MOTOR RACING ROUNDUP : Schumacher Coasts to Canadian Grand Prix Victory

Michael Schumacher pulled away from the field on the opening lap and won the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal on Sunday for his fifth victory in six Formula One races this season.

Schumacher, driving a Benetton Ford, started from the pole and by the end of the first 90-second lap around the Circuit Gilles Villenueve had a lead of 1.767 seconds over Jean Alesi’s Ferrari.

That was as close as anyone would get to Schumacher, who won the race by 39.660 seconds.

Damon Hill of Britain, driving a Williams Renault, took over second on the 31st lap when Alesi pitted and held the spot at the finish. But Hill couldn’t get close to Schumacher, who led by more than 30 seconds by the time they came out following a pit stop on the 40th lap.

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Rusty Wallace moved past Dale Earnhardt three turns from the end of the UAW-GM Teamwork 500 to salvage a victory in a confusing finish at Pocono International Raceway in Long Pond, Pa.

Wallace outdueled Winston Cup point leader Ernie Irvan for the second week in a row and appeared to have the victory wrapped up before a late caution period threw the event into chaos.

Mark Martin blew a tire on lap 194, bringing out the fifth and final yellow flag. That sent Wallace, who had been leading runner-up Earnhardt by more than 21 seconds, and the other eight cars on the lead lap into the pits for one last tire change.

Earnhardt’s crew changed only right-side tires and got the defending series champion’s Chevrolet Lumina back onto the 2.5-mile tri-oval in front of a surprised Wallace.

There were still four laps remaining when they moved in behind the pace car, but NASCAR was forced to keep the race under caution while trying to sort out the scoring after Jeff Gordon spun and momentarily got stuck in the infield grass after coming back onto the track.

Gordon got going and passed nearly the entire field under caution to move back into third, where he was when Martin’s tire blew.

While Earnhardt and Wallace waited, NASCAR told his crew to send Gordon back to eighth place, but he remained third for the restart. NASCAR was expected to penalize Gordon and, although he crossed the finish line third, he was not listed among the top five in the final results.

The green flag waved with one lap remaining and Wallace’s Ford immediately moved to the inside of the track and moved past Earnhardt in the first turn.

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For the fifth consecutive race, the powerful Penske team dominated Indy-car racing as Canadian Paul Tracy ran away from the rest of the field in the ITT Automotive Detroit Grand Prix.

Tracy was clocked in 2 hours, 32 minutes and 29 seconds, 9.25 seconds ahead of teammate Emerson Fittipaldi and 4:13 better than Danny Sullivan’s track record set last year.

Al Unser Jr., who had won the three previous circuit races, was forced into a pile of tires after being brushed by Tracy’s car with 40 laps to go and finished 10th.