Auto Racing | Jamie McMurray wins NASCAR event at Talladega

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Jamie McMurray was the unlikely winner of an uncharacteristically dull race at Talladega Superspeedway, where a ban on bump-drafting forced many competitors to treat the event as a relatively slow Sunday drive.

The day started with a stern warning from NASCAR president Mike Helton against the aggressive driving that has turned Talladega into the most exciting track on the circuit. What followed was an anesthetized first 450 miles, with long periods of single-file traffic and no driver willing to defy NASCAR's order not to bump through the corners.

But the action picked up with roughly 20 laps remaining in the Amp Energy 500, and with it came the typical Talladega mayhem. Ryan Newman's harrowing crash with five laps to go left him upside down in the grass, and NASCAR needed a stoppage of almost 13 minutes to cut him from the car.

That set up a two-lap sprint to the finish, and that was halted when a Sprint Cup Series championship contender, Mark Martin, went flipping across the track in his own spectacular crash.

The race ended under caution, with McMurray in victory lane for the first time in 86 races.

Kasey Kahne of Enumclaw finished second and Greg Biffle of Vancouver, Wash., was fourth.

Jimmie Johnson, meanwhile, improved his chances for his NASCAR-record fourth consecutive Cup championship because of all the late action. He finished sixth and is 184 points ahead of Martin with three races left in the 12-driver, 10-race Chase.

Because Johnson spent most of the race puttering around the back of the pack, he was stuck back in the mid-20s when Newman crashed. Crew chief Chad Knaus sensed a lengthy delay and quickly called Johnson in for gas. Cars ahead of Johnson in the running order began to run out of gas because of the red-flag delay.

Notes

• Sebastian Vettel won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and Mark Webber hung on for second to give Red Bull a one-two finish in the final Formula One race of the season.

Brawn GP driver Jenson Button, who had already wrapped up the drivers' championship, was third after pushing Webber to the line.

• Bridgestone Corp. of Japan plans to stop supplying tires for the Formula One series in 2011. Bridgestone began supplying tires for F1 in 1997 and has been the sole supplier since 2007. Bridgestone said it will not renew the contract for tire supply, which expires in late 2010.