Times wires
Saturday, March 19, 2011
SEBRING — The all-French driving team of Nicolas Lapierre, Loic Duval and Olivier Panis won the 12 Hours of Sebring on Saturday in a Peugeot 908.
Their No. 10 car finished 31.868 seconds ahead of David Brabham, Marino Franchitti and Simon Pagenaud in the season opener for the American Le Mans Series.
The top Le Mans Prototype class, LMP1, swept the top eight spots.
An Oreca driven by Michael Guasch, Jens Petersen and Dane Cameron was ninth, the top LMPC class car. Other class winners: Andy Priaulx, Dirk Mueller and Joey Hand in GT; Scott Tucker, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Luis Diaz in LMP2 and Damien Faulkner, Sebastiaan Bleekemolen and Tim Pappas in GTC.
Kyle Busch keeps dominating Bristol
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Kyle Busch continued his march through NASCAR's record books with yet another victory at Bristol Motor Speedway.
His dominating win Saturday was the 46th of his career in the second-tier Nationwide Series, three away tying Mark Martin's record. In leading 266 of 300 laps, Busch became the first driver in series history to lead more than 10,000 laps, with a total of 10,035.
Busch has won the past four NASCAR races at Bristol, dating to August when he had a three-series weekend sweep, a NASCAR first.
Busch said Martin probably texted him immediately after Saturday's Scotts 300, in what has become good-natured ribbing between the two.
"Mark and I have a little fun egging it on," he said. "He told me after Las Vegas (where Martin won) time is on my side, not his side."
Kasey Kahne finished second and followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. Tampa's Aric Almirola finished 10th.
Danica Patrick tangled with Ryan Truex on the track, and waited for him to pass by after the accident, arms in the air. Truex wasn't sure what he did wrong, and got affirmation from an unidentified team member over his in-car radio.
"She's never been wrong about anything a day in her life," Truex was told. "I wouldn't worry about it."
Patrick, coming off a career-best finish of fourth at Las Vegas, was in the top 20 at the time of the accident. She finished 33rd in her final race before her IndyCar slate begins. Her next Nationwide start is scheduled for June at Chicago.
"He just runs hard, he's run hard every time I've been around him and it just feels like overkill," she said of Truex.