Auto Racing Roundup | Gordon spins, Stewart wins

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Jeff Gordon was on his way to another victory at Watkins Glen International when he spun out on a turn, allowing Tony Stewart to scoot past and pull away for an easy victory in the Nextel Cup Centurion Boats at The Glen on Sunday.

"The team deserved a win and the driver didn't get it done," a frustrated Gordon said as he walked to the garage area.

Gordon's No. 24 Chevrolet was by far the strongest car of the afternoon but his self-caused mishap enabled Stewart to take over.

"Trust me, I was probably the most shocked person," Stewart said after his 36th career victory, tying him for 19th all-time with Dale Jarrett. "Our only shot of getting by him was to keep the pressure on him and hope he'd make a mistake.

"I think our car was a tick better than Jeff's, but if Jeff doesn't make that mistake, we run for second," said Stewart, who has won four of the last five Cup races at Watkins Glen and finished second a year ago to Kevin Harvick. "You were going to have to be a bunch faster to get by him. Whoever was in the lead with 10 to go was probably going to win the race."

A dejected Gordon finished ninth, but became the first driver to clinch one of the 12 spots in the Chase for the Nextel Cup. He has 3,384 points, 344 ahead of Denny Hamlin, who was second. Jimmy Johnson was third.

Greg Biffle of Vancouver, Wash., was 10th and is 15th in the overall standings with 2,317 points. Biffle has six finishes in the top 10 this season. Kasey Kahne of Enumclaw was 26th. He has 1,894 points for 27th place.

"I was driving hard," Gordon said. "I just overdrove going into one. It was just stupid. I knew I had to push because Tony was really good."

Stewart won his fourth NASCAR race at Watkins Glen. He was the champ in 2002, 2004 and 2005. He also has won three of the past four races on the NASCAR circuit, with a sixth-place finish last week at Pocono International interrupting his winning streak.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. suffered a major blow to his Chase hopes when he was forced out of the race with an engine failure with less than 27 laps remaining.

The race included a mild shoving match between Kevin Harvick and Juan Pablo Montoya with 16 laps to go. Montoya was bumped from behind by Martin Truex Jr., got loose and slammed into the side of Harvick's car, causing Harvick to spin out.

Harvick and Montoya both exited their cars and shouted at one another, then exchanged mild shoves.

Harvick finished 36th and Montoya was 39th.

Bourdais finally wins at Road America

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — Sebastien Bourdais kept waiting for something to happen, for yet another bad break to keep him from winning at Road America.

He needn't have worried.

Bourdais not only conquered a track that has stymied him in three previous tries, he took a big step toward an unprecedented fourth straight Champ Car title.

The Frenchman, who will move to Formula One in 2008, had failed to win on the 4.028-mile, 14-turn natural terrain road course despite being dominant at times. But he closed the deal in the Generac Grand Prix, starting from the pole and overpowering the rest of the 17-car field in picking up his fifth win of the season.

After doing some smoking burnouts in celebration, a smiling Bourdais hugged just about everybody on his team after scrambling from his No. 1 Panoz.

"It was just about a perfect weekend and a great car," said Bourdais, who blew away the competition in qualifying, winning the pole by more than 1.5 seconds, before leading 51 of 53 laps in 1 hour, 40 minutes.

Note

• John Force won his 125th Funny Car event by beating Kenny Bernstein by about two feet in a meeting of drag-racing legends in Brainerd, Minn.

In the two legends' first meeting in 18 years, Force's 4.794-second run at 316.60 mph was faster by .0048 seconds.

Bernstein's son, Brandon, beat Larry Dixon in the Top Fuel final with a run of 4.525 seconds.

In Pro Stock, Jeg Coughlin became just the 11th racer in NHRA's 56-year history with 50 national wins when he beat Greg Anderson.