PENSKE RACING (UTAH) - TEAM REPORT

Germany's Sascha Maassen and Australia's Ryan Briscoe scored their first overall win in the American Le Mans Series in their No. 6 Penske Porsche RS Spyder prototype at the Larry H. Miller Dealerships Utah Grand Prix on Saturday.

It was the third straight victory for the Penske Porsche LMP2 racers, which outdistanced the faster LMP1 class cars at Long Beach, Calif., and Houston before scoring the 9.93-second win Saturday at Miller Motorsports Park, 25 miles west of Salt Lake City. The Penske Porsche team car driven by Germany's Timo Bernhard and France's Romain Dumas finished second in LMP2.

In the championship point standings, Dumas/Bernhard now lead the LMP2 driver standings with 91, while Maassen/Briscoe are second with 78 points.

Porsche has taken a commanding lead in the manufacturers points chase, 99-73.

"The regulations say that the field of cars should approach the starter stand at 50 mph until the green flag is displayed, but by the time Romain and Sascha, who started our cars on the front row saw the green flag, five cars had passed us," said Briscoe, who left immediately after the race to prepare for next week's Indianapolis 500 where he has qualified seventh.

"Roger Penske called us into the pits during the lap six yellow flag for a fuel top-off, and this put us back in 22nd place, but gave us a strategy that enabled us to finish the last 70 minutes without a stop. This and the fast race laps turned by my co-driver, Sascha Maassen, allowed us to overcome both the Acuras in LMP2 and the Audis in LMP1 to secure the win."

Bernhard made a run at Allan McNish during the race's final 30 minutes for second place overall, but realized the danger of running out of fuel and wearing out his tires would jeopardize his class finish, which was more important than his overall position.

"Our Penske Porsche was running stronger and stronger as the race went on, as I was able to turn the fastest race lap nine laps from the end, but the overall position was not worth the risk," said Bernhard, who already holds an ALMS driver's title (2004 GT2 Champion).

Bernhard's fastest lap was an even greater accomplishment as it was achieved with a car missing a large piece of carbon fiber from the rear under-tray due to Dumas' close encounter with the Mazda LMP2 racer. The under-tray is an important part of the car's aerodynamic package.

The series takes a break in June since many of the competitors will enter the June 16-17 24 Hours of Le Mans. It will resume with the July 8 New England Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut.

NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES

CONCORD, N.C. (May 19, 2007) - Ryan Newman produced the top Dodge performance in Saturday's NASCAR NEXTEL All-Star Challenge with an eighth-place finish, while teammate Kurt Busch had to settle for 19th after a crash with his younger brother ended his victory bid at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Busch's Miller Lite Dodge was charging towards the front at the beginning of the final 20-lap segment when brother Kyle dove to the inside as they headed into turn one. The two cars banged together twice before the younger Busch's car turned sideways and slid up the track. Busch's Dodge almost cleared the incident, but his brother's car clipped the left rear of his gold-colored Dodge Charger, sending it into the second-turn wall.

"I knew I had a car on the inside," said Busch, who started third. "It was my little brother and he was on the gas. He was racing hard and, inevitably, the Busch brothers had to get together. We did it in an all-star race. A million bucks were up for grabs, and I'm sure that's why he didn't lift and I'm sure that's why I didn't give an inch. We wrecked two good race cars.

"He did a weird move that I didn't expect of him. Maybe I should have given an inch and maybe he shouldn't have taken that inch. I'm pretty sure we'll discuss this. We can't just let it go. We can't take it too serious because we've got to go race next week. I've been trying to tell him to calm down a little bit and back it off. Instead of running 100 percent, maybe he should run at 98. He was at 102 right there."

Busch said his younger brother's move on lap 61 of the 80-lap race startled him.

"We were running the high groove, making sure we didn't get in a wreck and low-and-behold, we got into a wreck. I don't know if we had a car good enough for the front, but we've got a wrecked race car right now. We've got a weird setup; we'll go back and look at it and see if we can make it better for next week."

Newman, who started eighth in the four 20-lap segment race on the 1.5-mile track, said his Alltel Dodge was too tight in the race's first segment and too loose in the second. Despite the ill-handling car, Newman finished the first 20-lap segment in sixth and the second in 10th. The third 20-lap segment once again found Newman's Alltel Dodge too tight. However, he still managed a seventh-place finish.

At the end of the third segment, the teams were required to make only a stop-and-go pit stop in their respective stalls, but crew chief Mike Nelson decided to provide Newman's car with fuel and a wedge adjustment in an effort to free up the car. However, a miscommunication caused rear-tire carrier Trent Cherry to complete only part of the wedge adjustment before Newman took off. Only two cars were behind Newman on the track, so Nelson called him back onto pit road to complete the adjustment and get four tires. When the green flag waved to start the fourth and final segment, Newman was in 16th. However, it took only two laps for him to regain a spot in the top 10.

Newman slowly started to climb toward the front, but there weren't enough laps to catch some of those ahead of him. He was still battling the car's tight condition when the checkered flag waved on lap 80, leaving him eighth.

"We had a good car. Our car was fast, but strategy didn't play out for us," Newman said. "We were too tight pretty much the whole race, but even being too tight I thought we were pretty competitive. We'll keep working on it.

"I thought it was a huge improvement over last year, and it was a good run for us. We passed quite a few cars. We just didn't have anything to show for it at the end. We'll bring a different car next week for the 600 and this one will come back as a backup and hopefully, we'll have a good Alltel Dodge."

Next weekend the NEXTEL Cup Series returns to LMS for Sunday's Coca-Cola 600. Busch will also compete in Saturday's CARQUEST Auto Parts 300.

PIT CREW CHALLENGE

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (May 16, 2007) - Ryan Newman's No. 12 Alltel Dodge pit crew excelled in speed and agility Wednesday night to edge Bobby Labonte's No. 43 Dodge team for their first NASCAR NEXTEL Pit Crew Challenge title at Charlotte Bobcats Arena.

The 24 crews competing in the Pit Crew Challenge were selected based on whether they were a previous race winner, a past champion, the previous Pit Crew Challenge champion and the team's ranking in the current owners' points. The No. 12 team was in the competition as a result of Newman's victory in the 2002 All-Star race.

The top-eight teams in the owners' point standings competed in a "seeding round" to determine where they would compete during the competition's second round. Kurt Busch's No. 2 Miller Lite team participated in the "seeding round" and ended up eighth after costly penalties.

Once the top eight were set, the remaining 16 teams competed against each other to see who would advance to the competition's second round. The No. 12 Alltel Dodge team went up against Dale Jarrett's No. 44 UPS Toyota team in the first round. After finishing with a time of 23.80 seconds - the first stop under 24 seconds for any team - it looked as if the Alltel team might be eliminated when a 5-second fuel penalty was assessed to the team. However, the UPS team also faced a fuel penalty, which meant the Alltel team would last one more round.

Jeff Gordon's No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet team was the next obstacle for the Alltel crew. It was no comparison as the 12 team crossed the finish line way ahead of Gordon's team; with no penalties, the No. 12 Alltel Dodge team moved on to the "Call-Out Round".

In the third round, the highest seeds chose who they competed against. While the No. 12 Alltel Dodge team was the fourth-highest seed, by the time it was able to choose its competition, there was only one team left - Brian Vickers' No. 83 Red Bull Toyota team, which had not had a penalty the entire night.

With the two teams going head-to-head, the Alltel Dodge team was clearly the faster organization and with another penalty-free stop, the seven-member crew advanced to the semifinal round.

Again, there was little doubt as to who had the faster team as the Alltel Dodge organization took on Kyle Busch's No. 5 Kellogg's team. When there were no penalties for the Alltel team, the crew members celebrated, knowing they were taking on Labonte's No. 43 team for the championship.

The final round seemed like it might be a little harder for the Alltel team, which had to compete immediately after its win over the No. 5 team. The No. 43 team had a few minutes to rest while the No. 12 team went right back to work. It was time for the Alltel Dodge team to show how tough it was by returning to the floor without showing signs of fatigue.

Jackman Britt Goodrich had a problem on the second side of the car and was slower getting over to the car than the 43 team, but gasman George Whitley and catch can Bryan White helped get the No. 12 Alltel Dodge rolling and when the rest of the crew reached the car, it had a short lead over Labonte's Paul Andrews-led team. The Alltel team edged Labonte's organization by 0.33 second. Both teams waited eagerly to see if any penalties would be assessed and when the NASCAR officials called a clean stop for both teams, jubilation erupted among the No. 12 Alltel Dodge team members who were awaiting the results on the Bobcats' Arena's main floor.

The team's first win in the event netted the crew $70,000, while Newman was given an $11,000 check for the Ryan Newman Foundation, their NASCAR Foundation Charity of choice. With the win, the team gets the chance to pick its pit stall for Saturday night's All-Star Challenge.

"We've been in the first pit stall many times before," gasman George Whitley explained during the team's press conference following the competition.

The All-Star Challenge will be broadcast by SPEED and MRN Radio on Saturday night at approximately 9 p.m. EDT. Newman is locked into the race as a previous champion after winning the then The Winston all-star race in 2002 as a rookie.