Sports briefs 1/23/06

Hockey

• Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin will be sidelined up to six weeks because of a sprained knee.

Khabibulin injured his knee in Friday's 4-1 loss to Minnesota. An MRI exam Saturday showed he sprained it.

"It happened early in the game," coach Trent Yawney said. "He played through it, but after it was pretty sore."

Khabibulin had been expected to start in goal for Russia at the Turin Olympics, sharing time with Evgeni Nabokov of the San Jose Sharks and Ilya Bryzgalov of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks.

Khabibulin, the Stanley Cup winning goalie with Tampa Bay in 2004, made his second straight start Friday after missing 10 games with a strained groin. He signed a four-year, $27 million contract with the Blackhawks in the offseason.

Motorsports

• Toyota will race in Nextel Cup events beginning in 2007, becoming the first foreign competitor in NASCAR's top stock car series since the 1950s.

The Japanese auto maker will also run the Busch Series races the after the 2006 season, joining Chevrolet, Ford and Dodge. The announcement was expected at a Monday news conference from NASCAR's research and development facility in Concord, a person close to Toyota told The Associated Press.

The person, speaking on condition of anonymity because an official announcement hasn't been made, said Toyota "is looking forward to being competitive right off the bat" in both series.

The last foreign manufacturer to participate in NASCAR's top racing series was Jaguar, which entered several races in the 1950s.

-- From wire reports