Standings: Sam Hornish Jr 52, Gil de Ferran 40, Helio Castroneves 35, Jeff Ward 32, Eliseo Salazar 30, Tomas Scheckter 28, Felipe Giaffone 26, Alex Barron 24, Anthony Lazzaro 22, Airton Dare 20 etc

  NASCAR

Marlin In Control

Radio problems amongst NASCAR official gave Sterling Marlin the win in Las Vegas. Already the Winston Cup points leader, Marlin now moves further away from the field with the result. Marlin, unlucky not to win at the Rock the previous week, was caught violating the pit lane speeding rule, but radio problems prevented the tower from being informed of the discretion, thus the tower officials never informed Marlin's crew. A lucky escape.

Marlin had been hit from behind in the pitlane at the time of the infringement after Jerry Nadeau got too close on lap 122.

Marlin took the lead of the race with 16 laps to go from Jeremy Mayfield on a restart, clearing away to victory. Mayfield hung on to second ahead of Mark Martin. Fourth place was another excellent result for rookie Ryan Newman, so much so he is second only to Marlin now in the Winston Cup points standings. The again rapid Tony Stewart taking fifth.

NASCAR Winston Cup, Round 3, UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400, Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Pos  Driver           Car
 1.  Sterling Marlin  Dodge Intrepid
 2.  Jeremy Mayfield  Dodge Intrepid
 3.  Mark Martin      Ford Taurus
 4.  Ryan Newman      Ford Taurus
 5.  Tony Stewart     Pontiac Grand Prix
 6.  Jimmie Johnson   Chevrolet Monte Carlo
 7.  Dale Jarrett     Ford Taurus
 8.  Bill Elliott     Dodge Intrepid
 9.  Jeff Burton      Ford Taurus
10.  Jimmy Spencer    Dodge Intrepid

Kenseth Takes the Subway

Matt Kenseth took the lead of the Subway 400 with six laps to go. He dived underneath Bobby Labonte for second, just as Sterling Marlin made a slight error and slid up off track. At that point caution flags were thrown for debris near the start finish line that was never cleared before Kenseth trundled over the line to win.

At Daytona a week ago the race was red flagged this late in the race, an inconsistency in the rulings that has not been satisfactorily explained. The controversy didn't end there though with Kenseth's Taurus failing around clearance check, the team were fined rather than have any racing penalty applied. Kenseth's second win would remain his.

Kenseth had been the best car all day, and was threatened by Dale Jarrett until Jarrett blew a motor and was then embroiled with Marlin and the ill handling Labonte. Tony Stewart claimed fourth with a steady run ahead of Ricky Craven.

NASCAR Winston Cup, Round 2, Subway 400, North Carolina Speedway

Pos  Driver           Car
 1.  Matt Kenseth     Ford Taurus
 2.  Sterling Marlin  Dodge Intrepid
 3.  Bobby Labonte    Pontiac Grand Prix
 4.  Tony Stewart     Pontiac Grand Prix
 5.  Ricky Craven     Ford Taurus
 6.  Jeff Burton      Ford Taurus
 7.  Jeff Gordon      Chevrolet Monte Carlo
 8.  Rusty Wallace    Ford Taurus
 9.  Bobby Hamilton   Chevrolet Monte Carlo
10.  Kenny Wallace    Chevrolet Monte Carlo

Standings:Sterling Marlin 507, Ryan Newman 432, Jeff Burton 420, Mark Martin 415, Ward Burton 414, Bill Elliott 402, Jeff Gordon 401, Kurt Busch 400, Rusty Wallace 381, Matt Kenseth 375 etc..

  Briefs

• In practice for the Grand-Am sports car support event for the opening round of the IRL, Jeff Clinton lost control of the Archangel Motorsports Lola B2K/40 Nissan at turn 1 of the Homestead-Miami Speedway. The Lola then crashed and rolled. Clinton was killed in the accident.

• Also one of the traditional lead up events to the Australian Grand Prix has been struck by tragedy. Long time historic racer, Spencer Flack has been killed after a crash in a historic race at Phillip Island. Flack was one of the most prominent figures in historic racing in Europe. Flack was also a keen aviator, who until recently operated and flew his own Supermarine Spitfire. Flack was driving a BRM P25, a 1959 Formula One car, and reportedly the car which achieved BRM's long awaited first Grand Prix victory in the hands of Jo Bonnier at Zandvoort.

• Hot on the heels of the semi-retirement of Alex Criville, MotoGP could have lost another of its stars for the opening races of the season. Gary McCoy has broken his leg in a fall at the Comunitat Valencia circuit in Spain while testing the Red Bull backed two stroke YZR500 Yamaha. McCoy has been one of the fastest riders during the northern winter and was expecting to be a potential race winner while the new four stroke bikes come up to speed. While development continues on the new four stroke Grand Prix bikes, the off season pace setters have been the two strokes. Valenica saw a series of falls although the only other injury was to Tetsuya Harada, who broke his collarbone. Harada is expecting to be fit for the start of the season at Suzuka on April 7.

  

• Formula 3000 continues its FIA organised tests in the lead up to the Interlagos season opener with the teams testing at Barcelona last week. Austrian Patrick Friesacher (Red Bull Junior) clocked up the fastest time a 1:29.388. Second fastest was new Durango signing Rodrigo Sperafico just under a tenth behind. Third quickest was veteran Tomas Enge (Arden) ahead of Antonio Pizzonia (Petrobras) and Enrico Toccacelo (Coloni). The teams will now travel to Imola for the final test before shipping to Brazil.

  Upcoming Events Calendar

• March 7 - World Rally Championship, Round 3, Cyprus Rally, Cyprus
• March 10 - World Superbike Championship, Round 1, Valencia, Spain
• March 10 - Fedex CART World Series, Round 1, Fundidora Park, Mexico
• March 10 - NASCAR, Round 4, MNBA 500, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Georgia, United States
• March 16 - V8Supercar Series, Round 1, Adelaide 500, Australia
• March 16 - American Le Mans Series, Round 1, 12 Hours of Sebring, Sebring International Raceway, Florida, United States
• March 17 - Malaysian Formula One Grand Prix, Sepang, Malaysia
• March 17 - NASCAR, Round 5, Darlington Raceway, South Carolina, United States
• March 17 - Indy Racing League, Round 2, Phoenix International Raceway, Arizona, United States
• March 22 - World Rally Cchampionship, Round 4, Rally Catalunya, Spain