NASCAR sued over revenue sharing

Two NASCAR teams — one of them owned by Michael Jordan — filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against the stock car series and chairman Jim France on Wednesday, claiming the new charter system limits competition by unfairly binding teams to the series, its tracks and its suppliers. 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports filed suit in the Western District of North Carolina in Charlotte after two years of contentious negotiations between the privately owned National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing and the 15 charter-holding organizations in the series’ top Cup Series. NASCAR in early September presented its final offer on what is essentially a revenue sharing model; 13 organizations signed, with most saying they did so under duress or felt threatened into doing so. But 23XI Racing, the team co-owned by Jordan (above) and veteran driver Denny Hamlin, and the smaller Front Row team refused to sign. They hired Jeffrey Kessler, a top antitrust attorney who has represented the players in all four major professional North American sports.

Liberty push Aces to the brink

Sabrina Ionescu (left) scored 24 points and the New York Liberty beat the Las Vegas Aces 88-84 to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five semifinal series Tuesday night. Game 3 is Friday night in Las Vegas with the two-time defending champion Aces trying to avoid being knocked out by the team they beat in the Finals last year. No team has rallied from a 2-0 deficit to win a best-of-five playoff series in WNBA postseason history. Only Phoenix was able to force a Game 5 in 2018 against Seattle. A’ja Wilson scored 24 points and Jackie Young added 17 for the Aces, who now must have a historical rally to reach the WNBA Finals for a fourth consecutive year.

Lynx top Sun: Courtney Williams scored 17 points and Alanna Smith had 15 points to help Minnesota offset an off night for star Napheesa Collier and beat Connecticut to even the best-of-five WNBA semifinal series at one game apiece Collier, who scored 80 points in the two-game sweep of Phoenix in the first round, was held to nine points on 3-for-14 shooting.

Pochettino’s first roster set

Mauricio Pochettino’s first roster as U.S. national team coach brought back goalkeeper Zack Steffen, who was dropped under Gregg Berhalter. Midfielder Gianluca Busio was the other notable addition to the 25-man roster announced Wednesday for friendlies against Panama on Oct. 12 at Austin, Texas, and Mexico three days later at Guadalajara. Defenders Antonee Robinson and Miles Robinson and midfielder Weston McKennie were added after being given the September games off to remain with their clubs. Goalkeeper Diego Kochen and defender Caleb Wiley were dropped. Injured players who will miss the matches include defenders Sergiño Dest, Chris Richards and Cameron Carter-Vickers, and midfielder Tyler Adams. Pochettino (above) was hired on Sept. 10 and becomes the 10th U.S. coach in 14 years and the first foreign-born leader since Jurgen Klinsmann from 2011-16. Steffen, Matt Turner, Ethan Horvath and Patrick Schulte are the goalkeepers on the roster.

— Associated Press