Rice wins IRL thriller in Kansas

The race was so close, Vitor Meira thought he might have won.

Buddy Rice knew better.

Rice picked up his second win of the year Sunday at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., just 0.0051 seconds ahead of his Rahal Letterman Racing teammate in the second-closest race in Indy Racing League history.

“I don’t even know how to measure that,” Meira said.

The only IRL race that was closer was at Chicagoland in 2002 when Sam Hornish Jr. beat Al Unser Jr. by 0.0024.

Rice, the Indianapolis 500 winner and Sunday’s pole-sitter, narrowly lost the lead to Meira going into the last lap of the 200-lap Argent Mortgage Indy 300 — with IRL points leader Tony Kanaan lurking just behind, looking for an opening.

With Rice inside and Meira outside, Kanaan never got a chance.

Meira’s runner-up finish was his second in as many weeks.

Dario Franchitti was fourth, followed in the top 10 by Bryan Herta, Adrian Fernandez, Helio Castroneves, Hornish, Dan Wheldon and Alex Barron.

Wheldon, second in the points standings, saw Kanaan’s lead increase from 15 points to 28.

Honda engines took the top six spots and seven of the top 10. Barron had the only top 10 finish for Chevrolet.

Formula One

At Magny Cours, France, six-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher won yet again, capturing the French Grand Prix by making the most of a daring strategy in which he used four pit stops.

“No risk, no fun,” Schumacher said. “We might have won on a normal three-stop, but that would have involved passing cars on the track.”

Schumacher has won every race but one this season, and this latest win marked his seventh French Grand Prix victory.

Renault, led by Spain’s Fernando Alonso, managed to end Ferrari’s string of three straight 1-2 finishes. Alonso held the pole position and was runner-up, 8.3 seconds behind.

This was Schumacher ninth victory this season and 79th in his Formula One career. Renault’s Jarno Trulli, who finished fourth, is the only other winner this season, taking the Monaco GP in May.

There are eight races left and Schumacher is edging closer to his seventh world title. He has 90 points, with Brazilian teammate Rubens Barrichello second at 68. Jenson Button is the best non-Ferrari driver with 48 points, two ahead of Trulli.

BAR-Honda’s Button finished fifth. David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen, in the new-model McLaren Mercedes, were sixth and seventh.

Juan Pablo Montoya of Williams, who was disqualified for the last two races for breaking technical regulations, came in eighth, complaining of neck pain.