The Porsches returned to Le Mans. Mario Andretti may not.
Porsche regained the winner's spot in the Le Mans 24 Hours race as a team of American Davy Jones, Austrian Alexander Wurz and German Manuel Reuter led virtually from the start to give the German car its 14th victory in the endurance classic.Factory-backed Porsches - absent from the race for a few years after dominating in the late 1970's and '80s - came in second and third to turn the tables on the McLarens, which dominated last year's race in Porsche's official absence.
Driving a Courage-Porsche, Andretti was in trouble almost from the start and struggled to a 13th place finish, again failing to capture the only major driving title he has yet to win.
First came electrical problems with the ignition system that cost the team of Andretti, Jan Lammers and Derek Warwick nearly an hour barely three hours into the race.
Then, after battling back from 44th to eighth, a missed turn put Andretti into the gravel. It damaged the car and cost the team nearly another hour.
Add to that twice having a wheel fly off while the car was racing. That cost another half hour.
UAW-GM 500
LONG POND, Pa. - After qualifying faster than any driver in the history of Pocono International Raceway, Jeff Gordon backed it up with a convincing victory in the UAW-GM Teamwork 500.
But Gordon insisted Sunday night that things had gone far better than he imagined they would.
"I was really surprised," he said. "The car was very consistent. We had to make very few adjustments."
Most of the drivers who showed they could run with him fell victim to mechanical difficulties.
Seven-time Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt blew an engine and failed to finish. Rusty Wallace and Hut Stricklin had transmission problems. Derrike Cope had an accident. Ward Burton burned a piston.
"You have to be there at the end to win," Gordon said. "I was."
He led seven times for 94 of the 200 laps in his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, and collected $96,980 from a purse totaling $1.2 million.
Canadian GP
MONTREAL - The real race lasted 10 seconds.
When Damon Hill beat Williams-Renault teammate Jacques Villeneuve to the first turn in Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix, that was pretty much the story.
Despite Villeneuve's strategy of making only one pit stop to two by Hill, it was no contest. Hill led all but eight of the 69 laps on the 2.741-mile Circuit Gilles Villeneuve - named after Jacques' late father - and won by nearly half a straightaway over his precocious 25-year-old teammate.