Stewart rolls on, pads Nextel standings lead
Tony Stewart won for the fifth time in seven races with a dominant performance yesterday in the
But there was an anxious moment after a late caution forced two extra laps.
Stewart radioed in that he had an alternator problem, forcing him to shut off some systems and switch to a backup battery. Still, he drove away from Robby Gordon on the restart and was in no danger of being caught.
Stewart stopped at the flagstand, took the checker, and drove around the track to the cheers of the crowd. But he didn't climb the fencing as he had after his three most recent wins.
The 24th victory of Stewart's career came a week after he won for the first time at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and gave him a 105-point lead over Jimmie Johnson, who finished fifth.
Stewart won the $4.6 million Sirius Satellite Radio at The Glen for the second year in a row. It was the fifth road-course win for Stewart in five years. He won in June on the only other NASCAR road course -- the serpentine layout in Sonoma, Calif.
Stewart's Chevrolet led 83 of 92 laps and beat Gordon's Chevy by 1.927 seconds on the 11-turn track.
NASCAR president Mike Helton informed drivers at their prerace meeting of the death of Clifton ''Coo Coo" Marlin, 73, one of NASCAR's early stars and the father of current Nextel Cup driver Sterling Marlin.
IRL -- Former champion Scott Sharp won for the first time in more than two years, holding off Vitor Meira to win the Amber Alert Portal Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta.
Sharp, driving a Honda for Delphi Fernandez Racing, became the second driver of that car to win the Kentucky Indy Racing League race in as many years, following Adrian Fernandez.
Sharp averaged 175.981 m.p.h. on the 1 1/2-mile trioval and had a winning margin of .0779 seconds.
Rookie Danica Patrick, making her 12th career start and seeking her first series win, started on the pole for the second time this season. But she surrendered the lead to Tony Kanaan on the first lap, soon fell out of the top five, and finished 16th.
Champ Car -- Defending champion Sebastien Bourdais took advantage of a late crash by Paul Tracy, then pulled away from the pack to win the Grand Prix of Denver, his third straight victory and fourth of the season.
