Kurt Busch had strategy and luck on his side. Tony Stewart had neither.

That’s how Busch wound up ending his 29-race winless string Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the rain-shortened Lenox Industrial Tools 301, while the frustrated Stewart simply added another disheartening loss to his own winless string that has reached 31 races.

Fifty laps were added to the SunTrust Indy Challenge this year, and it seemed every one of them was run behind the pace car. The IndyCar Series’ streak of generally clean oval races in 2008 came to a resounding end Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway. There were nine caution periods totaling 102 laps, more than one-third of the expanded 300-lap total, and only 13 of the 26 starters were running at the finish.

Ironically, the driver who has endured more bad luck than anyone else in the series this year managed to steer clear of misfortune on a night when carnage ruled. Tony Kanaan won his first race of the season, leading 166 laps and crossing the line for the final time with a comfortable 4.77-second margin over runner-up Helio Castroneves.

A third-place finish served as damage control for championship leader Scott Dixon on a weekend when the New Zealander was not the ultimate pacesetter. Dixon gained a position on the last lap when his Ganassi Racing teammate Dan Wheldon apparently ran out of fuel; his championship lead now stands at 43 points ahead of Castroneves and 52 points ahead of Wheldon.

Sunday was Dan Wheldon’s 30th birthday. His rivals provided plenty of gifts.

Under glorious sunny skies at Iowa Speedway, Scott Dixon had a rare off day (he finished fourth), Tony Kanaan crashed, and Helio Castroneves faded.

And the rest of the IndyCar field, led by rookie Hideki Mutoh, simply didn’t have the speed to beat Wheldon. It all added up to victory in the second running of the Iowa Corn Indy 250, Wheldon’s second win of the season and the fifth for Target Chip Ganassi Racing in 2008.

The swagger had vanished, and the cocky confidence went with it. A two-week slump sent Kyle Busch spiraling into crankiness despite his hold atop the points standings. With a win Sunday at Infineon Raceway, his mood instantly lifted.

Busch snapped his mini-slump by racing to his first Sprint Cup Series win on a road course with a Toyota that was so bad during practice he was certain he’d wreck.

Instead, he made his series-high fifth visit to Victory Lane this season.

Ferrari secured a one-two in the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours, Felipe Massa winning from Kimi Raikkonen. Toyota’s Jarno Trulli finished third, claiming his first podium of the season. Britain’s Lewis Hamilton suffered a terrible race after incurring a 10-place grid penalty for running into Raikkonen in the pitlane during the last GP in Canada, eventually finishing in 11th.

A Magny-Cours gara senza storia con le F2008 imprendibili: si impone Felipe davanti a Raikkonen che a metà gara rompe uno scarico quando era primo. Trulli sul podio. Kubica 5°, Hamilton 10°.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is enjoying that old winning feel and he doesn’t much care what his detractors have to say about it. The most popular driver in NASCAR won this one by gambling, somehow going the last 55 laps on the two-mile oval, including three laps of overtime, without stopping for gas.

Kasey Kahne and team director Kenny Francis sat on the podium to answer questions after a dominant performance to win the Pocono 500 on Sunday and promptly were asked whether they doubted themselves and their Gillett Evernham Motorsports team before winning the All-Star race less than a month ago. Apparently not, and Francis backed it up with a rundown of how well they had done this season up until that point. There’s certainly no reason to doubt themselves after two points wins in three weeks — three wins in four counting the cash-only All-Star race — have propelled Kahne from 14th and outside the Chase cutoff up to ninth.

Poland’s Robert Kubica, driving a BMW Sauber, won a drama-filled Canadian Grand Prix in which pre-race favourite Lewis Hamilton took himself and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen out of the race in an early pit lane collision. German Nick Heidfeld, also driving a BMW, claimed second place and Briton David Coulthard of the Red Bull stable finished third. After lap 18 of the 70-lap race, Hamilton ploughed into the back of Raikkonen’s car while he and Kubica were waiting for the red light at the end of the pit lane.

Sulla pista dove l’anno scorso ha rischiato di morire il polacco Robert Kubica conquista la sua prima vittoria davanti al compagno di marca Bmw Heidfeld e va in testa al Mondiale. Tamponamento di Hamilton (penalizzato con Rosberg per il prossimo GP) a Raikkonen in corsia box. Massa 5°.

Scott Dixon, the calm and cool Kiwi, won again Saturday night. He is the studious master of his domain, a brilliant surgeon in a race car and possibly the best IndyCar driver in more than two decades. Only one problem. Dixon doesn’t sell tickets. With all due respect to his lovely new bride, Dixon is missing a racing version of sex appeal.

For the smallest moment Ryan Briscoe thought it was going to be another one of the bad luck days that have dogged him this season. The 23-year-old Australian was working hard late in Sunday’s IndyCar race at the Milwaukee Mile to hold off Indianapolis 500 winner Scott Dixon and, all of sudden, the track ahead was enveloped in smoke and all he could do was hit the brakes hard and hope.