Stewart Wins Despite a Mechanical Problem

A broken alternator couldn’t keep Tony Stewart from blowing away the field one more time.

Faced with a problem at the end of a race he dominated, Stewart snookered the opposition on the last two restarts and cruised to his fifth victory in seven races. And his dominant performance Sunday in the Sirius Satellite Radio at the Glen in Watkins Glen, N.Y., padded his lead in the NASCAR Nextel Cup standings.

Still, he had to hope he had enough juice left after a late caution forced two extra laps.

Stewart had an alternator problem that forced him to shut off some systems and switch to a backup battery in his Chevrolet.

Then he sprinted away from Robby Gordon, also in a Chevrolet, on the final restart.

“The hard thing is Robby Gordon is really good getting into Turn 1,” Stewart said. “The big thing was to get a good restart and not be concerned with him.”

The victory gave Stewart a 105-point lead over Jimmie Johnson, who was fifth in a Chevrolet.

After winning, Stewart stopped at the flag stand, took the checker and drove around the track. But he didn’t climb the catch fencing as he had after his three most recent wins.

“This place really isn’t conducive to fence climbing,” he said. “I’m convinced that I’m going to fall off one day and crack my head open.”

It was his third win on this 2.45-mile track known as New York’s Thunder Road. Stewart led a record 83 of 92 laps and beat Gordon by 1.927 seconds on the 11-turn track.

Road-racing specialist Boris Said finished third in a Chevrolet, followed by road racer Scott Pruett in a Dodge.

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Scott Sharp, a former Indy Racing League champion, won for the first time in more than two years, holding off Vitor Meira to win the Amber Alert Portal Indy 300 in Kentucky Speedway at Sparta.

Sharp drove a Honda to his ninth victory in the series, but his first since Japan in 2003, a streak of 40 winless races. He averaged 175.981 mph on the 1 1/2 -mile tri-oval Kentucky track and had a winning margin of 0.0779 seconds over Meira’s Honda.

Rookie Danica Patrick started on the pole but finished 16th.

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Defending champion Sebastien Bourdais took advantage of a late crash by Paul Tracy, then pulled away from the pack to win the Grand Prix of Denver, his third consecutive victory and fourth of the season.

Tracy slammed into a wall on Lap 62 after cutting the corner too close.

Bourdais moved into the lead after that and was never seriously challenged, finishing 15.27 seconds ahead of Mario Dominguez on the 1.657-mile temporary street course.

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Eric Medlen defeated 13-time Funny Car champion John Force on reaction times in the finals of the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd (Minn.) International Raceway.

Medlen covered the quarter-mile track in 4.826 seconds at a top speed of 315.42 mph. Force posted a quicker finish of 4.787 in 321.12, but Medlen’s reaction time was enough to claim the win.

Doug Kalitta retained the points lead in top fuel with his fifth win, a 4.593 at 325.92 effort to defeat Larry Dixon, who coasted to a 6.799 at 119.62.

Kurt Johnson drove to a 6.726 finish at 204.57 in pro stock to defeat Greg Stanfield, who posted a 6.778 at 203.71.

Tony Schumacher had the fastest run in drag racing history Saturday, reaching 337.58 mph in qualifying. He needed to clock a speed of at least 334.21 on Sunday to certify the performance as an NHRA national record, but didn’t reach the mark.

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Ricky Carmichael won his sixth consecutive Millville (Minn.) National and extended his AMA 250cc motocross winning streak to 24 races.