TEAM REPORTS (VARIOUS LOCATIONS) - PENSKE RACE REPORT

France's Romain Dumas, driving the No. 7 Penske Racing Porsche RS Spyder LMP2 prototype, pulled side-by-side and then passed the Emanuele Pirro/Marco Werner Audi R10 TDI LMP1 car with four laps remaining to win Porsche's eighth straight American Le Mans Series event overall at the Detroit Belle Isle Sports Car Challenge presented by Bosch on Saturday.

With the Penske Porsche victory and the Dyson Racing Porsche's Butch Leitzinger/Andy Wallace second place in LMP2, Porsche clinched the LMP2 engine and LMP2 chassis manufacturers' championship for 2007, adding to the Penske Racing team championship, which was decided last week at Mosport.

Dumas, and co-driver Timo Bernhard of Germany, started behind their Penske Porsche teammates, Australia's Ryan Briscoe and Germany's Sascha Maassen, but Briscoe ran into trouble early, incurring a penalty for avoidable contact with a GT2 car that handed the lead to Bernhard. But, after a series of pit stops, Briscoe put himself back into the lead before handing the car over to Maassen with 90 minutes remaining.

Meanwhile, after a yellow flag session, the Pirro/Werner Audi jumped into the lead at the re-start, and it looked like the more powerful diesel race car would break the Porsche overall win streak. Dumas, however, chased him down with less than 3 minutes to go.

"The Audi could pull away on the two long straights, but I could get close at the short corners," Dumas said. "I did not want to risk my LMP2 first position, but I found a place to pass. He then passed me back, but I caught him again at the next corner. I knew I could turn faster laps, but it was hard to get past him because of traffic and his power out of the corners."

Maassen ran into bad luck late in the race as one of the Acuras spun and knocked off the No. 6 car's rear spoiler, causing an unscheduled pit stop. That put the No. 6 two laps back, resulting in a seventh-place finish in Class. Although Bernhard/Dumas have not clinched the LMP2 driver championship, they are 37 points ahead of Briscoe/Maassen with only 49 points to be earned in the last two events.

The series next event is Oct. 6 at Road Atlanta with the season finale Oct. 20 at Laguna Seca.

NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series

FONTANA, Calif. (Sept. 2, 2007) - Kurt Busch moved closer to clinching a position in the Chase for the Championship with his ninth-place finish in Sunday's Sharp AQUOS 500 at California Speedway, but for Ryan Newman, his hopes of making this year's title chase ended.

Newman pulled his Kodak Dodge Charger into the garage with an engine problem with 55 laps remaining in the 250-lap race at the 2-mile track and had to settle for a 39th-place finish. He was running in the top 15 when the problem occurred.

Busch, on the other hand, gained a position in the standings, moving up to 11th while Kevin Harvick dropped to 12th. Busch now trails 10th-place Martin Truex Jr. by 20 points and is only 25 points behind the ninth-place Clint Bowyer.

"We're certainly not totally out of the woods just yet, but it feels good to climb up a spot and have someone else as a buffer back to 13th now," Busch said. "I feel pretty solid. You know there's a guy behind us now to give us a little bit of cushion. It's going to be an interesting race in Richmond, but for us, we feel like our short track program is where it needs to be. We finished fifth there in the spring, so we're looking forward to a good race there next weekend."

After starting on the pole and leading twice for 21 laps in the brutal 100-degree plus heat, Busch's Miller Lite Dodge Charger developed a "loose in, tight in the middle and loose off" handling condition from lap 40 on. Even after his Pat Tryson-led team removed a spring rubber on a lap 113 pit stop, the loose condition continued.

Busch, Tryson and the Miller Lite crew decided to roll the dice with a lengthy pit stop on lap 165 during the race's ninth caution period. The 17.36-second stop saw the team do major work on the right rear suspension, opening the shock absorber and making substantial wedge adjustments.

With 80 laps remaining, Busch was mired in 23rd, but the change made to the car worked for the good and he started picking off cars one by one as he headed to the front. He was back up to 18th when the race's 10th yellow flag flew on lap 174, and he was 15th after the track's record-tying 11th caution flag on lap 179.

Busch was 10th on lap 200 and he passed Kasey Kahne on lap 225 for the ninth position. Even though he was closing in on eighth-place Brian Vickers by almost two-tenths of a second per lap in the final laps, he ran out of time to advance any further.

"The night was really interesting," Busch said. "I felt like our car, as the race grew longer, we just kept getting looser. I'm not sure what added to that, but maybe we were disguised by our good run at Michigan, but it was 60 degrees out at Michigan and it was 160 (degrees) today. We were just on the loose side of things. The car started off OK, just every lap we made we kept getting worse and worse. We changed everything under the sun to make the Miller Lite Dodge better, but all-in-all, we'll take this finish in the top 10. That's what consistency is all about."

Prior to Newman's departure he led once for one lap, and had recovered from a spin on lap 94 when his car was tagged in the rear by Jeff Burton to challenge for a top-10 position. Then, for the second straight night, a problem developed with the engine in the Kodak Dodge.

Newman, who qualified fourth for the California race, said the fact he didn't make the Chase this year wouldn't change his approach to the season's remaining 11 races.

"I will still try as hard as I can each and every lap, no matter what," Newman said after climbing from his car. "We couldn't expect to make up as much as we did; it would have been a miraculous effort in these last two races. Nevertheless, we'll just keep trying. We have 11 more races to go to get the Alltel/Mobil 1/Kodak Dodge in victory lane."

Entering the California race, Newman was 14th in the standings, 175 points out of 12th, the last Chase eligible position. With his early exit from Sunday night's race, Newman remains in 14th, but he is now 254 points behind 12th-place Kevin Harvick.

Next Saturday's Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond International Speedway has a scheduled 7:30 p.m. EDT starting time. The 400-lap, 300-mile battle will feature live coverage by ESPN-ABC and MRN Radio.

Busch Series

FONTANA, Calif. (Sept. 1, 2007) - Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 12 Kodak Dodge Charger, was relegated to a 31st-place finish Saturday night after his car's engine dropped a cylinder with 51 laps remaining in the Camping World 300 at California Speedway.

Newman pitted as soon as he noticed the problem to allow the Kodak Dodge team a chance to check under the hood, but when the problem wasn't visible on pit road, crew chief Matt Gimbel told Newman to take the car to the garage.

After qualifying fourth for the 150-lap event on Friday, Newman's Kodak Dodge fell back through the field once the race began. However, Newman came on the radio to reassure his team that nothing was wrong with the car.

"I'm just getting a feel for the car," Newman said. "Maybe a tick on the free side, but I just want to see how the car feels since this is the first time I'm driving it with these changes and the fresh tires. It feels OK ri ght now."

An early caution prevented Newman from getting a good feel for his car, but when the field restarted on lap 8, Newman moved back into the top five while battling a tight condition in his Dodge from the center of the corners off.

On lap 46, Newman came down pit road for a green-flag stop. The Kodak Dodge team gave Newman four fresh tires, fuel and one round of wedge in the right rear. Kyle Busch was penalized for speeding off of pit road, so when the green-flag stops cycled through, Newman was running second. However, the car was "way too loose" and Newman began falling back. He stalled in the seventh spot.

A multi-car accident on lap 68 brought out the red flag one lap later for 28 minutes so track personnel could repair the SAFER barrier in turn one. When the race returned to yellow and pit road opened, Newman came in for right-side tires, fuel and three rounds down on the right-side track bar. The two-tire stop put Newman in the lead when the field restarted on lap 75.

Two fresh tires couldn't hold up against everyone else's four and Newman went backwards, again.

"The car is still too free and lacks grip," he told his crew. "It feels like it's getting looser."

Newman and Greg Biffle were battling for sixth when Biffle spun, bringing out the race's third of six yellow flags. Newman came back down pit road during the caution period to try to tighten the car some more.

"We have to get four tires," Newman told his crew.

Newman got his four tires along with fuel and two more rounds down on the right-side track bar, but when the field returned to green-flag conditions on lap 99, Newman radioed in that he was down on seven cylinders and on lap 100, Newman drove the Kodak Dodge into the garage.

Next weekend, Newman will drive the No. 12 Kodak Dodge Charger at Richmond International Raceway for his last NASCAR Busch Series race this season. The Emerson Radio 250 will be broadcast live by ESPN2 and MRN Radio beginning at 7:30 p.m. EDT.

IRL IndyCar Series

DETROIT (Sept. 2, 2007) -- Team Penske encountered bad luck Sunday when both of its drivers were involved in crashes during the Detroit Belle Isle Indy Grand Prix.

Helio Castroneves, who started from the pole position, finished 14th after his No. 3 Team Penske Honda/Dallara tangled with a car driven by Tomas Scheckter on the 67th lap of the 89-lap race.

"I was putting pressure on him and all of a sudden he shut the door," Castroneves said. "Needless to say, I was a little confused. It's just unfortunate what happened out there. Obviously, I'm not happy with today's result, but I guess it's just one of those racing deals."

Sam Hornish Jr. also was involved in a crash when his No. 6 Team Penske Honda/Dallara crashed with a car driven by Sarah Fisher.

"On the first restart, I saw the No. 5 car [Fisher] letting other cars go, so I thought I would get the same treatment," Hornish said. "However, she turned right into me when I tried to pass her in turn 1, and I ended up in the tire barrier. The contact broke my front suspension and hurt my hand a bit, but fortunately, my crew was awesome in putting the car back together so we could get back out on the track in an attempt to pick up some points."

Hornish returned and eventually finished 12th. He's now fifth in the IndyCar Series driver standings heading into the season finale next weekend at Chicagoland Speedway, while Castroneves is sixth.

"We just have to look ahead to Chicago," Castroneves said. "Hopefully, we'll be able to end the season on a high note."

Hornish has won twice at Chicago, along with three other podium finishes.

"I've had a lot of success there in the past, so hopefully, the same will be true this year," he said.

Next Sunday's race begins at 4 p.m. EDT and will be televised live on ABC.