Gordon Rules, but Fellows Steals NASCAR Spotlight

Jeff Gordon won the NASCAR Winston Cup Frontier at the Glen on Sunday at Watkins Glen, N.Y., but afterward much of the focus was on runner-up Ron Fellows, a 39-year-old Canadian sports-car racer making only his fourth Winston Cup start.

“He’s a great road racer,� Gordon said after beating Fellows by less than a second at Watkins Glen International. “He put the pressure on me, and I made some mistakes.�

Gordon won his third race in a row at the Glen, enabling him to pass Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin for career victories on the serpentine tracks where the circuit races twice each year.

But the win--his fifth in a row on a road course--did little to enhance his chances for a record-setting third consecutive title. Gordon advanced in the standings to fifth after 21 of 34 races, but he has nothing more than a mathematical chance to catch series leader Dale Jarrett.

Gordon trails Jarrett by 482 points. Jarrett, who finished fourth, leads Martin by 300.

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Juan Montoya, who started eighth, charged through the field to win the CART Miller Lite 200 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio.

Montoya trailed by as many as 17 seconds early in the race, but took the lead from Paul Tracy on the 56th of 83 laps and never trailed after that. Driving his Reynard-Honda, Montoya finished 10.927 seconds in front of Tracy.

Tracy’s teammate Dario Franchitti, the pole-sitter, led the first 54 laps and was third.

It was the fifth victory this season for Montoya, tying the CART rookie record set by Nigel Mansell in 1993. Montoya trails leader Franchitti by one point in the driver standings.

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Mike Hakkinen, known as the “Flying Finn,� delighted thousands of flag-waving countrymen by winning the Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix at Budapest, leading from start to finish.

With his fourth victory of the season, Hakkinen came within two points of the Formula One championship leader Eddie Irvine, ending the Briton’s two-race winning streak.

Irvine, who slid off the track on lap 63, finished third behind Hakkinen’s McLaren-Mercedes teammate, David Coulthard of Britain.

Miscellany

Sharar Haydar Mohamad al Hadithi, a former Iraqi soccer star, says he and other players were tortured when they played badly, by order of President Saddam Hussein’s 35-year-old son, Odai, the Sunday Times of London reported.

The story supports repeated allegations by Iraqi dissidents that Odai, who runs the country’s football federation, ordered players to be imprisoned and tortured and to have their hair and mustaches shaved off after losing matches.

The San Antonio Spurs’ Sean Elliott will probably receive a kidney from one of his two brothers, the basketball player’s attorney, Burt Kinerk, told the Arizona Daily Star. Kinerk said a transplant could take place in the next two weeks.

Elliott, 31, a former standout at the University of Arizona, suffers from a disease that prevents his kidneys from properly filtering waste from the blood.

Women’s Basketball

Wendy Palmer made all 11 free throws, scored a season-high 27 points and grabbed 14 rebounds as the Detroit Shock (13-16) beat the New York Liberty, 63-57, in a WNBA game before 15,755 at New York. The Liberty fell to 16-13.

Sheri Sam scored 19 points and Nykesha Sales added 16 as Orlando (13-16) routed Washington, 81-54, before 11,283 at Orlando, Fla. The Miracle regained a tie with Detroit for the third and final Eastern Conference playoff spot. The Mystics are 12-18.

Lisa Harrison scored a game-high 21 points as the Phoenix Mercury registered a 65-54 victory over the Charlotte Sting (15-15) before 11,868 at Phoenix (14-15), which has won four of its last six.

Boxing

Stevie Johnston easily pounded out an unanimous decision over Angel Manfredy on Saturday night at Mashantucket, Conn., to retain his WBC lightweight title. . . . Danny Romero, the former International Boxing Federation world champion at 112 and 115 pounds, stopped Mexico’s Leonardo Gutierrez in the sixth round Saturday night in a non-title bantamweight fight at Albuquerque.

Name in the News

John S. Pingel, an All-America halfback at Michigan State in 1938 and member of the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame, died in Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich. He was 82.