Sports briefs 2/15/06

Colleges

• Kansas State head coach Jim Wooldridge will be back with the team tonight at Texas Tech, one week after he underwent neck surgery.

The school said he returned to practice on Tuesday and felt well enough to make the trip to Lubbock, Texas. He missed two games, a victory against Iowa State and a loss at Missouri. Wooldridge planned to travel separately on Wednesday.

The 50-year-old Wooldridge underwent a successful operation that lasted nearly two hours on Feb. 8. Doctors removed a bulging disk in his neck and fused the C3-4 vertebrae. He was released from the hospital the next day.

The Wildcats (13-8, 4-6 Big 12) had been under the direction of assistant coach Jimmy Elgas, 34.

Motorsports

• Two days after Nextel Cup champion Tony Stewart said the bumping and banging at Daytona International Speedway must stop before somebody gets hurt or killed, NASCAR decided to begin policing what drivers call "bump drafting."

The practice -- slamming into the rear of another car to maintain momentum -- is common at Daytona and Talladega, the only two NASCAR tracks that require carburetor restrictor-plates to choke horsepower and limit speeds.

Although this has been going on for years, Stewart thinks it's out of control. And NASCAR apparently agrees.

Nextel Cup officials said Tuesday that spotters in "zones" in the turns on the 2.5-mile Daytona track will feed information to NASCAR, which will then determine whether to penalize cars in Sunday's season-opening race.

-- From wire reports