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Monday College World Series — Florida vs South Carolina, 5 p.m., ESPN MLB— Reds at Rays, 4 p.m., ESPN2 Tennis — Wimbledon — 7 a.m., NBC Women’s World Cup — Japan vs New Zealand, 5:45 a.m., ESPN Women’s World Cup —Mexico vs England, 8:45 a.m., ESPN Sports 1B Spartan Fun-Run Monday June 27, 2011 Kurt Busch grabs 1st road course victory SONOMA (AP) — It certainly seemed as if Kurt Busch’s season was in serious trouble just two months ago, when poor performances led to an intense radio tirade against his entire Penske Racing organization. What could have destroyed his race team has actually had the opposite effect. Busch’s impressive turnaround continued Sunday with a dominating run at Infineon Raceway, where he earned his first career road course victory and his first win of the sea- son. ‘‘We’ve been on a great run these last few weeks,’’ Busch said. ‘‘To get a road course win, it’s a big check mark on my list. It’s just really neat to bring home that ’W.’’’ Busch led a race-high 76 laps and beat Jeff Gordon by almost 4 seconds for his first win of the season. It’s a marked turn for Busch, who unraveled over his team radio at Rich- mond in early May because of how poorly his Dodge had been running. Courtesy photo Pete Davies competes in Sunday’s Spartan Fun-Run. He finished first in his age group. The Spartan Fun-Run portion of the River Festival was held Sunday at the Red Bluff High School cam- pus. Approximately 40 runners par- ticipated. The organizers would like to thank the participants and especial- ly the volunteers who helped tremendously. Dr. Ron Clark and Mt. Lassen Trout supported the race with donations that made this event possible. Cornerstone Bank, Oak Creek Golf Course, Wilcox Oaks Golf Course, Dudley's Excavating, and St. Elizabeth Hospital helped with donations to the cause. Top finishers received race tank- tops as well as prizes. 1m Results 1 Grant Blaser 00:06:02 2 Kristiana Zufall 00:08:13 3 Betty Lasley 00:20:11 10k Results 1 Blake Zufall 2 Pete Davies 00:39:11 00:40:20 3 Annelyse Hays 00:51:08 4 Annie Bliss 00:52:23 5 Bonnie Havens 00:53:19 6 Maria Humphrey 00:53:35 7 Sarah McKelvey 01:00:24 8 Aurora Barriga 01:01:02 9 Kayla Diehl 10 Robin Clark 11 John Roth 12 Lupe Barriga 5k Results 1 Eric Johnson 2 Jose Barriga 00:22:38 00:23:04 3 Aubrie Stroman 00:23:35 4 Kevin Paulich 5 Hector Gurnica 00:24:41 6 Adam Zufall 7 Kate Johnson 00:25:15 8 Dan Kersey 9 Julie Lyford 10 Alan Foley 11 Danial Bracken 00:30:13 12 Karrie Roth 00:30:17 13 Savanna Wooten 00:31:03 14 Ginger Heatwole 00:31:05 15 Jim Allwardt 00:31:32 01:04:46 01:05:40 01:06:14 01:09:03 16 Miguel Barriga 00:32:08 17 Sophia Gunsauls 00:32:43 18 Camille Gunsauls 00:33:36 19 Nannette Schumacher 00:34:11 20 Chari Constant 00:34:11 21 Will Wooten 22 Maggie Wooten 00:35:35 00:41:18 23 Barbara Casteel 00:47:01 24 Wendy LeVier 00:51:11 25 Mary Sakuma 00:51:12 00:24:16 00:25:02 00:27:01 00:28:20 00:30:01 The rant led to behind-the-scenes changes at Penske Rac- ing that have sparked both Busch and teammate Brad Keselowski, who won at Kansas earlier this month. Busch, despite three consecutive poles, was winless but inching closer and closer. It finally came on a road course, of all places. Busch was winless in 10 career starts at both Sonoma and Watkins Glen, the only two road courses on the Sprint Cup circuit. And Busch helped Keselowski finish 10th with advice and a tour of the track on Friday. ‘‘It’s a good feeling to know that the two teams are work- ing as closely together as they ever have,’’ Busch said. ‘‘Knowing that Brad is definitely maturing, seeing him bust off a top 10 at a road course is great. We went around the race track, I pointed out some of the apex points, exit points, shift- ing points. He absorbed it like a sponge. ‘‘That’s what it takes as a veteran of the team to help the kid that’s coming up through and to have his information help us. That’s exactly what’s helped both teams get stronger.’’ Beating Gordon made it extra special for Busch, who was one of many drivers wrecked by Gordon here last year. It was fresh in his memory when he arrived, and one of the first things Busch said was Gordon had apologized to every dri- ver he wrecked last year but Busch. ‘‘It was a definite boost at the end of the day, to see him finish second,’’ Busch smiled. Gordon congratulated Busch in Victory Lane, but said ‘‘I still didn’t apologize.’’ Carl Edwards, who decided Friday to skip Saturday’s Nationwide Series race at Road America, finished third. He was scheduled to miss both of Saturday’s practice sessions so he could be in Wisconsin for the race. ‘‘It was very tough to watch the race from Road Ameri- ca, but I think staying was the right decision,’’ Edwards said. See BUSCH, page 2B A's not good enough against Halladay (.079). PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Eight hits off Roy Halladay was pretty good for the Oakland Athletics. Of course, it wasn't nearly good enough. The Philadelphia ace limited Oakland to one run in his fifth complete game of the season and the Phillies beat the A's. 3-1 Sunday. Jimmy Rollins went 4 for 4 for Philadelphia and Halladay (10-3) improved to 30-3 in a Philadelphia uniform in the 35 starts in which the Phillies have given him the lead. "Yeah, he obviously pitched well," Oakland's Scott Sizemore said. "We got quite a few hits off him but we weren't able to piece them together. I guess that's why he's so good. He spreads them out and bears down when he needs to." After the Phillies scored twice in the first, Oakland got on the board in the fourth on Ryan Sweeney's bloop single. The Phillies tacked on a run on Ben Francisco's infield single in the fifth, before the A's threatened in the seventh. Conor Jackson, who had three hits, led off with a single and went to third on Sizemore's one-out double down the right- field line. Jackson proba- bly could have scored on the hit, but he appeared to hesitate rounding second. Oakland couldn't get the run home later, either. Landon Powell popped out and pinch-hitter David DeJesus struck out look- ing. DeJesus has three hits in his last 38 at-bats "I thought we had a chance to beat (Halla- day)," Oakland interim manager Bob Melvin said. "A hit here, or a hit there. We had a chance. It was frustrating." The A's have lost four of five, including two of three in the series against the Phillies despite allow- ing just six runs in the three games. "The positive side is we were in all three games and the pitching staff did a great job," Sizemore said. "We just didn't get the big hits always when we needed to." That was especially the case against Halladay, who is tough to beat any- time but especially when given a lead. "He's pretty steady," Philadelphia manager Charlie Manuel said. "If we can score three or four runs, our starting pitchers have a good chance to win the game. We scratched out three runs and he did a tremendous job. It might not sound like a lot of runs but it gives him room to work." Halladay tied for the major league lead in vic- tories. He struck out four to raise his total to 123, which led the NL until Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers fanned 11 to pass him later in the day. The Phillies have won each of Halladay's last eight starts and the right- hander is 5-0 with a 2.64 ERA during the stretch. "It's always fun to watch him pitch," Philadelphia's Ryan Howard said. "He's a competitor." The number of hits MCT photo Cliff Pennington looks back at the umpire after being called out looking at a third strike. Blanton. allowed didn't bother Hal- laday, who didn't walk a batter and said he was hit- ting his spots. "I felt like for the most part we were making pitches and giving up hits on good pitches," he said. Oakland's Josh Out- man (3-2), a former Phillies minor leaguer, allowed three runs and eight hits in six innings. He was picked by the Phillies in the 10th round of the 2005 draft and trad- ed to Oakland in 2008 as part of the deal for Joe "He started a little slow but from the third inning on, he pitched a lot bet- ter," Melvin said. The Phillies scored twice in the first against Outman and added a run in the fifth on Francisco's two-out infield single with the bases loaded. "To be able to add on, that's the important thing," Halladay said. "It's sometimes tough to pitch in a one-run game, so not always pitching with the tying run at the plate. ... Those extra runs make a big difference." On the play, Outman cleanly fielded Francis- co's slowly hit roller to the left of the mound and looked to third to try to get Polanco, but third baseman Sizemore was charging and not on the bag. By the time Outman turned and fired to first, it was too late to get Fran- cisco. "If he had turned and gone to first right away, he might have had him," Melvin said. "He thought he had a play at third and went to first a little late. It's just one of those things." NOTES: Cliff Pennington went 0 for 4 for Oakland and is now hitless in his last 19 at- bats. ... Outman went 0 for 2, dropping A's pitchers to 0 for 18 this season. ... The Phillies recorded their 166th consecutive sellout and second-largest regular- season crowd with 45,863 fans. Toyota/Save Mart 350 Athletics 1 Philadelphia 3