Sadler Is Just a Bit Faster Than Kahne

Elliott Sadler barely held off rookie Kasey Kahne in an exciting finish Sunday to win the Samsung/Radio Shack 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Sadler’s victory -- his second career NASCAR Nextel Cup win -- was by two-hundredths of a second over Kahne, the rookie who has three runner-up finishes and a third-place showing in seven races for Ray Evernham.

“It’s unbelievable,” Sadler said. “I’ve always had a good knack for this track, so a good win is just very, very special.”

Sadler and Kahne were racing alone at the front of the field, with the rookie trying to get back in the lead for the seventh time. He led 148 laps, but not the one that mattered.

Sadler led by a half-second with 10 laps left, but Kahne kept trimming the space between the two cars. He tried to go high several times in the corners, but never could get back in front.

Coming out of the last turn, Kahne made one last push and had the left front panel of his Dodge just alongside the rear of Sadler’s Ford as they crossed the finish line around the lapped car of Johnny Sauter. It was the eighth-closest finish in Cup history.

Sadler averaged 138.845 mph in the race slowed by seven caution periods that took 45 laps. Twelve drivers led the race, with Sadler topping the field the final 27 laps.

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Michael Schumacher won his third straight race, taking the inaugural Bahrain Grand Prix for his 73rd career victory.

The six-time Formula One champion led from the pole and never faltered, taking command on the new $150-million desert track in Sakhir. Light rain fell just before the start, but track conditions were nearly perfect despite fears of blowing sand and dust.

Schumacher clocked 1 hour 28 minutes 34.875 seconds for 57 laps on the 3.367-mile course, with an average speed of 129.876 mph. Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello finished second, 1.3 seconds behind, only because Schumacher slowed after leading by 10 seconds entering the final lap.

Seventeen of 20 cars were running at the end, but Schumacher never made a mistake.

“That was the secret of the weekend, not to overdo it,” Schumacher said. “To stay slightly below the limit. You had to be very careful to stay on line because the track was very slippery off it.”

Schumacher leads the overall standings with 30 points followed by Barrichello (21) and BAR-Honda’s Jenson Button (15), who finished third. Ferrari also leads the team standings with 51 points.

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Tony Schumacher raced to his third top fuel victory in four events this season, beating Larry Dixon in the NHRA’s SummitRacing.com Nationals in Las Vegas.

Schumacher had a quarter-mile run of 4.525 seconds at 331.53 mph for his 14th career victory. Dixon finished in 4.571 at 323.97.

Phil Burkart won the funny car event, beating Whit Bazemore in the final with a run of 5.029 at 264.03.

Greg Anderson won the pro stock category, finishing in 6.849 at 201.31 to beat Kurt Johnson.