Winston Cup race headed for wild end

RICHMOND, Va. -- Not even 10 laps into the Monte Carlo 400 on Saturday night, a crash that ended Winston Cup points leader Sterling Marlin's night created an opportunity for his pursuers.

Many of them capitalized, and with 10 races remaining, stock car racing's premier series now has its closest championship race in history.

Marlin entered the race with a 91-point lead over defending champion Jeff Gordon, who quickly looked like the odds-on choice to leave Richmond International Raceway as the leader in pursuit of his fifth championship.

Then Gordon pulled his Chevrolet into the garage, a 40th-place finish in the making that sabotaged his chance to make any notable gains.

Tony Stewart and Rusty Wallace also looked for a time like the potential big winners. But Stewart's Pontiac developed rear-end problems that dropped him from third to 30th, and Wallace blew a tire with 11 laps to go while running second and was relegated to 15th place.

In the end, Marlin had his second last-place finish of the season, a sore back, chest contusions and just a nine-point lead over Mark Martin.

After Martin, rookie Jimmie Johnson is 72 points back, Gordon is 82 points back, Stewart is 118 points behind and Wallace trails by 146 points.

Matt Kenseth posted his series-high fourth victory.

IRL: Wheel-to-wheel with Al Unser Jr. for the last 22 laps, Sam Hornish Jr. nosed ahead in the last turn to win Sunday's Delphi Indy 300 in Joliet, Ill., in the closest Indy car finish in history.

Hornish won by a mere 24 ten-thousandths of a second -- about three inches.

-- From wire reports