Schumacher Denied a Second Time

Michael Schumacher of Germany, the five-time world champion who dominated Formula One last season for Ferrari, was denied again Sunday at the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.

The winner this time was Kimi Raikkonen of Finland. It was his first victory in three years as a Formula One driver.

Schumacher finished sixth after placing fourth in the series opener in Australia. The last time he had such bad results in consecutive races was in 2000, when he was bumped out of the German and Austrian races on the first lap.

Raikkonen of McLaren-Mercedes leads the drivers’ standings with 16 points following a win and a third-place finish in Melbourne.

Rubens Barrichello, the Brazilian who is Schumacher’s Ferrari teammate, was second, 39 seconds behind. Pole-sitter Fernando Alonso of Spain, in a Renault, was third.

Schumacher finished more than a lap behind and was penalized for causing a collision with Jarno Trulli of Italy on the third turn. Trulli spun in his Renault and Schumacher was left on the grass for a few seconds. He re-entered the race after dropping to about 12th.

The McLaren team has won both races, David Coulthard of Scotland having captured the Australian Grand Prix.

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Kurt Busch didn’t need any bumping, banging or late-race dramatics to get him back into Bristol’s winner’s circle.

Busch earned his first NASCAR Winston Cup Series win of the season and defended his Food City 500 title by gambling on pit strategy and avoiding all but one of the 17 cautions at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.

Coming off last week’s thrilling, door-to-door battle with Ricky Craven that he narrowly lost, Busch had little competition as his Ford Taurus led the final 96 laps and easily held off Roush Racing teammate Matt Kenseth by 0.390 of a second.

Bobby Labonte was third in a Chevrolet, Ricky Rudd finished fourth in a Ford and Roush Racing rookie Greg Biffle was fifth.

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Paul Tracy made it two-for-two this season, racing to an easy victory in the Tecate Telmex Grand Prix at Monterrey, Mexico, holding off Michel Jourdain Jr. to win by 2.039 seconds -- about half the final straightaway.

Tracy, who took the lead when rookie pole-winner Sebastien Bourdais pitted and never gave it up, led the final 69 of 85 laps around the 2.104-mile, 14-turn road circuit.

Tracy and Jourdain also finished 1-2 in the season-opener last month in Homestead, Fla.

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Tony Kanaan led the Purex Dial Indy 200 for the final 41 laps to win his first Indy Racing League race.

He drove the last 90 laps at Phoenix International Raceway without a pit stop. He was able to save fuel because five of the race’s 10 cautions occurred after he pitted for the last time.

After the last caution flag, there were only two laps left, and Kanaan’s Honda-powered Dallara beat Helio Castroneves, driving a Toyota-Dallara package, by .9328 seconds -- half a straightaway.

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Dennis Setzer took the lead on lap 229 in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series’ Lucas Oil 250 and held off Jon Wood and Brendan Gaughan for the victory in front of a near-capacity crowd at Mesa Marin Speedway in Bakersfield.

A caution on lap 249 reset the field behind Setzer, but Wood and Gaughan were unable to challenge him for the final three laps and he cruised to the victory, joining Jack Sprague as the only drivers in the series to win a race in six consecutive seasons.

Tennis

Todd Martin showed that older can be better, beating Andy Roddick, 7-6 (3) 6-4, in an all-American intergenerational matchup in the Nasdaq-100 Open at Key Biscayne, Fla.

With the victory, Martin, 32, advanced to the fourth round at Key Biscayne for only the second time in his 11-year career.

In other matches, third-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero lost to 1998 champion Marcelo Rios, 6-3, 7-6 (2), and fifth-seeded Carlos Moya beat Fernando Verdascok, 7-6 (5), 6-3.

In the women’s draw, Jennifer Capriati overcame seven double faults in the first set to defeat Laura Granville, 7-6 (4), 6-0. She will next face wild-card entry Sarah Taylor, who rallied past No. 17 Ai Sugiyama, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Venus Williams, seeded second, advanced by defeating Emmanuelle Gagliardi, 6-3, 6-2.

Winter Sports

Bode Miller of Franconia, N.H., edged Erik Schlopy of Park City, Utah, to win his second straight slalom title at the U.S. Alpine National Championships in Lake Placid, N.Y.

Miller -- who won the super-giant slalom last week on Whiteface Mountain -- finished the two runs in 2 minutes 6.59 seconds, fighting off blustery winds, fog and deteriorating snow. Schlopy was 0.73 behind.

Kristina Koznick of Burnsville, Minn., won the women’s slalom with a combined time of 2:07.56, more than two seconds ahead of Katharine Hitchcock of Sacramento. Sarah Schleper of Vail, Colo., finished third

Matti Hautamaki of Finland set a ski jump world record at Planica, Slovenia, in the season’s final event, and Adam Malysz of Poland became the first jumper to win the overall title three straight years.

Hautamaki jumped 231 meters -- beating his own world record of 228.5 set Friday during qualifying -- and 224 meters for 450.5 points.

Sven Hannawald of Germany was second, jumping 214.5 and 217 meters, and Hideharu Miyahira of Japan finished third with jumps of 209 and 213.

Malysz was fourth, 31.9 points behind Hautamaki, with jumps of 212.5 and 213. He won the overall title with 1,357 points, followed by Andreas Widhoelzl of Austria with 1,028.

Five-time Olympic champion Ole Einar Bjoerndalen of Norway won the 15-kilometer mass start race for his second gold medal at the biathlon world championships in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia.

Bjoerndalen, who also won the 10-kilometer sprint, was the only racer to hit every target.