Schendel finally wins All-Star Showdown

The last time proved to be the charm for Tim Schendel.

Schendel never finished higher than 11th in the three previous AutoZone Elite Division races in the NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown but was the winner Saturday night at Irwindale Speedway.

“You need a lot of luck to win these races,” said Schendel, who finished 11th in 2003, 20th in 2004 and 26th in 2005. “You need a good race car and good people helping you. Everything seemed to work out today.”

Things started working out Friday, when Schendel raced from 19th to third in a 50-lap qualifying race to get the sixth starting position in Saturday’s 40-car field, which consisted of the top 10 drivers from each of the four series that make up the NASCAR AutoZone Elite Division -- the Midwest, Northwest, Southeast and Southwest.

Schendel, the Midwest champion, moved into third on the 13th lap, second on the 15th, then passed Eddy McKean to take the lead on the 18th lap and kept it for the remainder of what turned out to be a 130-lap race on the half-mile track.

Schendel successfully withstood three late restarts in a race that was extended five laps because of caution periods.

Schendel won by .904 of a second ahead of Thomas Martin, who passed Dan Fredrickson on Turn 3 of the final lap to finish second.

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-- Steven Herbert

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Sebastien Bourdais clinched his third straight Champ Car series title today, and French countryman Nelson Philippe won the Indy 300 at Surfers Paradise, Australia.

Bourdais secured the title when American A.J. Allmendinger, his closest pursuer for the season championship, crashed out on the 19th lap.

Nine laps later, Bourdais was penalized by race officials for “avoidable contact” after colliding with pole sitter Will Power of Australia.

Bourdais finished eighth in the race.

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Four members of the Toyota Formula One team were ambushed Friday by about 20 teen-age gunmen near the Interlagos track, but no one was injured, a team spokeswoman said.

Team drivers Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli were not with the group.

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Jack Sprague took the lead when NASCAR took it away from Ted Musgrave with 61 laps to go and won for the first time in 13 career starts at tight and tricky Martinsville (Va.) Speedway in NASCAR’s Craftsman Truck Series.

The victory was the 27th for the three-time series champion, second only to Ron Hornaday’s 29, and his second this season. He also won at Memphis in July.

Musgrave, who was hoping to run the entire Kroger 200 without a pit stop, grabbed the lead from Sprague on the 34th lap and held it through several restarts until the 138th lap, when he was penalized for an improper restart after several warnings.

On the restart, Musgrave first slowed down as the leader of the field, bunching up all the trucks behind him, then sped up for the green flag, which is not allowed.

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Felipe Massa of Brazil won the third pole position of his career with a time of 1 minute 10.680 seconds on the 2.67-mile Interlagos circuit at Sao Paulo, the stage for today’s Brazilian Grand Prix.