Zanardi Leaves Andretti in Pits

A few precious drops of methanol fuel may have been the difference in Alex Zanardi’s victory over Michael Andretti Saturday in the Motorola 300 at Madison, Ill.

Zanardi took the lead with a lightning-fast final pit stop and held off Andretti in a dramatic late-race duel that kept most of the big crowd at Gateway International Raceway on its feet to the end.

“Our pit stop wasn’t even bad,” a disappointed Andretti said after falling about three car-lengths short in the 236-lap race.

“We were really making sure we got the very last drop of fuel in the car because we were a little close on fuel at that point,” Andretti said. “It was only another second or two, but it made the difference.”

Zanardi said, “It was very difficult to overtake anyone on the track, so I knew our work in the pits would be critical.

“Our guys have been incredible all year. You think sooner or later they will do something wrong, but it just hasn’t happened.”

*

Memo Gidley of Novato, Calif., slipped by polesitter Anthony Lazzaro on the 18th lap to win the rain-shortened Kool-Toyota Atlantic Championship race at Madison.

*

Finland’s Tommi Makinen drove a Mitsubishi Lancer to his third consecutive victory in the Argentina auto rally on the steep dirt roads of hilly Cordoba province.

Makinen covered the 283.8-mile course in 4:22:07.

*

Mika Hakkinen won his fourth pole position of the season by posting the fastest qualifying time, 1:19.798, for the Monaco Grand Prix at Monte Carlo.

Golf

Jay Sigel shot a Senior PGA Tour-record 27 on the front nine and a 10-under-par 62 overall to move into the lead of the Bell Atlantic Classic at Avondale, Pa. . . . Tom Watson shot a a five-under-par 65 to grab a share of the lead with rookie Harrison Frazar and veteran Jim Furyk after three rounds of the MasterCard Colonial at Fort Worth. . . . Tammie Green shot a six-under-par 66 at the LPGA’s Corning Classic at Corning, N.Y., to overtake Brandie Burton and gain a two-shot lead after three rounds.

Soccer

Forward Ali Daei sparked Iran to a 4-1 victory over UEFA Cup champion Internazionale of Milan in an exhibition game at Como, Italy. . . . England captain Alan Shearer missed an easy chance to score and Saudi Arabia celebrated its first visit to Wembley with a scoreless tie in an exhibition game at Wembley, England. . . . World Cup-bound Mexico survived early pressure and played a scoreless tie against Ireland at Dublin.

Tennis

Germany reached the World Team Cup final when their two young Davis Cup players routed Spain’s Carlos Moya and Sergi Bruguera in singles play at Duesseldorf, Germany. Tommy Haas defeated a listless-looking Bruguera, 6-1, 6-4. Nicolas Kiefer’s 6-1, 6-4 victory over Moya was just as one-sided. . . . Irina Spirlea of Romania won the Strasbourg Open title at Strasbourg, France, by defeating Julie Halard-Decugis of France, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3. . . . Top-seeded Marcelo Rios of Chile needed only 50 minutes to breeze past American Vince Spadea, 6-2, 6-0, and win the Raiffeisen Grand Prix ATP tournament at St. Poelten, Austria.

Miscellany

Josh Sims scored with 5:14 to play and two-time defending champion Princeton scored the last four goals of the game to defeat Syracuse, 11-10, in the semifinals of the NCAA lacrosse tournament at Piscataway, N.J. The Tigers (13-1) will play Maryland (14-2) on Monday in the title game.

Fred Hatfield, who played for five major league teams from 1950 to 1958 and was Florida State’s baseball coach in the 1960s, died Friday of cancer. He was 74.

Alfonso Honrado of Oklahoma City University defeated teammate Paulo Escalona, 6-2, 6-1, for the NAIA singles and also won the doubles championships, capping a week in which the Chiefs also won the team title at Tulsa, Okla.

Honrado teamed with Andreas Lundgren to win the doubles title, defeating Toshi Madsui and Su Wei-Yu of Brigham Young-Hawaii, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2.

After allowing only one home run in 37 games, Massachusetts’ Danielle Henderson gave up three as Oklahoma State eliminated the Minutewomen with a 6-0 victory in the Women’s College World Series at Oklahoma City.

Lisa Leslie had 21 points and nine rebounds as the United States defeated Spain, 74-64, at Madrid in its last warmup basketball game for the Women’s World Championships.

Riko Higashio, the University of Florida’s top woman golfer, is the winner of this year’s Dinah Shore Trophy for her excellence in sports and academics.

Brian Voss won the Professional Bowlers Assn.’s Johnny Petraglia Open at North Brunswick, N.J., defeating Tim Criss, 238-230.

Hall of Famer Rod Carew and Angel outfielder Garret Anderson will team with members of the soap opera “The Young and the Restless” in a Red Cross bone marrow drive today at the First AME Church, 2270 S. Harvard Ave., Los Angeles, from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.