Win Is a First for Johnson

A two-tire stop and a mistake by Ryan Newman helped Jimmie Johnson become a first-time Busch Series winner Saturday in the Sam’s Club-Hills Bros 300 at Joliet, Ill.

Johnson, winning in his 57th start, came into the pits in third and, thanks to the strategy by crew chief Tony Liberati, sped onto the 1.5-mile tri-oval at new Chicagoland Speedway in front of the field.

“We put two Goodyears on the right side and I told him, ‘Go. It will be OK,’ ” Liberati said.

Newman, who dominated the race--leading twice for 84 laps--was out front before the final stop on the 157th of 200 laps. Taking four tires, he fell to sixth on the restart on lap 161, but picked up two spots on the first green-flag lap and began to stalk Johnson’s Chevrolet, moving to second by lap 171.

“I didn’t want to look in my mirror,” Johnson said. “I knew he was coming.”

Newman’s Ford moved up to the leader’s rear bumper on lap 185 and hounded Johnson until the two caught the lapped car of Mike McLaughlin four laps from the end.

Johnson, 25, raced past McLaughlin with relative ease, but Newman, 23, made a critical error, clipping the slower car with the left front of his car, damaging the sheet metal and cutting Newman’s left front tire. He ricocheted off the wall. NASCAR put him under a black flag, but Newman, who lost a lap on the track, kept driving slowly to the finish.

After the race, NASCAR penalized Newman two laps and six seconds for ignoring the black flag. He wound up in 26th place.

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Series leader Scott Riggs passed pole-sitter Jack Sprague with nine laps left and won the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Kroger 225 at Sparta, Ky.

With his third-place finish, Sprague became the first driver in series history to reach $4 million in earnings.

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Gil de Ferran won his first pole of the CART season, edging Penske Racing teammate Helio Castroneves in qualifying for the Molson Indy in Toronto.

Just after Castroneves posted the fastest time (109.370 in 57.767 seconds), de Ferran came back with a lap at 109.492 mph in 57.703 seconds.

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A victory by Michael Schumacher in today’s British Gand Prix at Silverstone, England, would tie the driver with Alain Prost for the most victories in Formula One history. Schumacher also is on track to become the first driver to win 10 times in a season.

He put himself in position to win his third consecutive race by driving his Ferrari around the 3.194-mile circuit in 1 minute 20.447 seconds.

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Todd Bodine starts from the pole today in the Tropicana 400, the inaugural Winston Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill. Jimmy Spencer will start alongside Bodine in the 400-mile event.