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Sports Brief: 7/20/20

Sports

July 20th, 2020 by Ric Hanson

Here is the latest Mid-America sports news from The Associated Press

NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — There is a wave of 20-somethings in IndyCar that are giving the elder statesmen of open-wheel racing everything they can handle this season. Rinus VeeKay, Colton Herta and Santino Ferrucci along with Pato O’Ward, Alex Palou and Oliver Askew represent a quarter of the field, and all of them have been running near the front. That included the doubleheader at Iowa this weekend, where Askew and O’Ward battled for the podium on Friday night and Askew was in the mix again Saturday. They come from all kinds of backgrounds and walks of life, too. O’Ward is from Mexico, Palou is Spanish and VeeKay is Dutch.

NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — Josef Newgarden led nearly wire-to-wire Saturday night to win the IndyCar race at Iowa Speedway, giving team owner Roger Penske a sweep of the double-header and his fourth victory across three series this weekend. Will Power finished second after wrecking out of the doubleheader opener. Graham Rahal finished third for his first podium in more than a year, while Pagenaud again came from the back to finish fourth and series leader Scott Dixon was fifth.

DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) — Jon Rahm moves to the top of world golf rankings after a convincing victory at the Memorial. Rahm closed with a 3-over 75 for a 9-under total, three strokes ahead of second-round co-leader Ryan Palmer at Muirfield Village. The 25-year-old Spaniard was leading by seven shots on Sunday before a double-bogey on the par-5 11th cut into his advantage.

UNDATED (AP) — Golf legend Jack Nicklaus revealed during Sunday’s CBS telecast of the Memorial that he and his wife tested positive for the coronavirus at the onset of the pandemic. He said his wife had no COVID-19 symptoms, while Nicklaus had a sore throat and a cough. Nicklaus said they were home in North Palm Beach, Florida, from March 13 “until we were done with it” on about April 20.

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Austin Dillon stayed in front after a restart with two laps to go and beat rookie Tyler Reddick to the checkered flag. That gave Richard Childress Racing a 1-2 NASCAR Cup finish and quite a show for spectators spread out in the stands. Dillon raced to his third career win and first since Daytona at the start of the 2018 season.

TORONTO (AP) — The Toronto Blue Jays want to play their home games in a major league ballpark this season. Pitcher Anthony Bass said he spoke with general manager Ross Atkins and emphasized that players prefer a big league stadium after being told by Canadian officials that they can’t play in Toronto. The veteran reliever added that players are willing to share a home venue with another team and make other sacrifices.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby is dealing with an unspecified health issue. Crosby left a team scrimmage early on Saturday and then was held out of practice a day later. Neither head coach Mike Sullivan nor assistant coach Mark Recchi (REH’-kee) offered any details on what might be ailing Crosby.