Outside Pass Pays Off for Tracy

Paul Tracy turned a gutsy pass for the lead Saturday into his fourth victory at the Milwaukee Mile in West Allis, Wis.

Tracy made an outside pass of pole-winner Jimmy Vasser on the 19th of 221 laps and went on to win the Road Runner 225 Champ Car World Series event, holding off A.J. Allmendinger in the waning laps.

Tracy started fifth in the 17-car field but was second by the end of the first lap. He stayed close to Vasser, who started from the pole for the first time in four years, and finally made his move on a restart following the first of three caution flags in the race.

Tracy moved to the outside of Vasser on the wide mile oval. Vasser fought hard to hold Tracy off and the two drove side by side for more than half a lap before Tracy finally pulled ahead coming off the fourth turn.

Once Tracy put his Forsythe Championship Racing Lola out front, it appeared he might run away from the field. But Allmendinger, 23, last year’s top rookie, wouldn’t let the leader get away.

As the laps wound down on the race, cut four laps short by a time limit imposed for the live CBS broadcast, Allmendinger stayed with Tracy, cutting his lead at times to less than five car lengths.

Debris on the track brought out the final caution on Lap 210 and bunched the field, giving Allmendinger one last chance to chase down the leader.

Each of the Champ Car entries starts the race with one minute of extra turbocharger pressure, known as Push-To-Pass power. The drivers can push a button on the steering wheel to get bursts of about 50 extra horsepower until the minute is gone.

Preparing for the final restart, Tracy had 19 seconds left and Allmendinger none. That was the difference as Tracy pulled away, beating Allmendinger by 3.369 seconds -- nearly half a straightaway.

Oriol Servia, filling in for Bruno Junqueira, who was injured in a crash last Sunday in the Indianapolis 500, was third, followed by Justin Wilson and Vasser.

Sebastien Bourdais was sixth, but he took over the series points lead from Junqueira. Wilson is now second, seven points behind, followed by Tracy, another point back.

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Martin Truex Jr. bided his time until the handling on Kevin Harvick’s Chevrolet forced him to slow down, then took the lead with 70 laps to go and eventually drove his Chevrolet to an easy victory in the NASCAR Busch Series MBNA RacePoints 200 at Dover, Del.

The victory moved him up one spot to third, pulling him within 120 points of series leader Carl Edwards, who retired with a late mechanical problem.

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Kyle Busch got a huge break and won the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series MBNA 200 after an error on pit road took dominant Ron Hornaday out of contention at Dover.

Hornaday led all but 13 of the first 112 laps and 134 of the 200. But he was forced to pit a second time after a caution because of a missing lugnut with 50 laps to go.

Busch took the lead from David Reutimann when the green flag waved with 19 laps left, and his Chevrolet held off that of Tony Stewart. The margin of victory was 0.745 of a second.

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Neil Hodgson, riding a Ducati, won his first AMA Superbike Championship race. The 16-lap race at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis., was ruled complete after eight laps because of rain and lightning. Mat Mladin finished second on a Suzuki.

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Pro Football

Matt Nagy threw seven touchdown passes and also ran for a score as the Georgia Force advanced to ArenaBowl XIX with a 60-58 victory over the Orlando Predators at Atlanta. The Force will play Chicago or Colorado in the title game next Sunday in Las Vegas.

Boxing

Ricky Hatton won the International Boxing Federation light-welterweight title in his hometown of Manchester, England, when champion Kostya Tszyu quit after the 11th round. The unbeaten Hatton won his 39th consecutive fight. Tszyu is 31-2.

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Rugby

Six Nations rugby champion Wales kicked off its North American tour with a 77-3 victory over the U.S. Eagles at Hartford, Conn. Center Ceri Sweeney, who also scored a try, kicked 11 conversions to finish with 27 points.

Miscellany

Clipper assistant Kim Hughes, who had drawn interest last month from the Milwaukee Bucks, has reached an agreement to remain a part of Coach Mike Dunleavy’s staff, Hughes’ agent said. Warren Garie said that the Clippers never gave the Bucks permission to talk to Hughes, a former Buck scout and assistant coach.

Defending champion Harvard rallied in the final 300 meters to beat Princeton and win the 103rd Intercollegiate Rowing Assn. championship on the Cooper River in Cherry Hill, N.J. California finished third.