Sports in Brief: Johnson gains pole position
Sports in Brief: Johnson gains pole position
Jimmie Johnson's run for his fourth consecutive Sprint Cup title will start from the pole.
Johnson turned a lap of 173.919 m.p.h. yesterday to top qualifying at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Fla., for tomorrow's Ford 400, a big boost for the Hendrick Motorsports star as he tries to become the first driver in NASCAR history to win four straight titles.
Kevin Harvick made a late pass last night to win the season-ending Trucks Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and wife Delana clinched the owners' championship when Ron Hornaday Jr. - who already had wrapped up his fourth Trucks title - finished eighth.
BOXING: Manny Pacquiao sold 1.25 million pay-per-views for his fight with Miguel Cotto in a performance that could set up the richest fight ever against Floyd Mayweather Jr.
The fight made the top 10 of best-selling pay-per-view boxing events and beat the 1.05 million figure notched by Mayweather for his September comeback against Juan Manuel Marquez.
The biggest PPV fight was in 2007 - Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya, which was sold to 2.4 million homes.
COLLEGES: UCLA starting forward Nikola Dragovic, 21, from Belgrade, Serbia, was suspended for the Bruins' game against Cal State Bakersfield last night after he was charged earlier in the day with felony assault by the Los Angeles district attorney's office.
He was involved in an incident last month at a concert in Hollywood.
In the NCAA Division III men's soccer playoffs, Transylvania defeated Swarthmore at Carnegie Mellon to reach the Elite 8. The teams played to a 1-1 draw, but Transylvania outscored Swarthmore, 5-3, in penalty kicks.
SOCCER: The Kixx beat Pogon Szczecin of the Polish Premier League, 20-10, in an exhibition Thursday at Tri-State Sports in Aston, Delaware County.
Los Angeles midfielder David Beckham said he will need an injection in his right ankle, which has a bone bruise, to allow him to play in tomorrow night's MLS Cup final against Real Salt Lake at Qwest Field.
TENNIS: The ATP Tour will not reopen a doping case against Andre Agassi even though he admitted to lying about using crystal meth in 1997.
ATP chairman Adam Helfant said there was no way to sanction the American retroactively since he has retired from tennis.
WNBA: The Sacramento Monarchs folded, a disappointing development for the WNBA and one of its original eight pro women's basketball franchises.
The Maloof family plans to focus all its efforts on the NBA's Sacramento Kings.
- Staff and wire reports
