MOTORSPORT: Power's IndyCar high five

A perfect weekend as Aussie eyes IndyCar crown
A year after the crash in which he broke his back at California's Infineon Raceway, Australia's Will Power today scored his fifth IndyCar victory of the year there -- and now has his sights set firmly on the series title.

While Power is Indy racing's undoubted road course specialist this year, and today received the Mario Andretti Trophy in acknowledgment of that, the remaining four rounds are on oval tracks.

They are at Chicagoland Speedway next weekend, Kentucky Speedway on September 4, Japan's Twin-Ring Motegi on September 18, with the finale at Florida's Homestead-Miami Speedway on October 2.

In his first season driving full-time for iconic American openwheeler team owner Roger Penske, Power left Infineon -- sometimes referred to as Sonoma, and originally Sears Point -- leading the series by 59 points from Scotsman Dario Franchitti, an oval specialist and two-time Indianapolis 500 winner.

Franchitti finished third today at Infineon, with his Ganassi teammate, New Zealander Scott Dixon, sandwiched between him and Power -- and now 95 points behind Power.

Dixon had closed to within a second of the Aussie in the final laps but could not find a way past.

"What a perfect weekend -- it's unreal," Power said, thanking Penske and team manager Tim Cindric for keeping faith in him after last year's potentially career-ending crash. "To come back here and win is just fantastic. I've said it all season I wanted to win this race."

Race wins are worth 50 points, with two bonus points for the most laps led and another for pole position.

Power scored the maximum 53 points as he took a series record eighth pole of the season at Infineon and led all but two laps, losing the lead briefly to Dixon during a round of pitstops.

Second place is worth 40 points, third 35, fourth 32 and fifth 30, with points all the way down the order. Any driver who starts a race but finishes lower than 24th collects 10 points.

Power's fellow Australian and Penske teammate Ryan Briscoe had jumped to second place in the Infineon race with an early first pitstop but lost out to the Ganassi pair on the last stops and finished fourth, 7.8607 seconds behind Power.

Penske's third driver, Brazilian Helio Castroneves, who had started alongside Power on the front row finished fifth, with Briton Justin Wilson (Dreyer & Reinbold Racing) sixth, Tony Kanaan (Andretti Autosport) seventh, Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti Autosport) eighth, followed by Graham Rahal (Newman-Haas) and Alex Lloyd (Dale Coyne Racing).

The most dramatic incident of the day was before the start, when Briton Dan Wheldon rolled as wheels interlocked as the field approached the start line. The 2005 series champion and Indy 500 winner was unhurt.

IndyCar series standings (all cars Dallara-Hondas) -- Will Power (Australia, Penske) 514 points, Dario Franchitti (Great Britain, Ganassi) 455, Scott Dixon (New Zealand, Ganassi) 419, Ryan Briscoe (Australia, Penske) 384, Helio Castroneves (Brazil, Penske) 370, Ryan Hunter-Reay (US, Andretti Autosport) 360, Tony Kanaan (Brazil, Andretti) 330, Justin Wilson (Great Britain, Dreyer & Reinbold) 290, Marco Andretti (US, Andretti) 284, Dan Wheldon (Great Britain, Panther) 269.

Historic NASCAR clean sweep for Kyle Busch
Kyle Busch has become the first driver to win all three NASCAR races at one round with victories in the pick-up truck championship, Nationwide Series and Sprint Cup on the "World's Fastest Half Mile" at Bristol, Tennessee.

Busch jumped five places in the Cup standings to third with the major win in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. It was 25-year-old Busch's third Cup win of the year and the 19th of his career.

Series leader Kevin Harvick finished 14th in his Richard Childress Chevrolet, Jeff Gordon finished 11th but remains second, trailing Harvick by 279 going to the next Cup round at Atlanta in two weeks.

Australia's Marcos Ambrose ran finished 20th after starting 22nd and running as high as seventh.

"It was a shame about the timing of the last caution, that hurt us a lot, as we definitely had the car to finish in the top 10," Ambrose said.

David Reutimann, driving a Toyota from the same Michael Waltrip Racing stable as Ambrose's JTG Daugherty entry, crossed the finish line just 0.677 seconds behind Busch to take second.

Jamie McMurray (Earnhardt Ganassi Racing), Clint Bowyer (Richard Childress Racing) and Kasey Kahne (Richard Petty Motorsports) completed the top five.

Ambrose will take over Kahne's drive at RPM next season. Meanwhile, next weekend Ambrose will return to the Nationwide Series for the race on the road course in Montreal, Canada, where he has been unlucky not to have won in the past.

NASCAR Sprint Cup standings after 24 of 36 rounds -- Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet) 3521 points, Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet) 3242, Kyle Busch (Toyota) 3170, Carl Edwards (Ford) 3113, Denny Hamlin (Toyota) 3108, Tony Stewart (Chevrolet) 3107, Jeff Burton (Chevrolet) 3101, Matt Kenseth (Ford) 3095, Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 3077, Kurt Busch (Dodge) 3073, Greg Biffle (Ford) 3055, Clint Bowyer (Chevrolet) 2920. Australia's Marcos Ambrose (Toyota) is 26th on 2276 points.

Another ALMS podium for Brabham
Long-time expatriate Australian David Brabham and Frenchman teammate Simon Pagenaud took third place in their Honda Performance Development-supported Acura in the seventh round of the American Le Mans Series at Elkhart Lake's Road America course in Wisconsin.

Drayson Racing scored its first ALMS victory in a thrilling finish. Jonny Cocker in Drayson's Lolda-Judd swept past CytoSport Porsche driver Klaus Graf in the final moments to claim the win as the Porsche ran low on fuel.

Cocker had been only fourth going into the final three laps, having made a late splash-and-dash pitstop, but blasted past a Dyson Lola-Mazda and Highcroft Racing car of Pagenaud before catching and passing Graf.

There is another ALMS round next weekend at Mosport in Canada.

Loeb roaring towards seventh heaven
French great Sebastien Loeb has won the German round of the world rally championship for the eighth straight time and moved a step closer to a seventh consecutive world title.

The 36-year-old Citroen superstar led from day one and ended the final "Circus Maximus" inner-city stage in Trier, Germany's oldest city, 51.3 seconds clear of fellow Citroen driver Dani Sordo of Spain.

"We never had any problems during this rally -- I think I had a perfect race," Loeb said of his 59th WRC round victory.

Citroen made a clean podium sweep with junior team driver Sebastien Ogier of France in third place.

Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala, of Finland, was fourth and Petter Solberg, of Norway, fifth in his privateer Citroen. Latvala lost third place when he spun off the road during Saturday's longest stage of the WRC, the 48km Panzerplatte in a former military training ground.

Ford team leader Mikko Hirvonen, another Finn, was forced to retire on stage 13 with a transmission problem.

Loeb leads the championship with 191 points -- 58 more than Ogier -- with four rounds left, the next in Japan on September 10-12.

Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 Formula One world champion for Ferrari, won the final stage of the German rally and finished seventh outright -- but almost nine minutes behind Loeb.

"You never know but I will probably never return to Formula One," Raikkonen has told French daily sports newspaper L'Equipe. "It's something I did for many years, I had many great moments. I won a world championship title, which is what I always wanted, but times have changed.

"Now I'm in rallying and there are many other things apart from F1 in life."

Raikkonen said he wanted to compete in the Le Mans 24-hour sports car race.

"I would like to try but you need to find the right team," he said. "If you want to win, there are only two, Peugeot and Audi. One day, I hope, there will be an opportunity."

World Rally Championship driver standings -- Sebastien Loeb (France, Citroen) 191 points, Sebastien Ogier (France, Citroen) 133, Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland, Ford) 117, Petter Solberg (Norway, Citroen)  100, Daniel Sordo (Spain, Citroen) 95, Mikko Hirvonen (Finland, Ford) 86, Matthew Wilson (Great Britain, Ford) 56, Federico Villagra (Argentina) 26, Henning Solberg (Norway) 25, Kimi Raikkonen (Finland, Citroen) 21.

WRC teams championship standings -- Citroen Total WRT 308 points, BP-Ford Abu-Dhabi WRT 222, Citroen Junior Team 168, Stobart VK M-Sport Ford WRT 118, Munchi's Ford WRT 40.

Image: Nate Jacobson for Infineon Raceway

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