Auto Racing Roundup : Rudd Overcomes Penalty to Win the Delaware 500

Ricky Rudd, overcoming a penalty that cost him a lap, rallied to win the Delaware 500 NASCAR stock car race Sunday.

It was Rudd’s second victory of the season and the sixth of his career. He beat runner-up Neil Bonnett by 5.08 seconds before 50,000 fans at Dover Downs International Speedway.

Rudd averaged 114.322 m.p.h. and won $51,500 from the total purse of $405,895. The Chesapeake, Va., driver was an exception in the 40-car field, getting through the grueling 500-lap, 500-mile race on the high-banked, one-mile oval without any major problems. There were 13 caution flags in the race.

But Rudd did lose a lap to the leaders on lap 130 when he was brought back into the pits after beating the pace car onto the track during a caution period.

However, with his Ford Thunderbird running flawlessly, Rudd got back on the lead lap on lap 200.

Kyle Petty finished third, the only other driver on the lead lap, while Buddy Baker was fourth, a lap down, and Dave Marcis fifth, two laps behind.

Rudd, who turned 30 Friday, was locked in a tough battle for the lead with Terry Labonte on lap 408, trailing Labonte by about three lengths, when the leader suddenly slowed with a deflating tire.

That gave Rudd the lead for good, with about a five-second edge over Bonnett. Labonte fell two laps off the pace after a pair of pit stops for tire changes, then dropped out of the race 44 laps from the finish.

Belgian Formula 1 racer Thierry Boutsen and West German Frank Jelinski drove their Porsche 962C to victory in the 1,000 kilometers of Spa endurance race at Francochamps, Belgium.

Boutsen held off a rally by Derek Warwick of Britain, who teamed with Dutchman Jan Lammers in a Jaguar XJR-6, winning by a second at the finish.

Warwick was 12 seconds off the pace and in third place with one lap to go along the four-mile track. But Warwick soon overtook compatriot Derek Bell, also in a Porsche 962C, before finishing just short of Boutsen.

At Reading, Pa., Dick LaHaie crossed the finish line at 251.39 m.p.h. to upset Don Garlits in the $472,000 GTX Keystone Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway.

LaHaie, 44, who finished in 5.577 seconds, had been runner-up to Garlits in four National Hot Rod Assn. races this season. Garlits, 54, finished in 5.989 seconds at 177.86 m.p.h.