Gragson wins Xfinity race in triple overtime

Noah Gragson held off Jeffrey Earnhardt in triple overtime to win the Xfinity Series race at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway on Saturday for his second victory of the season.

Gragson restarted fourth on the outside of the second row but inherited the lead when JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier ran out of gas and pulled out of traffic. Gragson had to work the No. 9 Chevrolet all over the wide Alabama superspeedway to hold off traffic and deny Earnhardt his first career victory.

Earnhardt, the grandson of the late Dale Earnhardt, started from the pole. His runner-up finish was a career-best.

AJ Allmendinger finished third for Kaulig Racing. He was followed by teammate Landon Cassill as Chevrolet drivers took the top four spots and 18 of the top 25.

“This JR Motorsports team, they never quit,” Gragson said. “We had four really fast cars. Came down to fuel strategy and there was one point where I was like ‘Oh man, I can’t get up there, we just don’t have the car fast enough.’ But you know, we never quit.”

Gragson is scheduled to run the Cup race today for Beard Motorsports.

• Christopher Bell won the pole at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway by turning the fastest lap as the final driver to qualify.

Bell bumped Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. from the top spot with a lap at 180.928 mph in his Toyota. Truex qualified second at 180.652 mph to give JGR the front row for today’s race.

JGR is coming off a win last Sunday with Kyle Busch at Bristol, Tenn.

• Max Verstappen overtook Formula One leader Charles Leclerc on the penultimate lap to win the sprint race at the Emiliaromagna Grand Prix in Imola, Italy. The victory earned Verstappen the top spot on the grid for today’s grand prix. He finished 2.975 seconds ahead of Leclerc and 4.721 ahead of Red Bull teammate Sergio Pérez.

• Steve Torrence took the No. 1 spot in Top Fuel qualifying at the NHRA Springnationals, moving past Brittany Force at Houston Raceway Park.

Torrence had a 3.693-second run at 323.66 mph for his first No. 1 of the season and 32nd overall. The Texan has won the last four season titles.

Ron Capps topped the Funny Car field, Camrie Caruso was the fastest in Pro Stock, and Karen Stoffer led the Pro Stock Motorcycle ladder.

GOLF Cantlay, Schauffele shatter record

Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele played the back nine in 8-under 28 and shot a 12-under 60 in best-ball play to shatter the Zurich Classic three-round record at 29 under and stretch their lead to five strokes in suburban New Orleans.

Cantlay and Schauffele broke the 54-hole mark of 23 under. Jonas Blixt-cameron Smith and Kevin Kisner-scott Brown set the 72-hole mark of 27 under in 2017, the firstyear of the team format at TPC Louisiana. The final round will be alternate shot. Cantlay and Schauffele opened with a tournament-record 59 in best-ball play Thursday and had a 68 in alternate shot to maintain a one-stroke lead.

The South African tandem of Garrick Higgo and Branden Grace were second at 24 under after a 63.

• Steven Alker moved into position for his second straight PGA Tour Champions victory, shooting a 5-under 66 in windy conditions to take a two-stroke lead in the Clubcorp Classic in Irving, Texas.

The winner three weeks ago in the Rapiscan Systems Classic in Mississippi, Alker played the four par-5 holes in 4 under. The 50-year-old New Zealander had an 8-under 134 total at Las Colinas Country Club.

Alker has six top-five finishes in his last eight events, finishing second in the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship and season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship.

First-round leader Jerry Kelly (70) and Lee Janzen (68) were tied for second.

• Bad weather in northeast Spain forced organizers to suspend the third round of the European tour’s ISPS Handa Championship in La Pineda. Organizers hoped the last two rounds would finish today.

Djokovic reaches Serbia Open final

Novak Djokovic booked a place in the Serbia Open final after overcoming another slow start and Karen Khachanov 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 in Belgrade.

The top-ranked Serb came back from a set down for the third consecutive match after hard-fought wins over Miomir Kecmanovic and Laslo Djere to reach his third final at his hometown tournament.

The 20-time Grand Slam champ previously won the Serbia Open in 2009 and 2011.

Djokovic, who is bidding for his first title of the year, will face Andrey Rublev in today’s final. The second-seeded Russian player defeated Fabio Fognini 6-2, 6-2 in the other semifinal.

• Top-ranked Iga Swiatek will play Aryna Sabalenka in the final of the Stuttgart Open in Germany after both came through their respective semifinals.

Swiatek stretched her winning run to 22 matches as she overcame Liudmila Samsonova 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-5 to move into her fourth final of the season.

Sabalenka, who lost last year’s final to Ash Barty, defeated the second-seeded Paula Badosa 7-6 (5), 6-4.

Swiatek and Sabalenka have one win against each other. Sabalenka won at the WTA Finals last year, while Swiatek made up for that on her way to winning the Doha title this year.

She also won at Indian Wells and Miami and will hope to claim her fourth title of the year in today’s final.

• The semifinals of the Barcelona Open were suspended because of rain and will be finished on the same day as the final, organizers said. The matches between Carlos Alcaraz and Alex de Minaur and between Pablo Carreno and Diego Schwartzman were both paused with the score 2-2 in the first set.

COLLEGES Duke’s Keels to enter NBA draft

Duke freshman Trevor Keels is the fourth Blue Devils player in the past week to announce plans to enter the NBA draft. The school said he planned to hire an agent. The 6-foot-5, 221-pound guard is a potential first-round prospect and is ranked as ESPN’S No. 25 draft prospect. He averaged 11.5 points while providing size and strength to the Blue Devils’ perimeter, both as a driving scorer and as a ballhandler.

• Lou Lopez Sénéchal, the player of the year in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference , is transferring from Fairfield to Uconn, the Huskies announced.

SOCCER PSG, Bayern Munich clinch titles

Paris Saint-germain clinched a recordtying 10th French league title after Lionel Messi scored in their 1-1 draw with Lens in Paris.

The Argentine star controlled a pass from Neymar before curling the ball home from the edge of the box in the 68th minute.

Lens substitute Corentin Jean equalized with a sliding effort in the 88th, but the draw was still good enough for PSG to claim an eighth Ligue 1 crown since 2013.

• Bayern Munich completed a decade of domestic dominance by beating rival Borussia Dortmund 3-1 to seal a record-extending 10th consecutive Bundesliga title in Berlin. Goals by Serge Gnabry, Robert Lewandowski and Jamal Musiala sent Bayern an unassailable 12 points clear of secondplaced Dortmund with three games left.

• Cristiano Ronaldo scored on his return to the Manchester United team after missing a game while grieving the death of his newborn son. The Portugal star raised his left arm and pointed to the sky in a subdued celebration of his 100th Premier League goal, coming at Arsenal after the home fans had risen to applaud United’s No. 7 when the clock hit the seventh minute in a show of solidarity. Ronaldo and partner Georgina Rodriguez announced Monday that one of their newborn twins had died.

• Shae Harvey and Charlotte Kohler each scored four goals and the U.S. under-17 women’s national team beat Grenada 20-0 in the Dominican Republic, setting a record for goals for a U.S. women’s team at any level in World Cup qualifying.