Sports briefs

Rain postpones Martinsville race

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) — NASCAR's bad weather luck at Martinsville Speedway reared its head again Sunday as rain forced the postponed of the Sprint Cup race until Monday at noon.

It is the second year in a row that rain pushed an event into the work week at the track in southwest Virginia. Last spring, the truck series event had to be run on Monday.

Rain also has washed out Sprint Cup qualifying for the past three spring races, putting points leader Kevin Harvick on the pole for the race. Harvick will be seeking a weekend sweep after dominating the truck race that was run in sunshine and ideal conditions Saturday.

Many drivers traded their ball caps for knit caps and wore heavy coats for driver introductions Sunday, which were conducted under heavy cloud cover and in a steady rain.

"It stinks for the fans and all the teams, but the fortunate thing is we've got an off week coming up, so it's not like this is going to put everybody way behind," said A.J. Allmendinger, who will start 21st.

NASCAR's premier series is taking its traditional break of the season for Easter next weekend.

The Monday race will be the first in the Sprint Cup Series since last August at Watkins Glen, N.Y.

Button wins Australian F1 Grand Prix

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — McLaren driver Jenson Button has won the Formula One Australian Grand Prix, in an incident-packed race. World champion Button won by 12 seconds from Renault's Robert Kubica, with Ferrari's Felipe Massa third.

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel started from pole position and led for the first 25 laps before going off the track into a gravel trap, ending his race due to what he thought was brake failure.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was fourth and Mercedes' Nico Rosberg fifth. McLaren's Lewis Hamilton survived a late collision with Red Bull's Mark Webber to finish sixth, while Webber slipped down to ninth as a result.

Iowa lures McCaffery away from Siena

Iowa has convinced Fran McCaffery to leave Siena to become the Hawkeyes' new coach.

Athletic director Gary Barta announced the hiring in a release Sunday and said McCaffery would be introduced in a press conference on Monday in Iowa City.