Stewart to Race at Irwindale After All

Tony Stewart, newly crowned Winston Cup stock car racing champion, will race after all in the Turkey Night Grand Prix at Irwindale Speedway on Nov. 28.

Stewart, who won the 100-lap race for midget cars in 2000, after having finished second in 1999, had feared that duties associated with his NASCAR title might keep him from the Thanksgiving night festivities but car owner Steve Lewis of Laguna Beach said Stewart had cleared the decks.

“The car is ready and Tony will be here to drive it,” Lewis said Tuesday at a test session at Irwindale.

Stewart, a former USAC national champion in midgets, sprint cars and Silver Crown dirt-track cars before switching to Winston Cup stock cars four years ago, has long been a backer of midgets and the Turkey Night race.

Stewart missed Turkey Night last year because a postponed Winston Cup race was run that weekend.

-- Shav Glick

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Paul Tracy will join Patrick Carpentier on the Player’s racing team for the 2003 CART season.

College Basketball

Nick Collison scored 20 points and led a 14-2 second-half run that propelled No. 2 Kansas past Holy Cross, 81-57, at Lawrence, Kan., and kept Coach Roy Williams’ Preseason NIT record (13-0) perfect.... Freshman Matt Walsh scored 26 points to lead No. 8 Florida to a 76-55 victory over Louisiana Tech in the opening round of the Preseason NIT at Gainesville, Fla.

San Diego State junior forward Chris Walton will redshirt this season, meaning there won’t be a showdown with his older brother, Luke, when No. 1 Arizona visits the Aztecs on Dec. 7.... The NCAA upheld a three-game suspension for Memphis point guard Antonio Burks, who was punished for getting special treatment while renting a car.

Miscellany

Tiger Woods beat South Korea’s K.J. Choi in a playoff to win the Phoenix Challenge, a six-hole exhibition match played before the Dunlop Phoenix tournament at Miyazaki, Japan.

Former San Diego State quarterback Jack Hawley and Ryan Helming were signed by the Avengers. Helming was beaten out by Marc Bulger to be the St. Louis Rams’ No. 3 quarterback.

UCLA plans to report a possible NCAA secondary violation to the Pacific 10 Conference this week. A Bruin administrator said that a one-page message written by UCLA men’s soccer assistant Jorge Salcedo that appeared in “Premier,” an Orange County club soccer magazine, could be interpreted as improper contact with potential recruits.

Passings

Ben Plucknett, one of the best American discus throwers who twice held the world record in the 1980s, died Sunday at his home in Essex, Mo., of a brain aneurysm. He was 48. See story B section.