Gordon Gets the Victory, Stewart Takes Series Lead

Jeff Gordon held on in a three-lap dash with Tony Stewart, who still took a 15-point lead over third-place finisher Jimmie Johnson in the NASCAR Chase for the Championship Sunday at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia.

Gordon, a four-time champion who didn’t qualify for the 10-race Nextel Cup playoff, completed a sweep of the season’s two races on the 0.526-mile speedway -- the oldest, shortest and tightest run in NASCAR’s premier stock car series.

Gordon, driving a Chevrolet, edged Stewart by 0.235 of a second for the Subway 500 win.

“It’s been awhile,” Gordon said after his 73rd career victory, fourth this year and first since May 1 at Talladega. “What a great, great feeling.”

The runner-up finish was the second in a row for Stewart at Martinsville. He led 247 laps in April before a tire came off with 70 laps to go. This time, he led 283 of the first 343 laps.

But he picked up 10 bonus points -- five for leading a lap and five for leading the most in the race -- to move into first place with four races left.

Greg Biffle, who was third to start the day, only 11 points behind, finished 20th, and fourth-place Ryan Newman, who was 17 points back, finished 10th to move into third place.

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Sebastien Bourdais won the Champ Car World Series title and then won the Lexmark Indy 300 at Surfers Paradise, Australia, after avoiding a first-lap, first-turn crash involving pole sitter Oriol Servia.

Bourdais, in a Ford-powered Cosworth, needed only one point to take the championship for a second straight year. He got that simply by starting the race.

Bourdais overtook early leader Paul Tracy with the help of a quick first pit change and held on to win the 57-lap race on the 2.795-mile temporary street circuit.

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Tony Schumacher beat Dave Grubnic in the top fuel final and set division records for consecutive victories and consecutive final rounds with his eighth NHRA victory of the season and the 29th of his career at the ACDelco Las Vegas Nationals.

Schumacher, who drove his U.S. Army dragster to a run of 4.486 seconds at 327.19 mph, set NHRA division records with his fourth straight win and sixth straight appearance in the final.

Ron Capps held off teammate Gary Scelzi in the funny car final with a run of 4.780 at 325.69 for his third win of the year and the 17th of his career. Scelzi turned in a 4.819 at 324.51.

Kurt Johnson powered his Chevy Cobalt to the pro stock victory over series champion Greg Anderson with a run of 6.839 at 202.27. Anderson clocked a 6.821 at 202.27.