MOTOR RACING ROUNDUP : Irvan Ends Up Winner When Martin Spins on Last Lap

The battle came down to the first turn of the last lap at Watkins Glen, N.Y., and Ernie Irvan figured he would probably wind up the odd man out.

Instead, the man called “Swervin Irvan” saw Mark Martin spin out and give him an easy victory in Sunday’s Budweiser at the Glen, a race in which driver J.D. McDuffie was killed in a devastating crash on the fifth of 90 laps.

Irvan dedicated his victory to McDuffie.

“J.D. has been great to our sport. He showed that an independent could keep on racing and be part of this. It’s always going to hurt our sport for something like this to happen and we’re all going to remember J.D. McDuffie.”

The crash caused a 1-hour 48-minute delay.

At the end of the race on the 2.428-mile, seven-turn Watkins Glen International road course, Irvan was fending off a strong bid by Martin.

“Here I am leading at the end,” said Irvan, who isn’t known for his road-racing ability. “I figured, heck, I’m bound to blow it. I got completely sideways there a couple of times and really thought I’d lose it.

“He (Martin) just got in a little deep and spun and that saved me. He raced me clean. He could have hit me and knocked me out, but he didn’t do it. So my hat’s off to him.”

Irvan earned $64,850 for his third Winston Cup victory and jumped from fourth to third in the season standings.

Ayrton Senna of Brazil drove his McLaren-Honda to victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix at Budapest, pulling away from Britain’s Nigel Mansell in the final 25 laps.

Mansell finished 4.99 seconds behind after making a strong challenge for the lead midway through the race. Riccardo Patrese of Italy took third.