, followed by Joey Logano and Larson.
Hamlin managed to pull away from Logano and Larson to win by 0.269 seconds.
It was Hamlin’s 53rd win and fifth at Richmond.
“This is all pit crew — this is a team win, for sure,” said Hamlin, who led for 17 laps. “This trophy needs to go to each of these pit crew members. They did an amazing job and have been killing it all year.”
Truex and Chase Elliott completed the top five.
“I got beat out of the pits, you know, and got — I don’t know, he jumped the start,” said Truex, who led a race-high 228 laps. “Then he used me up in Turn 1.”
In his 300th career Cup start, Chris Buescher brought his No. 17 Ford home ninth.
Hendrick Motorsports drivers Larson and Elliott occupied the front row, but the 400-lap event was hindered and delayed briefly by rain.
After track-drying efforts made the threequarter-mile track raceable but still damp, NASCAR threw a curveball at the field and opted to run wet weather tires.
NBA
Embiid back soon: Philadelphia star Joel Embiid is expected to return this week from a left knee injury sustained in late January, ESPN reported Monday.
The 76ers next play Tuesday night against Oklahoma City. His status for that home game was to be announced late Monday. The 76ers (40-35) have seven games remaining and have fallen to the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference.
Embiid, 30, has been sidelined since a collision with Golden State forward Jonathan Kuminga on Jan. 30. He underwent a procedure Feb. 6 to fix the damage to his meniscus.
The 76ers own a 26-8 record with Embiid on the floor this season. They are 11-18 without Embiid since the injury.
Doncic grounds Rockets: Dallas’ Luka Doncic had 47 ppoints, 12 rebounds and seven assists Sunday night in Houston to lead the Mavericks to a 125-107 victory. While winning their seventh straight game and 11th in their last 12 outings, the Mavericks shattered the Rockets’ 11-game winning streak. The Mavs climbed to fifth — tied with New
Orleans, which played Monday night — in the Western Conference with eight games remaining.
Nine threes for LeBron: LeBron James made nine of his 10 threepoint attempts Sunday night to lead the L.A. Lakers to a 116-104 win at Brooklyn, Yahoo Sports reported. He had nine three-pointers once before, but needed 14 attempts on that occasion. He finished with 40 points.
GOLF
PGA: Stephan Jaeger made nine consecutive pars on the back nine Sunday and held off a crowded field of contenders to win the Texas Children’s Houston Open for his first PGA Tour victory.
The 34-year-old from Germany had won on the Korn Ferry Tour six times, but he earned his breakthrough PGA victory by shooting a final-round, 3-under 69 to card a 12under 268 for the week.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who was vying for his third victory in as many starts, finished three strokes back in a five-way tie for second with last year’s champion Tony Finau, Taylor Moore,
Belgium’s Thomas Detry
and rookie Alejandro Tosti of Argentina.
LPGA: Nelly Korda
won for the second straight week, posting a 7-under 65 in her final round Sunday to capture the Ford Championship title in Gilbert, Ariz. She finished at 20-under 268 and outlasted Australia’s Hira Naveed by two shots.
It marked not only two wins in two weeks for Korda, but also three wins in three LPGA Tour starts. The last player to win three consecutive LPGA starts was Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn in 2016. No American player had pulled off the feat since Nancy Lopez rattled off five straight wins in 1978.