Franchitti Holds Off Gidley for Victory

At the finish line, Dario Franchitti’s fuel gauge and rearview mirrors flashed red.

Running on fumes at the finish line, Franchitti held off Memo Gidley to win Sunday’s Marconi Grand Prix of Cleveland for his first CART victory in 29 races and 1 1/2 years.

Franchitti, who started 14th, took the lead for good on lap 91 when Gidley made his final pit stop and won by 0.305 of a second.

“I was kind of shocked when I crossed the finish line, nothing went wrong, and we won,” said Franchitti, whose career had stalled since 1999. “Today, everything went right and we had some luck. In the final lap, I kept thinking, ‘Save fuel.’ I think we had less than a gallon left. We were close.”

Bryan Herta was third, 7.9 seconds behind Franchitti. CART points leader Kenny Brack finished sixth.

Gidley was making only his second start this season after being hired by team owner Chip Ganassi. Gidley led for 59 laps but had to pit on lap 90 and didn’t have enough speed on the final straight to catch Franchitti.

Defending champion Roberto Moreno finished eighth. He was among the top four drivers until lap 89, when he hit some safety tires while trying to avoid Herta, who began to spin when his left wheels caught grass.

Franchitti’s victory was the seventh of his CART career and his first since Australia in 1999. He finished second recently at Detroit but ran sixth a week ago in Portland, Ore.

“Hopefully,” he said, “we can build on this and can do what we did today from now on.”

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Michael Schumacher earned his 50th victory by defeating brother Ralf in the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours, leaving Michael one victory short of Alain Prost’s Formula One all-time record of 51.

This was Schumacher’s sixth victory in 10 races this season and also stretched his lead in the series to 31 points over David Coulthard with seven races remaining.

Ralf started on the pole for the first time in his career, but his BMW-powered Williams proved no match for his brother’s Ferrari, and he wound up 10.3 seconds behind.

Together, the German siblings have accounted for eight victories this season.

Michael’s sixth victory also moved him into a commanding lead over David Coulthard in the series standings. Schumacher has 78 points to 47 for Coulthard.

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Rookie Greg Biffle held on to win the GNC Live Well 250 at West Allis, Wis. Kevin Harvick led for 165 laps and remains the NASCAR Busch series point leader after finishing fourth.

Biffle went the last 104 of 250 laps without refueling his Ford to get his third Busch series victory. He all but clinched the victory when pursuer Mike Skinner ran out of gas with two laps remaining.

Matt Kenseth finished second and Kevin Grubb third.

Biffle previously won the Pepsi 300 on April 14 in Gladeville, Tenn., and the Nazareth 200 on May 20 in Pennsylvania.