Ho-Hum, It’s Another Big Win for Ferrari

Rubens Barrichello won the United States Grand Prix on Sunday when Ferrari teammate Michael Schumacher slowed on the final lap and appeared to let him pass at the finish.

It was the opposite of the finish May 12 in Austria, where Barrichello--obeying team orders--allowed Schumacher to go by on the final straightaway for the victory. At the time, Schumacher had yet to clinch his fifth Formula One title.

This time, the two red cars were side by side as they crossed the yard of bricks that designate the finish line on the oval portion of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

Barrichello led by 0.01 of a second, one of the closest margins in Formula One history.

Schumacher, who clinched the championship in July, appeared on the way to an easy victory that would have been his record 11th of the season. He was four seconds ahead with only four laps remaining and still led by half a second as they began their final lap.

As they came out of the final turn onto the main straightaway, Schumacher slowed and Barrichello pulled alongside. They crossed the finish line with the more than 100,000 fans standing and roaring.

“It wasn’t planned,” Barrichello said. “We never said anything at the beginning of the race. We had a lot of fun in the race trying to be as fast as the other. At the end, what can I say? I’d like to thank Michael very much and the support of the whole team.”

Schumacher played coy when asked if he let Barrichello win.

“We have so many records this year,” he said. “We have a fantastic team and have always supported each other. I thought it was a good opportunity to go equal over the line, and we failed a little bit.”

Barrichello’s fourth victory of the season assured him of second place in the season standings. It was Ferrari’s 14th victory in 16 races this season.

David Coulthard ran a strong race in his McLaren-Mercedes but was unable to get close to the Ferraris and finished third, closing to within 7.7 seconds at the end.

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Jeff Gordon ended his recent slump and revived his bid for a fifth NASCAR Winston Cup title, pulling away from a late red-flag restart to win the crash-filled Protection One 400 at Kansas City, Kan.

Gordon, who led the last 57 laps, ended a three-week losing streak in which he finished 40th, 14th and 37th after two consecutive victories.

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Tony Pedregon raced to his third consecutive funny car victory in the NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill., winning with a run of 4.924 seconds at 310.84 mph.

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Chad Reed, Craig Anderson and Michael Byrne led Australia to the victory in the World Cup of Motocross at Glen Helen Raceway.

Australia scored 20 points, followed by the United States with 24 and Canada with 60.