BRIEFLY : BURTON GETS BREAK, WINS AT MARTINSVILLE.

Jeff Burton looked for all the world like he would finish a solid second in the Hanes 500 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway on Monday.

Then Rusty Wallace handed him the lead, and the rising Winston Cup star took advantage, outracing Bobby Hamilton and Dale Earnhardt to win the rain-postponed race.

The third victory of what has become a breakthrough year for Burton came after Wallace was penalized for going too fast on a restart with 23 laps to go. That handed Burton the lead he was having a hard time earning himself.

Wallace, who finished 15th, suggested NASCAR's ruling might have been motivated by someone's vendetta.

``They rule it and they can do what they want,'' Wallace said of NASCAR. ``I'm going to talk to them a little bit about it, because I've got a feeling who it was. The guy has had a grudge for me for a long time and I'm going to go talk to him. This is ridiculous. I've never seen nothing like it.''

He did not name the NASCAR official to whom he was referring.

With Wallace out of the way, Burton outlasted Hamilton in side-by-side racing for the lead, then never let Earnhardt get close enough to contend.

Hamilton was third, followed by points leader Jeff Gordon and Bill Elliott. Kenny Wallace finished sixth and pole-sitter Ward Burton, the winner's brother, matched his best showing of the season by placing seventh.

BASKETBALL: Former UCLA All-American and U.S. Olympian Denise Curry was among seven people inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame at Springfield, Mass.

Others inducted were former Boston Celtics and Mississippi State great Bailey Howell, coaches Pete Carril (formerly of Princeton), Don Haskins of Texas-El Paso and Antonio Diaz-Miguel of Spain, 1980s NBA scoring leader Alex English and women's star Joan Crawford.

Rasheed Wallace has signed a six-year contract extension with the Portland Trail Blazers reportedly worth $80 million, making the 6-foot-11 power forward the highest-paid player in the team's history.

The Denver Nuggets acquired 7-4 center Priest Lauderdale from the Atlanta Hawks for the rights to forward Efthimios Rentzias and the team's second-round draft pick in 2000.

BOXING: Johnny Montantes went to Las Vegas carrying the slim hope he might finally become a contender. He ended up losing his life for a $2,000 payday in the main event he so eagerly sought.

What was supposed to be the start of a renewed career for the 28-year-old journeyman boxer turned instead to tragedy when he died Sunday of head injuries after being knocked out in the sixth round of a fight two days earlier with James Crayton.

Montantes, who had fought most of his fights in Minnesota, moved to Las Vegas with his girlfriend and their two young sons to try and jumpstart a boxing career that had seen him win 26 of 29 fights, mostly against mediocre opponents.

Edgar Ruiz of Los Mochis, Mexico, upset Ricky Hesia of Downey with a 10-round unanimous decision at the Forum.

Ruiz, 146 pounds, improved to 11-1-1 (with seven knockouts). The welterweight bout was the 24-year-old's American debut.

In the semi-main, Alfred Ankamah of Los Angeles won a 10-round unanimous decision over Oscar Gonzalez of El Dorado, Mexico. Ankamah, 147 pounds, improved to 18-2 with 15 KOs. Ankamah, 35, won by 99-91 twice and 97-93.

Julio Cesar Chavez's super lightweight title fight against Migel Angel Gonzalez was postponed after Chavez reinjured his left elbow. The WBC title fight had been scheduled for Oct. 25 in Mexico City.