Racebeat (06/09/03)
by Rich Romer

NASCAR Winston Cup: Tony Stewart was dominant for the third week in a row, but this time his effort and fast work by his crew carried him to Victory Circle at Pocono Raceway. Stewart was in control in each of his last two races. But he had an engine problem two weeks ago at Lowe's Motor Speedway, then lost at Dover International Speedway after NASCAR imposed a one-lap penalty for stopping slightly out of his stall on pit road.

But the Winston Cup champion got his first victory of the season Sunday in the Pocono 500. It ended the longest drought in his career at 27. He ran strong throughout the race, and took the lead on Lap 156, one lap after coming to pit road in third position. He left with the lead after his crew outworked those of leader Sterling Marlin and Matt Kenseth. Stewart took the lead for the final time with 11 laps left when Todd Bodine and Jeremy Mayfield pitted, but got a bad break when Kurt Busch blew a tire to bring out a caution flag with eight to go. Stewart's Chevrolet led Mark Martin's Ford when the green flag waved for the final three laps and beat him back to the line by five car lengths after Terry Labonte spun out Jeff Green to end the race under caution. Mike Skinner also wrecked on the final green-flag lap. Stewart started fourth and led 37 of 200 laps on the 2.5-mile triangular track.

Series leader Matt Kenseth finished third in a Ford, followed by the Chevy of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the Dodge of Ryan Newman, who won a week ago in Dover. Kenseth leads second-place Earnhardt by 176 points after 14 of 36 races, The winner's average speed was 134.892 mph in race slowed for 25 laps by five caution flags. There were 28 lead changes among 16 drivers. Marlin, Labonte, Ward Burton, Elliott Sadler and Ricky Craven completed the top10.

Defending race champion Dale Jarrett had a fiery crash early in the race and wound up 42nd in a field of 43. He was not injured, nor was last-place finisher Ken Schrader, whose car flipped, hit the wall and burst into flames in a separate crash.

NASCAR Busch Series: Scott Riggs took the Busch Series points lead for the first time in his career running away for his second victory in the past fiveraces.

Riggs, last season's rookie of the year, came into the Trace Adkins Chrome 300 trailing Todd Bodine by 76 points. But car trouble knocked Bodine out after 190 laps, while Riggs set a race record with his Ford by leading 160 of 225 laps.

Riggs has finished in the top three four times in the past five races, climbing from ninth to the top of the points standings over that stretch. He has an 18-point lead over David Green, who finished second in the race at Nashville Superspeedway. Riggs credited his crew for getting him out of the pits first on every stop. Riggs, who won at Gateway in Illinois on May 10, took the lead for good on lap 150 during the eighth caution. He became the first driver to win twice at the 1.33-mile, tri-oval and also picked up his fourth Busch victory overall. He said he just did what he had to do as he won by a margin of 0.53 seconds. He averaged 118.547 mph in a race that featured 11 cautions for 42 laps. Nothing slowed Riggs, not even when NASCAR red-flagged the race with seven laps left. Pole-sitter Johnny Sauter had just passed rookie David Stremme for third when the rookie tapped him, putting Sauter into the wall before spinning out into the infield. NASCAR stopped the cars on the backstretch to clean up the debris and finish under green. Riggs had no problem on the restart with four laps left as he held off Green, who won here in April with a late surge after a caution. Stremme was third, followed by Randy LaJoie and Bobby Hamilton Jr. as Fords took three of the top seven spots. Bodine has flown back and forth between Pocono where the Winston Cup Series will run Sunday trying to maintain his lead in the Busch Series. He started second but finished 26th when engine trouble knocked his Chevrolet out.