Martin Back on Track With a Slick Victory at Dover

After winning a career-high seven NASCAR races in 1998, Mark Martin finally ended a disappointing 25-race drought in 1999 on Sunday.

“I desperately wanted to win this race,” Martin said after a triumphant performance at the MBNA Gold 400 at Dover, Del., for the third consecutive year and winning $115,710. “We needed this one. This team’s been behind me 100%, and I didn’t see any change of attitude. This was sweet.”

Rookie Tony Stewart devastated the field for most of the first half of the race. But Martin caught Stewart, then waged a magnificent battle with Winston Cup points leader Dale Jarrett.

Martin fell back steadily after Jarrett took the lead on the 255th of 400 laps, but maintained his pace until Jarrett began to slow down.

Martin caught Jarrett on the backstretch on lap 313 and passed him easily. He trailed for only two laps the rest of the way.

Stewart finished second, 1.1 seconds behind, and Jarrett finished third. Martin, in second place in the points race, trails Jarrett by 257 points.

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Paul Tracy enjoyed a dominating victory in the Texaco Grand Prix of Houston, a race featuring an uncharacteristic mistake by rookie sensation Juan Montoya that kept him from clinching the CART championship. Tracy controlled most of the race, leading all but three laps on the tight 1.527-mile, 10-turn temporary street circuit, after taking the lead for the first time on lap 13.

Montoya built a lead of 2.229 seconds over Tracy by the end of lap 12 but as he neared the flag-stand on the next lap, he ran over part of a crashed car, breaking a wheel and ending his race.

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Johnny Herbert of Britain earned his third career Formula One victory, winning the European Grand Prix at Nuerburgring, Germany. Herbert, winless since 1995, changed to wet-weather tires just as the first of two rain showers hit the course. He drove a Stewart-Ford to its first victory in three seasons on the Formula One series, finishing 22.618 seconds ahead of Italy’s Jarno Trulli. . . . Jean Pierre Richelmi of Monaco, driving a Subaru Impreza, won the three-day Cyprus Motor rally at Nicosia, leading all the way. The European Championship leader, Enrico Bertone of Italy, finished seventh.