Regan Smith wins wreck-fest at Talladega Regan Smith wins wreck-fest at Talladega ADVERTISING TALLADEGA, Ala. — Regan Smith won the crash-filled Nationwide Series race at Talladega Superspeedway when NASCAR said he was leading at the final caution flag Saturday night.
Regan Smith wins wreck-fest at Talladega
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Regan Smith won the crash-filled Nationwide Series race at Talladega Superspeedway when NASCAR said he was leading at the final caution flag Saturday night.
The race was delayed three hours by rain and slowed by several cautions, and NASCAR cut the distance by 10 laps as darkness closed in on the track. Then Joey Coulter brought out a caution and NASCAR decided to make one attempt at a green-white-checkered finish.
At least 10 cars were jockeying for position in packs of two on the final lap when Brian Vickers was spun hard into the outside wall. Smith, Joey Logano and Kasey Kahne raced three-wide to the finish line and Kahne crossed it first.
But NASCAR decided Smith was leading when the caution came out and was the winner.
Cavendish wins opening Giro stage
in sprint finish
NAPLES, Italy — British standout Mark Cavendish won the opening stage of the Giro d’Italia that was marred by a crash shortly before the finish.
The main pack was split into two groups Saturday when riders went down with just more than a mile to go in the 81-mile leg and less than a dozen riders left in front to contest the sprint.
Cavendish, who rides for the Omega Pharma-Quick Step team, finished in 2 hours, 58 minutes, 38 seconds on the circuit in downtown Naples, which featured a long, flat finishing straightaway. He has won a combined 37 stages at the Giro, Tour and Vuelta — cycling’s three Grand Tours.
Elia Viviani, an Italian with Cannondale, was second and Nacer Bouhanni, a Frenchman with FDJ, was third.
Overall favorites Bradley Wiggins and Vincenzo Nibali, along with defending champion Ryder Hesjedal, finished safely in the main pack. All the riders who finished in the main pack were given the same time as the winner courtesy of the neutralizing rule for crashes in the final miles.
Errani, Hantuchova reach 2nd round
of Madrid Open
MADRID — Seventh-seeded Sara Errani advanced to the second round of the Madrid Open, beating Urszula Radwanska of Poland, 6-3, 6-1 on Saturday.
The Italian will face either Sorana Cirstea or Ayumi Morita.
Also, Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia defeated Sloane Stephens of the U.S. 6-3, 7-5, Germany’s Julia Goerges downed Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski 6-4, 6-1,and Lourdes Dominguez-Lino of Spain beat Simona Halep of Romania 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
Alize Cornet, Sabine Lisicki, Kirsten Flipkens, and Magdalena Rybarikova also won first-round matches.
The first round of the men’s event begins today.
Pavlyuchenkova beats Suarez to win Portugal
OEIRAS, Portugal —Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat Spain’s Carla Suarez 7-5, 6-2 to win the Portugal Open on Saturday.
The 21-year-old Russian saved six of seven break points and overcame five double-faults to win her fifth career title and second of the year.
In the men’s event, top-seeded David Ferrer beat Andreas Seppi 6-1, 6-4. He’ll play second-seeded Stan Wawrinka in Sunday’s final after the Swiss player defeated Pablo Carreno-Busta 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.
Haas to meet Kohlschreiber
in BMW Open final
MUNICH — Tommy Haas will play defending champion Philipp Kohlschreiber in an all-German final at the BMW Open on Sunday.
The third-seeded Haas defeated Ivan Dodig of Croatia 6-4, 6-3 on Saturday, while Kohlschreiber edged compatriot Daniel Brands 6-7 (4), 6-3, 7-6 (5) to set up the first all-German title match in Munich in 48 years.
Kohlschreiber battled from a break down in the final set to beat Brands in 2 hours, 14 minutes. He’s going for his third Munich title, also winning in 2007.
“It’s great for German tennis,” Haas said. “We played really well last year in all the German events and now again we’re going to have an all-German final, which I think is great for the fans.”
US rallies from 2-0 down to beat Austria
HELSINKI — The United States rallied from an early 2-0 deficit to beat Austria 5-3 in its opening game at the ice hockey world championship Saturday.
In Stockholm, Norway beat newcomer Slovenia 3-1 behind two goals from Anders Bastiansen.
David Moss began the Americans’ comeback off a rebound in the first period, and defenseman Erik Johnson opened and closed the second period with power-play goals. In between, Tim Stapleton and Aaron Palushaj also scored.
Nick Bjugstad, Justin Faulk and Drew LeBlanc each had two assists.
Austria went up on Manuel Latusa’s slap shot and Daniel Welser’s rebound score within 40 seconds of each other.
From wire sources
