Allgaier holds off Bell for Xfinity win in Iowa
NEWTON, Iowa — Justin Allgaier won all three stages of the NASCAR Xfinity Series race Sunday at Iowa Speedway to earn his second victory of the season.
Racing for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in JR Motorsports’ No. 7 Chevrolet Camaro, Allgaier led 182 of 250 laps and survived an unlucky late caution by winning the restart.
Allgaier also won last month at Dover International Speedway. He has seven career victories, including two last year, but few of those runs were as dominant as the one Allgaier pulled off in the searing heat on Iowa’s short track.
“We had a great car,” Allgaier said. “Incredible … how could you not enjoy this?”
Despite Allgaier’s dominance, Christopher Bell made him work to keep the lead throughout the final stage — at times closing to within a tenth of a second of taking the lead — before finishing second.
“We were really close,” Bell said. “We could never pass (Allgaier) … I could never get outside of him, I could never get inside of him.”
Daniel Hemric was third, followed by Cole Custer and Brandon Jones, and Riley Herbst was sixth in his series debut.
Points leader Elliott Sadler lost a tire at the end of stage one, finished 28th and let his lead in the season standings dwindle to just four points.
Austin Cindric, driving the No. 22 Team Penske car that Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney had already won in this season, earned his first career pole position earlier Sunday. Cindric led the first 58 laps after leading just six in his career prior to the race, but Allgaier slipped past him with two laps left in the first stage.
Cindric never threatened after that, finishing 11th.
Alonso wins Le Mans
LE MANS, France — Twotime Formula One season champion Fernando Alonso won 24 Hours of Le Mans in his debut at the classic endurance race to move closer to the unofficial Triple Crown of motorsport.
The 36-year-old Spaniard teamed with Sebastien Buemi of Switzerland and Kazuki Nakajima of Japan to complete 388 laps in their Toyota hybrid car. That was two more laps than Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez in the other Toyota hybrid.
Alonso is trying to match British driver Graham Hill’s feat of completing the career Triple Crown, which also includes winning F1’s Monaco Grand Prix and IndyCar’s Indianapolis 500. Alonso has won the Monaco GP twice. He contended at the Indy 500 last year before an engine failure led to a 29th-place finish for his only appearance in the race so far. Earlier this year, he said he hopes to compete in the Indy 500 in 2019.
On Sunday, he was excited to be in France, where some 60 factory and private teams competed in the 86th edition of the race that started the day before.
“Le Mans once a year is not enough! It needs to be every three weeks,” joked Alonso, who looked to be in trouble when Buemi was penalized for speeding in a caution zone late Saturday.
Alonso’s car was left more than two minutes behind the other Toyota, but he managed to claw back the difference through the night, putting Nakajima in position to retake the lead from Kobayashi early Sunday.
“I felt great tonight,” Alonso said after his final stint driving. “I don’t know exactly how, but I managed to make the tires work for us at the right time despite the cool air temp. Our pace has been good, and I was lucky with the traffic as well.”
It was Toyota’s first victory in its 20th attempt, and the first win for a Japanese manufacturer since Mazda’s success in 1991.
Former F1 season champion Jenson Button raced for the private SMP team, but the British driver’s non-hybrid car had engine problems that surfaced early and eventually forced its retirement in the final hour.
Lightning-fast racing
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Tony Schumacher earned his first Top Fuel victory of the season by winning at the Fitzgerald USA NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals.
Schumacher had a run of 3.946 seconds at 313.58 mph to edge Mike Salinas in the final round, the 150th final of Schumacher’s career. He has six career victories in Bristol and 84 overall.
Ron Capps won the Funny Car division in Bristol for the second straight year, and Jeg Coughlin Jr. topped the Pro Stock field.
Capps won for the first time this season and 59th overall, edging Bob Tasca III with a 4.234 at 296.37 in a Chevrolet Camaro SS. Capps also gave Don Schumacher Racing its 300th nitro victory.
“This is a great facility, and when you roll into this place you get a special feeling,” Capps said. “Getting to the winner’s circle at a track like this is even more special, because you feel like you really had to earn it, and this weekend I am proud of what my team accomplished in some tough conditions.”
Coughlin beat Greg Anderson with a 6.709 at 205.10 for his second victory of the season and 60th overall.