Current World Rally Champion Sebastian Loeb closed the gap on 2007 championship points leader Marcus Gronholm with a dominant victory on the Rally Germany over the weekend.

This ws the Citreon driver’s sixth consecutive win at the event and he never looked challenged. Gronholm on the other hand has under constant pressure from a hard charging Francois Duval. Gronholm eventually sucummed and took his Ford off the road early on the third leg. He then struggled to bring his danaged car home fourth behind teammate Mikko Hirvonen.

The Top 10 finishers were:

1.  Loeb (Citroen)
2.  Duval (Citroen)
3.  Hirvonen (Ford)
4.  Gronholm (Ford)
5.  Kopecky (Skoda)
6.  P Solberg (Subaru)
7.  Gardemeister (Citroen)
8.  Latvala (Ford)
9.  Wilson (Ford)
10.  Wilks (Ford)    

Tony Stewart recoverd from an early race mistake that dropped him to 19th place to record his third victory in the last four NASCAR Nextel Cup races on the twisting Watkins Glen road course.

 Jeff Gordon had looked certain to score his fifth victory of the season until he made a mistake on lap before the white flag, handing the race lead to Stewart, who had battled his way back through the field. Carl Edwards also ran off the track in the closing stages allowing Denny Hamlin to come through and score a 1-2 finish for Joe Gibbs Racing.

The race included several spins, offs and a collision between Juan-Pablo Montoya and Kevin Harvick that saw the two end up in a shoving match once they had climbed out of their cars. Ironically neither of them were to blame for the incident which had been triggered by Martin Truex Jr.

The Top 10 finishers were:

1.  Tony Stewart
2.  Denny Hamlin
3.  Jimmie Johnson
4.  Ron Fellows
5.  Robby Gordon
6.  Martin Truex Jr.
7.  Kyle Busch
8.  Carl Edwards
9.  Jeff Gordon
10.  Greg Biffle

After confirmimg his long rumoured move to F1 in 2008, three-time ChampCar champion Sebastian Bourdais drove to his first victory on the challenging Road Amercia circuit, in perhaps the most dominant style of his five year ChampCar career.

The only threat to the Frenchman came from Team Minardi’s Robert Doornbos in the early stages. Any possibility of a challenge from Doornbos evaporated after he ran into the back of his team mate Dan Clarke and broke the nose of his car. While Clarke went on to finish second, Doornbos struggled home in 14th.

Bourdais’s team mate Graham Rahal finished a strong thrid with Oriel Servia in fourth. At one point Servia looked to be in a position to challenge Rahal and Clarke, but faded towards the later stages of the race.

The Top 10 finishers were:

1.  Sebastien Bourdais  (Newman/Haas/Lanigan)
2.  Dan Clarke (Minardi Team USA)
3.  Graham Rahal (Newman/Haas/Lanigan)
4.  Oriol Servia  (Forsythe)
5.  Alex Tagliani (RSPORTS)
6.  Jan Heylen  (Conquest Racing)
7.  Tristan Gommendy (PKV Racing)
8.  Justin Wilson  (RSPORTS)
9.  Bruno Junqueira (Dale Coyne Racing)
10.  Neel Jani (PKV Racing)

Saturday night’s IndyCar race at Kentucky, like the previous week’s event, ended up with Tony Kanaan in winners circle and AGR team mate Dario Franchitti getting airborne. This time Dario’s escapade came after the race had officially finished. Unaware that the checkerd flag had been thrown the fast moving Dario hit the rear tire of a slowing Kosuke Matsuura. The result was another trip into the air with the car coming to rest against the wall. Franchitti took full responsibilty for the incident.

Kanaan’s win wasn’t without its tense moments as early on he touched wheels with Penske’s Helio Castroneves.  Danica Patrick once more looked capable of taking a victory until an expolding tire pitched her into a spin that ended with her “threading the needle” between the wall and a safety truck – while travelling backwards. Surprise of the night was the strong showing of A.J. Foyt IV in his Vision Racing car, who finished a strong thrid behind Kanaan and championship contender Scott Dixon.

The Top 10 finishers were:

1.  Tony Kanaan
2.  Scott Dixon
3.  A.J. Foyt IV 
4.  Marco Andretti
5.  Tomas Scheckter
6.  Scott Sharp
7.  Ed Carpenter
8.  Dario Franchitti
9.  Helio Castroneves
10.  Vitor Meira

Penske Racing’s Kurt Busch dominated Sunday’s NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Pocono clocking fastest time in two of the three practice sessions, and leading for most of the race distance to score his first win of the season. The win also put him back into contention for the Championship Chase. 

Ironically Busch’s closest rival on track at Pocono was Dale Earnhardt Jr. who is also battling for the last slot in the Chase.  Dale Jr started from pole and lead the race briefly before being passed by Busch. Junior also recovered from an early spin and an unscheduled pit-stop to change shocks to finish a strong second.

The Top 10 finishers were:

1.  Kurt Busch
2.  Dale Earnhardt Jr.
3.  Denny Hamlin
4.  Jeff Gordon
5.  Jimmie Johnson
6.  Tony Stewart
7.  Ryan Newman
8.  Clint Bowyer
9.  Mark Martin
10.  Casey Mears