Follow the leader
Helio Castronves won the Firestone Indy 400 on Sunday, beating Vitor Meira by 1.62 seconds and averaging 193.972 mph – the third-fastest event in the Indy Racing League’s 11-year history.
It took him 2 hours, 3 minutes to win his series-high fourth victory and move past teammate Sam Hornish Jr. for the points lead after a 2 1/2-hour rain delay.
“Thumbs up to every driver for keeping it clean – it was different than Milwaukee,” said Castroneves, taking a shot at Ed Carpenter after their cars collided at last week’s race.
Just two caution flags slowed the race, a record low for a 400-mile race at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich.
Castroneves won the 11th IndyCar series race of his career, and first at MIS.
Meira, who led 75 of 200 laps, was followed by defending champion Dan Wheldon, Tony Kanaan and Tomas Scheckter in the top five.
Hornish finished just 61 laps because of an engine problem. Hornish started the race with a 25-point lead over Scott Dixon, but he earned just 12 points with his season-worst, 19th-place finish and has 368 points with three races left. Castroneves has 376 points.
Champ Car World Series
Sebastien Bourdais avoided mistakes in a race filled with them and pulled away for his fifth win of the season, easily defending his 2005 victory in the San Jose Grand Prix in San Jose, Calif., and adding to his series points lead.
The Frenchman, well on the way to what would be his third straight title in the Champ Car World Series, had not won since starting the season with four consecutive victories.
The winner led until he made his second and final pit stop on lap 54, falling to third behind Charles Zwolsman and Oriol Servia, both on a different pit strategy. He regained the lead for good when Servia pitted on lap 80, then pulled away for the easy victory – leaving runner-up Cristiano da Matta 6.686-seconds behind at the end.
Formula One
Michael Schumacher won the German Grand Prix, to capture his third straight Formula One race and close in on points leader and defending champion Fernando Alonso.
Alonso finished fifth in the 67-lap race and now holds an 11-point over Schumacher, who began the day 17 points behind.
Schumacher, already Formula One’s most successful driver, won his 89th Grand Prix and his fourth at Hockenheim, Germany.
Schumacher’s Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa came in second. Kimi Raikkonen finished third.
NHRA
Top Fuel rookie J.R. Todd upset three-time series champion Tony Schumacher for the second time in three weeks, winning the Fram-Autolite NHRA Nationals at Sonoma, Calif., with a quarter-mile run of 4.619 seconds at a top speed of 309.27 mph.
Two weeks ago in Denver, the 24-year-old Todd edged Schumacher to become the first black Top Fuel winner. On Sunday, Schumacher finished in 4.679 seconds at 316.01 mph.
Eric Medlen topped the Funny Car event, beating fellow Californian Tony Pedregon with a 4.854-second-run at 316.30; Pro Stock points leader Jason Line got a holeshot victory over veteran Vieri Gaines, and Chip Ellis benefited greatly from Pro Stock Motorcycle finalist Antron Brown’s red-light start for his second win of the year.
NASCAR Busch Series
Nextel Cup star Carl Edwards overtook Denny Hamlin with nine laps left and held on to win the Busch Silver Celebration 250 on Saturday night.
After heavy rain delayed the start by 1 hour, 40 minutes, the race had few incidents during its 200 laps at Gateway International Speedway in Madison, Ill.
Edwards has won two of the past three Busch Series events and has three victories overall this season.
Clint Bowyer finished second, followed by Hamlin, Reed Sorenson, series leader Kevin Harvick, Scott Wimmer, David Green and Kyle Busch.