Dario Franchitti learned very early Saturday night that some bold changes made to his car had paid off.
Franchitti led all but eight laps to set a record for dominance in the IndyCar Series and got help from a late, fuel-saving caution to pull away one last time and give the series points leader his first victory at Richmond International Raceway in Richmond, Va.
At the start of the SunTrust Indy Challenge, “we didn’t know what we had, basically,” Franchitti said, because his team had made adjustments on his car after it was slow in practice. “We took off at the start and I was pretty pleased with that.”
After losing the lead on a caution, he quickly regained it from Andretti Green Racing teammate Tony Kanaan on the restart and dominated, leading 242 of 250 laps.
Franchitti won his second race in a row and posted his eighth consecutive top-five finish. He was followed across the finish line by Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon, then Kanaan.
Busch: Kevin Harvick held off a late challenge by Carl Edwards to grab his second NASCAR Busch Series victory of the season at New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, N.H.
The two-time Busch champion, who had not won since the opening weekend of the season when he swept the Busch and Nextel Cup races at Daytona, picked up his 28th career victory in Busch events.
Juan Pablo Montoya was running in fifth place when he and Clint Bowyer collided on lap 165 of 200 on the 1.058-mile oval, bringing out the last of six yellow flags in the race.
Matt Kenseth, who wound up third, took the lead with a two-tire stop during the ensuing caution period. Harvick, who led a dominating 166 laps, was second when the race restarted for the last time on lap 172.
NASCAR Trucks: Travis Kvapil finally passed a spinning Brad Keselowski with nine laps to go and pulled away on the restart to capture the Craftsman Truck Series O’Reilly 200 in Memphis, Tenn., his second win in three weeks.
Kvapil, who was the O’Reilly champion in 2002, had stalked Keselowski for more than a half dozen laps before taking the lead on 192 when he got into the bumper of Keselowski, who was replacing suspended driver Ted Musgrave. The contact coming out of Turn 4 sent Keselowski spinning toward the infield, and Kvapil swept by to take the lead.
Jack Sprague finished second with Ron Hornaday Jr., Mike Skinner and Aaron Fike closing out the top five. Kvapil’s 91.806 mph average breaks his own record from 2002.
NHRA: Robert Hight qualified first in Funny Car with a pass of 4.713 seconds at 313.73 mph in the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio.
Hot Rod Fuller got his third pole of the season in Top Fuel with a run of 4.533 seconds and 323.50 mph. Greg Anderson’s run in 6.654 seconds (207.59 mph) made him the top Pro Stock qualifier for the eighth time in 11 races this year.
In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Matt Smith had the best run in 6.965 seconds.
Del Worsham barely made the Funny Car field with a time of 4.873 seconds. His car exploded into several pieces as he hit top speed, but he managed to qualify 16th. He will race Hight today.
Champ: French rookie Franck Perera earned his first Champ Car Atlantic Championship pole position in final qualifying for today’s race at Circuit Mont-Tremblant in Quebec.
Perera had the best lap at 109.175 mph in the No. 11 Condor Motorsports Mazda-Cosworth/Swift. The Frenchman is the only driver in the series to finish in the top five in all six of his starts in the 12-race championship.
Points leader Raphael Matos will start second in the No. 6 Sierra Enterprises Mazda-Cosworth/Swift. Matos had a qualifying lap at 108.282 mph. Italian driver Giacomo Ricci was third at 108.388. Swiss rookie Simona De Silvestro, the only woman in the 24-car Atlantic field, was sixth at 108.179.
Formula One: Felipe Massa outpaced Lewis Hamilton to take the pole position for today’s French Grand Prix in Magny Cours.
Massa was timed in 1 minute, 15.034 seconds on the 2.74-mile circuit for his fourth Formula One pole of the season. He had three straight earlier this season.
Hamilton was second for McLaren in 1:15.104, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari in 1:15.257.
“For sure, definitely a good weekend for us,” Ferrari’s Massa said. “I think it is encouraging and we are back fighting. It is good to be back fighting, and I hope we can have a good car tomorrow.”
