Kyle Busch saw several cars clustered around the inside lane and another one crawling along in the outside lane.

He felt he had no choice but to swerve right, driving through the grass, passing several cars and taking the lead coming off pit road. It turned out to be Busch's best move of the race.

The risky maneuver propelled Busch to the front and eventually to his first NASCAR victory at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. -- a win in the rain-delayed Busch Series race yesterday morning.

"It was either that or stop," Busch said. "Some of those guys were lost on pit road. I'm not sure what's going on with that. I wasn't sure if we were going to get busted."

NASCAR officials reviewed the move, but decided not to penalize Busch. They warned him, though, telling him not to do it again. Busch obliged and picked up his eighth career series win -- his first since March 26, 2006, at Bristol.

NASCAR started reviewing another aspect of Busch's car after the race. Officials confiscated the front springs from his Chevrolet and were sending them to the research and development center in North Carolina for review.

The sanctioning body said the spring rates were "slightly under" the minimum allowed by rule. Officials said results would be released next week.

It's not likely NASCAR would strip Busch of his victory, but the inspection could lead to more sanctions for Hendrick Motorsports, which had two of its Nextel Cup teams fined and docked points two weeks ago.

Daytona 500 winner Kevin Harvick came from the back of the field several times and finished second, followed by Dave Blaney,

IRL

Helio Castroneves has his third consecutive pole at Watkins Glen International in New York. In a near repeat of qualifying here two years ago, Castroneves bested Scott Dixon, covering the 3.4-mile, 11-turn road circuit at 136.021 mph (1 minute, 29.1919 seconds) during the Firestone Fast Six, a 10-minute showdown among the half-dozen fastest drivers in single-lap qualifying.

Champ Car

Sebastien Bourdais, a 28-year-old Frenchman aiming for an unprecedented fourth consecutive Champ Car title, grabbed the pole for today's Steelback Grand Prix of Toronto by edging Justin Wilson with fewer than 10 seconds left in the final qualifying session. It is his third pole of the season and the 28th of his Champ Car career, now in its fifth season. Bourdais and Wilson battled throughout the 30-minute session, trading the top spot several times before Bourdais, the provisional pole winner on Friday, turned a lap of 58.288 seconds (108.393 mph) to barely beat Wilson's 58.299 (108.372).

Formula One

Lewis Hamilton moved a big step closer to becoming the first Englishman since Damon Hill in 1994 to win the British Grand Prix. Hamilton took the pole position for his first Formula One race in his homeland, and later attributed his success to the support of the crowd in Silverstone, England. Hamilton had a fastest lap of 1 minute, 19.997 seconds in his McLaren on the 3.2-mile circuit as time ran out in the qualifying session, edging Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari by 0.102 seconds.

NASCAR

NASCAR's top series is changing its name for the second time in five years, switching from Nextel Cup to the Sprint Cup starting in 2008. It's only the third name change in NASCAR's 60 years, but had been expected since Nextel merged with Sprint in August 2005.