NASCAR Leader Gordon Wins at North Wilkesboro

Jeff Gordon won his third consecutive Winston Cup race and his 10th this season with a victory in the final NASCAR event at historic North Wilkesboro (N.C) Speedway on Sunday.

“I’m really glad we won, not just because this is the last one at North Wilkesboro, but because it’s so slick and hard to win on,� said Gordon, who started on the outside of the front row and stayed at or near the front throughout the 400-lap race on the .625-mile oval. He led seven times for a total of 207 laps, including the final 79.

The victory by Gordon, who has won four of the last five and finished no worse than second in his last seven races, also gave the defending series champion a boost in the championship standings, moving him 111 points ahead of Terry Labonte with four races remaining.

Labonte, who finished fifth, came into the race trailing by 81 points.

“We missed it today,� Labonte said. “The car was just a little bit too loose all day long.�

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John Force set an NHRA record with his 12th Funny Car title of the year, beating Tony Pedregon with a quarter-mile run of 4.970 seconds at 304.67 mph in the Sears Craftsman Nationals at Topeka, Kan.

Force, driving a Pontiac Firebird, is the second man in NHRA history with 60 career victories. Pedregon, whose Firebird broke down at the start, finished in 11.927 seconds at 69.88 mph.

Jim Head won his first Top Fuel title, beating Kenny Bernstein with a run of 4.713 seconds at 302.82 mph. Bernstein, closing in on his first season title, was forced to stop 660 feet into the race when the front wheels of his car lifted nearly six feet off the ground.

Jim Yates won the Pro Stock division and John Myers took the Pro Stock Motorcycle competition.

Tennis

The United States, with Monica Seles providing the decisive victory, won the Fed Cup for the first time since 1990 at the Atlantic City Convention Center. Seles defeated Spain’s Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, and gave the United States a 3-0 lead in the best-of-five format designed to determine the top women’s team in the world. Spain held the title the last three years.

“This is very special,� Seles said. “We all wanted to win this one badly because of what’s happened in the last three years. This was a great time for all of us. We blended together well as a team.�

In his first tournament since winning the U.S. Open, Pete Sampras beat unseeded Hendrik Dreekmann of Germany, 7-5, 6-2, 6-0, to win the $1 million Swiss Indoor championship at Basel, Switzerland.

Morocco’s Karim Alami won the $328,000 Sicilian International Championships when his opponent, Adrian Voinea of Romania, dropped out because of a shoulder muscle strain at Palermo, Sicily. Voinea quit while trailing, 7-5, 2-1.

Running

With about one million spectators lining the route, first-time marathoner Abel Anton of Spain and Colleen de Reuck of South Africa, with the best time of her career, won the Berlin Marathon.

Anton passed his toughest competitors, Francis Naali of Tanzania and defending champion Sammy Lelei of Kenya, just before the finish line and won in 2 hours, 9 minutes, 15 seconds.

De Reuck led the women in 2:26:35, and was followed by Renata Kokowska of Poland in 2:27:41 and Marleen Renders of Belgium in 2:27:42.

Stefano Baldini of Italy won the men’s World Half-Marathon Championship in 1:01:17, for 13.1 miles at Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Baldini defeated favored Josphat Kiprono of Kenya by 13 seconds. Ren Xiujuan of China won the women’s race in 1:10:39.

Miscellany

Chester Weber, 21, of Ocala, Fla., became the youngest driver to win the U.S. Equestrian Team Pairs Driving Championship by four-tenths of a penalty at Gladstone, N.J.

Singspiel came from off the pace to track down the leaders on the final turn and went on to win the $1 million Canadian International horse race at Toronto.

Switzerland’s Alex Zulle claimed his first major tour title, winning the 22-stage Tour of Spain cycling race by 6 minutes, 23 seconds at Madrid.