NRA to sponsor Texas NASCAR race

The National Rifle Association will be the title sponsor for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Texas next month.

NRA’s sponsorship with Texas Motor Speedway was announced during the track’s media day Monday. The April 13 race, the first scheduled night race of the season, will be known as the NRA 500.

The deal comes at a time when the NRA is involved in a renewed debate on gun violence in the wake of the December shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

This is not the NRA’s first title sponsorship in NASCAR. The group sponsored a Nationwide race at Atlanta last September.

TMS president Eddie Gossage says the NRA has been involved for several years as a partner of the Speedway Motorsports Inc., which owns the track.

HOCKEY

Nazem Kadri continued his points streak Monday with a goal and an assist in the host Toronto Maple Leafs’ 4-2 victory over the struggling New Jersey Devils. Clarke MacArthur, Jay McClement and Phil Kessel — with his first goal on home ice this season — scored in the third period for Toronto. Kadri connected in the first period and assisted on MacArthur’s goal to earn points in his fifth straight game.

Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin scored less than 2 minutes apart in the third period and the host Pittsburgh Penguins rallied past the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3. Chris Kunitz added his 12th of the season for Pittsburgh and James Neal scored an empty-net goal in the final minute as the Penguins sent the struggling Lightning to their fifth straight loss. Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos scored twice to push his league-leading total to 17, but it wasn’t enough.

COLLEGES

The University of Memphis men’s golf team sits in 10th place after 36 holes at the Louisiana Classics in Lafayette. The Tigers were as high as sixth at the beginning of the second round, but a rough ending to the day while battling 30-40 mph winds dropped Memphis down to 10th with one round remaining. Freshman Thomas Perrot led the Tigers on Monday with a two-round score of 142 (-2) after rounds of 70 and 72 put him in fourth. Sophomore Cory Gaylord moved up the leaderboard in the second round with a 1-over-par 73, which tied him for 38th with a 151 (+7) after a 78 in the first round. Junior Grant Milner tied for 53rd with scores of 78 and 76 for a 154 (+10) while senior Steve Lee fired 78 and 77 to total 155 (+11) and tie for 58th. Junior Will Pearson rounded out the Memphis squad with scores of 83 and 80 for a 163 (+19) to sit in 81st. No. 20 Illinois leads the field by seven strokes with a 3-over-par 579 with Kansas sitting in second with a 10-over-par 586. Memphis begins the final round of play tomorrow with a shotgun start at 8 a.m.

The No. 22 University of Memphis women’s tennis team (7-4) lost a hard-fought match to No. 21 Arizona State (10-1) on Monday afternoon in Tempe, Ariz., by a score of 5-2. Both teams battled throughout the day as five singles matches went to three sets and the doubles point was decided in a tiebreaker. The Sun Devils took a 1- 0 lead as Joanna Smith and Ebony Panoho defeated Tiffany Welcher and Alyssa Hibberd, 8-4, at No. 2 before Leighann Sahagun and Desirae Krawczyk won 9-8 (2) over Stefanie Mikesz and Caroline Wegner at No. 3. Also in doubles for Memphis were No. 58 Courtney Collins and Kelly Gray, who downed No. 40 Jacqueline Cako and Nicole Smith, 8- 6.

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