Sports Briefs

NASCAR

Smith's company gives OK to purchase of Kentucky track

Speedway Motorsports will proceed with its purchase of Kentucky Speedway, the company announced Thursday.

The agreement to purchase the track near Sparta was announced in May with a 90-day period to conduct due diligence on the deal. That deadline passed Aug. 18, but after Thursday's announcement the deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year, subject to the satisfaction of remaining closing conditions.

"Moving forward on Kentucky Speedway allows our company to expand its geographic reach," said Bruton Smith, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Speedway Motorsports, the company that owns Lowe's Motor Speedway and several other tracks.

When Smith announced the deal in May he said he hoped Kentucky Speedway would get a Sprint Cup date in 2009. But the track is not on next year's schedule.

"We are optimistic about being able to promote a Sprint Cup Series event at Kentucky Speedway," Smith said. "Once we secure a Sprint Cup Series event, we plan to expand seating capacity."

■ Phil Hill, the only American-born Formula One champion, died of complications from Parkinson's disease. He was 81. Mr. Hill was the 1961 Formula Open champion and a three-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner.

Golf

Local youth golfers taking partin Champions Tour event

Local junior golfers Pilar Morgan and Connor Rose of The First Tee of Lexington are playing Pebble Beach this weekend in the Walmart First Tee Open. Morgan will play alongside Champions Tour professional D.A. Wiebring and Rose has been paired with Mitch Adams. The tournament pairs 78 junior golfers with 78 professionals and will be televised on the Golf Channel.

■ Ryder Cup hopefuls Darren Clarke and Colin Montgomerie had encouraging opening rounds in the Johnnie Walker Championship in Gleneagles, Scotland. Clarke shot a 1-under 72 and Montgomerie had a 74, where Gregory Havret took the first-round lead with a 68.

College basketball

Brown's case to go to grand jury

A counterfeiting case against Western Kentucky sophomore forward Arnika Brown is headed to a grand jury after Brown waived a preliminary hearing Wednesday and elected to refer the case in Christian County court.

Brown — who faces 11 counts of possession of a forged instrument and five counts of theft by deception under $300 — was scheduled for a preliminary hearing Wednesday, but Brown's attorney, Hopkinsville's Rick Boling, said the arresting officer was unavailable and the case was continued to Friday.

Boling said it was then decided to waive the hearing.

"I told the judge that I did not want her to miss school to make this court appearance and it was my intention to stipulate at one point and time she had in her possession a counterfeit $100 bill, which would be a sufficient basis for it to go to the grand jury," Boling said. "Even though she didn't know it was counterfeit, the fact that she had it in her possession was enough to go to grand jury. There was no reason for us to have a preliminary hearing."

Etc.

UK volleyball, men's soccer start seasons with home tournaments

Kentucky's volleyball team opens the season at home in the Kentucky Classic against Pittsburgh on Friday night. Western Carolina and 13th-ranked Wisconsin are also in the field for the two-day round-robin tournament. The Wildcats return five starters and its libero from a team that won 22 games and made the NCAA Tournament. Senior Queen Nzenwa, an All-SEC pre-season selection, became Kentucky's first All-American a year ago.

The Kentucky men's soccer team hosts the University of Kentucky Invitational, beginning Friday with a 7:30 p.m. matchup with Central Arkansas at the UK Soccer Complex. The first match of the day has Detroit facing Evansville at 5 p.m.

■ Houston Rockets forward Chuck Hayes had surgery to repair a broken nose. The 6-foot-6 Hayes, Houston's third-leading rebounder last season at 5.4 per game, was hurt during a Thursday morning workout.

■ The Memphis Grizzlies signed free-agent center Hamed Haddadi, who played for the Iranian national team in the Olympics. The 7-foot-2, 254-pound Haddadi averaged 16.6 points, 11.2 rebounds and 2.6 blocks in Beijing.

The last word

Gabe Ross, the assistant general manager of the Sacramento (Calif.) River Cats, on the merits of Barack Obama-John McCain bobblehead night:

"People are looking for the same traits in their bobblehead as they are in their next president — a candidate with a solid foundation and a good head on their shoulders."