Dover poles dominated by Newman

Ryan Newman won two poles at Dover (Del.) International Speedway, taking the top spot for the Nextel Cup race Friday after qualifying first in a Busch series event.

Riding the momentum of a victory at New Hampshire International Speedway, Newman drove his Dodge around The Monster Mile at 158.102 mph to claim his series-leading sixth pole in NASCAR’s top circuit. He’ll start first in Sunday’s MBNA 400.

Earlier, Newman knocked Busch series points leader Martin Truex Jr. off the pole in qualifying for today’s Dover 200.

Champ Car

Sebastien Bourdais hopes the results are the same this year as last at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. But he won’t mind if the road to victory is a little less crowded.

In the inaugural Champ Car World Series event here, Bourdais and Newman/Haas Racing teammate Bruno Junquiera went wheel-to-wheel at more than 200 mph for 20 laps, swapping the lead four times in the last seven tours around the 1 1/2 -mile tri-oval before Bourdais prevailed by a nose.

“It was a crazy race,” Bourdais said. “… You are inches from each other. Sometimes I couldn’t even have put a finger in between our wheels.”

Formula One

Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen took turns beating each other in practice sessions for the Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo, at which Alonso will try to hold off a late charge by Raikkonen and clinch his first Formula One championship.

Alonso was third quickest in the first practice session, two places better than Raikkonen – the only driver at this point who can stop him from winning the season title.

In the second practice session, Raikkonen was sixth and Alonso 11th.

McLaren test driver Alexander Wurz led both sessions.