THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, APRIL 16, 2007
SPORTS
9B
Slipping into victory
Bernat Armangue/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Valencia player Joaquin Rodriguez kicks the ball in front of Sevilla player Inca Drago during their Spanish league soccer match at Mestalla stadium in Valencia, Spain. Valencia defeated Sevilla 2-0 to move back into the top four.
CHAMP CAR RACING
Driver makes comeback in Long Beach
Sebastien Bourdais returns from Las Vegas crash, wins Toyota Grand Prix
BY MIKE HARRIS ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONG BEACH, Calif. — Forget about that first-race misery, Sebastien Bourdais is back.
The Frenchman dominated Sunday on the way to his third straight victory in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, just a week after crashing in qualifying and in the race at the season opener in the streets of Las Vegas.
"That race was like a bad dream.
This is a whole lot nicer."
"I guess everything that could happen to us in Vegas happened but, this week, the McDonald's car showed what we could do," said Bourdais, who collected his thoughts and regained his confidence by taking the time to drive his family from Las Vegas to Long Beach in a motorhome.
Bourdais, who has won 24 of 61 starts and three straight season titles in the Champ Car World Series, was certainly the class of the field this week. He started from the pole and raced away to a nearly 25-second lead — about a third of a lap on the 1.968-mile, 11-turn downtown street circuit.
That lead evaporated when rookie Simon Pagenaud slid into a tire barrier on lap 53 of the 74-lap event, bringing out one of three full-course caution flags.
After pit stops by the leaders Bourdais found himself trailing French rookie Tristan Gommendy, who was on a different pit strategy
and had pitted last on lap 39. With surprising runner-up Oriol Servia conserving fuel and not pushing the leaders, Bourdais chose to be patient and wait for Gommendy to make his final stop.
Bourdais regained the lead on lap 68 and stayed out front the rest of the way, easily holding off Servia on a restart on lap 77 after the last caution period.
It's the longest winning streak at Long Beach since Al Unser Jr. won a record four in a row from 1988 through 1991.
Servia, the 2005 series runner-up as Bourdais' teammate, started the weekend without a ride but took over for Paul Tracy after the 2003 series champion injured his back in a crash during Saturday's practice.
"I did a great job, but nothing compared to what the team did," Servia said of his Forsyth the Championship Racing crew. "I had to adjust to the car, but I'm a race car driver. The team had to adjust to me and they gave me a fabulous car and great pit stops."
Servia started 14th in the 17-car field, but used an early pit stop under caution to take the lead on lap 32 when the front-runners pitted. He was then able to take a smaller fuel load on his second stop, on lap 38, and stay near the front the rest of the wav.
When rookie Alex Figge crashed hard into the tires late in the 1-hour, 40-minute timed race, Servia had one last shot at Bourdais. But the leader's Newman/Haas/Lanigan
"To be honest, I had great shoes to fill today," Servia said. "I know PT would have tried on the last restart to go for the win. I tried, but I couldn't do it.
Racing entry got a great jump on the restart and Servia had to settle for the runner-up spot, finishing 2.614 seconds — about 10 car-lengths — behind.
"I'm just really, really happy to finish second and I thank the team and Mr. (Gerald) Forsythe for trusting me to do the job."
Will Power, won his first Champ Car race in Las Vegas.
Last-lap pass gives Texas its first repeat winner
BY STEPHEN HAWKINS ASSOCIATED PRESS
Burton wins second race at Texas, ends Hendrick's winning streak
FORT WORTH, Texas Finally,a Texas two-step.
leff Burton passed Matt Kenseth
NASCAR
Jeff Burton on the final lap Sunday to become the first repeat winner at Texas, winning 10 years after he won the inaugural race.
Burt on never led until be over
Jeff Burton passed Matt Kenseth on the final lap Sunday to become the first repeat winner at Texas, winning 10 years after he won the inaugural race.
There had been 11 different winners in the 11 races since Burton won the first race at the 11/2-mile, high-banked Texas track.
by-side with rookie Juan Pablo Montoya.
took Kenseth on the backstretch coming out of Turn 2 after more than 10 laps of trying to get past him. It was Burton's 19th career victory.
Jeff Gordon led 173 of 334 laps and finished fourth, the fifth top-five finish in the seven races this season for the Hendrick driver. But he is 0-for-13 at Texas, joining Phoenix and Homestead as the only active tracks where the four-time Nextel Cup champion hasn't won.
That denied Kenseth, who won the Busch race Saturday, a weekend sweep. It also ended a fourrace winning streak by Hendrick Motorsports.
Kenseth and Mark Martin, who finished third after sitting out two races, are former Texas winners.
Burton won with an average speed of 143.359 mph and was the last of nine leaders. Gordon, the pointers leader who started on the pole after qualifying was canceled because of storms, led four times and Dale Earnhardt Jr. had three leads for 96 laps.
Jimmie Johnson, the Hendrick driver who won three of the last four races, was knocked out of contention on lap 240 when he ran into Tony Stewart's sliding car coming onto the frontstretch. Johnson finished 38th.
When making a run on Busch only 13 laps later trying to get back on the lead lap, Stewart last control. Earnhardt slowed down
Stewart, who won at Texas last fall, was sent into a spin when he was bumped while running side-
to try to avoid Stewart but was rammed hard from behind by Kyle Busch, who had the other win in Hendrick's streak.
Texas had gone longer than any other track without a repeat winner. When Richmond
opened in 1953, there were eight races before inaugural winner Lee Petty won again in 1960.
Jamie McMurray finished, followed Greg Bifftle, Martin Truex Jr., Montoya, Denny Hamlin and David Stremte.
Earnhardt was trying to repeat at Texas, where he got his first Cup victory seven years ago, a year after his first Busch victory at the
track. He has gone 33 races since winning at Richmond last May.
Gordon ran in front for the most of the first half of the race before Earnhardt passed him on lap 154, pulling
Gordon with 100 laps to go, but everything started to change after Johnson bashed up his front right end when he ran into Stewart.
During the pit stop on that caution, Gordon dropped six spots to eighth after one of his tire changers had problems.
Kurt Busch got past Earnhardt on lap 248 and was in the lead when he pitted under green. Right after Busch got back on the track on lap 294, the seventh caution flag came out and his chance at winning was gone.
That put Gordon back in front, and he stayed there until Kenseth passed him with 17 laps to go. Lap after lap, Burton tried to catch up, and finally did — just in time.
"We were faster, but he held me off for 15 laps," Burton said of his form teammate.
There was a first-lap crash at Texas for the first time since 1997, when there was a 13-car accident
Gordon has gone 25 races since his last victory. His 75 victories are one short of the late Dale Earnhardt for sixth place on NASCAR's career list.
There was a first-lap crash at Texas for the first time since 1997, when there was a 13-car accident on the first turn of the first lap on the then-new track.
his No. 8 Chevrolet under Gordon entering the backstretch.
Earnhardt still was in front of
on the first turn of the first lap on the then new track.
This time, rookie David Ragan slid up into JJ. Yeley coming out of Turn 4. Casey Mears, the other Hendrick driver, then
made contract with Ricky Rudd, who wound up in the infield rolled over the top of Ragan's car.
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