MOTOR RACING ROUNDUP : Wrong Becomes Right, Michael Andretti Wins

A mistake by Michael Andretti became a blessing Sunday as he survived an off-course excursion to beat his father, Mario, in the Red Roof Inns 200 at Lexington, Ohio.

The younger Andretti, who started from the pole, slid off the wet track and through grass and gravel, nearly the guardrail one lap past the halfway mark in the 89-lap, 200-mile race.

His slide dropped him from first to third place, behind Mario Andretti and Eddie Cheever. Michael Andretti moved up to challenge Cheever and clipped him on lap 57, puncturing Cheever’s tire and knocking Andretti’s front wing askew.

“I had a broken wing and I thought we’d have to just bring it home second,” Michael Andretti said. “Then it started to rain and the car was like magic with that broken wing. It was like that made the adjustment in the wet.”

He caught his father-teammate on lap 71 after a side-by-side battle on a drenched 2.25-mile, 13-turn track. The final margin was 7.631 seconds in Michael’s fourth victory of the season and 13th of his career. He earned $80,655 and averaged 85.751 m.p.h.

Bill Elliott earned his first NASCAR victory of the season, beating Mark Martin by 1.38 seconds in a record-setting Peak 500 stock car race at the one-mile, high-banked Dover, Del., Downs International Speedway.

Elliott’s Ford set a race record of 125.945 m.p.h., breaking Ricky Rudd’s three-year-old mark of 124.706 m.p.h., and was worth $83,100, including a $15,200 bonus for winning from the pole.