Motorsports

NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. headlined the five inductees into the first class of the Hall of Fame. France, who formed the National Association of Stock Car Racing in 1947, was the first inductee announced Wednesday.

Seven-time Cup champion Richard Petty; Bill France Jr., son of the NASCAR founder who spent nearly 30 years at the helm of America's top motorsports series; Dale Earnhardt, NASCAR's other seven-time champion; and early champion Junior Johnson complete the first class, which will be inducted next May.

Soccer

Hutchinson (12-0-1) moved up four spots to No. 10 in the NJCAA women's poll on the strength of Saturday's 2-0 victory over Butler (11-4-1). The Grizzlies dropped from 11 to 14.

* Jonathan Bornstein headed in a corner kick in the fifth minute of stoppage time, giving the United States a 2-2 tie against Costa Rica on the final night of World Cup qualifying in the region. While the United States topped North and Central America and the Caribbean for the second straight qualifying cycle, Costa Rica faces a two-game playoff next month against Uruguay for a spot in the World Cup.

* Argentina survived a shaky qualifying campaign to earn South America's final automatic berth for next year's World Cup. Honduras, Switzerland and Slovakia also earned spots in the 32-nation field during matches Tuesday.

Portugal, Greece, Slovenia and Ukraine finished second in their groups and joined Bosnia-Herzegovina, France, Ireland and Russia in Europe's playoffs. The eight teams will be drawn into four pairs on Monday, and the winners of home-and- home, total-goals matches on Nov. 14 and 18 will qualify for next year's field.

Colleges

Cowley College will induct baseball coach Dave Burroughs into its Hall of Fame on Feb. 6. Burroughs coached the Tigers to consecutive NJCAA championships in 1997 and 1998 and has been the Jayhawk East's coach of the year the past three years. Also to be inducted are former tennis player Tim Shanahan, former softball pitcher Kristi Davis and former All-America lineman Francis Browning Pipestem.

Hockey

Vinny Prospal scored two goals — including his 200th in the NHL — during first-period power plays and the New York Rangers stretched their winning streak to six games with a 4-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings.... Chris Kunitz beat Cam Ward on the 12th shot of a shootout to help Pittsburgh beat Carolina 3-2 and improve to 5-0 on the road for the first time in franchise history.

Football

The California Senate voted to allow developers of a proposed 75,000-seat football stadium in the Southern California city of Industry an environmental exemption that allows construction to move forward. If signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the bill would nullify a lawsuit by residents in the neighboring city of Walnut, who claimed that Industry approved the project without sufficiently reviewing its environmental impact.

Gymnastics

American Rebecca Bross had the best score in qualifying at her first world gymnastics championships in London. Bross finished with 57.4 points, one-tenth ahead of another newcomer, Romania's Ana Porgras. The top 24 gymnasts advanced to Friday's all-around final, when scoring will start from scratch.