Away From Feud, Wallace Rolls On

Rusty Wallace’s third victory of the season was almost upstaged Sunday by another collision between Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart.

Wallace, riding with four fresh tires on his Penske Ford, took the lead with 15 laps to go and steadily pulled away from Ricky Rudd’s Ford and Bobby Labonte’s Pontiac in the Pepsi 400 at Brooklyn, Mich.

“I figured I had a first- or second-place car all day,” said Wallace, who has won five of his 52 career NASCAR Winston Cup races at Michigan Speedway. I knew I’d have to race Ricky Rudd, because he was quicker than me.”

Wallace, who beat Rudd by 2.971 seconds, averaged 132.586 mph.

Stewart, as he did a week ago at Watkins Glen, took Gordon into a wall, causing serious damage. The two almost got into a fistfight last week, but it didn’t come to that this time.

Stewart was running second to Wallace when his car got loose and touched pole-sitter Dale Earnhardt Jr. on lap 37.

Earnhardt Jr. drove on, but Stewart’s Pontiac began to swerve badly. The car got sideways between the first and second turn and spun into Gordon, who was trying to get past the trouble on the high side.

Gordon’s car slammed into the wall, damaging the front end, and he had to take the Chevrolet in to have the brakes repaired. He went out on lap 141 and finished 36th.

“I just lost it down there,” said Stewart. Kerry Earnhardt, making his first Winston Cup start, went out after hitting the wall on the fourth turn of his sixth lap. It was just the start of a so-so day for the Earnhardt family. Dale Jr. spun onto the infield grass while swerving to avoid Robby Gordon on lap 177 and finished 31st. Their father Dale finished sixth after taking a provisional to start 37th.

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Paul Tracy, who dropped from seventh place to 23rd on the first lap after a throttle sensor problem caused his car to stall, came back to win the CART Motorola 220 at Elkhart Lake, Wis. It was Tracy’s second victory of the season and 17th in his CART career.

Tracy, after getting his Reynard Honda restarted, steadily moved through the field, taking the lead for the first time on lap 26 when Alex Tagliani’s car, which had been leading by nearly six seconds, coasted to a stop because of a gearbox problem.

Tracy made his final fuel stop on lap 45, giving up the top spot to Roberto Moreno. When Moreno had to make his last stop on lap 51, Tracy reassumed the lead and pulled away to win by 7.450 seconds over Adrian Fernandez. He averaged 136.457 mph.

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Tony Schumacher gained to his third top fuel victory of the season, beating Doug Kalitta in the Colonels Truck Accessories NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway in Minnesota.

Schumacher won with a run of 4.585 seconds at 318.69 mph. Kalitta finished in 4.655 seconds at 306.81 mph.

John Force of Yorba Linda won the funny car division, Kurt Johnson the pro stock and Antron Brown the pro stock motorcycle.