Auto Racing Roundup: Hard-driving Busch hangs on for victory

LOUDON, N.H. — Kyle Busch learned some hard lessons last year as a rookie in NASCAR's Nextel Cup series.

He put some of that knowledge to good use Sunday at New Hampshire International Speedway on the way to his first victory of the season.

"Last year, we made the mistake of worrying too much about what other teams were doing," Busch said. "We kind of lost touch with what we were needing to do. Now we don't worry about anybody else during the race. We just worry about our own race car."

That was evident Sunday as Busch drove hard and avoided the problems that brought out 11 caution flags and caused trouble for several of the top contenders.

Busch, 21, passed Elliott Sadler on Lap 240 and appeared to have the third victory of his career all wrapped up before a crash involving Hendrick Motorsports teammate Brian Vickers and rookie Clint Bowyer brought out a caution flag on Lap 298, just three laps from the scheduled end of the Lenox Industrial Tools 300.

With a number of drivers concerned about running out of the fuel even before the extra laps, including Sadler, the race was extended even longer when Michael Waltrip ran into the back of Robby Gordon on Lap 303.

The last restart finally came on Lap 307. By that time, both rookie Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards had moved past Sadler, but Busch easily pulled away from the challengers in the two-lap sprint to the finish.

Edwards dove past Hamlin for second place on the final lap and Hamlin then appeared to run out of gas, fading all the way to sixth as Greg Biffle of Vancouver, Wash., Mark Martin and Kevin Harvick all drove past on the final straightaway. Enumclaw's Kasey Kahne finished eighth.

The top of the points standings were scrambled on the hot, sticky day filled with crashes.

Jimmie Johnson remained in the top spot with a ninth-place finish, moving from 51 to 68 points ahead of runner-up Matt Kenseth, who finished 14th.

Tony Stewart got the worst of it, falling from seventh to 11th. He hit the wall on Lap 91 after being bumped by pole-starter Ryan Newman and wound up 37th in the 43-car field.

Dale Earnhardt was running in the top five when he had an engine failure that relegated him to last in the race and knocked him from third to seventh in the standings, while Biffle moved into a tie for ninth with Jeff Gordon, who finished 15th in the race despite being involved in at least two on-track incidents with other cars.

Record win for Schumacher

MAGNY COURS, France — Michael Schumacher won the F1 French Grand Prix for a record eighth time in a boost for resurgent Ferrari, finishing 10 seconds ahead of world champion Fernando Alonso.

The victory helps Schumacher close the gap on Alonso in the standings with seven races left. Alonso has 96 points and Schumacher has 79.

"The championship is far from over," Schumacher said. "I hope we can make up more ground."

Alonso, who took the F1 crown from Schumacher, said his second-place finish was enough.

"Given where I started on the grid, I think second is everything I could have hoped for because we knew that Michael was a bit quicker this weekend," said Alonso, who started third. "We won four consecutive races and hopefully this will happen again from the next race on."

Other event

J.R. Todd became the first black driver to win an NHRA Top Fuel event, beating Tony Schumacher in the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals in Morrison, Colo.

Todd, driving in his ninth career event, never trailed in the final at Bandimere Speedway, dismissing the three-time series champion with a 4.906-second run at 291.63 mph.

"You never expect to get your first NHRA win by outrunning Tony Schumacher in the final," Todd said. "They were talking about me being the first African American to win in Top Fuel, but out here it's all equal, especially when the helmet goes on."

Gary Scelzi raced to his first Funny Car win of the season in the $1.5 million event, while Dave Connolly topped the Pro Stock field and Andrew Hines won the Pro Stock Motorcycle competition.