Stewart Doesn’t Qualify; East Wins Grand Prix

It’s hard to tell whether Tony Stewart’s night went from bad to worse, or vice versa.

Stewart, who finished sixth in the NASCAR Nextel Cup championship, failed to qualify for midget car racing’s most prestigious event Thursday at the 64th Turkey Night Midget Grand Prix.

And then he crashed out of a support race.

It was all a prelude to the 100-lap feature, the U.S. Auto Club’s National Midget Car Series finale on the half-mile track at Irwindale Speedway.

Bobby East, 19, the youngest driver to win a USAC midget championship, won a five-lap shootout over Aaron Fike to claim the J.C. Agajanian trophy.

East, driving for team owner Steve Lewis of Laguna Beach, took the lead from Tony Hunt on Lap 26 and held it until Fike overtook him on Lap 59. They built an eight-second lead, but the field bunched on the first yellow flag brought out by 2002 winner Michael Lewis’ crash.

East, in a Ford-powered Beast chassis, retook the lead on Lap 91. A second caution on Lap 92, when pole-sitter Hunt and two-time winner Dave Steele crashed into the wall, set up the final sprint.

East won by 1.358 seconds. Tracy Hines finished third, Jason Leffler fourth and Jerome Rodela fifth.

Stewart, who won the event in 2000, started eighth in the qualifier to get into the main event but was last in the 19-car field by the backstretch. Stewart pulled to the inside of the track and had his helmet off a lap later.

On the undercard, the Western Sprint Car Series’ Casey Diemert Classic, the top six qualifiers were inverted. Stewart started third, directly behind 16-year-old Kody Swanson in his sprint car debut.

Running sixth 18 laps into the 40-lap race, Stewart’s left rear wheel clipped Josh Wise’s front right tire and ended both their chances as they finished 19th and 20th.

Lewis, the No. 1 qualifier, took the lead on Lap 15 and finished 4.08 seconds ahead of East and Chris Schmelze. Swanson held on for seventh place. Hunt, Lewis’ Western Speed Racing teammate, held on for the championship, 28 points ahead of Lewis.

Bobby McGowan took the lead with seven laps to go to win the USAC Ford Focus Midgets race, a 30-lapper on the inner 1/3 -mile track.

-- Martin Henderson

*

For those old-time midget car fans who didn’t get enough of the modern version Thursday night at Irwindale, a weekend of watching and racing pre-1980 midgets will take place Saturday and Sunday at Walt James Stadium in the Willow Springs racing complex.

James will also play host to the 11th annual California Roadster Assn. reunion Jan. 8 at Knott’s Buena Park Hotel. Honored guest will be Gene Ellis, a California Racing Assn. charter member who raced a flat head Ford V-8 in the 1940s and 1950s.

Tennis

France and Russia swept semifinal matches in Moscow and will play for the Fed Cup championship this weekend.

French Open champion Anastasia Myskina and U.S. Open winner Svetlana Kuznetsova won singles matches to power Russia past Austria, 5-0. France, led by Nathalie Dechy and Tatiana Golovin, defeated Spain by the same score.

Myskina defeated Yvonnes Meusburger, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, to give Russia an unbeatable 3-0 lead. Kuznetsova then beat Daniela Kix, 6-1, 6-1, and the doubles team of Elena Likhovtseva and Kuznetsova completed the sweep with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Meusburger and Patricia Wartusch.

Dechy put France ahead, 3-0, defeating Anabel Medina Garrigues, 6-3, 6-1. Golovin then beat Marta Marrero, 6-3, 6-4, and Marion Bartoli and Emelie Loit defeated Marrero and Virginia Ruano Pascual, 7-5, 6-2, in doubles.

The Russian team faces a delicate matter after Myskina said she would quit the team if Maria Sharapova joined the squad next year. Myskina says she doesn’t like the Wimbledon champion’s father.

Sharapova wasn’t invited because of her busy schedule, captain Shamil Tarpischev said. Myskina said her problem was with Sharapova’s father and coach, Yuri.

“I feel his behavior is totally incorrect, simply rude. I don’t want to be around people like him,” Myskina said.

Soccer

European soccer authorities opened an investigation into racist abuse by Spanish fans during Tuesday’s Champions League game.

UEFA said that at the game between Real Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen, fans “were seen making Nazi salutes while racist chanting was heard, directed at Leverkusen’s black players.”

UEFA added that the actions were not in the official postgame reports.

The governing body will consider television evidence and unspecified “other information” before ruling.

Olympics

The International Olympic Committee urged Italian organizers to sort out their problems soon or risk a crisis of confidence in the 2006 Winter Games.

Valentino Castellani, head of the Turin organizing committee, TOROC, reported to the IOC executive board Thursday just hours after Italian investigators combed through Turin documents as part of an investigation into possible financial irregularities.

The committee has not been accused of wrongdoing, but the police action brought further embarrassment to a host city facing a $242-million budget shortfall, political tensions and lukewarm government support. The Olympics open in less than 15 months -- Feb. 10, 2006.

Passings

Joe Ondo Jr., a pioneer driver and car builder in the California Jalopy Assn. and a charter member of the California Racing Assn., has died. He was 87. Services will be Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Green Hills Baptist Church in La Habra.... John Drake, who with his father, Dale, designed and manufactured Offenhauser racing engines, died Nov. 15 of a heart attack. He was 68.

*

T.J. Simers has the day off.