Auto Racing
Hamlin hunts down another pole at Pocono Raceway
LONG POND, Pa. – Denny Hamlin turned a track-record lap of 181.415 mph to win the pole at Pocono Raceway.
Hamlin is a four-time winner at Pocono and won his third pole at the track on Friday. Kurt Busch joins Hamlin on the front row for Sunday’s race.
Hamlin swept two Pocono races from the pole in 2006. He also won races on the 2½-mile track in 2009 and 2010.
Power on pole in Texas for Saturday night IndyCar race
FORT WORTH, Texas – IndyCar Series points leader Will Power will start on the pole at Texas for the second consecutive year.
Power had a two-lap average of 218.896 mph in qualifying Friday at the high-banked, high-speed 1½-mile track for his 34th career pole.
Mercedes teammates still fastest at Canadian GP
MONTREAL – Formula One leaders Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg had the fastest times in practice Friday for the Canadian Grand Prix.
The two Mercedes drivers are leading the championship standings. They have won all six of the races so far this season.
Hamilton turned in a fastest lap of 1 minute, 16.118 seconds in the afternoon practice on the 2.71-mile Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. Rosberg was 0.175 seconds slower.
College Basketball
McCants brewing big trouble out in Tar-Heel country
CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina – North Carolina coach Roy Williams denied allegations of academic wrongdoing by former player Rashad McCants connected to the school’s long-running academic scandal.
In an interview with ESPN’s “Outside the Lines,” McCants – the second-leading scorer on Williams’ first NCAA championship team in 2005 – said tutors wrote papers for him and that Williams knew about no-show classes popular with athletes. McCants also said Williams told him he could swap a failing grade from one class with a passing one from another to stay eligible that season, according to the report.
In a statement Friday, Williams said he did not “know about or do anything close to what” McCants alleges, and that former players would agree with him.
Golf
Ben Crane cranks out a low score, takes early lead
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Ben Crane shot a 5-under 65 Friday grabbing a six-stroke lead during the rain-delayed second round of the St. Jude Classic at the TPC Southwind.
Crane birdied his final hole Thursday night for a 63 and rolled in a 44-footer for birdie to start Friday morning en route to a round with six birdies and one bogey. That gave him a 128 total through 36 holes and a 12 under that matches the winning score here a year ago.
Lightning forced a 59-minute lightning delay followed by the horn blowing again only 13 minutes after players returned.
Hockey
Penguins make a change behind bench, in front office
PITTSBURGH – The Pittsburgh Penguins fired Dan Bylsma and hired Jim Rutherford as their new general manager.
Bylsma won a franchise-record 252 games behind the bench but failed to produce a bookend to the championship he captured with stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in 2009. The Penguins were just 4-5 in playoff series since raising the Cup, with each loss coming to a lower-seeded team.
Pittsburgh’s latest defeat came last month when the Penguins fell to the New York Rangers in seven games in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
The 65-year-old Rutherford played goalie for the Penguins in the 1970s before spending 20 years with the franchise that began as the Hartford Whalers, moved to North Carolina in 1997 and won the Stanley Cup in 2006.
Associated Press
