Labonte Brothers 1-2 After Wreck Slows Gordon

This was definitely not the way Jeff Gordon wanted to be the center of attention at a Winston Cup event.

The series points leader, hoping to close in on his second Winston Cup title, was instead the catalyst for a wild 21-car accident that allowed pursuers Mark Martin and Dale Jarrett to close in and helped teammate Terry Labonte win his first race in more than a year.

Labonte passed leader Kenny Schrader and second-place John Andretti two laps from the end and went on to beat younger brother Bobby Labonte by less than two car-lengths in Sunday’s DieHard 500 at Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Ala.

The defending Winston Cup champion, who had fallen to sixth in the season points with a second-half slump, earned his 19th career victory and his first since the race at Charlotte on Oct. 6, 1996.

“At a track like this, you just have to be patient,” Labonte said. “We figured something eventually would happen.”

It did, when Gordon’s left rear tire shredded on lap 140 of the 188-lap race.

Labonte was leading the see-saw race when the accident began behind him.

“I just saw the start of it in the mirror,” he said. “I don’t know what happened. I just saw they tore up a bunch of cars when I went by.”

Gordon, Martin and Jarrett were all were part of the accident, and all three were running at the end with badly damaged cars, but Martin and Jarrett each gained ground on Gordon in the points race.

Martin gained 15 points to trail by 110, while Jarrett closed to 155 points behind after trailing by 197 coming into Sunday’s 500-mile race on the 2.66-mile, high-banked oval.

Spokane’s Chad Little, knocked out of the race in the melee, finished 40th.

Formula One

Michael Schumacher, showing the skill and daring that made him a two-time Formula One champion, dominated the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, Japan, to move within one point of leader Jacques Villeneuve with one race remaining.

The race for the driving title will entail more than a Schumacher-Villeneuve showdown in the season-ending European Grand Prix at Jerez, Spain in two weeks.

Before that, Villeneuve and officialdom of Formula One will face off over a yellow-flag violation that could cost the Canadian a chance to race for the title.

The confusing situation arose after Saturday’s controversial qualifying session. Villeneuve won the pole but was disqualified for ignoring a yellow flag during practice earlier in the day.

After an appeal from his Williams-Renault team was accepted, Villeneuve was reinstated on the pole.

NASCAR trucks

Randy Tolsma passed Mike Wallace with four laps remaining and held off Stacy Compton and Mike Bliss to win the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series’ Dodge Truck 300 at Bakersfield, Calif.

Tolsma, of Meridian, Idaho, finished 0.204 seconds ahead of Compton, averaging a race-record 76.293.