Newman lights up Zippo 200
Ryan Newman won a three-lap dash to the finish Saturday, holding off hard-charging Robby Gordon to win the Busch Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen International at Watkins Glen, N.Y.
Brian Vickers was third, followed by polesitter Tony Stewart and Martin Truex Jr., who boosted his series lead to 122 points over Clint Bowyer, who finished 15th.
Nineteen-year-old rookie Reed Sorenson remained third in the points but fell 219 points behind. He suffered a big blow to his title chances when his engine blew at the midway point of the race, leading to a 41st-place finish.
It was the first Busch series race at Watkins Glen since Canadian road race star Ron Fellows won in 2001, and the last two of the seven cautions in the race made for a scintillating finish.
Vickers, on a one-stop pit strategy, restarted fourth on lap 51 behind leader Jeff Burton, Travis Kvapil, and Tyler Walker.
Vickers passed Burton for the lead going into turn 1 on lap 66 of the 82-lap road race and built a 10-car-length lead. But three laps later Newman and Stewart passed Burton and began stalking the leader. Newman made the pass on Vickers with a daring move on the outside of turn 11, a right-hander, and hung on down the straightaway past the start-finish line to gain the lead at the tail end of lap 74.
A crash seconds later brought out the seventh caution and bunched the cars for the final three laps.
Gordon, who was quick all day, had fought back from 25th to sixth for the restart. He quickly passed Truex and Burton once the green flag waved, then dove past Stewart and Vickers on the final lap but simply ran out of time.
Newman beat Gordon to the line by 0.846 seconds for the first road course victory of his career and only his second Busch triumph.
The race began two hours late and under caution because of rain, which washed out Nextel Cup qualifying.
NASCAR Nextel Cup
Tony Stewart showed why he’s the best road-course racer in NASCAR, and was on his way to winning two poles in qualifying before rain ruined his chance at Watkins Glen International.
First, Stewart set a record to take the top spot for the Busch series race later in the day. Then he made a less-than-spectacular lap but easily held the provisional pole for today’s Nextel Cup event.
But rain prevented NASCAR from finishing the Cup session with 10 drivers remaining in line. It cost Stewart the official pole, but as the points leader, he’ll start first in the Sirius Satellite Radio at the Glen.
Still, he was nearly 1 mph faster than Robby Gordon, who lost his lap because of the rain and must start 39th.
Stewart’s Chevrolet toured the 11-turn layout at 123.143 mph.
After former Glen winner Robby Gordon came four-time series and track champion Jeff Gordon. Stewart and the Gordons have combined to win 14 of the last 16 races here and on the road course in Sonoma, Calif.
Today, Stewart will try to win here for the second year in a row and collect his fifth victory in the last seven races. He also will try to win for the third time here and fifth time overall on a road course.
Indy Racing League
Danica Patrick was waiting in line to qualify for the Amber Alert Portal Indy 300 afternoon when the rain began to fall at Kentucky Speedway at Sparta, Ky.
Four drivers had completed their qualifying laps before two brief, but heavy, showers that lasted a little more than a half-hour and caused Indy Racing League officials to cancel qualifying for today’s race. Patrick thus earned the pole, based on her combined speed of 217.516 mph from two earlier practice sessions Saturday.
Series points leader Dan Wheldon will start second, after logging a combined practice time of 217.500 mph.
NASCAR Truck Series
David Reutimann won the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series’ Toyota Tundra 200 at Nashville Superspeedway in Gladeville, Tenn., squeezing past Mike Skinner with two laps left and holding off Ted Musgrave by about two truck lengths.
Reutimann, driving a Toyota owned by former NASCAR star Darrell Waltrip, won for the first time in the truck series after finishing in the top three in three of the last four races. The 2003 series rookie of the year earned $52,110.
Champ Car
Paul Tracy had no intention of putting his car out early in qualifying. He quickly changed his mind when he saw Sebastien Bourdais head out of pit row.
Wanting to go head-to-head with the defending champion and series leader, Tracy rushed his car out to the track and started running fast laps right away. By the time he was done, Tracy had set a track record, edging Bourdais by .109 seconds in the second round of Champ Car qualifying at the Grand Prix of Denver.
Tracy broke the track record in preliminary qualifying on Friday, making it around in 59.759 seconds to secure a spot on the front row. The 36-year-old Canadian earned a second point by winning his third pole of the season, finishing in 59.432 seconds (100.370 mph) to close the gap on Bourdais’ series lead to 26 points.
NHRA
Tony Schumacher had the fastest run in drag racing history, reaching 337.58 mph in qualifying for the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd (Minn.) International Raceway. The two-time NHRA Top Fuel champion finished his run in the U.S. Army dragster in 4.446 seconds. He can certify the performance as an NHRA national record by clocking a speed of at least 334.21 mph on any run during the remainder of the weekend.