Biffle Stays on Track for Win

Greg Biffle never considered pitting during the last caution period Sunday at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich.

Instead, he stayed on track with slightly worn tires and turned that decision into his fifth Nextel Cup victory in 15 starts this season.

Biffle, in his third full season in NASCAR’s top stock car series, is beginning to make winning races look easy.

He outfoxed Tony Stewart on Sunday in winning the Batman Begins 400 on Michigan’s two-mile oval, earning the eighth victory of his career.

The powerful Roush Racing team, winner of the last two season championships, got its eighth win of the season. It was another strong showing for the entire team, with three of Biffle’s four teammates finishing in the top five and the fifth driver, defending series champ Kurt Busch, fading to 12th after running in the top 10 throughout most of the 200-lap event.

Stewart led a race-high 97 laps but lost a strategy battle at the end.

Biffle, who led 63 laps, was running second to Stewart when he decided to stay on the track during a late caution as the front-runner and several of the other lead-lap cars pitted for fresh tires with 31 laps to go. Biffle and the rest of the leaders had pitted only about a dozen laps earlier.

“It was my decision,” Biffle said. “I wanted to lead, and there was no doubt in my mind that we had a fast enough car to beat those guys. It’s just so hard to pass here. And I was hoping enough of those guys would stay out with us that Tony would have to burn up his tires trying to get back to us.

“If everybody behind us had gone in, we could have been a sitting duck. But we had four or five of those guys stay out there with us.”

The drivers who did stay out were Roush teammates Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Busch, as well as Elliott Sadler.

Playing into Biffle’s hands, Joe Nemechek and Michael Waltrip also beat Stewart back onto the track, leaving him eighth for the restart on lap 174.

Stewart, trying for his first win since August at Watkins Glen, got all the way to third by lap 178, but it took him until lap 198 to get past Kenseth, the 2003 series champion.

“I never would have imagined that we wouldn’t have got to the front with 12 laps’ fresher tires,” Stewart said.

Mark Martin, another Roush driver, finished third, followed by Kenseth and Edwards, Nemechek, Waltrip, Sadler and rookie Kyle Busch.

Ryan Newman, who set a track qualifying record in winning the pole, lost the lead on the first lap to Casey Mears and never got it back, finishing 15th.

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Cristiano da Matta cruised to victory in the Champ Car World Series of Portland to repeat his first-place finish in 2002, his last season with the series before switching to Formula One.

Da Matta, the 2002 champion of Champ Car, finished 10.128 seconds in front of defending champion Sebastien Bourdais at Portland International Raceway.

Paul Tracy finished third on the 1.964-mile road course.

Under cloudless skies, Da Matta led 50 of the 105 laps. It was the 12th win of his career.

Justin Wilson started from the pole and had a lead of more than 10 seconds on Tracy when he suddenly lost power. RuSport owner Carl Russo said the team did not know the exact cause of the problem.

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Tom Kristensen won the 24-hour endurance race at Le Mans for a record seventh time at Le Mans, France.

Kristensen, who won in his debut in 1997, broke the mark of six titles he shared with Belgian Jacky Ickx, who achieved his feat between 1969 and 1982.

“Brilliant. It was a great race,” Kristensen said.

“I am so happy to be the record-holder, to have been part of a fantastic victory.”

The Dane shared driving duties with Audi teammates JJ Lehto of Finland and Merco Werner of Germany.

Kristensen took the lead in the fourth hour of the race, and his team then held off a strong challenge from Pescarolo driver Jean-Christophe Boullion and his French teammates Emmanuel Collard and Erik Comas.

Kristensen completed 370 laps, while Boullion was two laps back. Another Audi car, driven by Frank Biela, Emanuele Pirro and Allan McNish, finished third with 364 laps completed.

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Larry Dixon raced to his fifth consecutive Father’s Day victory, taking the top fuel competition at the K&N; Filters Supernationals at Englishtown, N.J.

Dixon celebrated the victory with his wife and two children after posting a final-round performance of 4.533 seconds at a top speed of 329.91 mph in his Don Prudhomme-owned dragster to outrun Dave Grubnic, whose Connie Kalitta-owned dragster lost traction at the start.

Del Worsham, Jason Line and Antron Brown also scored victories at the $2-million event.

Worsham earned his first victory of the season and the 20th of his career by holding off Ron Capps in the funny car final. Line claimed his second consecutive pro stock victory and third of the season when he passed Warren Johnson at the finish line. Local pro stock motorcycle favorite Brown, from nearby Chesterfield, also won for the first time this season.

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Ricky Carmichael won his fourth AMA 250cc Motocross Championship of the season despite riding with stitches on his right middle finger.

His finger was cut and bleeding after a run-in on the track with James Stewart in morning practice at Budds Creek, Md. Carmichael’s victory gave Suzuki its first AMA 250cc National victory at Budds Creek.

Australian Chad Reed was second on a Yamaha, and Stewart finished third on a Kawasaki.