AUTO RACING
CONCORD, N.C. (AP) - Kyle Busch passed Austin Cindric on the final lap in overtime to win his 97th career Xfinity Series race in dramatic fashion at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
After a crash involving several cars sent the race into overtime, Cindric passed Busch on a restart starting at the inside lane of the front row. But Busch battled back and pushed the pedal to the floor, passing Cindric on the last lap to earn his 18th overall win at Charlotte Motor Speedway across NASCAR’s top three series - the most of any driver.
Busch has now won 210 career races across NASCAR’s top three series.
Daniel Hemric edged Cindric for second. Cindric finished third followed by Ross Chastain and Justin Allgaier.c
Busch appeared in control for most of the race winning the first two stages, but was assessed a speeding penalty on pit row with 38 laps to go, dropping him to 10th place. But Busch battled back through the field with the help of a series of strong restarts on cautions in the final 30 laps.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - NASCAR suspended three critical crew members for Denny Hamlin’s team because a piece of tungsten fell off his car on the pace lap before the Coca-Cola 600.
The tungsten is required to meet minimum weight requirements on the car and the NASCAR rule book states if it is separated at any point it is an automatic four-race suspension for the crew chief, car chief and engineer.
Chris Gabehart, the crew chief, was suspended along with car chief Brandon Griffeth and engineer Scott Simmons.
Joe Gibbs Racing said it would not appeal the penalty and already had roster replacements for Wednesday night’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Sam McAulay will be the crew chief, while Eric Phillips will be car chief and Scott Eldridge the engineer.
NASCAR’s next four races are at Charlotte, Bristol, Atlanta and Martinsville between Wednesday night and June 10, when the suspension ends. NASCAR is trying to squeeze in eight postponed Cup events from a 10-week suspension for the conavirus pandemic.
GOLF
ATLANTA (AP) - Two of the biggest names from the PGA Tour and the NFL proved to be must-see TV.
Turner Sports said the Sunday telecast of “The Match: Champions for Charity” attracted an average of 5.8 million viewers across four of its networks. Turner says it was the most-watched golf telecast in cable TV history.
It said the previous record was 4.9 million viewers on ESPN at the 2010 Masters, the year Tiger Woods returned to golf for the first time since the scandal in his personal life.
Woods and Peyton Manning scored a 1-up victory over Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady at Medalist Golf Club, a match that featured high entertainment with shots and with words, along with raising $20 million for COVID-19 relief funds.
It was the second straight Sunday of live golf on television after the pandemic shut down the sport on March 13. The previous week, Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson defeated Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff at Seminole in an exhibition that NBC Sports said attracted 2.35 million viewers across all formats.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
WASHINGTON (AP) - Georgetown basketball coach and former NBA great Patrick Ewing has been released from the hospital and is recovering from COVID-19 at home.
The 57-year-old Hall of Famer, who played for the Hoyas in college and the New York Knicks in the NBA, announced Friday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus and was being treated at a hospital.
Patrick Ewing Jr. said three days later on Twitter that his father was getting better after receiving treatment and thanked the doctors and nurses who looked after him during his hospital stay. He also thanked fans for their thoughts and prayers after his father’s announcement.
As a player, the 7-foot Patrick Ewing helped Georgetown win the 1984 NCAA men’s basketball championship and reach two other title games. During his four years playing, Georgetown went 121-23, a winning percentage of .840.
He was taken with the No. 1 overall pick in the 1985 draft after the Knicks won the NBA’s first lottery. Ewing wound up leading New York to the 1994 NBA Finals, where they lost to Hakeem Olajuwon and the Houston Rockets.
Ewing played 17 seasons in the NBA, 15 with the Knicks.
NHL
TORONTO (AP) - The NHL hopes to have players back in team facilities soon — with plenty of precautions.
The league, which paused its season on March 12 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, released a memo saying it is targeting early next month as the start date for Phase 2 of its return-to-play protocol, including the opening of practice rinks and allowing small, voluntary group workouts on and off the ice.
The NHL, which has worked closely with the NHL Players’ Association on the phased approach, said that while it views the protocol as “very comprehensive … (it) cannot mitigate all risk.”
If the Phase 2 plan gets the green light, on-ice sessions will be noncontact and involve up to six players, who will be expected to maintain physical distancing at all times. Players will be required to wear masks when entering and exiting facilities, and when not able to physically distance.
“Players are not required to wear face coverings when they are exercising or on the ice,” the memo said.
Teams are not allowed to require a player to return to a club’s home city to complete any necessary quarantine measures before the workouts begin. Coaches and management will be allowed to watch, but not participate in, the informal skates.
The final two phases of the return-to-play protocol — training camps followed by a resumption of game action — were not mentioned in the memo.
SOCCER
MADRID (AP) - Spanish league clubs are allowed to train with groups of up to 14 players as the league stays on track to restart in less than three weeks.
Only 10 players were allowed in group training last week because of confinement restrictions that are gradually being lifted across the hard-hit nation where nearly 27,000 known people have died with COVID-19.
Group training sessions are part of the penultimate phase before teams can be considered ready to return to competition. Full squad sessions are expected to begin next week, depending on how the coronavirus pandemic progresses.
Players were allowed to practice only individually during the first stage of training.
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