Fast Break

Auto racing

NASCAR, RCR deny cheating

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – NASCAR and team owner Richard Childress on Monday dismissed as “sheer fantasy” a television report that said race winner Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton had a performance advantage at New Hampshire International Speedway.

A Speed TV report Sunday said NASCAR inspectors had discovered that RCR teams had manipulated the rims on their Chevrolets to act as “bleeder valves” that slowly released air pressure in tires after the race. The practice is not technically illegal, and falls into a gray area of the rulebook that teams are supposed to respect.

The report left rival teams grumbling that Harvick may have cheated to win the first race in the Chase for the championship.

College football

Oops!

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Boston College moved into sole position of the No. 20 ranking in the Associated Press Top 25 on Monday, after the poll was recalculated to fix a mistaken ballot.

The revised poll breaks a 20th-place tie between Boston College and Arizona State, dropping the Sun Devils into the No. 22 ranking behind Cal.

Poll voter Ken Tysiac of the Charlotte Observer said he mistakenly sent his Sept. 10 poll ballot, rather than his Sept. 17 ballot, to the AP on Sunday.

“I cut-and-pasted the wrong file, the previous week’s file, into the e-mail that I sent to the AP,” Tysiac said Monday.

Girls basketball

Nelson commits to New Mexico

Nikki Nelson, Mead’s point guard and leading basketball scorer last year, has made an oral commitment to play at the University of New Mexico.

“I prayed about it a lot, decided this is where God wanted me to go and couldn’t be happier,” said Nelson.

She has returned for her senior year to Chewelah where she played as a freshman and sophomore. The Cougars were state finalists in 2005 when she averaged 14.4 points per game. Last year at Mead she averaged 12 points a game for the Greater Spokane League third-place co-finishers.

At New Mexico she will join ex-Riverside star Angela Hartill, who played in all 32 games last year as a freshman when the Lobos went 21-10.