Off the wire

MOTOR SPORTS

Ambrose, Mears penalized

NASCAR punished Marcos Ambrose and Casey Mears on Tuesday for their post-race altercation in the garage at Richmond International Raceway that led to Ambrose punching Mears in the face. Ambrose was fined $25,000 and placed on probation through May 28. Mears was fined $15,000 and received the same probation. NASCAR said in a statement both drivers were penalized for actions detrimental to stock car racing, and received a “behavioral penalty” because they were “involved in an altercation in the garage area after the race.” The two had been racing fora top-20 finish Saturday night when something occurred on the track to anger Mears. He confronted Ambrose in the garage area after the race, and shoved the Australian as Ambrose seemed to be walking away. Ambrose responded with a right hook to Mears’ eye that drew blood. He has not commented on the incident, but Richard Petty Motorsports issued a statement saying Ambrose would not appeal the penalty. “Marcos Ambrose accepts the penalties levied by NASCAR after his actions at Richmond International Raceway,” the statement said.

High school senior Sage Karam will race in his first Indianapolis 500 next month in a car fielded jointly by Chip Ganassi Racing and Dreyer & Reinbold Kingdom Racing. Karam is the reigning Indy Lights champion, but the 19-year-old was unable to parlay that into a full-time IndyCar ride. Instead, he’s hooked on with Ganassi in a driver development role. He’ll drive the No. 22 Chevrolet in his Indianapolis 500 debut under a deal announced Tuesday. “It is honestly a dream come true for me and my racing career,” said Karam, who hails from Nazareth, Pa., the hometown of the Andretti family. “Chip has created a fantastic organization that judges success by just one thing - winning both races and championships. This is a very big day for me.” Karam ran in the first two events of the TUDOR United Sports Car Championship with Ganassi, and drove with Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan at Sebring. He is the first driver to compete at all levels of the Mazda Road to Indy program, and the only driver to win races at each level.

FOOTBALL Thomas signs extension

The Seattle Seahawks have announced their four-year extension with All-Pro free safety Earl Thomas, making him the highest-paid safety in the NFL. Seattle announced the extension on Tuesday. The deal is worth $40 million over four years and will keep Thomas in a Seahawks uniform through the 2018 season. The extension includes $27.7 million in guaranteed money. Thomas is a two-time first-team All-Pro selection and regarded as the top safety in the NFL. He was rewarded as such with a deal that is expected to top the contract Jairus Byrd received from New Orleans. Thomas is the second major extension Seattle has announced this off season after locking up Coach Pete Carroll through 2016. Now the question is if the Seahawks be able to get an extension done with All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman.

TENNIS Two-time champ out

Two-time former champion Philipp Kohlschreiber was knocked out in the first round of the BMW Open in Munich after losing 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 to Denis Istomin on Tuesday. The 55th-ranked Istomin saved 11 of 14 break points to win in just over two hours, setting up a second round meeting with Australian Marinko Matosevic. It was the Uzbek’s third victory in three matches against fifth-seeded Kohlschreiber, the 2007 and 2012 tournament winner. There were further upsets when Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff defeated sixth-seeded Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 6-4 and qualifier Thomaz Bellucci beat No. 8 seed Ivan Dodig 7-6 (0), 6-4. Spain’s Albert Ramos defeated former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt 6-7 (6), 6-1, 6-0 and will next face Andreas Seppi, the only seeded player to survive the first round on Tuesday. The seventh-seeded Italian defeated Germany’s Michael Berrer, 6-3, 7-5.

Total prize money for this year’s Wimbledon tournament will reach25 million pounds ($42 million), an increase of 10.8 percent that will mostly favor the early-round losers. The All England Club said Tuesday that the men’s and women’s singles champions will each receive 1.76 million pounds ($2.9 million), a 10 percent increase on last year’s top prize won by Andy Murray and Marion Bartoli. By comparison, this year’s French Open champions will receive 1.65 million euros ($2.3 million) while Stanislas Wawrinka and Li Na earned $2.65 million for their wins at the Australian Open in January. U.S. Open organizers have yet to announce the prize money for this year’s tournament. The main increases at Wimbledon are for the early losers, with players who fail to get past the third round receiving prize money worth 12.5 percent more than in 2013.

GOLF Begay recovering

Notah Begay suffered a heart attack last week in Dallas and is expected to make a full recovery, Golf Channel reported Tuesday. Begay, a 41-year-old analyst for Golf Channel and NBC Sports, was taken Thursday to Methodist Hospital in Dallas where a stent was inserted to unblock his right coronary artery. Begay, a Navajo from New Mexico, has a history of heart disease in his family. Golf Channel said Begay will be off the air indefinitely while he recovers. Begay, who won the last of his four PGA Tour titles in 2000, said he was grateful to Dr. Mark Jenkins and the speedy care he received in Dallas.

RUNNING

Three-time champ banned

Three-time Chicago Marathon champion Lilya Shobukhova has been banned for two years for blood doping and faces demands to repay millions of dollars in winnings. The Russian athletics federation said Tuesday it banned Shobukhova until next January for abnormal biological passport values and stripped her results from Oct. 9, 2009. Shobukhova won three times in Chicago and once in London in that time, also collecting $1 million in prize money as a two time leader of the World Marathon Majors rankings.

BASKETBALL ESPN: Assistant fired over recordings

LOS ANGELES - A former assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors reportedly recorded conversations of coaches and players without their knowledge before being fired by the team earlier this month.

ESPN, citing anonymous sources, reported Tuesday that Darren Erman secretly recorded coaches’ meetings, conversations between coaches and players, and informal discussions. It’s unclear what Erman did with the alleged recordings.

Golden State fired Erman on April 5 for what the team called a “violation of company policy.” The Warriors neither confirmed nor denied the report Tuesday, saying only that they “were unaware of the violation, and when made aware, we took immediate action.”

Erman already has landed a job with another team. A spokesman for the Boston Celtics confirmed to The Associated Press that the team hired Erman as an NBA scout.

Erman was in his third season with the Warriors after spending four years with the Celtics, where he worked under Doc Rivers, who is now the coach of the Los Angeles Clippers. Erman also coached the Warriors’ summer league championship team in Las Vegas last year.