Jeff Gordon combined patience with a fast race car Sunday at Infineon Raceway to grab a record ninth road course victory at Sonoma, Calif.

NASCAR’s top “Road Warrior” started 11th in the 43-car field and took the lead for the first time on lap 49 of the 110-lap Dodge/Save Mart 350.

Two-time series champion Terry Labonte grabbed the lead for a while with a slick fuel strategy, but Gordon was able to hunt NASCAR’s “Iceman” down, regain the lead on lap 88 and eventually pull away for his fifth victory on the picturesque 1.99-mile, 11-turn circuit.

Gordon’s first win of the year and the 74th of his career came in the 16th race of the season, boosting the four-time series champion back into the top 10 – a key move for his chances of making the Chase for the Nextel Cup championship. It’s only the third time since Gordon began racing full-time in NASCAR’s top series in 1993 that he has gone this deep into the season before winning.

Greg Biffle finished fourth, followed by pole-winner Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards and Jeff Burton.

Series leader Jimmie Johnson, Gordon’s teammate, survived a spin to finish 10th and increased his lead over Matt Kenseth – 17th – from 74 to 101 points. Gordon jumped from 11th to eighth in the standings, while Stewart fell from sixth to seventh, 26 points ahead of Gordon heading into Saturday’s race at Daytona.

Alonso wins fourth straight F1 race

Fernando Alonso won his fourth consecutive Formula One race, driving his Renault to an easy victory in the Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal and widening his lead over Michael Schumacher in the world championship standings.

Alonso, who started from the pole, had only a brief challenge from Kimi Raikkonen early in the race but held off the Finn’s attempt to pass him on the 12th lap.

This marked the first successful outing for Alonso in Canada. He had failed to finish three of his previous four races at this event, including last year when he hit the wall while leading.

Allmendinger tops Champ Car race

A.J. Allmendinger won his second straight race, avoiding major trouble in the Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland in which points leader Sebastien Bourdais was knocked out during the first lap in a spectacular crash.

Bourdais was released from the hospital after precautionary tests showed no serious injuries.

Allmendinger is the only American driver in the series. In a span of two weeks, he was fired by RuSport, hired by Forsythe Championship Racing and won his first race in Portland, Ore.

Schumacher earns first victory

Defending Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher raced to his first victory of the season, beating Brandon Bernstein in the O’Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals with a quarter-mile run of 4.565 seconds at 327.59 mph.

Tony Pedregon, Mike Edwards and Chip Ellis also won their divisions in the $1.3 million event at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill.