It’s a stunning win for Stewart

Tony Stewart was more stunned than anyone.

With only two laps remaining in Sunday’s Centurion Boats at The Glen at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International, Jeff Gordon had a two car-length lead on Stewart. NASCAR’s top two road racers were preparing for a final clash.

It never happened. Gordon spun out on his own heading into the first turn, Stewart zoomed past, held off a late charge from Carl Edwards, and won for the third time in four races.

“Trust me, I was probably the most shocked person,” Stewart said after his 36th career victory, tying him for 19th all-time with Dale Jarrett. “Our only shot of getting by him was to keep the pressure on him and hope he’d make a mistake.

“I think our car was a tick better than Jeff’s, but if Jeff doesn’t make that mistake, we run for second,” said Stewart, who has won four of the last five Cup races at Watkins Glen and finished second a year ago to Kevin Harvick. “You were going to have to be a bunch faster to get by him. Whoever was in the lead with 10 to go was probably going to win the race.”

A dejected Gordon finished ninth. “I was driving hard,” he said. “I just overdrove going into one. It was just stupid. I knew I had to push because Tony was really good.”

For Stewart, who spun out in the same place while leading earlier in the race and dropped to 19th, it was his sixth win on a road course, tying him for second behind Gordon’s record nine.

“I saw Jeff lose it just like I lost it,” Stewart said. “I had to keep fighting back. Jeff has won four championships and 79 races. He’s the last guy you expect to have a problem like that.”

All but assured of a spot in the Chase for the Nextel Cup championship, both Stewart and Edwards fought hard for the victory. The top 12 drivers in the standings after 26 races will race for the title and the points for every driver will be reset at 5,000, but each win counts for an extra 10 points once the Chase begins. Gordon and Jimmie Johnson lead the series with four wins, Stewart has three and Edwards one.

Edwards made a desperate final try for another, but went off the course and finished eighth.

Denny Hamlin ended up second, Johnson was third, Canadian road race ace Ron Fellows fourth and Robby Gordon fifth.

Sebastien Bourdais finally conquered Road America, and he took a big step toward an unprecedented fourth straight Champ Car title along the way.

The Frenchman, who will move to Formula One in 2008, had failed to win on the 4.028-mile, 14-turn natural terrain road course in Elkhart Lake, Wis., in three previous tries, despite being dominant at times. But he closed the deal in the Generac Grand Prix, starting from the pole and overpowering the rest of the 17-car field in picking up his fifth win of the season.

After doing some smoking burnouts in celebration, a smiling Bourdais hugged just about everybody on his team.

“It was just about a perfect weekend and a great car,” said Bourdais, who blew away the competition in qualifying, winning the pole by more than 1.5 seconds, before leading 51 of 53 laps in the 1-hour 40-minute timed race.

John Force won his 125th funny car event by beating Kenny Bernstein by about two feet in a meeting of drag-racing legends in Brainerd, Minn. In their first meeting in 18 years, Force’s 4.794-second run at 316.60 mph was faster than Bernstein’s by .0048 seconds.

Bernstein’s son, Brandon, beat Larry Dixon in the top fuel final with a run of 4.525 seconds. In pro stock, Jeg Coughlin became the 11th racer in NHRA history with 50 national wins when he beat Greg Anderson.

* NEXTEL CUP STANDINGS, D11