Jarrett Prevails Amid Crashes

Dale Jarrett’s voice was hoarse and choked with emotion on Sunday. He had just won a frantic shootout to end a 98-race drought and steal the spotlight from NASCAR’s championship drivers in Talladega, Ala.

“When you get to this point of your career, you’re not exactly sure when that last victory is going to be there so you learn to cherish each one,” Jarrett said. “It is very emotional. When I was coming down that backstretch, it was very emotional.”

Jarrett used a three-wide pass to challenge Tony Stewart for the lead on the final lap of a three-lap overtime shootout, then passed Stewart on the backstretch in the UAW-Ford 500 for his first victory since 2003.

Kyle Petty spun to bring out a caution before the leaders crossed the finish line, freezing the field. NASCAR then had to review tape to establish a final finishing order.

The final decision had Stewart second and back on top of the Nextel Cup leaderboard after the third of 10 Chase for the Championship races.

Matt Kenseth finished third and Ryan Newman was fourth. Stewart holds a four-point advantage over Newman.

Meanwhile, Jimmie Johnson’s reputation and championship hopes were damaged after he was blamed for causing an early accident. Johnson, who started the day as the points leader, was involved in two accidents and dropped to fourth in the standings -- 82 points back.

Johnson ran into the back of race leader Elliott Sadler’s car, igniting a frightening eight-car accident that sent Michael Waltrip flipping down the track.

“I’m really upset at Jimmie,” Sadler said. “I guess he’s trying to keep his streak alive -- he caused a big wreck here last year and he caused a big one again this year. Maybe that’s his way of racing here at Talladega ... try to get rid of everybody so he can win the race.”

Johnson was in a second eight-car accident that started when Newman hit Casey Mears.

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Season leader Tony Schumacher backed up his national-record run in qualifying with his second straight Top Fuel win with his 4.535-second pass at 328.94 mph in the Ameriquest Mortgage NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill. He leads the series by 205 points.

Also, Ron Capps topped the Funny Car field and Jason Line won the Pro Stock division.

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Billy Ziemann was declared the winner of Saturday night’s Cisco Burger World Figure 8 Championships at Irwindale Speedway after Corey Turner was disqualified when a post-race inspection determined he was soaking his tires to make them softer.

Golf

South Korea’s K.J. Choi won the Chrysler Classic of Greensboro, N.C., for his third PGA Tour victory, closing with a six-under-par 66 for a two-shot victory over Shigeki Maruyama.

Choi finished with a 22-under 266 total, one stroke short of Jesper Parnevik’s tournament record in 1999.

Hale Irwin won for the fourth time this year to push his Champions Tour-record victory total to 44, capping a back-nine run of six-under 31 with an eagle in a two-stroke victory over Tom Jenkins and Bob Gilder in the SAS Championship in Cary, N.C.

Irwin shot a six-under 66 and finished at 13-under 203.

Tennis

Roger Federer won the Thailand Open for the second straight year, defeating Andy Murray, 6-3, 7-5, in Bangkok.

Kim Clijsters won for the 26th time in 27 matches in beating Anna-Lena Groenefeld, 6-2, 6-4, in Luxembourg to win the Fortis Championships for the fifth time.

Miscellany

Olympic 200-meter butterfly champion Otylia Jedrzejczak, 21, was in stable condition and recovering from head and spinal injuries in a car crash that killed her 19-year-old brother Saturday near Warsaw.

Apolo Ohno severely sprained his ankle in the 500-meter quarterfinals and was forced to withdraw from the first World Cup meet of the year in short-track speedskating in Hangzhou, China.

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The Chase for the Championship

A look at the NASCAR Nextel Cup standings through 29 of 36 races:

*--* Pl Driver Points Behind 1 Tony Stewart 5,519 -- 2 Ryan Newman 5,515 4 3 Rusty Wallace 5,443 76 4 Jimmie Johnson 5,437 82 5 Greg Biffle 5,421 98 6 Carl Edwards 5,419 100 7 Matt Kenseth 5,408 111 8 Jeremy Mayfield 5,407 112 9 Mark Martin 5,381 138 10 Kurt Busch 5,339 180

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Remaining Races:

* Sunday -- Banquet 400, Kansas Speedway.

* Oct. 15 -- UAW-GM Quality 500, Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

* Oct. 23 -- Subway 500, Martinsville Speedway.

* Oct. 30 -- Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500, Atlanta Motor Speedway.

* Nov. 6 -- Dickies 500, Texas Motor Speedway.

* Nov. 13 -- Checker Auto Parts 500, Phoenix International Raceway.

* Nov. 20 -- Ford 400, Homestead-Miami Speedway.