Ryan Newman won a 3-lap dash to the finish Saturday, holding off hard-charging Robby Gordon to win the Busch Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen International in Watkins Glen, N.Y.
Brian Vickers was third, followed by polesitter Tony Stewart and Martin Truex Jr., who boosted his series lead to 122 points over Clint Bowyer, who finished 15th.
Rookie Reed Sorenson, 19 remained third in the standings but fell 219 points behind. He suffered a big blow to his title chances when his engine blew at the midway point of the race, leading to a 41st-place finish.
“We accomplished a goal,” said Truex, who won the other road course race in Mexico early in the year. “We stayed on the road all day.”
It was the first Busch Series race at Watkins Glen since Canadian road race star Ron Fellows won in 2001, and the last two of the seven cautions in the race made for a scintillating finish.
Vickers, on a one-stop pit strategy, restarted fourth on lap 51 behind leader Jeff Burton, Travis Kvapil, and Tyler Walker.
Vickers passed Burton for the lead going into turn 1 on lap 66 of the 82-lap road race and built a 10-car-length lead. But three laps later Newman and Stewart passed Burton and began stalking the leader. Newman made the pass on Vickers with a daring move on the outside of turn 11, a right-hander, and hung on down the straightaway past the start-finish line to gain the lead at the tail end of lap 74.
Trucks: David Reutimann won the Toyota Tundra 200 at Nashville Superspeedway in Gladeville, Tenn., squeezing past Mike Skinner with 2 laps left and holding off Ted Musgrave by about 2 truck lengths.
Reutimann, driving a Toyota owned by former NASCAR star Darrell Waltrip, won for the first time in the truck series after finishing in the top three in three of the last four races.
Nextel Cup: Tony Stewart showed why he’s the best road-course racer in NASCAR, and was on his way to winning two poles in qualifying before rain ruined his chance at Watkins Glen International.
IRL: Danica Patrick won the pole for the Amber Alert Portal Indy 300 in Sparta, Ky., when rain washed out qualifying for today’s race.
Patrick earned the pole based on combined speed from the two practice sessions Saturday. Her average speed was 217.516 mph, slightly ahead of series points leader Dan Wheldon, who averaged 217.500 mph and will start on the outside of the front row.
NHRA: Tony Schumacher had the fastest run in drag racing history, reaching 337.58 mph in qualifying for the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd (Minn.) International Raceway.
The two-time NHRA top fuel champion finished his run in the U.S. Army dragster in 4.446 seconds. He can certify the performance as an NHRA national record by clocking a speed of at least 334.21 mph on any run during the remainder of the weekend.
Eric Medlen (funny car), Warren Johnson (pro stock), and G.T. Tonglet (pro stock motorcycle) also led their divisions.
All eight of the track records set during Friday night’s qualifying sessions were bettered Saturday.
