Auto Racing
Power positions himself atop season’s final pole
SONOMA, Calif. – Will Power isn’t stepping down as IndyCar champion without a fight.
Power won the pole Saturday for Sunday’s title-deciding race at Sonoma Raceway buy circling the circuit in 1 minute, 16.25 seconds. The Australian heads into the season finale one of six drivers mathematically eligible to win the title.
Late caution helps Menard take the Road America
ELKHART LAKE, Wis. – Wisconsin driver Paul Menard took advantage of a lengthy late-race caution and held off Ryan Blaney to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Road America on Saturday.
Menard, a Sprint Cup regular, made a mid-race pit stop and was informed by his crew that he needed to save two gallons of fuel in order to finish the race without stopping again on the road course.
Brian Scott was third. Series points leaders Chris Buescher finished ninth.
Cycling
Vicious Vuelta stage leads to mass rider withdrawals
MURCIA, Spain – Jesper Stuyven of Belgium won an accident-ravaged eighth stage of the Spanish Vuelta after a crash sent Kris Boeckmans to the hospital and forced three others, including American Tejay Van Garderen, to withdraw from the Grand Tour on Saturday.
The unexpected pileup in the peloton happened on a straightaway 31 miles before the finish of a stage whose worst enemy was supposed to be the sun, not the road.
Boeckmans, a Belgian rider for Lotto-Soudal, was hospitalized after lying prone on the ground while Van Garderen, Frenchman Nacer Bouhanni and Ireland’s Daniel Martins, who was third in the general classification, all abandoned the race.
Golf
Bae tied for Barclays lead as military service looms
EDISON, N.J. – Bae Sang-moon is making the most of his final weeks before he starts mandatory military service in South Korea.
Bae matched shots with PGA champion Jason Day throughout the third round of The Barclays on Saturday until both finished at 7-under 63 and tied for the lead going into the final round at Plainfield Country Club.
VYSOKY UJEZD, Czech Republic – Thomas Pieters of Belgium shot a 7-under 65 on Saturday to take a one-stroke lead after the third round of the Czech Masters.
PRATTVILLE, Ala. – Austin Ernst took the lead at 10 under Saturday before darkness forced the suspension of third-round play in the weather-delayed Yokohama LPGA Tire Classic.
ENDICOTT, N.Y. – Paul Goydos and Gene Sauers shared the first-round lead at 6-under 66 on Friday in the Champions Tour’s Dick’s Sporting Goods Open.
Horse Racing
Keen Ice overthrows the American Pharoah dynasty
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Triple Crown winner American Pharoah was beaten, losing to Keen Ice in the $1.6 million Travers Stakes before a stunned crowd Saturday at Saratoga Race Course.
American Pharoah came into the race as the overwhelming favorite but lost the lead entering the far turn and just didn’t have the energy to catch Keen Ice.
The upset solidified Saratoga’s reputation as the “Graveyard of Favorites.” Only one of 12 Triple Crown winners has been able to go on and win the Travers.
Keen Ice, trained by Dale Romans and ridden by Javier Castellano, won by three-quarters of a length. American Pharoah, the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years, had won eight consecutive races coming into the Travers.
Associated Press
