NASCAR Hall of Famer Bobby Allison finally got his victory from Bowman Gray Stadium, more than five decades after he took the checkered flag and the trophy.

NASCAR on Wednesday formally recognized Allison, 86, as the winner of the Meyers Brothers Memorial at the track in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Aug. 6, 1971. The sanctioning body updated the record books to reflect it, giving Allison 85 wins and moving him into fourth on the all-time wins list.

The race was one of six that season that featured a mix of Grand National (currently the Cup Series) and Grand American cars. Allison, who competed in both series at the time, chose to drive his Grand American Ford and won the race while leading 138 of 200 laps. The win never counted toward Allison’s Cup Series total, despite his celebrating in Victory Lane.

“For 53 years, the Myers Brothers Memorial was the only race run by NASCAR that did not have an official winner,” said Jim France, NASCAR chairman and CEO. “As we began preparations for the upcoming Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, the topic of that August 6, 1971, race returned to the forefront.

“We felt it was the right thing to officially recognize Bobby’s win and honor him as an 85-time NASCAR Cup Series winner. We are grateful for Bobby’s lifetime contributions to NASCAR.”

France and longtime NASCAR executive Mike Helton visited Allison on Wednesday and told him of the news and presented him with a plaque commemorating the victory.

With Allison’s updated win total, he now trails only fellow NASCAR Hall of Famers Richard Petty (200), David Pearson (105) and Jeff Gordon (93).

Allison was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame’s second class in 2011. He is a five-time NASCAR champion and a three-time winner of the Daytona 500.

Former “Malcolm in the Middle” star Frankie Muniz is set to continue his NASCAR career with a full-time ride in the Truck Series for 2025.

Muniz will make the jump from part-time racer to a full slate in the No. 33 Ford for Reaume Brothers Racing. He made two starts for Reaume Brothers this season in the Truck Series.

Muniz is scheduled to compete in the Truck Series race Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

He competed twice this season in NASCAR’s second-tier Xfinity Series, including the opener at Daytona International Speedway.

Muniz, 38, said he was confident the team could “achieve great things together. I can’t wait to get started.”

The actor-turned-race car driver also has competed in the ARCA Series, one of the lower rungs on the NASCAR feeder system.

Muniz entered 14 races in 2006 in the Formula BMW USA series, and the following year, he moved up to the Champ Car Atlantic Series. He continued racing until 2009, when a crash left him with injuries that led to him stepping away.

SKIING

Norwegian ski star Aleksander Aamodt Kilde will miss the entire 2024-25 season because his injured left shoulder requires surgery again, nine months after he crashed badly in a downhill in Switzerland.

“I now need another surgery to fully fix the shoulder. This unfortunately means I won’t be competing this winter,” Kilde said in a statement from the Norwegian ski federation.

Kilde, 32, a two-time Olympic medalist who has won 21 World Cup races and took the 2019-20 overall title, had surgery to repair a severe cut and nerve damage in his right calf, plus two torn ligaments in his shoulder, after a terrifying crash near the finish of a downhill in Wengen in January.

Kilde went back on skis in June, but his recovery suffered a setback the following month due to an infection in his shoulder “that caused some complications,” he said.

“It was mentally tough, not just because it then takes longer for me to go back skiing,,” he said, “but also I was asking myself: ‘Am I going to be able to really use my shoulder ever again?’ ”

Currently, he added, “two of the muscles are still not attached at this moment, which means I need to do another surgery and reconstruct everything again.”

Kilde was among a slew of World Cup, Olympic and world champions to crash hard in a packed mid-season program, including his fiancée Mikaela Shiffrin.

The American hurt her left knee following a crash on the 2026 Olympic downhill course in Cortina d’Ampezzo, though the World Cup record holder and two-time Olympic champion returned to racing six weeks later.

“We can be going through completely different experiences, and still be able to actually support each other,” Shiffrin said in an online media call Wednesday. “This season, we are going to take it all as it comes, because we can do that with each other.”

The Norwegian ski team’s doctor, Trond Floberghagen, expected Kilde to return racing in the 2025-26 Olympic season.

WNBA

The Washington Mystics parted ways with coach Eric Thibault and general manager Mike Thibault, the franchise announced.

Eric Thibault is the fifth WNBA coach to be let go this offseason, joining Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago and the Sparks. He took over for his father after the 2022 season. He spent 10 years as an assistant coach with the Mystics, including four as associate head coach.

The Mystics finished this season 14-26, just missing the playoffs. The team underwent major changes this offseason with Elena Delle Donne sitting out and Natasha Cloud leaving for Phoenix.

TENNIS

Alexander Zverev reached the quarterfinals at the Erste Bank Open by beating Marcos Giron 6-2, 7-5 in Vienna for the German’s personal-best 61st win of the year.

The third-ranked Zverev, who is the top seed at the indoor hard-court tournament in the Austrian capital, will next face Lorenzo Musetti, who advanced when Gael Monfils withdrew from their second-round match because of an illness.

Zverev’s prior season high for wins was 60 in 2018.

Stan Wawrinka, 39, became the oldest match-winner in the Swiss Indoors tournament history when he outlasted Adrian Mannarino 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 in Basel. Playing in front of a home crowd, Wawrinka earned his first win over Mannarino after having lost to the Frenchman three times.

Wawrinka will next face Ben Shelton, 22, for a spot in the quarterfinals.

Top-seeded Andrey Rublev beat Alejandro Tabilo 7-6 (3), 6-1 to reach his 13th quarterfinal of the season.