Earnhardt Jr. Speeds Up in Time for a Victory

A week after he nearly was disqualified for running too slow, Dale Earnhardt Jr. zoomed by Jeremy Mayfield with 15 laps to go and sprinted to an easy victory Sunday in the Golden Corral 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga.

He also won NASCAR’s season-opening event, the Daytona 500.

“Last week was as bad as it ever gets,” Earnhardt said. “But we didn’t get on each other too bad, and we stayed pretty focused.”

That mentality is something new for him and his top two crewmen, the father-son tandem of Tony Eury Sr. and Tony Eury Jr. Their relationship runs hot and cold, and in the past, when things didn’t go well, the disagreements were legendary.

“In the past, me and Tony Jr. would have ensued into a hellacious cussing match,” Earnhardt said. “We would have really been at each other’s throats. And Tony Sr. probably would have punched me in the face. It would have just been nasty.”

This year, it’s different. The finger-pointing was kept to a minimum, and all worked hard for improvement at Atlanta.

“I’m just real proud,” Earnhardt said. “Last year, we would have self-destructed.”

Rookie Kasey Kahne was third, his third straight finish in the top three, and Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman followed him across the finish line.

Defending Series champ Matt Kenseth, who had won the last two races, rallied from a lap down to finish sixth.

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NASCAR truck series driver Hank Parker Jr. was released from a Hampton, Ga., hospital a day after he was injured in a wreck at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Parker has back injuries, a track official said. Tina Gordon (broken right leg) and Rick Crawford (broken left foot), the two other drivers involved, were released from the hospital Saturday.

Winter Sports

Kalle Palander of Finland won the World Cup slalom race at Sestriere, Italy, finishing only .05 seconds ahead of Rainer Schoenfelder of Austria, who clinched the overall slalom title with his second-place finish.

Austria’s Manfred Pranger was third, .15 seconds behind. Bode Miller ended his season with a seventh-place finish and Austria’s Benjamin Raich came in 10th. Raich was third in the final overall standings, beating fourth-place Miller by five points.

Sweden’s Anja Paerson, the newly crowned overall women’s winner, was victorious in the final giant slalom.

Paerson clinched the slalom and giant slalom crowns before the finals. For her fourth consecutive giant slalom win and fifth this season, the Swede was timed in 2:13.70. She was 1.11 seconds ahead of Italy’s Denise Karbon, with Austria’s Alexandra Meissnitzer third.

South Korean speedskaters dominated the final races with a double victory at the short-track team championships at St. Petersburg, Russia.

The South Korean men’s team, led by world champion Ahn Hyun-soo, won six of 10 final heats for 42 points. Defending champion Canada was second, eight points behind. Italy was third with 20.

The United States skipped the event to prepare for the world short track championships in Goteborg, Sweden, next weekend.

Finland’s Janne Ahonen won the overall World Cup ski jump title, finishing eighth in a season-ending event at Oslo won by Norway’s Roar Ljokelsoy. Ahonen needed to finish at least 12th to win the overall crown.

Raphael Poiree of France and wife Liv Grete Skjelbreid Poiree of Norway won the season’s mass start biathlon titles when Sunday’s final World Cup event at Oslo was canceled because of fog.

Austria’s Siegfried Grabner and Switzerland’s Daniela Meuli won the parallel giant slaloms titles at the World Cup snowboard finals at Bardonecchia, Italy.

Finland’s Janne Lathela won the men’s moguls and Norway’s Kari Traa the women’s event on the closing day of the World Cup freestyle finals at Sauze d’Oulx, Italy.

Lathela totaled 27.22 points to beat Pierre-Alexandre Rousseau of Canada and David Babic of the United States.

Traa won the women’s moguls ahead of Hannah Kearney of the United States.

Norway’s Kjetil Backen kept the slimmest of leads in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, arriving just a minute ahead of Mitch Seavey at the Unalakleet, Alaska, checkpoint. Unalakleet is 219 miles from the finish line in Nome.

New Mexico won the NCAA skiing championships at Truckee, Calif., for the school’s first NCAA title in any sport.

The Lobos ended the competition with 623 points, followed by defending champion Utah at 581 points, Denver at 568 and Colorado at 564.

Pro Football

The New York Giants signed former Cleveland Brown offensive lineman Barry Stokes.

Stokes, a 6-foot-4, 310-pounder, started 13 games at left tackle last season and 17 the year before at left guard, including a playoff game. He also played for Giant Coach Tom Coughlin in Jacksonville.