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Sports Briefs

■ Auto Racing

Edwards wins in Nashville

Carl Edwards raced to his fourth NASCAR Busch Series victory of the season on Saturday night, easily beating Clint Bowyer in the Federated Auto Parts 300 for the Nextel Cup driver's third straight win at Nashville Superspeedway in Tennessee. Following the race, Edwards -- the runaway leader in the season standings -- executed his signature backflip off of his car, this time landing on all fours. Edwards took the lead with 33 laps to go and beat Bowyer by 1.656 seconds. Jason Leffler was third, followed by Scott Wimmer and Regan Smith. Edwards started seventh but nearly missed his qualifying attempt. He arrived at the track by helicopter, jumped out in his race uniform, signed in and sprinted to his car with about 60 seconds to spare.



■ Basketball

Nuggets' Smith hurt in crash

Denver Nuggets player J.R. Smith and another man were seriously injured on Saturday when the sport utility vehicle Smith was driving collided with a car. Smith and the unidentified passenger were thrown from the vehicle in the crash, which occurred at around 5:30pm in Millstone Township, New Jersey, said Sergeant Stephen Jones, a state police spokesman. The passenger -- who had serious head wounds -- was airlifted to Jersey Shore University Hospital in Neptune, New Jersey while Smith was taken there via ambulance. Further details on their injuries were not immediately available on Saturday night. Smith's vehicle apparently went through a stop sign, Jones said, and collided with the other car. The driver of that vehicle and two others were injured and taken to CentraState Medical Center in Freehold, New Jersey, but their injuries were not considered serious.



■ Boxing

Adamek wins IBO title

Poland's Tomasz Adamek stopped Luis Pineda of Panama in the seventh round on Saturday to capture the vacant IBO cruiserweight title in Katowice, Poland. Adamek used a quick left jab to control the fight from the start. In the seventh, the Pole landed a solid left, stunning Pineda, then followed with a string of blows as Pineda leaned on the ropes before the referee stepped in and called the fight. "I really wanted to put on a good boxing display," Adamek said. "It worked out. I'm ready to fight with anybody." Adamek, the former WBC light-heavyweight champion, improved to 32-1 and rebounds from his loss to Chad Dawson by an unanimous decision in February. Pineda drops to 21-6. On the undercard, Polish heavyweight Andrzej Golota returned to the ring after a two-year hiatus to beat Jeremy Bates of the US. Golota was rusty from the long layoff, but dominated the overmatched Bates from the start, pushing the US boxer around the ring.



■ Horse racing

Filly wins Belmont

Rags to Riches became the first filly to win the Belmont Stakes in 102 years when she won a thrilling stretch duel with Preakness champion Curlin to triumph by a head on Saturday. Rags to Riches, unbeaten in four races this year against fillies, proved herself against the colts as the 4-1 third pick in the US$1 million race, which was contested by a seven-horse field chasing the final jewel of this year's Triple Crown series. She overcame a stumble out of the gate and made her move at the top of the stretch, going four wide to charge to victory with John Velazquez aboard.




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