Larson takes second Xfinity victory of season
RICHMOND, VA. >> Kyle Larson took the lead with only a handful of laps to go when race leader Ty Dillon jumped a restart and won the NASCAR Xfinity race in overtime at Richmond International Raceway on Saturday.
Larson won after barely making it to the overtime line in a two-lap dash to the finish. The line marks the spot the race leader must have crossed for the race to be deemed official, and just after Larson crossed it, a crash behind him brought out a yellow flag.
But it was an earlier restart, without five laps to go, that put him in position to cash in on the last one.
“I was happy to see that caution after that long run so we could come get tires because I felt if we could gain a spot on pit road, we could have a good shot at winning,” Larson, the points leader in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, said. “That’s what happened. We lined up third. Ty was on two (tires) and he took off a little bit before the box. I was hoping they were going to call him for the jumpstart.”
NASCAR did, and when several other drivers crashed, it made Larson the leader on the final restart with Justin Allgaier to his outside.
Allgaier had dominated all day, leading 157 laps.
“Justin got a really good start in that top lane. I thought he’d spin his tires a little bit worse than he did and he’d be a little easier through (turns) one and two, but he was able to hang my right side through one,” Larson said. “We cleared him off two and they started crashing, I guess, behind us. Had to race to the overtime line and as soon as we passed that and got the caution, ... I knew I had the win.”
Allgaier got a nice consolation prize, a $100,000 bonus in the Dash for Cash, and pole-sitter Daniel Hemric finished third.
Vettel takes pole for Russian Grand Prix
SOCHI, RUSSIA >> Sebastian Vettel stormed to pole position for the Russian Grand Prix on Saturday, ending a run of 18 poles for Mercedes.
Vettel, the Formula One leader, shaved 0.059 seconds off his Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen’s leading time with his last attempt of the session. Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton were third and fourth.
For Vettel and Ferrari, their first pole since September 2015 helped to underline how the near-total Mercedes dominance of recent seasons has been broken. Ferrari hasn’t had both cars on the front row since the 2008 French GP.
“If you have the rhythm here, it feels fantastic,” Vettel said. “For now we’re full of joy. We’re very happy that we’re back.”
The German will be looking to claim his third win of the season on Sunday and extend his seven-point standings lead over Hamilton.