Stewart’s win continues trend

Tony Stewart isn’t running many races in the NASCAR Nationwide Series this season, but when he does drive, he’s making it count.

The two-time Sprint Cup champion, who has no wins in the Sprint Cup Series this season, drove away Saturday with his fifth victory in seven Nationwide starts in 2008.

Stewart got track position, restarting third after taking just two tires during his final pit stop on Lap 129 of the 200-lap event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H. He took the lead from fellow Cup star Carl Edwards on Lap 136 and led the rest of the way.

Teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch finished second and third.

The No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota that Stewart drove has won eight of 17 races this season, including five by Stewart and one each by Hamlin, Busch and heralded rookie Joey Logano. Busch also has two wins in his No. 18 entry and another in the Braun Racing car this season.

The race ended under caution after Greg Biffle, racing side by side with Brad Keselowski for 10th place, appeared to touch the track apron and lose control, sliding hard into the outside wall. Biffle wound up 19th.

Former series champions Kevin Harvick and Edwards finished fourth and fifth, followed by David Ragan, David Reutimann and Mike Bliss.

“It’s pretty spectacular,” Edwards said about the No. 20 car. “Those guys are doing a great job. There are ups and downs in this sport and, right now, they’re on the up side and we’ve just got to look at what they’re doing and emulate them and try to get them by the end of the season.”

Stewart, 11th in the Cup standings, and the rest of the Cup drivers will race on the same track today in the Lenox Industrial Tools 301.

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Pole-sitter Tony Kanaan took advantage of an out-of-sequence pit stop by front-running teammate Marco Andretti and ran away with the SunTrust Indy Challenge at Richmond, Va., for his first victory of the season.

On a night when half of the 26 cars went home damaged, Kanaan got the good fortune he said he deserved, avoiding the near-constant chaos caused by a record-tying nine caution flags and coasting to his 13th career IndyCar victory.

The victory came a week after Kanaan led 71 laps at Iowa before crashing, absorbing what he said was one of the hardest hits of his life and his latest experience with bad luck.

Helio Castroneves, who started 18th, finished second, followed by Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon. Series rookie Oriol Servia was fifth, and Danica Patrick was sixth.

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Ron Hornaday won the O’Reilly 200 at Memphis, Tenn., to take the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points lead.

He had the lead for the final 129 laps.

The victory was his third of the season and his 36th in the series.