Bloggin' is Racin'

Kanaan earns first win of season

Pole-sitter Tony Kanaan, left, took advantage of an out-of-sequence pit stop by front-running teammate Marco Andretti on Saturday night and ran away with the SunTrust Indy Challenge for his first victory of the season.
On a night when half of the 26 cars in the largest IndyCar Series field at Richmond International Raceway went home damaged, Kanaan got the good fortune he said he deserved, avoiding the near-constant mayhem caused by a record nine caution flags and coasting to his 13th career IndyCar victory.
Helio Castroneves, who started 18th, used a blistering early pit stop to get into contention and 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.
Andretti, who was almost as dominant and his Andretti Green Racing teammate until he gave up the lead by pitting under green with 95 laps to go, wound up ninth. Full results can be found here.

-- The Associated Press
Photo: AP

Stewart notches fifth Nationwide win

Tony Stewart's 2008 is a tale of two series. While he's winless in Cup and just hanging on to a Chase spot, Stewart is making the most of his limited Nationwide Series schedule. Smoke earned his fifth Nationwide victory in seven starts Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota he drove to Victory Lane has won eight of 17 races this season.
Stewart got in position to win when he restarted third after taking two tires during his final pit stop on lap 129 of the 200-lap race. He passed Carl Edwards on lap 136 and led the rest of the way.
Denny Hamlin finished second and Kyle Busch was third. Series points leader Clint Bowyer finished ninth and now has a 182 lead over David Reutimann, who finished seventh. Go here for full results and here for points standings.

-- Michele Vincze

Johnson wins bonus

NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Nationals
Summit Racing Eqipment Motorsports Park, Norwalk, Ohio

Pro Stock: Allen Johnson won the $50,000 K&N Horsepower Challenge on Saturday, his first victory in the special bonus event for the eight quickest teams from the last year. If Johnson wins Sunday he could earn an additional $25,000 from NHRA for sweeping both races, bringing his potential weekend earnings to more than $100,000. Johnson covered the quarter-mile distance in 6.725 seconds at 204.91 mph in his Dodge Stratus and used a rare perfect reaction time (0.000) to beat Greg Anderson, who posted a quicker, but losing 6.717 at 204.91 in his Pontiac GXP.
“The perfect light in the final, I don't know where that came from,” said Johnson, the second Dodge driver to win the Challenge and first since Darrell Alderman in 1991.
“I haven't been driving too good lately. In the second round, I was able to get off my hind and cut a little better light, and then in the final, of course, you're just sucking up everything you've got to really get it close, and fortunately, it was green and perfect. To win this means a lot, especially being the first Mopar driver to win in the last 17 years. I don't think this will be our last time. Dad (Roy, crew chief) and the crew are just doing such an awesome job.”
Top Fuel: Rod Fuller earned his first top qualifying effort of the season and second straight at the event with a run of 4.629 at 311.13.
Funny Car: Robert Hight joined Fuller in posting his second straight No. 1 in the event. He drove his Ford Mustang to a 4.882 at 309.77 to claim his 25th career No. 1 qualifying position and second of the season.
Pro Stock Motocycle: Eddie Krawiec collected his first No. 1 qualifier honors with a pass of 7.011 seconds in the final session.

-- The Associated Press