Truex Is Simply Too Quick for Hornaday

Martin Truex Jr. raced to his third NASCAR Busch Series victory in six races, leading 123 of 200 laps in the Charter 250 Saturday night to take the season points lead.

Truex, driving the No. 8 Chevrolet for owner Dale Earnhardt Jr., started from the pole and finished 6.601 seconds ahead of Ron Hornaday Jr. on the 1.25-mile Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Wis.

The 23-year-old driver moved 11 points ahead of Nextel Cup Series driver Michael Waltrip in the season standings. Waltrip finished 14th.

“We had a superior car tonight,” said Truex. “Once we got it freed up, we were flying. It seemed like the longer we went, the more we pulled away.”

Jason Keller was third, followed by Bobby Hamilton Jr., Kyle Busch, Jason Leffler and Greg Biffle.

Truex easily outdueled Hornaday, also in a Chevrolet, to become the first driver in eight Busch Series races at Gateway International to win from the pole.

He averaged a track-record 134.112 mph in the race slowed by six caution periods that lasted 35 laps.

“It was fun racing with him,” Truex said. “We ran into each other a little bit out there.”

Hornaday was impressed with Truex and his crew.

“If they’ve got that same car next week, they’re going to be awesome,” Hornaday said.

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Michael Schumacher won the pole position for today’s Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, where he will try to win his fifth consecutive race to start the Formula One season.

The six-time series champion will be looking to equal Nigel Mansell’s record start in 1992. Schumacher has won this race the last three years and five times overall.

The Ferrari driver was timed in 1 minute 15.022 seconds on the 2.876-mile Circuit de Catalunya track. It was the 59th pole position of his career and fourth this season. Ayrton Senna holds the record with 65 poles.

Schumacher won the season’s first three poles before Jenson Button of BAR-Honda prevailed at the San Marino GP. Schumacher took the Spanish pole last year in 1:17.762.

Juan Pablo Montoya of Williams-BMW was second in 1:15.639, followed by Takuma Sato of BAR-Honda in 1:15.809. Button was 14th after briefly going off the track on his lap.

Schumacher and Montoya will be on the front row, which could make for an intriguing start. The two had a close encounter at the San Marino Grand Prix, where Montoya briefly was pushed off the track. Schumacher claimed he didn’t see him.

The Spanish Grand Prix, meanwhile, extended its contract with Formula One until 2011, but the agreement is subject to looming tobacco legislation.

Formula One has agreed to drop tobacco funding by the end of October 2006. But the European Union has moved to ban it on July 31, 2005. Five teams rely heavily on tobacco advertising: BAR-Honda, Jordan, McLaren-Mercedes, Renault and Ferrari.

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Tony Bruncati set a track record and earned his first victory of the season in the 75-lap Lucas Oil Super Late Model Series feature at Irwindale Speedway.

Bruncati broke the record set by Kevin O’Neill a month ago, qualifying in a time of 17.966 seconds.

Bruncati started on the outside of row one, but fell back to as far as fifth place before starting to climb into contention. He took over the lead from Greg Pursley on lap 41 and pulled away, leaving Pursley and Brandon Loverock to battle for second.

Tim Wood III, who had to start from the back of the race because of a push start, challenged Pursley and Loverock in the final three laps, but finished fourth, just behind Pursley.

In the 50-lap Napa Auto Parts Super Truck series feature, contact between polesitter Mark Holeman and Carson Woods forced both to the back of the pack.

However, Woods came back in the last five laps to overtake Pat Mintey Jr. and Ron Peterson for the victory.

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Correspondent Tony Solorzano contributed to this report.