Weekend Sports in Brief

AUTO RACING

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Takuma Sato snatched a second Indianapolis 500 victory at empty Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday as the Japanese racer held off Scott Dixon and ultimately won under caution.

IndyCar officials declined to throw a red flag after a violent crash by Spencer Pigot with just a handful of laps remaining. Pigot needed medical attention on the track, the crash scene was a debris field and there was no way the race could resume without a stoppage.

IndyCar never threw the flag and Sato led Dixon across the finish line under yellow.

Sato became the first Japanese winner of the Indy 500 in 2017. Dixon was second and Graham Rahal, Sato’s teammate at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, was third.

DOVER, Del. (AP) - Kevin Harvick regained the NASCAR Cup Series victory lead with his seventh, dominating Sunday at Dover International Speedway.

A day after Denny Hamlin opened with doubleheader weekend with his sixth win to match Harvick, the Stewart-Haas racing driver one-upped his closest rival to claim NASCAR’s regular-season title. Harvick has 56 career Cup victories to tied Kyle Busch for ninth on the career list.

Harvick swept the stages in the No. 4 Ford and won for the third time in seven races. He gave Ford its 700th Cup victory.

DOVER, Del. (AP) - Erik Moses has been named president of Nashville Superspeedway, the first Black man to hold that title at any NASCAR track.

Moses most recently served as president of the XFL’s DC Defenders and now leads the charge of the scheduled Nashville reboot in 2021. The 1.33-mile concrete track was built in 2001 by Dover Motorsports and hosted NASCAR and IndyCar events until 2011.

Dover announced the hire before Saturday’s Cup race at the Monster Mile.

NBA

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) - Donovan Mitchell added his name to a prestigious list that includes Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson and Wilt Chamberlain.

The four are the only NBA players to notch two 50 or more point games in a single postseason.

Mitchell scored 18 of his 51 points in the fourth quarter and the Utah Jazz withstood a 50-point night from Jamal Murray to beat the Denver Nuggets 129-127 on Sunday and take a 3-1 lead in the playoff series.

Mitchell was 15 of 27 from the floor and went 17 of 18 from the free throw line. The 23-year-old Mitchell scored 57 points in Game 1. He’s averaging 39.5 points in the series.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) - Toronto guard Kyle Lowry hurt his left foot in the first quarter of Game 4 against Brooklyn on Sunday and left to get it evaluated.

The Raptors announced that Lowry had left the arena to be examined elsewhere on the NBA campus. They said the injury was Lowry’s ankle, but coach Nick Nurse said after the game it was Lowry’s foot.

The Raptors went on to finish a sweep and set up a second-round series against the Boston Celtics that will begin Thursday.

Lowry had two points and three assists in nine minutes.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) - Nick Nurse has been voted NBA Coach of the Year after leading the defending champion Toronto Raptors to another 50-win season, this time without Kawhi Leonard.

Nurse was a runaway winner. He received 90 first-place votes from a panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters and finished with 470 points.

Milwaukee’s Mike Budenholzer was second after leading the Bucks to the best record in the suspended season, earning 147 points. Oklahoma City’s Billy Donovan (134) was third.

NFL

NEW YORK (AP) - The NFL had 77 positive COVID-19 tests from 11 teams re-examined by a New Jersey lab after false positives, and all those tests came back negative.

The league asked the New Jersey lab BioReference to investigate the results, and those 77 tests are being re-tested once more to make sure they were false positives.

Among teams reporting false positives, the Minnesota Vikings said they had 12, the New York Jets 10 and the Chicago Bears nine.

BALTIMORE (AP) - The Baltimore Ravens have terminated the contract of seven-time Pro Bowl safety Earl Thomas, who got involved in a fight with a teammate Friday and did not attend practice Saturday.

According to a statement released Sunday by the team, Thomas was released “for personal conduct that adversely affected the Baltimore Ravens.”

The action steams from Thomas’ fray with defensive back Chuck Clark at practice after Thomas admittedly blew a coverage assignment. Although the Ravens don’t have someone else with his talent at free safety, keeping Thomas would have created the potential for poor chemistry on a team with aspirations of playing in the Super Bowl.

NHL

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Washington Capitals have fired coach Todd Reirden after a second consecutive first-round exit in the playoffs.

General manager Brian MacLellan announced the move Sunday, three days after the Capitals lost to former coach Barry Trotz’s New York Islanders in a five-game series.

Washington opted to promote Reirden from the top assistant job and let Trotz leave rather than give him a raise after winning the Stanley Cup in 2018. Reirden likely would have left to seek a head coaching position elsewhere.

MLB

NEW YORK (AP) - Mike Trout and the Los Angeles Angels will face the Cleveland Indians in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, in the 2021 Little League Classic.

Major League Baseball announced the matchup Sunday.

The game is scheduled for Aug. 22 at Bowman Field in front of a crowd predominantly made up of players, coaches and parents in Williamsport for the Little League World Series. Cleveland will be the home team.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Stephen Strasburg’s season is over.

The Washington Nationals transferred the star right-hander to the 60-day injured list Saturday. Nationals manager Dave Martinez said Strasburg will undergo carpal tunnel surgery next week.

Strasburg, last year’s World Series MVP, was first placed on the injured list Aug. 15 with carpal tunnel neuritis of the right hand.

GOLF

NORTON, Mass. (AP) - Dustin Johnson looked dominant as he ever as, and nothing could stop him Sunday in The Northern Trust.

Not even the weather.

Johnson played the final two holes in near darkness after a late storm delay and finished with a birdie for an 8-under 63 and an 11-shot victory over Harris English.

It was the 22nd victory of his PGA Tour career, and he never made it look easier. Johnson won his fifth FedEx Cup playoffs event - tied with Rory McIlroy for most - and returned to No. 1 in the world. He finished at 30-under 254.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) - Phil Mickelson would much rather have been playing in the final round of the Northern Trust, not only because he believes his game is rounding into shape but because it might mean he was still alive in the PGA Tour playoffs.

Fortunately for Mickelson, he celebrated his 50th birthday in June.

Such a milestone might bring a shudder to many folks, but it actually worked out quite nicely for him. It grants him access to the PGA Tour Champions.

That means he can keep fine-tuning his game when he makes his debut on the 50-and-over circuit at Ozarks National on Monday.

TROON, Scotland (AP) - Sophia Popov became the first female golfer from Germany to capture a major title when she won the Women’s British Open by two strokes at Royal Troon on Sunday.

Popov, who went into the final round with a three-shot lead, bounced back from bogeying the first hole by making five birdies in her 3-under 68. Jasmine Suwannapura was the runner-up after shooting 67.

It completed one of the most unlikely wins in the tournament’s history. Popov is ranked No. 304 and dropped off the LPGA Tour last year.

SOCCER

LISBON, Portugal (AP) - Kingsley Coman has headed Bayern Munich to a sixth Champions League title.

He scored against boyhood club Paris Saint-Germain to seal a 1-0 victory Sunday in the first final to be played without fans.

While Bayern won its first final since 2013, PSG has yet to lift the European Cup despite more than $1 billion being spent on players in nine years. It completed an incredible transformation this season under Hansi Flick. He took charge in November with Bayern fourth in the Bundesliga.

WNBA

BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) - Phoenix center Brittney Griner left the WNBA bubble for personal reasons, the Mercury said Saturday.

Griner missed her first game of the season on Friday and coach Sandy Brondello didn’t elaborate on the cause in her media availability before and after the game other than to say it was for personal reasons.

Phoenix is in sixth place in the standings, and Griner is averaging 17.7 points and 7.5 rebounds. If Griner does return to the bubble she’ll need to quarantine at least for a few days. The regular season ends Sept. 12.

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