Kyle Busch remains perfect in Xfinity races
Kyle Busch expects that he won’t continue racing NASCAR Xfinity Series events after this year, and he has a chance to finish up with a perfect season.
After spinning off course twice, Busch rallied in the final stage to win Saturday at Road America. That gives him four victories in four Xfinity Series races this season.
NASCAR only allows Cup Series drivers such as Busch to compete in five Xfinity and five Truck Series races a year. Busch is scheduled to enter his final Xfinity event of the season next week at Atlanta.
“Since we’re this close, we might as well go 5 for 5,” Busch said. “That would certainly be nice. That would be special.”
Busch edged Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Daniel Hemric by 3.522 seconds, with Michael Annett third, AJ Allmendinger fourth and Harrison Burton fifth. Road America has had a different winner in each of its 12 Xfinity events.
This marked his 101st career Xfinity Series victory and 200th overall win with Toyota.
“I didn’t really come up here coming up expecting to win, just wanted to learn the track,” Busch said. “But when you’re in position there toward the end of the race, your mindset definitely changes and you get in the groove of what you’ve got to do.”
Busch will race today in the first Cup Series event at Road America since 1956, though he will have to start in the back of the pack with a backup car after crashing his Toyota in practice Saturday.
He was much better at navigating Road America’s 4.048-mile course and 14 turns in the Xfinity Series race later in the day.
Busch appeared to be in seventh place during a restart with about six laps remaining but had fresher tires than the cars ahead of him. The restart took place after a wreck that began when Myatt Snider spun off course and impacted several cars, including Austin Cindric, who won this race last year and finished eighth this time.
Busch went past Allmendinger on the right and led for the final five laps.
“We knew that we had a better car, better tires to drive away,” Busch said.
IndyCar
Josef Newgarden won his third consecutive pole and hopes to finally parlay it into his first win of the season today in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio.
The two-time IndyCar champion has led 99 of 125 laps in the last two races but failed to win because of late-race issues. Team Penske is also winless so far this season through nine races.
He believes the 80-lap race around the 13-turn circuit that spans 2.258-miles should be straightforward barring any late cautions that flip the field.
Colton Herta qualified second, followed by Marcus Ericsson, Will Power, Scott Dixon and Alexander Rossi.
IndyCar points leader Alex Palou qualified seventh. The Ganassi driver holds a 28-point lead in the standings.
Formula One
Max Verstappen clinched his third straight pole position with a commanding drive for Red Bull at the Austrian Grand Prix, while title rival Lewis Hamilton could only manage fourth place for flagging Mercedes.
Hamilton was under pressure in his final lap and went too wide on the last two turns. On the day he announced a two-year contract extension, the seventime F1 champion was even upstaged by 21-year-old countryman Lando Norris, who qualified second for McLaren ahead of Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez.
Norris almost caught Verstappen, too, placing just .05 seconds behind him.
Verstappen leads Hamilton 5-2 in poles this season and the pressure is on Hamilton heading into today’s race. He trails Verstappen by 18 points and 4-3 for wins.
A bad day for Mercedes saw Valtteri Bottas qualifying in fifth.