Robert Shwartzman, a 25-year-old driver with dual nationality in Israel and Russia, won the pole for next Sunday’s Indianapolis 500, the first rookie to qualify on pole since Teo Fabi in 1983. Shwartzman drives for Prema Racing, an Italian team that races in the Formula 2 series in Europe and made its IndyCar debut this season. He was the fourth of six drivers to make their qualifying attempt and took the pole from Takuma Sato. But he still had to wait for Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist to make their runs, and he nervously watched from pit lane. O’Ward went first and landed in the third spot and Rosenqvist dropped to fifth, sandwiched in the second row between Scott Dixon and Alex Palou. The pole was wide open for the taking first when Team Penske was disqualified from qualifying for an illegal modification on the cars of two-time defending Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden and Will Power, and Scott McLaughlin destroyed his car in a Sunday morning crash during practice. The three Penske drivers all started on the front row last year, but will be 10th, 11th, and 12th in the fourth row.
Bell shines amid stars
Christopher Bell passed Joey Logano with nine laps remaining and cruised to victory in an action-packed NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway. In a slam-bang affair that set a record for lead changes, Bell won by 0.829 seconds over Logano to earn his first All-Star Race victory. Ross Chastain finished third, followed by Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott. Logano elected to stay on track rather than pit during the final yellow. The decision proved to be costly while trying to hold off Bell, who had pitted for two fresh tires . . . Max Verstappen ended Oscar Piastri’s three-race win streak and gave his title defense a big boost with a Formula One victory at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in Imola, Italy, after a daring overtake of Piastri at the start. Piastri and teammate Lando Norris had no real answer to the pace of Verstappen’s Red Bull after that.
Verstappen built a commanding lead which was wiped out when the safety car bundled the field back up and injected drama into the race late on. He still held on to win ahead of Norris, who overtook Piastri for second with five laps remaining.
hockey
Team USA in quarters
The United States got five second-period goals and goalie Jeremy Swayman made 16 saves as the Americans secured their place in the quarterfinals of the ice hockey world championship with a 6-1 rout of Kazakhstan on Sunday in Herning, Denmark. Frank Nazar had a goal and two assists, and Jackson Lacombe, Tage Thompson, Matty
Beniers,Michael Kesselring, and Zach Werenski also scored for the Americans. The Americans are tied with the Czech Republic on 14 points in Group B, trailing leader Switzerland (16). Team USA will complete its group stage Tuesday against the Czechs, who have two more games to play.
wnba
League investigating
The WNBA is investigating racial comments directed toward Angel Reese by fans during the Chicago Sky’s loss to Caitlin Clark and the Fever in Indianapolis on Saturday, according to a person familiar with the situation. The league launched “No Space for Hate’’ this season, a multi-dimensional platform designed to combat hate and promote respect across all WNBA spaces, both online and in-arena. Reese, who had 12 points and 17 rebounds in the 93-58 loss, and Clark had an incident in the third quarter. Reese grabbed an offensive rebound and Clark slapped Reese’s arm hard enough to jar the ball loose and knock Reese to floor. When Reese got up, she tried to confront Clark before Indiana center Aliyah Boston stepped in between the players.
Clark’s third personal foul was upgraded to a flagrant 1 while Boston and Reese each drew technical fouls following a replay review by the referees.
miscellany
King out of hospital
Angel City defender Savy King has been released from the hospital, eight days after she collapsed on the field during a NWSL match and needed surgery to treat a heart abnormality. King posted a photo of herself in the hospital holding a heart-shaped pillow and giving a thumbs up on social media Sunday. King, 20, collapsed during the second half of a game with visiting Utah. She was treated on the field for more than 10 minutes before she was taken by ambulance to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Once there, doctors discovered a heart abnormality and she underwent surgery Tuesday . . . Chelsea completed a trophy treble in an unbeaten domestic season in English soccer by defeating Manchester United, 3-0, in the Women’s FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium . . . Carlos Alcaraz defeated top-ranked Jannik Sinner again, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1, to win his first Italian Open. It was Sinner’s first tournament back after a three-month doping ban. Since the start of last year, Alcaraz is the only player to beat Sinner more than once and now he’s done it four straight times . . . Jack Regnery scored six goals and Max Ettinghausen had four as the undefeated Tufts men’s lacrosse team defeated visiting Bowdoin, 26-11, to earn the right to defend its NCAA Division 3 title. Tufts (22-0) will play Dickinson (17-5) next Sunday at Gillette Stadium . . . Margie Carden scored three goals and Allie Zorn had two as the Tufts women’s lacrosse team held off visiting Salisbury (16-5), 8-7, in the NCAA Division 3 quarterfinals. The Jumbos (20-1) will play Gettysburg (19-3) Friday in Salem, Va., with the winner playing the winner of the other semifinal between Colby (17-3) and the defending champions from Middelbury (19-1) on Sunday.