Schumacher Is Top Qualifier

Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello gave Ferrari its fifth front-row sweep this season in qualifying for today’s Formula One SAP United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis.

Schumacher, who already clinched his fifth Formula One championship, broke his track record with a time of 1 minute 10.790 seconds on the 2.606-mile, 13-turn circuit at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, beating the 1:11.708 he clocked last year.

Barrichello followed his teammate at 1:11.058.

Schumacher and Barrichello have not qualified worse than third in the 16 events this season.

The qualifying wasn’t uneventful for Schumacher, who will try to extend his record for victories in a season to 11. He drove into the grass in his first lap and nearly spun.

“I went wide in the first corner and couldn’t make the corner,” Schumacher said.

Schumacher, who won the inaugural Indy race in 2000 and finished second to now-retired Mika Hakkinen last year, went to his garage for tires and stayed there until only a little more than 25 minutes remained in the hour-long session.

Three minutes later, his red Ferrari flashed past the finish line to complete his record lap and knock Juan Pablo Montoya’s Williams-BMW off the top rung. Montoya qualified fourth.

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Jeff Burton made his fourth Busch Series victory of the season look easy, beating rookie Kerry Earnhardt by more than three seconds in the Mr. Goodcents 300 at Kansas Speedway.

Burton, who started on the outside front, took control after driving his Ford past Earnhardt’s Chevrolet on the 172nd of 200 laps on the 1.5-mile tri-oval. Burton led for 48 laps.

“I wanted to win real bad, but I knew I couldn’t hold Jeff off,” said Earnhardt, who led for nine laps in his best finish this season. “Once he got an open track, he just ran me down in nothing flat.”

Joe Nemechek was third, followed by series leader Greg Biffle, who widened his lead over Jason Keller from 35 to 127 points.

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Todd Burns of Riverside claimed the 2002 Auto Club Late Model Series championship as rain caused a lengthy delay to the race card before 4,980 at Irwindale Speedway.

Burns earned the title despite being in seventh place when the 50-lap race was stopped on Lap 35. Tim Huddleston won by default because of the cancellation but could not close on Burns’ lead. Burns finished with a 26-point margin over Huddleston.

The 75-lap Jani-King Super Late Model Series race was postponed until next Saturday.

After the 1-hour 51-minute rain delay, the Mechanix Wear Speed Truck Series got underway with a shortened 50-lap feature. Dan DiGiacomo led from start to finish.

Ricky Wildman pulled into a tie for the lead in the King Taco Legends Car Series by winning his sixth race this season. Tom Landreth, who had led by eight points before the race, finished fifth. Wildman holds the tiebreaker going into the final race with six victories to three for Landreth.

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Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernardino will play host today to the $100,000 World Cup of Motocross, taking the place of the canceled Motocross des Nations that had originally been scheduled for this weekend at Competition Park in San Jacinto.

An international contingent of riders will be on hand for the one-day event, which will consist of three 20-minute motos. The first begins at 11 a.m.

There will also be two support events, including a Fast Masters race that includes Jeff Ward, Jeff Emig, Jeff Matiasevich, Larry Brooks and Jeff Stanton competing in two 20-minute motos.

American riders scheduled to comprise the three-man Team USA are Tim Ferry, Sean Hamblin and Kyle Lewis. Ricky Carmichael, the supercross and motocross champion, declined to participate.

Other international team riders include Jean-Sebastien Roy of Canada, Grant Langston of South Africa, Chad Reed of Australia and Sebastien Tortelli of France.