Kenseth Picks Up His Third Victory

Matt Kenseth became the first three-time winner of the NASCAR season, holding off a furious charge from Dale Jarrett in the Sirius Satellite Radio 400 on Sunday at Brooklyn, Mich.

By winning at Michigan International Speedway, Kenseth gave car owner Jack Roush a win at his home track. Roush, who survived an April plane crash, is recovering from his injuries in Michigan and was at the track on crutches to watch his four cars.

“It’s just great to give Jack a win here,” Kenseth said. “This is home, this is his favorite track and he’s been through a lot so far this year. This helps.”

Kenseth, who also won in Rockingham, N.C., and Texas, had to overcome a late red-flag period and battles with rookies Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman before his last-lap duel with Jarrett.

Newman was third, followed by Michael Waltrip and Jeff Gordon, the defending race champion who came back from a lap down earlier in the race. Series points leader Sterling Marlin finished 21st. He has a 110-point lead over Gordon and Johnson.

*

Todd Bodine’s decision to stay and finish a rain-delayed Busch event in Kentucky rather than head for the Winston Cup race in Michigan paid huge dividends.

Bodine took the lead with 10 laps to go and survived a high-contact, side-to-side duel to the line with Greg Biffle to win the Kroger 300 at Lexington.

The victory was Bodine’s 14th on the Busch Series, and first since Las Vegas in March 2001.

Tony Raines finished third, followed by pole-sitter Scott Riggs, Scott Wimmer and Jamie McMurray.

*

Cristiano da Matta won his third CART race of the season, holding off Bruno Junqueira in the G.I. Joe’s 200 at Portland, Ore.

Da Matta, who drives for Newman-Haas, has won five of the last eight races dating to last season.

Target-Ganassi’s Junqueira, who was born in the same Brazilian town as Da Matta, finished 0.625 of a second behind the winner, while Kool Green’s Dario Franchitti was third, 7.761 seconds back.

*

Gil de Ferran led all but eight laps to post his first Indy Racing League victory in the Radisson 225, a race that was stopped for 51 minutes by rain and hail at Fountain, Colo.

De Ferran and Penske teammate Helio Castroneves repeated their 1-2 finish in qualifying.

De Ferran finished 1.4 seconds ahead of Castroneves, winner of the last two Indy 500s, and two seconds ahead of Sam Hornish Jr.

*

Audi swept the top three places in the 24 Hours of Le Mans at Le Mans, France, as Frank Biela, Tom Kristensen and Emanuele Pirro became the first trio to win the event three years running.

Starting in second place, Biela, Kristensen and Pirro took the lead after three hours and remained in front until the end.

*

Larry Dixon raced to his seventh top fuel victory of the year and teammate Ron Capps broke a season-long funny car drought in the NHRA’s Pontiac Excitement Nationals at Hebron, Ohio.

*

Cosworth will manufacture engines exclusively for the CART series over the next two years in a move to control costs for the racing teams.

The Ford-owned company will sell 100 turbocharged engines to CART, which will then lease them to the teams at an annual cost of just over $1 million per car. The going rate is about $3.5 million.