Stewart Gets His Daytona Victory

After numerous frustrating finishes, Tony Stewart finally won at NASCAR’s most famous track.

Stewart dominated the rain-delayed Pepsi 400 on Saturday night but still needed a dramatic four-wide pass to move to the front, then pulled away on a restart with nine laps left to clinch his first Nextel Cup victory in 14 starts at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla.

It was his second consecutive victory and showed the 2002 series champion will be a contender again this year. He started from the pole in a Chevrolet and led the most laps in race history -- 151.

Jamie McMurray finished second and was followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. His finish was encouraging for a driver stuck in a season-long slump, and matched his best finish of the year -- in the season-opening Daytona 500.

Rusty Wallace was fourth in his final scheduled start at Daytona, followed by Dale Jarrett and Jimmie Johnson.

Johnson reclaimed the top spot in the standings after dropping behind Greg Biffle last week. Biffle was involved in an early accident, wound up 36th, and fell to second in the standings.

Jeff Gordon, winner of four of the last five restrictor-plate races -- including two in a row at Daytona -- was never a factor and finished seventh.

Earlier, Mark Martin looked up at the mammoth replay screen, shook his head in disgust and then walked into his trailer.

His final NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway was over -- much earlier than he expected -- because of a crash.

He is winless in 21 starts in the Daytona 500 and now 0 for 20 in the Pepsi 400.

The accident started when Jeff Gordon slowed down to turn onto pit road, and Scott Riggs, who was two cars back, missed the signal.

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Todd Bodine withstood a series of late restarts, then pulled away from the pack in a three-lap shootout to win the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series O’Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City.

It was the first victory of the season for Bodine, a former Winston and Nextel Cup driver. It was also the first win for Toyota this season, ending Chevrolet’s five-race streak.

Rookie Todd Kluever won a back-and-forth battle with David Reutimann in the late laps to take second in a Ford. Reutimann’s Toyota was third, followed by Mike Skinner and pole winner Bill Lester.

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Formula One leader Fernando Alonso won the pole position for today’s French Grand Prix at Magny Cours.

Alonso was timed in 1 minute 14.412 seconds in earning his third pole of the season.

Toyota’s Jarno Trulli was second in 1:14.521. Kimi Raikkonen of McLaren-Mercedes was third in 1:14.559.Raikkonen will be penalized 10 spots on his qualifying position because he changed his engine following its failure during practice Friday.