Stewart ends slump at Talladega

Tony Stewart held off a last-lap charge by Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win the NASCAR Nationwide Series Aaron’s 312 on Saturday for his first victory at Talladega Superspeedway.

“This is not like winning a regular Nationwide race,” he said. “To me this is the biggest one I’ve had. To finally win at Talladega, it’s more than I can put into words.”

Stewart started from the pole in a Toyota, led 81 of the 117 laps, and sat comfortably out front in the waning laps with Earnhardt on his rear bumper just biding his time to make a move. Caution came out with five laps to go for debris, setting up a two-lap sprint to the finish.

They raced nose-to-tail for the first lap, then Earnhardt pulled out of line to make his charge. But he didn’t have enough momentum to get past Stewart. It allowed Stewart to go virtually unchallenged for the final lap, as Earnhardt faded to sixth.

It was Stewart’s first win in any series at Talladega, where he has finished second in six Cup Series races. His previous best finish in a Nationwide race at the track was second last year.

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Joe Nemechek took the pole for today’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Aaron’s 499 away from Stewart with a late qualifying run at Talladega.

Nemechek was the 46th of 47 drivers to make a qualifying attempt, and his lap of 187.386 mph knocked Stewart from the top starting spot.

Stewart, who ran a lap of 186.896, had gone out seventh and held down the pole for almost three hours before Nemechek beat him.

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Ron Hornaday Jr. won the wreck-filled NASCAR Craftsman Trucks Series O’Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas City, Kan.

Hornaday, who started from the pole in a Chevrolet, had the fastest car all day and led 136 of the 167 laps around the 1.5-mile oval.

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Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari edged Renault’s Fernando Alonso for the pole position for today’s Formula One Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona.

Raikkonen will start first for the 15th time after his fast lap of 1 minute 21.813 seconds -- just under one-tenth of a second faster than Alonso.

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Less than a week after her historic first IndyCar victory, Danica Patrick went back to work and qualified third for today’s RoadRunner Turbo 300 at Kansas City, Kan.

She’ll start behind Target Chip Ganassi drivers Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon. Dixon won the pole with a four-lap average of 213.956 mph.

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Andrew Myers held off Nick Joanides over the final three laps to win the Auto Club Late Model division 50-lap feature at Toyota Speedway in Irwindale.

Myers posted his fourth consecutive victory, edging Joanides by 0.342 of a second.