FORT WORTH, Texas >> Sam Mayer made a last-lap pass and held on to win by a matter of inches and less than a second ahead of Ryan Sieg at Texas Motor Speedway in one of the closest finishes in NASCAR Xfinity Series history on Saturday.

Mayer was high against the outside wall after the two cars banged side-by-side on the way to the checkered flag. The final margin of .002 seconds matched the second-closest finish in series history.

“That’s unreal. I mean I was like a second and a half back probably at one point. So to make up that much time in that little amount of time is certainly unreal,” Mayer said. “We led the most important lap. ... We didn’t dominate by any means, but we certainly worked our tails off to get to that point to win like that.”

Justin Allgaier finished third after leading 117 of the race’s 200 laps.

Sieg went from 10th place to first in a span of four laps just before the race’s final caution and led 17 consecutive laps. After the restart with 11 to go, he stayed in front until the final lap when Mayer was able to get the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet under and by him on the backstretch.

Off the final turn, Sieg got back to the inside of Mayer but came up just short in the No. 39 Ford of getting his first win in 342 career starts since 2013 for the RSS Racing team owned by his family.

“The first emotion is definitely disappointment. We had it. We were leading at.

women’s hockey

U.S. blanks Finland in world semifinals

UTICA, N.Y. >> Aerin Frankel stopped 15 shots for her fourth shutout in five games, and Laila Edwards scored a natural hat trick as the United States beat Finland 5-0 in the semifinal round on Saturday, advancing the defending champions to their 23rd women’s world hockey championship gold-medal game.

Hannah Bilka and Savannah Harmon also scored for the Americans, who kept their perfect run intact in having appeared in every world championship final since the tournament was established in 1990. Edwards, one of four Americans making their tourney debuts, now has five goals to match tournament-leading Alex Carpenter’s total.

The win sets up what could potentially be yet another familiar rematch against the U.S.‘s cross-border rival, Canada, in the gold-medal game on Sunday. The Canadians, who lost a 1-0 overtime decision to Team USA in preliminary round play on Monday, face the Czech Republic in the other semifinal later in the day.

The two women’s hockey global powers have met in 21 of 22 world tournament finals, with the only exception 2019, when host Finland beat Canada in the semis before losing to the U.S. in a 2-1 shootout. The Americans ended Canada’s two-year gold-medal run last year with a 6-3 win in the tournament played outside of Toronto.

Tennis

Radacanu leads Britain to victory

LE PORTEL, France >> Emma Raducanu clinched Britain’s berth in the Billie Jean King Cup Finals by taking the last six points of a 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (1) victory against Diane Parry of France on Saturday for an insurmountable 3-1 lead in the best-of-five-match qualifying round.

Poland — led by No. 1-ranked Iga Swiatek — the United States, Japan, Australia and Slovakia were among the other countries that advanced to the Finals, which will be held in Seville, Spain, in November. The eight nations that emerge from qualifying join defending champion Canada, 2023 runner-up Italy, host Spain and wild-card selection Czech Republic in the Finals field.

Heading into Saturday, Ukraine led Romania 2-0, while Germany was ahead of Brazil 2-0.

Raducanu, the 2021 U.S. Open champ who missed most of last season because of injuries, also put together a comeback from a set down in her opening singles match against Caroline Garcia on an indoor clay court in Le Portel, France.

BRIEFLY

Tennis >> Casper Ruud finally got the better of Novak Djokovic, beating the top-ranked Serb 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 to set up a Monte Carlo Masters final against two-time champ Stefanos Tsitsipas in Monaco.

Auto racing >> Kyle Larson will be the pole sitter for the third NASCAR Cup race in a row after a fast lap of 190.369 mph in qualifying at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. This is the 250th pole ever for Hendrick Motorsports and the team’s fourth in a row.

Men’s basketball >> Thousands lined the streets of Hartford, Conn., to fete the Connecticut Huskies following their second straight NCAA championship, their sixth in the past 25 years.

— From news services