Auto Racing Capsules: Stewart wins at Daytona after last-lap wreck

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Kyle Busch braced himself for a four-lap "trophy dash" around Daytona International Speedway, intent on snatching a win away from Tony Stewart.

Busch thought he mapped out the strategy to take him to Victory Lane.

Instead, he ended the race in the infield care center after a vicious last-lap accident sent him flying into the wall as Stewart skirted by for a somber win.

"That's not the way I wanted to do it," Stewart said after his Saturday night win gave him his third victory in five years in Daytona's summer race.

Stewart had the dominant car, leading a race-high 86 laps and using a flawless pit-road performance to set himself up for his second win as owner of his race team. But Busch had other ideas, taking the lead seconds before the last lap to start a frantic 2.5-mile chase between the former teammates.

Busch passed Stewart right before the final lap to take the lead, but Stewart chased him down and calculated his next move. Stewart closed in on Busch's bumper, and slight contact sent Busch drifting up the track.

Busch slid back down to maintain his lead, then tried to slide in front of Stewart to block Stewart's next move. The cars were too close together and Stewart hooked Busch's right corner to send Busch sailing into the wall.

Stewart celebrated his 35th career Sprint Cup victory with a bit of heartache.

Busch left the speedway with a definite headache.

"I just don't like it to end that way," Stewart said. "You know, you work hard to get to this level and you don't want to see races decided by guys wrecking coming to the finish line. That's not what it's about. Maybe I am being hard on myself, I don't know. But I just don't like the way that ended up."

Just another wild restrictor-plate finish for NASCAR, which is still smarting from a frightening crash in April at Talladega Superspeedway, where Carl Edwards went airborne into the fence in a similar last-lap crash.

Stewart usually takes every win any way he can. But after wrecking Busch in the frantic finish, he wasn't in the mood to gloat.

"I am not shaken by it, it doesn't matter who it is, you don't want a race to be decided like that," Stewart said. "It's just a bad situation. I don't feel as much gratification for winning the race as I should."

The contact triggered a multiple crash behind them, but Stewart sailed through for his second points win of the season. The two-time series champion is leading the points in his first season as co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, which he overhauled from a backmarker team into a title contender after 10 seasons at Joe Gibbs Racing.

"I went where I had to go, and he went where he had to go," Stewart said. "You hate seeing a guy that's been up front all day, especially a guy that's helped me the whole race, wreck like that. You're kind of forced in that position. But I made my move to the outside and he went to block us and we were already there.

"It still doesn't mean you like it. That's not the way to win these things. If I did something wrong, I'm sorry."

It was a horrendous wreck for Busch, who climbed from his car apparently unscathed but had to be forced by four NASCAR officials into a waiting safety vehicle. He finished 14th and refused to comment after the race.

Team owner Joe Gibbs briefly checked on Busch, who needed intravenous fluids after driving a 70-minute stint in stifling heat earlier Saturday in his Grand-Am Series debut. Gibbs said Busch had a headache, and would be monitored overnight for precautionary reasons.

"It's a tough place to race," Gibbs said. "I felt like he gave it everything he could. I'm proud of him."

Jimmie Johnson was second, and Denny Hamlin, Busch's teammate, finished third. Edwards was fourth, and Kurt Busch fifth.

Marcos Ambrose was sixth, followed by Brian Vickers, who came back from an accident, and Daytona 500 winner Matt Kenseth. Juan Pablo Montoya rallied from a lap down to finish ninth, and Elliott Sadler rounded out the top 10.

But post-race was subdued as the competitors contemplated the dangers of restrictor plate races. NASCAR uses the horsepower-sapping carburetor plates to slow the speeds at Daytona and Talladega, the two fastest tracks in the series.

It causes the cars to run in tight packs, where one small wiggle can trigger a multiple-car accident. This race was plagued with an earlier 13-car wreck that collected several contenders for the Chase for the championship, and the last-lap accident in which Busch's car lifted slightly off the track as it went nose first into the wall.

"It's plate racing. We're damned if we do, damned if we don't," Johnson said. "The guys are racing. Tony didn't mean to dump him. It's just the product of restrictor-plate racing. Every time we leave these restrictor-plate tracks, there's questions about how we can keep from having the big wreck and things like that.

"You just can't."

Notebook: Double-file restarts plague Joe Gibbs teammates

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Those double-file restarts designed to spice up NASCAR racing sure didn't sit too well with Joe Gibbs on Saturday night.

Points leader Tony Stewart used the double-file restarts to split up Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch late in the race, and it was a big reason the two-time series champion won the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

"For us, it was a problem because they way we were staggered," Gibbs said. "We couldn't get our two cars the way we'd like to get them. We had them for a while there, then that caution came up and it kept catching us where we could not really get lined up where we wanted to down the stretch there."

Had Hamlin and Busch been able to get lined up together, they almost certainly would have chased down Stewart. Hamlin did manage to push Busch to the front following the final restart with four laps remaining, but it didn't last. Hamlin dropped back, then Stewart and Jimmie Johnson teamed up to get a run on Busch. Busch tried to block Stewart, but ended up wrecking violently a few hundred yards from the finish line.

"It was tough at the end of the race right there," Hamlin said. "I knew it was going to be all about positioning and where you put yourself, and I felt good about being on the outside right there on that restart with about five to go.

"But I knew that my help from (Johnson) was going to be limited. I knew he was going to dump me just as soon as he could. He wasn't going to help push me past (Stewart) for sure. ... The best chance for one of our cars to win was for me to push the 18 on the last lap."

Stewart made it tough.

He said his lane choices were specifically designed to split the Gibbs guys up. The decision paid off, too.

"We had no choice but to take the bottom line and split those two guys up," Stewart said. "We had to keep those guys separated to give ourselves a shot."

NASCAR implemented double-file restarts last month, lining the field up side-by-side like it is at the beginning of races and giving the leader the option of starting on the inside lane or the outside.

MARTIN'S MISERY

Mark Martin has never enjoyed Daytona International Speedway, not even when he nearly won the 2008 Daytona 500.

Martin, who despises restrictor-plate racing that keeps cars bunched together and often leads to big wrecks, now has more reason to hate the famed track. Martin was involved in the first accident of the Coke Zero 400 on Saturday night. Former Roush Racing teammate Matt Kenseth tapped the rear off Martin's car coming off turn two on lap 13 and sent the 50-year-old driver spinning across the track.

"I just pinched him," said Martin, who finished 38th. "It's my fault.

He was taken to the infield care center, treated and released.

PETTY'S PUSH

Seven-time NASCAR champion Richard Petty believes the inaugural Hall of Fame induction class should include the people who started the sport and not the ones who carried it forward.

That could leave the King out of the Hall of Fame when the inductees are announced.

"I don't know how they're going to look at," Petty said this week. "It's going to be a tough decision. Do you put both Frances in or do you put one in? Do you put Richard Petty in? Do you put (Dale) Earnhardt in? If you start looking at records, then some of our records are different and first thing you know, if you're not careful, you're going to put personalities in.

"That's not what you need in a Hall of Fame. You need the people that done the job. If I'm not one of them, that's fine with me."

Petty, Earnhardt, NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. and son Bill France Jr. are considered front-runners for the inaugural five-person class.

But Petty said car owner Raymond Parks and driver Robert "Red" Byron, who teamed up to win NASCAR's first championship in 1949, should receive strong consideration from the selection committee.

"We don't want to get into a deal where it's a popularity contest," Petty said. "It's going to be really hard and it's not going to be accepted by all people, no matter who they put it. ... I would put the people that got it started, the ones that planted the seed. Those are the people I think that need to go into the Hall of Fame to begin with."

The 25 nominees were announced Thursday. The inductees will be announced in October and honored next May at the new Hall of Fame facility in Charlotte, N.C.

LUG NUTS

Three drivers had to start at the back of the pack in Saturday's race. Greg Biffle and Sam Hornish Jr. went to the rear of the field because they switched to backup cars following an accident during practice Thursday. David Reutimann joined them back there because his team swapped engines following practice. ... It was a short night for drivers Dave Blaney and Patrick Carpentier. No one expected them to finish the race in the low-budget teams often referred to as "start-and-park" cars, but few could have anticipated them heading home this early. Blaney took his No. 66 Toyota to the garage after just two laps. Carpentier wasn't much better. He turned 18 laps before calling it quits.

-- Mark Long

NASCAR's King relives final reign at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Twenty-five years after his final victory, Richard Petty has forgotten much about the race.

He remembers the important stuff, though.

The last few laps. The post-race celebration. The presidential visit. The impromptu picnic.

The King has relived all of those memories this week as part of the milestone anniversary of his 200th and final NASCAR win. It came July, 4, 1984, in the Firecracker 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

"We won 199 (races); that was the cake," Petty said, clad in his trademark dark sunglasses and feathered cowboy hat. "Then the Fourth of July in ‘84 was the icing that went on the cake. That's the way I look at it."

It remains one of the more notable races in Daytona's storied history and certainly ranks high on Petty's list of accomplishments.

And for good reason.

President Ronald Reagan became the first sitting commander in chief to attend a NASCAR race that day, and Air Force One made quite an impression landing at a nearby airport.

Reagan stuck around until the end - he even did a few laps of radio play-by-play during the race - congratulated Petty on his 200th win and then ate chicken with drivers, crew members, NASCAR employees and their families in the garage area.

"I guess we couldn't have a better script if we wrote it ourselves," Petty said. "Everything just fell in place. Back then, it was a big deal. It's probably still a big deal now in a lot of people's minds."

To commemorate the anniversary, NASCAR will have Petty lead the field before the start of Saturday night's Coke Zero 400. And he'll be driving a replica of his famed, blue and red No. 43 STP Pontiac, the one he took to Victory Lane so many times during his distinguished career.

Petty already has a plan for it, too.

"It's going to be interesting," Petty said. "They're going to start me in the front and I ain't got a restrictor plate. What I ought to do is when they throw the flag, go around them and when I get ready to start lapping them, come in and tell them something's a matter with the car. I'd be one of them start-and-park cars."

The way things have unfolded for Petty in recent weeks, he might want to set his goals even higher. After all, he returned to Victory Lane for the first time in 364 races when Richard Petty Motorsports driver Kasey Kahne won a road-course race at Infineon Raceway last month, a breakthrough victory for a team that has struggled for years. Petty also earned one of 25 nominations to be inducted in the inaugural class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Petty's considered a lock to be one of five inductees announced in October.

He won seven Cup Series championships in a 35-year driving career that included 555 top-five finishes and an eye-popping 712 top-10s in 1,184 starts. No wonder it took Petty eight winless seasons to realize it was time to step out of the car for good.

"I'm hardheaded," he said. "I thought I could still win races. After three of four years, it finally sunk in that I wasn't going to win a race no matter what, but it still took me seven or eight years to get out of it. Driving the race car was my hobby. I worked and done all the promotional deal, worked on the race car and done all that so I could go Sunday and enjoy my hobby. It was hard for me to get out and give up my hobby."

Petty definitely left his mark on the sport.

"He's larger than life," driver Carl Edwards said.

Edwards remembers his father bringing home a plastic, Petty replica helmet. Edwards wore it everywhere, even after he broke the visor and ripped off all the decals, and pretended to be his favorite driver - even if he was doing doughnuts on his Big Wheel.

"To me, he was a mythical figure," Edwards said. "Now, I get to see him and talk to him. He's just a regular, down-to-earth guy. That's Superman, really, to all of us."

His final win was legendary, too.

Petty and Cale Yarborough were locked in a tight battle for the lead over the final 40 laps. Yarborough appeared to have the faster car and was waiting right behind Petty to make his move in the closing laps. But the caution flag came out with three laps remaining - Doug Heveron crashed in turn one - and set up a sprint to the finish line. There was no green-white-checker finish back then, so the first car to the line won. Yarborough briefly grabbed the lead, but Petty took it back and then edged him by a few inches at the finish.

Yarborough ended up third after he assumed the race was over and pulled into the pits during the caution. Harry Gant took second.

Petty, meanwhile, parked his car on the high-banked track and headed to the press box to meet President Reagan. Later, after finally celebrating in Victory Lane and some interviews, Secret Service agents established a secure area for Petty, Reagan and hundreds of others to eat in the garage.

"It was just a big picnic," Petty said. "I probably remember that as much as you do the race because it's not every Fourth of July you get to sit down with the president of the United States and have a chicken wing or something. It was a pretty neat deal. It wasn't that formal or any of that kind of stuff. It was just a great day. Even the guys that didn't win the race, I think they still remember that particular day because it was a special, special day for a lot of people."

Especially for Petty, even if he only remembers the highlights.

-- Mark Long

Mayfield stays away from Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Jeremy Mayfield wasn't at Daytona International Speedway for Saturday night's race, citing the media attention on his legal fight with NASCAR as an unnecessary distraction from the Independence Day celebration.

NASCAR suspended Mayfield May 9 for testing positive for methamphetamines, and he sued to be reinstated. On Wednesday, a federal judge issued an injunction clearing him to return to competition, and Mayfield indicated he'd travel to Daytona.

But he didn't enter his Mayfield Motorsports team and had no ride lined up for the race. Still, there was a constant watch for his arrival, which was expected to happen Saturday.

Instead, he and wife Shana issued a statement at the same time the pre-race driver meeting began at Daytona.

"We've been watching on television and reading online about the ‘Storm Clouds Over Daytona' and the ‘Mayfield Media Circus,"' he wrote. "Honestly, this is the last thing Shana or I want for anybody. This weekend shouldn't be about a questionable drug test or a flawed drug testing system. It should be about celebrating our country, the greatest country in the world.

"So, enjoy the weekend with your friends and family, and have a very Happy Independence Day. We look forward to seeing you all at the track very soon."

Mayfield said he hoped to be at next week's race in Chicago. Saturday night is the eighth race he's missed since his suspension, and the sixth event Mayfield Motorsports did not enter.

His suspension covered both his role as driver and owner of the No. 41 Toyota, and Mayfield had transferred ownership to his wife so the car could continue to compete during his absence. The team used J.J. Yeley for the first two races following his suspension.

NASCAR has been critical this weekend of Mayfield's absence from Daytona, questioning why he needed an emergency hearing to be reinstated if he had no intention of immediately returning to competition.

"I'm probably like a lot of people - when I hear the word ‘emergency,' I think of urgency and really needing to do something," NASCAR chairman Brian France said. "So the fact that they didn't bother to show up, you can make of that what you will. It is what it is."

Mayfield said the Wednesday ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Graham Mullen did not give him enough time to make it to Daytona before Thursday's entry deadline.

"There is nothing in the world that I would rather do than race for you all on the Fourth of July," he said. "We had less than 24 hours to prepare the car, assemble a team, get sponsorship and travel to Daytona. Ultimately, we were unable to get this done in time. We've decided that our time is best spent back here in North Carolina working around the clock to try and secure the funding needed to get the 41 Car to Chicago and beyond.

"Shana and I, as well as everyone at Mayfield Motorsports, will do everything in our power to race next weekend."

Mayfield said it was an "understatement" to say the two months since his suspension has been the worst time of his life, seconding it only to the pain he felt following the 2007 death of his father.

The suspension has halted his income, and he admitted in court filings that the suspension has sapped his finances. He said he's had to lay off 10 employees, borrow money from family and sell personal assets to cover his living expenses. Triad Racing Technologies also filed suit after his suspension, accusing Mayfield of owing more than $86,000 for back work.

He's repeatedly denied using drugs, and said he had no idea how he tested positive for methamphetamines. Mayfield has blamed the failed test, taken May 1 at Richmond International Raceway, on the combined use of Adderall for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Claritin-D for allergies.

That theory was rebuked by the administrator of NASCAR's drug testing program.

But Mayfield's attorney focused on the fairness of NASCAR's program, which he claimed did not meet federal guidelines because Mayfield was not given an opportunity to challenge the results. The same lab tested both his "A" and backup "B" samples, and lawyer Bill Diehl argued Mayfield should have been able to take the sealed "B" sample to an independent lab for his own test.

The argument swayed Mullen, who questioned the test results and said the possibility of a false positive was "quite substantial" while finding the harm to Mayfield significantly outweighed the harm to NASCAR.

Mayfield said the ruling was "a giant step towards clearing my name."

France said NASCAR is still exploring its legal options concerning the injunction. A civil suit filed by Mayfield and a NASCAR countersuit still remain.

But the chairman insisted NASCAR intends to defend its drug testing policy "very vigorously."

"Our first responsibility, despite the ruling on Wednesday or any ruling, will always be that we are going to make sure every way we can that everyone who is driving these race cars are of clear mind," France said. "We don't just go laying the hammer down and ruining someone's career. That's not what we are talking about when we are talking about Jeremy's situation.

"You know what he was tested for. That's unequivocal. There's no confusion about that from a science standpoint."

-- Jenna Fryer

Busch needs treatment following Grand-Am race

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - An overheated Kyle Busch received intravenous fluids Saturday following his driving stint in the Grand-Am race, then retreated to his motorhome to rest before NASCAR's 400-mile Sprint Cup event.

Busch, the defending race winner of NASCAR's Coke Zero 400, drove 70 minutes in his sports car series debut. He split the Chip Ganassi-owned ride with fellow NASCAR driver Scott Speed.

"Very, very, hot in those cars," Busch said. "Just the biggest thing was to get some fluids back in me since I know I lost a ton of fluids. The faster you can get to the medical center after getting out of the car, the faster I could get taken care of and get some rest before tonight's race."

A spokesman for Busch said the driver received the IV as a precautionary measure. Speed also received an IV following the race.

Busch and Speed teamed to finish 10th in the race at Daytona International Speedway. Busch had been lobbying Ganassi for a seat in the prestigious Rolex 24 hour race at Daytona, but Ganassi told him to try the two-hour July race first.

That event had typically been run two days before the NASCAR race, but Grand-Am, which is now owned by NASCAR, moved it to Saturday afternoon as a doubleheader with the Sprint Cup Series.

The race was won by SunTrust Racing's duo of Max Angelelli and Brian Frisselle.

-- Jenna Fryer

IRL

Briscoe wins Watkins Glen pole

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. - Ryan Briscoe couldn't help but flash a big smile.

One week after spinning out at Richmond and losing the IndyCar Series points lead, Briscoe won his second straight pole at Watkins Glen International. He turned a lap Saturday in 1 minute, 28.5970 seconds around the 11-curve, 3.4-mile road course in the Firestone Fast Six Shootout. It was his second pole of the season and sixth overall.

"I haven't had this much fun around a road course in a long time," said Briscoe, who eclipsed the former track record of 1:29.1919 set in 2007 by Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves. "These red tires were just unbelievable. They have a lot of grip."

This season Firestone introduced so-called "option tires" for all road/street course races. The tires, marked with a red line around the outer edge, have a softer tread compound for better grip but also are less durable than the standards.

Each team will be required to use the so-called "red" tires once Sunday in the 60-lap Camping World Grand Prix, but they also could use them in qualifying. That and a hard crash in the shootout by series points leader Dario Franchitti on his first lap that caused a full-course caution made the difference for Briscoe. The six-driver field only had enough time to run one fast lap.

Justin Wilson of Dale Coyne Racing finished second to the Australian for the second straight year and was left to wonder what might have been with a set of unused red tires still sitting in his pit stall.

"That's just how it goes," Wilson said. "I was hopeful because we had a new set of red options left and everyone else had used them in the first session. Unfortunately, I never got the opportunity."

Qualifying on road and street courses is broken down into three sessions. In the first, each of two groups have 20 minutes on track to run as fast a lap as possible. The fastest six cars from each group advance to the second session.

The 12 cars in the second session get 15 minutes to post their fastest lap, and the top six move to the Firestone Fast Six Shootout. In the Shootout, the finalists are allowed a new set of tires and have 10 minutes to post their best time.

Briscoe was fastest in every session, and in the second round seven drivers surpassed the track record.

Wilson was followed by three-time Watkins Glen winner Scott Dixon, Mario Moraes, and Graham Rahal. Franchitti was sixth, just ahead of rookie Mike Conway and Danica Patrick.

"I didn't have time to use the second set of reds," Moraes said. "The first set was already hot. Briscoe was really quick. I don't know if we could get him. We didn't know how the reds were going to hold the pace."

"We had one set of reds that seemed to be slower than the other," Rahal said. "It already had 15 laps on it, but it didn't have quite the pace."

Rahal's No. 2, owned by Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, failed post-qualifying tech inspection and was dropped 10 spots on the starting grid.

Left on the outside looking were defending race winner Ryan Hunter-Reay, who will start 16th, and Castroneves, a three-time pole winner at The Glen since the series began racing here in 2005. He failed to make it out of the first round and will start 14th in the 21-car field.

"It's just a shame. This car is better than 14th," Castroneves said. "We started really well, and when we put the reds on we got a little overconfident. I took a little longer to bring the tires up. We ended up not getting what the car had to offer."

Racing at Watkins Glen for the first time in his long career, 40-year-old Canadian Paul Tracy qualified right behind Castroneves.

"I needed two or three more laps," Tracy said. "We'll have to use a different strategy for the race."

Briscoe's strategy will be simpler. Stay out front.

"It's hard to break away," he said. "There are a lot of long straights here and Justin's sitting there with a couple of new sets of reds. He's going to be tough. We have to get a good start and go from there."

-- John Kekis

IRL says it's doing well

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. - Four days after Tony George was ousted as president and chief executive officer of the IndyCar Series, the president of the commercial division said the series was on sound ground.

"We're pretty pleased with the direction and management of the company," Terry Angstadt said Saturday after a meeting with team owners at Watkins Glen International. "We see monthly financial statements. We know if we're achieving and we are. We are exceeding sponsorship by sixfold and net income by fivefold. That's a pretty solid performance.

"That's important for everyone to hear. We're exceeding the plan and our job is to make it stable in the future."

The board of directors overseeing Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Hulman & Company announced Tuesday that a new management team was taking over both entities beginning Wednesday. Longtime IMS executives W. Curtis Brighton and Jeffrey G. Belskus assumed the leadership roles, leaving George out as president and CEO of the speedway and his family's business. He remains on the board and also owns Vision Racing.

"I was just wishing what was the best for Tony," said Brian Barnhart, president of competition and operations. "He seemed very comfortable with the decisions. Tony has been in this position for nearly 20 years. He's done a great job."

"This is kind of a lifelong thing Tony signed on for," Angstadt said. "He's going to be very involved in our day-to-day business."

Angstadt said the 2010 schedule would be announced by the end of the month and would include 17 or 18 races, including a foray into Brazil. He also said the league had not had talks with Australian officials about a race there and keeping the Milwaukee Mile on the schedule remained iffy at best.

Milwaukee track promoters have paid prize money to teams but have not fully paid sanctioning fees owed to both NASCAR and the IRL. Earlier in the week, IRL spokesman John Griffin acknowledged the league's issue with the Milwaukee promoter and said league officials were trying to set up a meeting to work things out. Until they do, the track's date on next year's schedule is in limbo.

"We hope to include Milwaukee, but it continues to be a challenge and has probably gotten worse," Angstadt said. "We felt we could develop a plan. It remains to be seen. It does look like pretty tough operating conditions up there."

Barnhart said five manufacturers have expressed interest in the future: current engine supplier Honda, Audi, Fiat, Porche, and Volkswagen. He said two chassis also are being considered with a focus on reducing costs.

Barnhart also said the IRL was not ruling out 2011 for the debut of a new car, but because the league is considering two designs that are signifcantly different from each other and what it currently has, the target date remains 2012.

"The challenge is a little bit of the unknown and doing due diligience," he said. "You have to build a prototype, learn how to race those cars. Equally, and more important, we're going to have to learn how to crash those cars. If it can be done quicker, it will be, but in 18 months? I'm not sure that's a comfortable time frame."

Charlie Morgan, president and CEO of IMS Productions, said the series was happy with its television packages with cable channel Versus and ABC. This season, ABC is broadcasting five races, including the Indy 500; Versus has a 10-year deal to televise at least 13 races annually.

"We have to have more time on the air to tell our story," Morgan said. "We have work to do, Versus has work to do. That's why it's a 10-year package. Our job is to give them compelling content."

-- John Kekis

Danica almost does it

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. - Danica Patrick has always been the first to admit she struggles in qualifying on road and street courses. She might not have to say that anymore.

Patrick qualified eighth Saturday at Watkins Glen International, easily her best performance on three twisting circuits so far this year. Her fastest lap fell just short of getting her into the third and final round of qualifying for Sunday's Camping World Grand Prix.

"If I had thought about it this morning, I was going to be four-hundredths out of getting into the Fast Six, I would have said, ‘Wow! That's pretty good,"' a smiling Patrick said afterward. "I'm happy with that.

"Whenever the competitor comes out in me and I think logically about what happened, if I didn't have so much understeer I probably would have been in," she said. "But coulda-shoulda-woulda. I'm sure everybody's got their story."

Patrick said her performance over the high-speed, 3.4-mile, 11-turn circuit seemed like a breakthrough of sorts. Especially in a two-day event like Watkins Glen.

"I finally feel like I can get on top of the car now and hustle it and do what I want to do with it instead of it driving me," said Patrick, just 5-foot-2 and 100 pounds. "That's a lot of comfort coming into these weekends, especially when you've got less track time to prepare."

GLEN STARS

The late Cameron Argetsinger, who brought road racing to Watkins Glen 61 years ago, and his wife, Jean, are the newest members of the track's hall of fame - Legends of the Glen.

"Cameron and I have been so proud of what racing has done for this community, and for what Watkins Glen has come to mean in this sport," Jean Argetsinger said. "What started in 1948 as a lark is a major industry now."

Cameron Argetsinger dreamed of racing through the streets of Watkins Glen because of the area's tough terrain. He hoped to design a circuit similar to Nurburgring, Germany, and after joining the Sports Car Club of America in 1946 began laying out a street course in Watkins Glen.

The Glen hosted its first SCCA race on Oct. 2, 1948 and two years later the event had an estimated crowd of 125,000.

After a fatal accident in 1952, work on an enclosed layout began and a temporary 4.6-mile course opened the next year. Construction on a permanent 2.3-mile course was completed four years later and was expanded just over a mile to include its famed boot section.

Cameron Argetsinger last year at age 87.

FLYING FAT ALBERT

Defending IndyCar champ Scott Dixon flies his own single-engine Cessna and his Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Dario Franchitti is a pilot, too.

So when asked, they jumped at the chance to fly on Fat Albert Airlines, the C-130 Hercules transport plane used by the Blue Angels in their airshows. And it was a ride like no other, especially for Dixon, who sat in the rear of the plane.

Despite its hefty size, the Hercules can perform some amazing stunts, taking off at a 45-degree angle that creates a brief period of weightlessness when the plane levels off, pulling 4Gs in hard turns, doing steep dives, and screeching to a halt in less than 1,500 feet.

"You can't see what's coming. That's what makes it so bad," Dixon said after Friday afternoon's flight. "When you're driving, you know what's coming. When you're not anticipating, it kind of freaks you out. I couldn't imagine being in the back seat behind Dario. You wouldn't want to do that."

Also along for the ride were Hideki Mutoh, Mike Conway and E.J. Viso.

Fat Albert will do a fly-over for Sunday's Camping World Grand Prix at The Glen.

PENSKE POWER

Penske Racing announced that Australian driver Will Power will rejoin the team for the IndyCar Series event in Toronto next week.

Power, who opened the season with Penske's team as a temporary replacement for Helio Castroneves during the Brazilian driver's trial on tax evasion charges, also will compete at Edmonton, Kentucky, Sonoma and Homestead-Miami in the No. 12 Penske Truck Rental Dallara/Honda.

Castroneves was acquitted in April, reclaimed his seat, and won the Indy 500. Penske kept Power on the team for two more races - Long Beach and the Indy 500.

SPARKPLUGS

Mario Moraes and Milka Duno collided in morning practice entering the tight chicane at the top of the high-speed esses. Duno, who also slid off course on her own earlier in the session, was on the outside entering a right-hand turn, locked the brakes and slid into a runoff area after her right front tire made contact with the left front tire of Moraes. E.J. Viso and rookie Mike Conway also spun out, with Conway's rear wing sustaining minor damage after his No. 24 struck a tire barrier. ... New York Gov. David Paterson will be the honorary starter for Sunday's race. ... Erik Estrada, star of the hit television show CHiP's from the late 1970s and early 1980s, was to make several appearances at a track display featuring the Batmobile and the Green Hornet's Black Beauty, two car TV stars from the 1960s.

-- John Kekis

Bulgaria hopes to secure F1 race in 2011

SOFIA, Bulgaria - Bulgaria is hoping to strike a deal that would allow the Balkan country to host a Formula One grand prix in 2011.

Representatives of the race organizing committee said they have received a formal invitation to the German Grand Prix on July 12 at the Nuerburgring, where they were to meet with F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone.

Some officials, however, were skeptical.

Georgi Yankulov, president of the country's Automobile Sport Federation, said he wasn't optimistic because of the difficulty of securing sponsors and building a track and other infrastructure during a global recession.

F1's Ecclestone criticized after Hitler comments

LONDON - Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone faced criticism from politicians and Jewish groups Saturday after being quoted as saying that Adolf Hitler "got things done."

In an interview with London's The Times newspaper, Ecclestone expressed a preference for "strong leaders," citing former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Max Mosley, outgoing head of Formula One's governing body, as examples.

He was quoted as saying that democracy "hasn't done a lot of good for many countries - including this one."

"In a lot of ways, terrible to say this I suppose, but apart from the fact that Hitler got taken away and persuaded to do things that I have no idea whether he wanted to do or not, he was in the way that he could command a lot of people, able to get things done," Ecclestone was quoted as saying.

"In the end he got lost, so he wasn't a very good dictator."

Ecclestone also said the West had been wrong to depose Iraq's Sadam Hussein, saying: "He was the only one who could control that country."

The Board of Deputies of British Jews told The Times that Ecclestone's views were "quite bizarre," and Jewish Chronicle editor Stephen Pollard said he was "either an idiot or morally repulsive." Labour Party lawmaker Denis MacShane told the newspaper that the remarks revealed ignorance of history and "a complete lack of judgment."

Calls to Ecclestone's London office were not immediately returned Saturday.

Ecclestone, who owns F1's commercial rights, is no stranger to controversial remarks. He once said women should dress in white "like all other domestic appliances."

In The Times interview, Ecclestone said that had been a joke, adding "I would love to have a good lady race driver and preferably black and Jewish too, but they might take maternity leave."