AUTO RACING

Harvick wins pole position at Darlington Raceway

Kevin Harvick held off defending champion Martin Truex Jr. on Saturday to win the pole for the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

Harvick ran a fast lap of 177.730 in the final round, sweeping all three segments of qualifying. It was Harvick’s fourth pole of the season and second at Darlington. The last time Harvick started up front for the Southern 500, he took the checkered flag.

Truex, the series points leader, has won four times this season. He finished with a lap of 177.077 mph.

Kyle Busch will start third on Sunday. He swept the truck, Xfinity and NASCAR Cup Series events at Bristol two weeks ago.

XFINITY: Denny Hamlin passed Joey Logano coming out of the final turn to win at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina.

INDYCAR: Alexander Rossi won the IndyCar pole at Watkins Glen International.

Rossi bested the Fast Six with a track-record time of 1 minute, 22.4639 seconds to edge Scott Dixon (1:22.5168) on his final lap around the 3.34-mile road course in a session that was oh-so close.

FORMULA ONE: Lewis Hamilton claimed his 69th career pole position, in Monza, Italy, to break the Formula One record previously held by his childhood idol, Michael Schumacher.

BEECH RIDGE: Reid Lanpher of Manchester closed out the season with his fourth straight Pro Series victory and won the track championship for the second time in three years.

Lanpher, 19, won six of the nine Pro Series features this year.

Curtis Gerry of Waterboro, the 2016 Beech Ridge champion and winner of the Oxford 250 last Sunday, finished second in the standings.

Dan McKeage of Gorham was second in Saturday’s race, followed by Jacob Dore of Sanford.

CYCLING

SPANISH VUELTA: Polish rider Rafal Majka won the mountainous 14th stage, in Sierra De La Pandera, while Chris Froome maintained his overall lead.

Majka won on a solo breakaway up the final special-category ascent.

The BORA-hansgrohe rider finished the 108.7-mile stage from Ecija to Sierra de La Pandera in 4 hours, 42 minutes, 10 seconds.

Miguel Angel Lopez was 27 seconds back in second.

Vincenzo Nibali beat Froome to a third-place finish for the stage, grabbing a four-second bonus that shaved Froome’s lead over the Italian to 55 seconds.

SOCCER

WORLD CUP QUALIFYING: Two first-half strikes by Francisco “Isco” Alarcon helped Spain beat Italy 3-0 and move closer to securing a World Cup spot.

Isco got the best of Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon from a free kick early in the game, then outsmarted the Italian defense with a low shot just before halftime at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.

The result left Spain in control of Group G with 19 points, three more than the Italians, with three games left.

MLS: Kei Kamara had his first career hat trick and the New England Revolution beat Orlando City 4-0 at Foxborough, Massachusetts.

BASKETBALL

NBA: Houston Rockets point guard James Harden said he will donate $1 million to the city of Houston to aid in Harvey recovery.

Harden and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner spoke at a news conference at the NRG Center, which has housed evacuees since Harvey swamped the Houston area more than a week ago.

– Staff and news service report