In Brief: Joe Gibbs Racing dominating NASCAR Spring Cup season.

AUTO RACING: The latest impressive showing for Joe Gibbs Racing came in qualifying at Michigan International Speedway.

Matt Kenseth won the NASCAR Sprint Cup pole Friday at Brooklyn, Michigan, and his JGR teammates Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards finished second and third. The team nearly swept the top four spots, but Kyle Busch qualified sixth.

NASCAR announced after qualifying that the Chase for the Sprint Cup will be held under the original 2015 rules, meaning the track-specific packages at Kentucky, Darlington, Michigan and Indianapolis won’t be used. Lately, it doesn’t seem to matter what rules package is in place. The Gibbs drivers have been strong.

JGR won four consecutive races at one point – three by Busch and one by Kenseth. That streak ended last weekend at Watkins Glen.

The last time one team swept the top three spots in qualifying was when Hendrick Motorsports pulled it off at this year’s Daytona 500. It’s the first time Joe Gibbs Racing has accomplished the feat.

• IndyCar unable to secure return to Fontana: IndyCar won’t return to Auto Club Speedway in California next season in a move that weakens the series’ dwindling presence on oval tracks.

The series confirmed that discussions with track officials couldn’t identify a suitable date to return to Fontana.

The June race this year was held in front of a crowd of less than 10,000.

Track officials made it clear the June date was not workable, and that IndyCar could only return as the season finale.

• Racer killed: Sprint car driver James Campbell Jr. was killed in a crash at Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. The Cumberland County Coroner’s Office said Campbell, from Feasterville, died after striking the wall on the half-mile banked clay oval.

Viral testing ‘advisable’ for Rio

MISCELLANY: The World Health Organization’s top water expert said the body “never advised against viral testing” for Rio de Janeiro’s polluted waterways where about 1,400 athletes will compete in Olympic events next year.

Bruce Gordon, the WHO’s coordinator of water, sanitation, hygiene and health, told the Associated Press that testing for viruses “would be advisable” given it’s known that sewage pollution is rife in Rio’s waters.

“WHO would support additional viral testing to further inform the risk assessment by authorities and to verify and address concerns raised by independent testing,” Gordon said, indicating it was WHO’s official stance. “In this case, measuring coliphages and enteric viruses would be advisable.”

The comments come after Olympic Games Executive Director Christophe Dubi said this week at a press conference in Rio that the International Olympic Committee ruled out viral testing because the WHO made it “very clear that bacterial testing is what should be followed.”

An independent five-month AP analysis showed dangerously high levels of disease-causing viruses from human sewage at all water venues for next year’s games.

• World Anti-Doping Agency investigating allegations: The World Anti-Doping Agency has begun investigating allegations by German broadcaster ARD and the Sunday Times newspaper in Britain that a third of medals in endurance races at Olympics and world championships were won by athletes who have recorded suspicious blood readings.

The media reports earlier this month analyzed the results of 12,000 blood tests involving 5,000 athletes from 2001 to 2012 – leaked from an IAAF database – and concluded that 800 were suspicious.

• UNC uncovers more violations: North Carolina uncovered possible additional NCAA violations in women’s basketball and men’s soccer while preparing the response to its long-running academic scandal, the school announced.

Its response to the NCAA, due next week, has been delayed. The NCAA will set a date after a review of the new information, school officials said.