The Fat Man wins it
Tony Stewart climbed the fence in front of the grandstand in what has become his trademark victory celebration.
And a crowd of 100,000 at New Hampshire International Speedway roared its approval Sunday as he grabbed the checkered flag and pumped his fist in the air – just as he did two weeks earlier after a victory at Daytona. He called himself fat then, and this time heaped on more self-deprecating humor.
“Trust me, I’ll be glad to be panting like a dog when I get up there,” he said. “It’s something they like and I’ll keep doing it for them.”
Stewart said he needs a personal trainer.
“Yes, I’m still too old and too fat to be doing that stuff,” the 34-year-old driver said. “I’m probably going to fall and bust my butt before it’s over. I’m glad they let me go through the gate instead of climbing back down.”
Stewart started 13th and wound up winning for the third time in four races, passing at will inside and outside in a dominant performance in the New England 300.
“It was as good as I thought,” Stewart said of his car. “This thing was awesome from the start. As soon we got to the front, I knew we had a great car, but you don’t know what they’re showing.”
The win was his second on this track and 22nd of Stewart’s career. He also won in Sonoma, Calif., and Daytona, and has posted finishes of second and fifth in his last five starts.
“We feel like we’re on top of the world,” crew chief Greg Zipadelli said.
Stewart began a run of dominance after passing Ryan Newman on the 51st lap. But Kurt Busch, trying to become the only driver to win three times on the track after sweeping the races last year, got by with 60 laps to go.
Zipadelli was asked whether he thought Stewart had taken too much out of his car.
“He just told me to relax, that he’d get back up there,” Zipadelli said.
Stewart did just that, reclaiming the lead after he and Kurt Busch banged twice five laps later. But he said he wasn’t as dominant late in the race because the other teams began adjusting and closing the gap.
“I played with them for a while,” he said, alluding to the first half of the event.
Bourdais victorious in Edmonton
Sebastien Bourdais came up with an unlikely victory Sunday in the inaugural Grand Prix of Edmonton (Alberta), and all it took was a mistake-free race on a day when nearly everyone else was messing up.
The reigning Champ Car World Series champion came from a 10th-place start after crashing in qualifying on Friday and captured his first victory since the season-opener in April at Long Beach.
The Frenchman was able to slice through heavy traffic on the fast, 1.973-mile, 14-turn circuit and move into contention, but it took mistakes by both A.J. Allmendinger and his RuSport teammate Justin Wilson of England to give Bourdais a shot at the 12th victory of his career.
Oriol Servia, subbing for injured Bruno Junqueira, also avoided trouble and gave the Newman/Haas Racing team a 1-2 sweep, finishing 0.596-seconds – about 10 car-lengths – behind his teammate.
Johnson wins Bandimere finale
Warren Johnson sat just short of the starting line, waiting for Dave Connolly to stage first. For 90 seconds the drivers sat there, neither one willing to give in.
Finally, Johnson got fed up and pulled his car to the line.
By then, the damage had been done.
Johnson won his final race at Bandimere Speedway and moved atop the Pro Stock standings, using his intimidation at the starting line to beat Connolly in the finals of the NHRA’s Mile High Nationals in Morrison, Colo.
“There are some people that get a mind-set that they have to stage last,” Johnson said. “We’ll let them do it once in a while, and then it’s like you’ve got a brat kid. You have to teach him a lesson.”