MOTORSPORTS | At a glance

NASCAR Busch Series
DOVER, Del. -- Nextel Cup rookie sensation Kasey Kahne set a NASCAR Busch series qualifying record by taking the pole Friday at Dover International Speedway.
Kahne, who has 10 top-five finishes in NASCAR's top series and seven this year as a frequent Busch competitor, will be seeking his second career victory on that circuit today in the Stacker2 Hundred.
He blazed around The Monster Mile at 157.350 mph in a Dodge, shattering Joe Nemechek's year-old track standard of 156.747. It was the third Busch pole for Kahne and second in his last two races.
His first victory in the Busch series came in the final race last season, at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He wants to win badly on this high-banked concrete oval.
Kahne's lap was barely fast enough to beat that of points leader Martin Truex Jr., who got around at 157.295 in a Chevrolet. Truex, seeking to tie Kyle Busch and Greg Biffle for the lead this year with a fifth victory, finished second in June at Dover.
Champ Car
LAS VEGAS -- Patrick Carpentier, coming off his first victory of the Champ Car season, won his first pole of the year Friday with a 206.186 mph run in the series' first outing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
"We tweaked it a little bit this morning. We thought we needed more speed," he said.
The point he received for the pole moved him into a tie for fourth in the series standings with Paul Tracy, who qualified 11th.
Jimmy Vasser made it an all Las Vegas front row with a speed of 205.495 mph, followed by series points leader Sebastien Bourdais at 205.323.
Formula One
SHANGHAI, China -- There are the crowds, hype and dazzling new track. One thing will be missing, though, when Formula One holds a race for the first time in China on Sunday: a Chinese driver.
The Chinese Grand Prix, another bid by China to show its sports prowess can match its economic achievements, will feature such racing stars as Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello and David Coulthard.
But a communist system that churns out Olympic and world champions in running, swimming and other sports -- and will host the 2008 Beijing Games -- has yet to produce a challenger in the glamorous, expensive world of Formula One.
Promoters hope to change that by finding Chinese racers who can build the sport's popularity among the nation's 1.3 billion potential fans. They want to duplicate the magic that American basketball has worked with Shanghai-born Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets.
Associated Press
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