Busch Puts It All Together to Take Race at Michigan

About the only thing driver Kurt Busch and his team didn’t change on his car Sunday at Michigan International Speedway was the number.

Making adjustments to his Roush Racing Ford on every pit stop, Busch became the first three-time NASCAR Winston Cup winner this season after snatching the lead from Jeff Gordon with 24 laps to go in the 200-lap Sirius Satellite 400 at Brooklyn, Mich.

A late charge by pole-starter Bobby Labonte, who took second from Gordon on Lap 185, came up 0.774 of a second -- about six car lengths -- short.

“We didn’t quite have the setup,” said Busch, who gave much of the credit for the seventh victory of his career to crew chief Jimmy Fennig. “Jimmy and I decided to throw some things at it and made a car that would go to Victory Lane.

“We made all kinds of air pressure changes, wedge changes, track bar, you name it.... It ended up in our favor at the end.”

Busch had Labonte’s Chevrolet nearly on the back bumper of his Taurus when the green flag waved for the start of Lap 196.

Labonte made a strong move to the top of the track, but Busch held him off and pulled steadily away.

*

Michael Schumacher defeated his brother, Ralf, in the Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal to win his fourth race this season and pass Kimi Raikkonen for the lead in the Formula One driver standings.

Schumacher, seeking his record sixth Formula One world championship, gained the maximum 10 points with the victory in a Ferrari and has 999 in his career.

Juan Pablo Montoya recovered from an early spinout to finish third. Alonso was fourth. The top four finished with 4.5 seconds of each other.

Schumacher put his Ferrari into the lead for good on the 56th of 70 laps when Fernando Alonso pitted.

Michael Schumacher then held off his brother the rest of the way to win by 0.78 of a second. The race had a similar pattern two years ago when Ralf Schumacher chased his brother until passing him with about 20 laps to go to beat Michael for the title.

“In 2001, I won it like this,” said Ralf Schumacher, who started from the pole Sunday and led until the first series of pit stops on Lap 23. “Now it’s his turn.”

Local favorite Jacques Villeneuve left the race after 14 laps with brake problems and finished 19th in the 20-car field.

*

Pole-sitter Patrick Carpentier surged into the lead at the start and never surrendered it to win the CART Grand Prix of Monterey, Calif.

Carpentier defeated runner-up Bruno Junqueira by 0.844 of a second at Laguna Seca. Paul Tracy nudged teammate Carpentier during a false start, then followed him the rest of the race to finish third.

With Junqueira bearing down on him, Tracy slipped off course on Lap 56 and Junqueira took over second place for good.

*

Scott Dixon won the Honda Indy 225 at Fountain, Colo., under a yellow flag for his second IRL victory this season.

Dixon, who also won the IRL’s season-opening race at Homestead, Fla., led 89 laps, including the last 84.

Season points leader Tony Kanaan was runner-up for the second consecutive week, followed by Gil de Ferran, who had been the defending champion.

*

Bentley won its first title at Le Mans, France, since 1930, and driver Tom Kristensen set a record with his fourth victory in a row in the 24-hour endurance race.

Bentley’s No. 7 car was two laps ahead of the runner-up -- Bentley’s No. 8 car.

Audi, the winner the last three years, had cars finish third and fourth.

*

Ricky Carmichael crashed in his first moto but rebounded to win the AMA Chevy Trucks 250cc Motocross Championship race at Budds Creek Motocross (Md.) Park.

Carmichael has won the five AMA races this season.

James Stewart returned to competition for the first time since breaking his collarbone in the last AMA Supercross round in May and won the 125cc class.

*

A driver died after his car struck the pit wall with full force during a race at Oxford (Maine) Plains Speedway.

Central Maine Medical Center at Lewiston confirmed that Dennis Dee, 28, had died, but wouldn’t release any other information.

Miscellany

Russia’s Svetlana Feofanova had a pole vault of 15 feet 5 3/4 inches to defeat Stacy Dragila, who finished third with at 15-1 3/4, in the Lille Metropole meet at Villeneuve D’Asq, France.

Feofanova holds the world indoor record and Dragila, the Olympic champion in 2000, holds the world outdoor record.

Lance Armstrong won the Dauphine Libere cycling race in France, a strong victory in preparation for the Tour de France, where he will aim for his fifth consecutive title. The Tour starts next month.

Armstrong finished sixth in the 109.5-mile final stage from Briancon to Grenoble, 2 minutes 0.09 seconds behind winner Cedric Vasseur of France, who completed the stage in 4:22:00.02.

In the overall standings, Armstrong was 1:12 ahead of runner-up Iban Mayo of Spain.

Croatian fans smashed stadium chairs and attacked reporters after their team lost the European water polo championship to Serbia and Montenegro, 9-8, at Kranj, Slovenia.

In Belgrade, the capital of Serbia and Montenegro, celebrating Serbian fans broke into the Croatian embassy.

No serious injuries were reported.

Passings

Johnny Miles, who won the Boston Marathon twice in the 1920s, died at Hamilton, Canada. He was 96.

Pete Wysocki, the Washington Redskins’ outside linebacker and special teams player whose aggressiveness on the field terrorized opponents, died of cancer Saturday. He was 55.