AUTO RACING

Kyle Busch was fined $50,000 by NASCAR on Tuesday for recklessly entering the garage following a crash in the opening race of the Cup Series playoffs.

Busch was fined for a safety violation, actions detrimental to stock car racing and violating NASCAR member conduct guidelines during Saturday night’s race at Darlington Raceway. Busch had crashed midway through the race and as he pulled into the garage area, Busch ran over several orange safety cones at a considerable amount of speed as spectators hurried out the way of the No. 18 Toyota.

“It was a situation that could have been bad. Fortunately nobody got hit or anything like that,” Scott Miller, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, said Tuesday on SiriusXM. “Putting people in harm’s way for no reason is something we take seriously.”

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver finished 35th at Darlington. It dropped the two-time NASCAR champion from fourth to 14th in the playoff standings.

SOCCER

WORLD CUP QUALIFYING: Disciplinary proceedings were opened by FIFA against Argentina and Brazil over the chaos that led to their World Cup qualifier being suspended after Brazilian health officials stormed the field to question the quarantine status of players.

FIFA cited ongoing legal procedures as the reason it could not provide specifics on the alleged rule breaches or comment on whether it could also have been partly culpable, along with South American confederation CONMEBOL, for the saga that led to the game being halted after seven minutes on Sunday. Four of Argentina’s English Premier League players were accused of flouting quarantine requirements in Sao Paulo and of falsifying Brazilian coronavirus declarations by not stating they had been in red-listed Britain in the previous 14 days.

But FIFA itself could technically be partly culpable, too, as the organizers of the qualifier which appointed the match delegate, whose role is to oversee that regulations are being adhered to. CONMEBOL could also come under scrutiny, given that The Associated Press obtained a Brazilian health ministry document sent to CONMEBOL President Alejandro Dominguez that said a final request for a quarantine exemption was rejected for Aston Villa players Emiliano Martinez and Emiliano Buendia, and Tottenham duo Giovanni Lo Celso and Cristian Romero.

• Portugal overcame the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo to comfortably defeat Azerbaijan 3-0 and take the lead in its World Cup qualifying group.

SPANISH LEAGUE: Spain’s top sports authority accepted the Spanish league’s request to postpone a pair of weekend matches involving teams with players on international duty with South American nations.

The games between Barcelona and Sevilla and Villarreal and Alavés, originally scheduled for Saturday, will be played at later dates. They have not been rescheduled yet.

HOCKEY

PREMIER HOCKEY FEDERATION: The National Women’s Hockey League is history. Welcome, Premier Hockey Federation.

North America’s first women’s professional hockey league to pay players a salary is adopting the new name as part of a rebranding to reflect sweeping changes made to its management structure, coupled with an influx of private ownership entering its seventh season.

“The league has come a long way since its inception in 2015, and we believe that this is the right time and the right message as we strengthen our commitment to growing the game and inspiring youth,” commissioner Ty Tumminia told The Associated Press. “It really mirrors what we are doing. Everything about us is new as we’re heading into this new era.”

The decision to change names also provided the six-team federation an opportunity to make a social statement by removing gender from its title.

AUTO RACING

FORMULA ONE: George Russell was confirmed as Lewis Hamilton’s Formula One teammate from 2022 by Mercedes. The all-British lineup was speculated on for months, and signalled on Monday by Valtteri Bottas’ move from Mercedes to Alfa Romeo next year.

Russell, aged 23, said in a statement he’s “absolutely buzzing.”

“But I’m under no illusions as to the scale of the challenge; it’s going to be a steep learning curve. Valtteri has set a high bar, consistently delivering week in and week out, scoring wins, pole positions and helping win multiple championship titles.”

Russell received a long-term contract but Mercedes did not elaborate. Russell is a Mercedes protege after joining the team’s young driver programme in 2017. That year he won the GP3 series, and the next year the Formula Two championship.

HORSE RACING

SARATOGA: The summer meet at Saratoga Race Course generated a record wagering handle of more than $815 million, the New York Racing Association announced after the close of the 40-day meet.

The previous record was $705.3 million, set in 2019. Average daily handle was $20.3 million.

A year after COVID-19 restrictions snapped the racetrack’s run of five straight meets with paid attendance exceeding 1 million, the track started a new streak as just over 1 million fans attended this year’s meet. Average daily attendance was 26,162. Fans were not permitted last year.