Power lights up track in last Champ Car race

Will Power led most of the way Sunday in the streets of Long Beach, Calif., winning the final race of the Champ Car World Series, the last remaining remnant of the 12-year rivalry between the newly unified American open-wheel series.

The race was run with Champ Car teams, drivers and equipment, but the points awarded were for the IRL’s IndyCar Series, which ran a race earlier in the day in Japan because of a scheduling conflict.

Less than 24 hours after a historic IRL victory by Danica Patrick, the first woman to win an IndyCar race, the final race for the series that began as CART in 1979 was run before a large, appreciative crowd. That included Patrick, who arrived after a 12-hour plane ride looking refreshed and happy midway through the event.

Power, who started third in the 20-car field, spoiled the show a bit, though, jumping into the lead with a great start and leading most of the 83-lap, 1-hour, 45-minute timed race.

“Yeah, it was a very nice day, really good start, good pit strategy and we were very quick,” Power said. “I just want to thank (my team owners and team). I feel really happy for them and the team to win the last Champ Car race.

“We had problems all weekend, just little problems,” he added. “But we fixed everything for the race. My engineer did a great job, the car was nice and it all came together in the race. I was just cool in the car, relaxed. When it comes together, it just comes together nicely.”

Twelve of the drivers in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach do not have rides in the IRL, but two of them, former Formula One driver Franck Montagny, in his first Champ Car start, finished second, followed by longtime Champ Car star Mario Dominguez.

Rookie Enrique Bernoldi and Oriol Servia, both transitional drivers, finished fourth and fifth.

Busch wins in Mexico

Kyle Busch won his third consecutive race on NASCAR’s Nationwide Series, holding off Marcos Ambrose by less than a second in the Corona Mexico 200 at Mexico City.

Busch passed Scott Pruett on the 72nd of 80 laps to take the lead. Pruett finished third, followed by Carl Edwards.

There isn’t a driver out there on a better run than Busch, who is second in the Sprint Cup standings and entered this race in third on the Nationwide list. In a race that included two red flags, he stayed out of trouble on the 2.518-mile road course at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez before finally moving past Pruett.

Ambrose trailed by 1.139 seconds with two laps to go, and cut over three-tenths of a second off that deficit on lap 79. But Busch held on for a 0.737-second win.