Truex prevails; drivers brawl
Bourdais surprise IndyCar winner
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Martin Truex Jr. passed Brad Keselowski with two laps to go and avoided a last-lap wreck that led to a pit-road brawl and left Kyle Busch bloodied in a wild finish to the NASCAR Cup race Sunday.
An aggressive Joey Logano spun out Busch, sending him spinning down pit road at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Moments later, Busch and Logano tangled, with crew members pulling Busch away as blood ran down his forehead.
“There wasn’t much talking, just a lot of swinging,” Logano said. “I was racing hard there at end.”
Busch was pulled up off the ground by crew members and taken to the infield care center to get his forehead looked at. He was quickly treated and released.
“I got dumped. He flat out just drove straight in the corner and wrecked me,” Busch said. “That’s how Joey races, so he’s going to get it.”
The fight overshadowed a tough-luck finish for Keselowski, who appeared to be pulling away on a restart and on his way to his second win in as many weeks when he ran into mechanical problems.
Truex passed him and held on to become the first driver to win all three segments in NASCAR Cup’s new stage racing.
Kyle Larson was second, followed by Chase Elliott, Logano and Keselowski.
The 1.5-mile track was slick with the temperature in the 80s in the desert.
INDYCAR: In St. Petersburg, Fla., Sebastien Bourdais pulled off a major upset in the IndyCar season-opener Sunday, driving from last place to a victory that left him in tears.
Bourdais made an offseason move to Dale Coyne Racing, convinced he could help turn around the small team. The French driver brought two engineers from his glory days and was determined to recreate his early success.
“Dale, I’ll be forever in debt to you; thanks for bringing my crew back,” Bourdais said on his team radio. “Thanks for the opportunity.”
A tearful Bourdais explained in the victory circle just how much this meant.
“It’s the first one, and putting the band back together,” he said.
Bourdais led 69 of the 110 laps to give Honda a much-needed victory over Chevrolet. He beat reigning series champion Simon Pagenaud to the finish line by 10.350 seconds.
“He was untouchable,” Pagenaud said.
Scott Dixon finished third for Chip Ganassi Racing, in its first race back with Honda. Ryan Hunter-Reay was fourth for Andretti Autosport and Honda appeared much improved with four drivers in the top five. Takuma Sato was fifth in his first race with Andretti.