Edwards continues blistering streak

Carl Edwards easily held off a late challenge from Kevin Harvick on Saturday to win the NASCAR Busch Series race at New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon.

Edwards has finished first or second in five of the last eight races, including all three of his Busch victories. But the Roush Racing driver remained a distant second in the season standings, 308 points behind runaway series leader Harvick.

Clint Bowyer, Harvick’s Richard Childress Racing teammate, appeared on the way to an easy victory, building leads of up to 4 seconds and leading 127 of the first 143 laps before making a green-flag pit stop, the first of the leaders to head for pit road for his final stop.

That gave the lead to Edwards, who got a big break moments later when the seventh and final caution flag of the race waved, putting Bowyer a lap down. Bowyer immediately got that lap back, thanks to NASCAR’s rule allowing the first car a lap down to regain the lead lap under caution.

But it also left Bowyer 16th on the ensuing restart on lap 150 of the 200-lap event. He managed to work his way back through heavy traffic and grabbed fifth from Johnny Sauter on the last lap.

Denny Hamlin finished third, followed by Paul Menard.

Formula One

Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher led a Ferrari sweep of the front row to claim pole position for the French Grand Prix.

It was the 68th career pole and fourth of the season for Schumacher on a hot afternoon in the French countryside with track temperatures higher than 122 degrees.

Schumacher finished in 1 minute 15.493 seconds, followed by Felipe Massa at 1:15.510. Current world champion Fernando Alonso was third in his Renault with 1:15.785.

With seven victories already at the French GP, Schumacher is looking to become the first driver to win a single race eight times.

In the morning practice session, Schumacher’s car had a small fire out of the exhaust pipes when a heat shield got too hot. But he calmly exited the car and the fire was quickly put out.

Indy Racing League

Scott Dixon held off Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Dan Wheldon in the final laps and won his second race this season at the Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway.

Wheldon, the defending IndyCar Series champ, tried to pass his teammate on the backstretch of the final lap. But he went a little too high and couldn’t get around Dixon, who won his sixth race of his career in the Firestone Indy 200.

“I think being out front, it was easy to protect it,” said Dixon, who also won at Watkins Glen. “Once you go in, the high line was good. But I don’t think it was good enough to get around a fast car … It was definitely a fast car tonight.”

NASCAR Trucks

Jack Sprague raced to his first victory of the season and the 26th of his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career, holding off rookie Erik Darnell by 0.251 seconds in the O’Reilly 200 at Millington, Tenn.

Sprague, a three-time series champion, won for the first time since June 2005 and became the first driver to win two truck races at Memphis Motorsports Park. It was also the first win for his Wyler Racing Toyota team.

“It’s been a long time and I wanted it bad,” he said, “It’s a new team, and we’ve been so close. But now they know what it feels like to win. The spring in the step is different and hopefully it will bring more.”