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Herbert wins one for his boys

Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals
Summit Motorsports Park, Norwalk, Ohio

Top Fuel: Doug Herbert, who lost his two sons in a traffic accident earlier this year, earned his first win of the season, finally achieving his goal of winning one "For My Boys." Herbert, who had lost 12 times in 14 races with Brandon Bernstein, won this one on a holeshot, 4.63, 311.70 mph to 4.61, 313.58 mph.

Funny Car: Tony Pedregon defeated low qualifier Robert Hight in the final with a pass of 4.88 seconds, 306.26 mph. Pedregon, who defeated Ron Capps in the semifinals, took over second place in the standings, 151 points behind Tim Wilkerson.

Pro Stock: Greg Anderson kept the event and his car sponsor happy by defeating Larry Morgan with a pass of 6.074, 206.04 mph. Anderson, driver of the Summit Racing Equipment Pontiac GXP, earned his 55th career win and is the leader in the points standings with a 52-point edge over Kurt Johnson.

Pro Stock Motorcycle: Hector Arana, who had not reached a final since 1997, finally collected his first career victory, defeating Craig Treble. Arana, who was the No. 13 qualifier on his Lucas Oil Buell, defeated No. 4 Matt Guidera, No. 5 Matt Smith, and No. 1 Eddie Krawiec en route to the final.

Full results can be found here. Read more about the event here.

-- Michele Vincze

Kurt Busch loves the rain

In the end, Mother Nature won the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday, beating the field to the checkers with 17 laps remaining in the race. That was OK with Kurt Busch, however, who was the leader when the rain ended the race early. The victory was Busch's first of the season, and came courtesy of pit strategy after he stayed on-track when the leaders pitted during a late caution period. Seven other drivers stayed on track during that caution period and were rewarded for the call; Michael Waltrip finished second, followed by J.J. Yeley, Martin Truex Jr. and Elliott Sadler. Tony Stewart, who dominated the middle portion of the race, did pit and the rain stoppage caught him in 13th place. Go here for full results.

-- Michele Vincze

Hornaday wins, regains Truck points lead

Ron Hornaday Jr. won the O'Reilly 200 on Saturday night in Memphis to take the Craftsman Truck Series points lead, leading the final 129 laps and enduring a green-white-checker finish.
Hornaday was leading on the 199th lap when a crash started between Ted Musgrave and Willie Allen brought out the ninth caution and eventually a red flag as the track was cleared of debris.
On the green-white-checker finish, Hornaday hit his marks and beat Erik Darnell for Hornaday's second win at Memphis Motorsports Park. Hornaday, who led 139 of 204 laps, earned his third victory of the season and his 36th in the series.
Matt Crafton was third, followed by Rick Crawford and David Starr. Find full results here.

-- The Associated Press

Kanaan earns first win of season

Pole-sitter Tony Kanaan, left, took advantage of an out-of-sequence pit stop by front-running teammate Marco Andretti on Saturday night and ran away with the SunTrust Indy Challenge for his first victory of the season.
On a night when half of the 26 cars in the largest IndyCar Series field at Richmond International Raceway went home damaged, Kanaan got the good fortune he said he deserved, avoiding the near-constant mayhem caused by a record nine caution flags and coasting to his 13th career IndyCar victory.
Helio Castroneves, who started 18th, used a blistering early pit stop to get into contention and finished second, followed by Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon. Series rookie Oriol Servia was fifth, and Danica Patrick was sixth.
Andretti, who was almost as dominant and his Andretti Green Racing teammate until he gave up the lead by pitting under green with 95 laps to go, wound up ninth. Full results can be found here.

-- The Associated Press
Photo: AP

Stewart notches fifth Nationwide win

Tony Stewart's 2008 is a tale of two series. While he's winless in Cup and just hanging on to a Chase spot, Stewart is making the most of his limited Nationwide Series schedule. Smoke earned his fifth Nationwide victory in seven starts Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota he drove to Victory Lane has won eight of 17 races this season.
Stewart got in position to win when he restarted third after taking two tires during his final pit stop on lap 129 of the 200-lap race. He passed Carl Edwards on lap 136 and led the rest of the way.
Denny Hamlin finished second and Kyle Busch was third. Series points leader Clint Bowyer finished ninth and now has a 182 lead over David Reutimann, who finished seventh. Go here for full results and here for points standings.

-- Michele Vincze

Johnson wins bonus

NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Nationals
Summit Racing Eqipment Motorsports Park, Norwalk, Ohio

Pro Stock: Allen Johnson won the $50,000 K&N Horsepower Challenge on Saturday, his first victory in the special bonus event for the eight quickest teams from the last year. If Johnson wins Sunday he could earn an additional $25,000 from NHRA for sweeping both races, bringing his potential weekend earnings to more than $100,000. Johnson covered the quarter-mile distance in 6.725 seconds at 204.91 mph in his Dodge Stratus and used a rare perfect reaction time (0.000) to beat Greg Anderson, who posted a quicker, but losing 6.717 at 204.91 in his Pontiac GXP.
“The perfect light in the final, I don't know where that came from,” said Johnson, the second Dodge driver to win the Challenge and first since Darrell Alderman in 1991.
“I haven't been driving too good lately. In the second round, I was able to get off my hind and cut a little better light, and then in the final, of course, you're just sucking up everything you've got to really get it close, and fortunately, it was green and perfect. To win this means a lot, especially being the first Mopar driver to win in the last 17 years. I don't think this will be our last time. Dad (Roy, crew chief) and the crew are just doing such an awesome job.”
Top Fuel: Rod Fuller earned his first top qualifying effort of the season and second straight at the event with a run of 4.629 at 311.13.
Funny Car: Robert Hight joined Fuller in posting his second straight No. 1 in the event. He drove his Ford Mustang to a 4.882 at 309.77 to claim his 25th career No. 1 qualifying position and second of the season.
Pro Stock Motocycle: Eddie Krawiec collected his first No. 1 qualifier honors with a pass of 7.011 seconds in the final session.

-- The Associated Press

NASCAR looks to crew chiefs for testing ideas

John Darby, NASCAR's Sprint Cup director, had a nice surprise for the series crew chiefs Saturday, offering them the opportunity to guide the sanctioning organization in setting next year's testing policy.
“NASCAR's the policy-maker, but one thing that's really reliant on the teams' input is what we test, how many times we test and where we test,” Darby said after a brief meeting with the crew chiefs in the garage area at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
“In the past, it's just been a matter of, 'Here, select your race tracks and let's go.' This year, I felt it was time that we just sat down with everybody and talked and said, 'Look, we're open to any suggestions you have,' from leaving our testing policy exactly like it was in '08, all the way to going to what I'm going to call wide-open testing, no limits — any track, any week, any time, as many times as you want to go."
Darby said his offer was met with some disbelief from the assembled crew chiefs.
“There was a pretty good gasp of air when you got to talking about wide-open testing because the immediate perception is, 'Holy cats, we're going to be testing 38 weeks a year,' " he said.
NASCAR officially allowed seven open tests this season at tracks where the Cup teams race. The teams can also opt to hold private tests as often as they like at tracks where the Cup cars do not race.
Read more here.

-- The Associated Press
Photo: Getty Images

Kanaan wins Richmond pole

Andretti Green Racing teammates Tony Kanaan and Marco Andretti will start on the front row in the SunTrust Indy Challenge Saturday night at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway. Kanaan posted a four-lap average of 167.876 mph on the 0.75-mile oval, the shortest run by the series. Andretti’s average speed was 167.795 mph. The pole is the 10th of Kanaan’s career and second this season. The second row will have Graham Rahal and points leader Scott Dixon, and the third will have Buddy Rice and Dan Wheldon. Read more and view the entire lineup here.

-- The Associated Press