Dani Pedrosa won the French Grand Prix on Sunday for his second victory of the season and took over the MotoGP championship lead from Marc Marquez.

Pedrosa started sixth on the grid after crashing in qualifying but the Spanish GP winner powered to the front to win in 49 minutes, 17.707 seconds.

Cal Crutchlow managed to finish second despite fracturing his shin bone on Saturday. Marquez was third after recovering from a poor start.

Pedrosa, who finished as runner-up last year, moved six points ahead of Marquez with defending world champion Jorge Lorenzo third in the overall standings, 11 points further back.

Lorenzo had started second on the grid but had a poor day and finished seventh. Italian ace Valentino Rossi also had a miserable race as he fell toward the end.

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ohnny Gray raced to his third victory of the season Sunday at the NHRA Kansas Nationals to regain the Funny Car points lead.

Gray beat Robert Hight in the final round at Heartland Park Topeka for his sixth career victory, finishing in 4.067 seconds at 314.90 mph in a Dodge Avenger. Hight lost traction in his Ford Mustang.

"Rob (Wendland, crew chief) gave me a great race car that ran real hard all day," said Gray, who also beat Alexis DeJoria, Del Worsham and defending event winner Jack Beckman. "Sometimes you can win races on an intimidation factor and Rob had her tuned up to where she was a little intimidating today.

"Robert had a great race car, too, but they just missed it a little bit. They have a great team over there. Our car went right on down through there. My guys are giving me a car I can't screw up in right now."

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Josef Newgarden and Graham Rahal took care of business right away Sunday.

Less than 24 hours after getting bumped out of the top 24 starting spots, Newgarden and Rahal posted the two fastest four-lap averages on Bump Day, easily earning spots in the race.

On a day that lacked the usual drama, tension and rumors, all nine drivers who made attempts on the second and final day of Indy qualifications made it into the 33-car field, though nobody had it easier than the two young American drivers -- Newgarden and Rahal.

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Cross another milestone off of Jimmie Johnson's list. He stands alone in All-Star history.

"Five-time" became the first four-time winner of NASCAR's annual All-Star race, breaking a tie with the late Dale Earnhardt and teammate Jeff Gordon on Saturday night.

"To beat Jeff and Earnhardt, two guys that I have looked up to my whole life, two massive icons of our sport, this means the world to me," Johnson said.

He also joined the late Davey Allison as only the second driver to win back-to-back All-Star races.

It was fitting that he did it at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the track Johnson, the five-time NASCAR champion, has dominated since his 2002 rookie season. Johnson has won six points races at Charlotte and has led more than 1,600 laps. The win in the $1 million Sprint All-Star race was his second straight and fourth in 12 years. He also won in 2003 and '06.

"The only four-time All-Star champion -- I am very proud of you," crew chief Chad Knaus radioed after Johnson took the checkered flag.

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Kyle Busch showed he can still be dominant in the NASCAR Truck Series, even when facing adversity.

Busch overcame a costly penalty to snap a seven-race drought on the Truck Series by winning Friday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Busch dominated the race early, but had to overcome a penalty for leaving the pit stall with gas can in his truck, drawing a penalty that forced him to the back of the pack on lap 84 of the 134-lap race. However, he battled back from 19th place in the No. 51 Toyota for his first Truck victory since Sept. 24, 2011, at Loudon, N.H.

"We sure do like to make it interesting, don't we?" Busch said with a laugh while celebrating his 113th win in NASCAR's top three series.

The 28-year-old Busch took the lead for good on lap 123 after a four-car wreck brought out the race's eighth and final caution flag and held on for his 31st career Truck Series win and fifth in the series at Charlotte.

Brendan Gaughan finished second, and Max Gresham was third. Series points leader Matt Crafton was fourth, followed by Ty Dillon, James Buescher, Miguel Paludo, John Wes Townley, Ross Chastain and 2012 winner Justin Lofton.

It was the first top-10 finish for Gresham who called the finish "a win for our team."

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Ed Carpenter turned Pole Day into a family celebration.

The stepson of IndyCar founder Tony George became the first member of the Hulman family to win the biggest pre-race event in the series -- the Indianapolis 500 pole.

Carpenter produced a stunning finish to a day that was rife with suspense but lacked surprise. His four-lap average of 228.762 mph was quick enough to break up what appeared to be a Team Penske-Andretti Autosport lock on the front three rows in the nine-car shootout for the pole.

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Rookie Conor Daly wrecked his car coming through Turn 1 during Thursday's practice for the Indianapolis 500, the first crash of the month at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Daly came around the first turn, got a little high and spun into the outside wall. The No. 41 car skidded down the track and at one point flew on its side between Turns 1 and 2 before coming back down. Daly climbed out of the car and didn't appear to be seriously injured. Track safety officials said he was checked and cleared to drive.

Retired stock-car driver Dick Trickle, known for his colorful name and short-track prowess, died on Thursday from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 71.

According to the Lincoln County, N.C., sheriff's department, the incident occurred at 12:02 p.m. ET at Forest Lawn Cemetery off Highway 150 in Boger City.

The Lincoln County Communications Center received a call, apparently from Trickle, that "there would be a dead body and it would be his." Center workers tried to place a return call to the number but did not get an answer.

Emergency units found Trickle's body lying near his pickup truck when they arrived.

Lt. Tim Johnson, who heads the Lincoln County detective department, said that at the family's request, no additional information would be released at this time.

Johnson said there would be an investigation, which is standard in cases such as these.

"He called in," Johnson said. "It's not the first time we've had these. It's always a sad situation ... even sadder for the family."

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Fernando Alonso won the Spanish Grand Prix by nearly 10 seconds in a dominant performance in front of his home fans on Sunday to close the gap on championship leader Sebastian Vettel and get back in the Formula One title race.

Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen finished second for the third straight race, with Alonso's Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa third as most drivers chose a four-stop strategy due to ongoing problem with Pirelli's fast-degrading tires. That issue remains a big concern as tires still shred far too easily despite pre-race modifications.

Starting from fifth place, Alonso won his second race this season, showing that Ferrari can challenge Red Bull for pure speed. Alonso was easily quicker than Vettel, with the three-time defending champion finishing 38.2 seconds behind in fourth ahead of teammate Mark Webber.

"In the four years with Ferrari this is the best (car) we've had," Alonso said. "I realized the race was in our pockets if we don't do mistakes."

He climbed on top of his Ferrari and waved a Spanish flag gleefully as he encouraged applause from the fans, who broke into chants of "Alonso, Alonso."

It was Alonso's second win in Barcelona -- the first coming in 2006 -- and his seventh career podium on the Circuit de Catalunya.

"It's very special winning at home and it doesn't matter how many times you repeat it," Alonso said. "Very long last laps because you want to finish as quickly as possible. Difficult qualifying as we were not too quick yesterday but we knew we had the pace on the long runs. We did it and everything worked perfect."

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Kyle Busch figured it'd be easy to run his own program on the Nationwide Series after all the wins he'd racked up for Joe Gibbs Racing.

A year on his own and out of Victory Lane, though, taught Busch a hard lesson. Back with JGR, Busch is back to his dominant ways in Nationwide racing. He won his fifth race of the year, pushing past Joey Logano 18 laps from the end to win at Darlington Raceway on Friday night.

"I thought it can't be hard to upstart an organization and beat JGR," the 28-year-old Busch said. "But, obviously, that's not the case."

It was Busch's 56th Nationwide win, extending his career mark, and the 112th win across Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck series.

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Matt Kenseth is quickly showing how well he fits in at Joe Gibbs Racing.

Kenseth passed JGR teammate Kyle Busch 13 laps from the end to win the Southern 500 on Saturday night, his third victory in his debut season after a successful stint with Roush Fenway Racing.

JGR president J.D. Gibbs knew he was getting a champion in Kenseth. Still, even he's been surprised with how fast the new driver has come up to speed alongside teammates Denny Hamlin and Busch.

"He's a good leader," Gibbs said. "Denny and Kyle really like having him there and hearing what he has to say. And on the track, he's got a gift."

He proved that again at Darlington, where Kenseth patiently sat behind Busch much of the race before the right adjustments to the car clicked. It didn't hurt that Busch, who led 265 of 367 laps, cut a right rear tire down the stretch that cost him.

Once Kenseth cleared his teammate, he had clear sailing toward his 27th career Sprint Cup victory.

"I've got the good job and I've got the easy job," Kenseth said. "When they give me cars this fast, it's a lot of fun.

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Antron Brown raced to the Top Fuel victory Saturday at the weather-delayed NHRA Southern Nationals at the Atlanta Dragway.

Brown earned his second victory of the season and his fifth win at the Georgia dragstrip, powering past Brandon Bernstein in the final round.

Brown covered the distance in 3.801 seconds at 321.25 mph, while Bernstein lost traction at the start and finished in 7.105 at 90.64 mph.

"It's big to win down here at the Southern Nationals," said defending world champion Brown, who also defeated Pat Dakin, Spencer Massey and Doug Kalitta in earlier rounds for his 39th career victory.

"This track's been real special to me," Brown continued. "It reminds me of going to a racetrack in my hometown. It's been around forever, and it has that special atmosphere with great fans that pump you up. You get that aura of the passion for the sport that they have. Everybody was running so strong this weekend that it was monumental for us to get the job done."

Johnny Gray (Funny Car) and Mike Edwards (Pro Stock) also were winners at the NHRA Drag Racing Series event.

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Ed Carpenter jumped to the top of the speed chart late Saturday afternoon and finished with the fastest lap of the day during the Indianapolis 500's first practice session.

Carpenter, the stepson of former Indianapolis Motor Speedway CEO Tony George, finished the 2.5-mile oval going 220.970 mph. Another American, Josef Newgarden, was second fastest at 220.920 while rookie Carlos Munoz of Colombia was third at 220.720

Nico Rosberg will use his frustration from the Bahrain Grand Prix for motivation when he starts the Spanish Grand Prix from pole position Sunday.

The German driver finished ahead of Lewis Hamilton to give Mercedes front-row seats at the Circuit de Catalunya, with both drivers still seeking their first wins of the season in a car which has plenty of pace but has lacked durability over the first four races.

Three weeks ago, Rosberg took pole in Bahrain only to finish ninth, and he is determined not to fall short again.

On the final turn of the final lap, James Hinchcliffe finally saw an opening -- and made sure he squeezed into it.

Hinchcliffe made a last-ditch move on Takuma Sato, going past the Japanese driver on the inside of the last bend to win IndyCar's Sao Paulo 300 on Sunday.

The Canadian was barely even sure that Sato was finally behind him by the time the checkered flag went down in front of him.

"I don't think I was sure until after we crossed the line," said Hinchcliffe, who earned his second victory of the season and his career. "I didn't think we had it. It wasn't really until I crossed the line that I realized, `We got it!"

The Canadian, also the winner in the opener in St. Petersburg, Fla., moved from third to second with three laps to go and then dueled with Sato before finally making the gutsy move as right before the finish at the Anhembi street track.

Sato, coming off his first career victory two weeks ago in Long Beach, drove in too hard for the hairpin at the end of the long back straight and gave just enough space for Hinchcliffe to get past.

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