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Wallace Breaks Streak of 105 Title-Less Races

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From Associated Press

Rusty Wallace ended his 105-race winless streak Sunday, outdriving Bobby Labonte over the final 30 laps to win the Advance Auto Parts 500 at Martinsville, Va.

“Finally,” Wallace said. “I questioned myself a little bit. I was like, ‘Man, this schedule is wearing me out, and these bad performances are wearing me out.’ ”

The NASCAR race was halted for more than an hour with 210 laps to go after a block of concrete came loose in the third turn, leaving a hole a foot long and a foot wide that damaged Jeff Gordon’s car and had to be filled.

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Repairs took 1 hour 17 minutes, but when the race restarted, a refreshed Wallace started making his move.

He came out of the pits third after a caution with 120 laps to go, passed teammate Ryan Newman for second with 55 laps to go and then caught Jimmie Johnson, who was stuck on older tires after failing to pit with the lead.

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Karen Stoffer became the seventh woman in NHRA history to win a professional race, earning the pro-stock bike title at the O’Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals at Baytown, Texas.

Brandon Bernstein, Tim Wilkerson and Greg Anderson also earned victories in their categories.

Stoffer beat Antron Brown in the final. She won with a 7.159-second pass at 186.38 mph to top Brown’s run of 7.176 at 186.05.

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