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Motorsports

Newman outlasts field in Busch race

Associated Press
Published August 28, 2005

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BRISTOL, Tenn. - Ryan Newman outlasted two long rain delays, 12 cautions and overtime to stretch his winning streak to three in the NASCAR Busch series with a victory late Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Newman held off charges from Kasey Kahne, who made several attempts to pass him, but spun with 30 laps to go as he raced for the lead in the Food City 250.

Greg Biffle and Kevin Harvick were then the only two challengers. Biffle was trying to pass with 17 laps to go when Newman was saved by a spin by Carl Edwards that brought out the 11th caution.

Another caution set up a green-white-checker finish and Newman held on in his Dodge by building a huge lead on the restart.

"Obviously the cautions played to our benefit," Newman said.

Biffle finished second and Harvick was third.

"We definitely had the faster car," Biffle said. "I just didn't want to see those cautions in the end. I could have got Ryan so easily in the end."

The race was stopped twice and delayed almost two hours.

INDYCAR: Rookie Ryan Briscoe won his first career pole for today's Argent Mortgage Indy Grand Prix in Sonoma, Calif.

Briscoe, 15th in the standings, had a lap of 108.248 mph around the 12-turn, 2.26-mile road course, slightly better than the 108.130 he had in practice on Friday. Helio Castroneves qualified second at 107.664, followed by Tony Kanaan at 107.346.

The IRL, staging its first race on a permanent road course (its first non-oval race was at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in April on a temporary street circuit), established a unique qualifying format. After all 21 drivers finished their single-lap runs, positions seven through 21 were locked. The top six drivers ran for 10 minutes in an effort to improve their positions. All remained the same.

CHAMP CAR: Sebastien Bourdais won the pole for the Montreal Molson Indy for the second straight year with a lap of 121.305 mph. The Tampa resident and series leader ran the four fastest laps in qualifying for today's race at the 2.709-mile, 15-turn road course. His teammate, Oriol Servia, had a lap at 120.851 mph for an all-Newman/Haas Racing front row.

TRANS-AM: Rookie Klaus Graf clinched the series championship with a win in Montreal. Graf became the first German to win the title, and the first rookie since 1989. He also won rookie of the year honors.

[Last modified August 28, 2005, 01:15:11]

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