Larson and McMurray make it 1-2 for Ganassi at Sonoma
SONOMA » Chip Ganassi likes winners, and his drivers have him in prime position to celebrate another victory.
Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray swept the front row in Saturday qualifying at Sonoma Raceway to give Chip Ganassi Racing a 1-2 start on the wine country road course.
Larson turned a lap at 95.295 mph Saturday and just nipped his teammate, who ran his qualifying lap at 95.204 in the Ganassi Chevrolet. McMurray is seeking his first win of the season.
Larson is coming off a Cup win last week at Michigan — where he also started from the pole. In fact, Larson is on an incredible hot streak and, including his sprint car races, has four total wins in the last two weeks.
“The whole lap actually felt pretty bad,” he said. “I felt like I gave up enough there that I wouldn’t have a shot at the pole. So, I was surprised and I was happy about that. Jamie is always really good when we come to road courses. Especially when it comes to qualifying here at Sonoma. It was a big deal there to beat Jamie there in qualifying.
“Hopefully, we can be one-two in the race as well.”
Larson planned to be a spectator Saturday night at Calistoga Speedway, where best friend Rico Abreu was hosing a charity sprint car race that featured Abreu, Tony Stewart and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. As much as he wished he could get out and play with his friends in the dirt, the focus is Sunday for the Monster Energy Series points leader.
“This is cool to get a pole on a road course at my home state. This is my closest track to Sacramento, or Elk Grove, where I grew up. I have lots of friends and family here, we’re going to celebrate with the team, and then we’re going to head out to Calistoga and go watch some Sprint Car racing. So, I’m excited about that.”
Martin Truex Jr., the most consistent driver this season, qualified third in a Toyota for Furniture Row Racing, and Kyle Busch was fourth in a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.
AJ Allmendinger was fifth for JTG Daugherty Racing, and Danica Patrick was sixth for Stewart-Haas Racing in her best qualifying run of the season. She was also the highest qualifying Ford.
F1: Hamilton’s pole moves him 2nd all-time
BAKU, AZERBAIJAN » Lewis Hamilton moved to second on the all-time list for Formula One pole positions when he used a brilliant late surge to beat Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Bottas led qualifying and set an even quicker time on his final lap, only for Hamilton to beat him by nearly half a second.
“There was a lot of pressure with a minute left. It was all or nothing,” Hamilton said. “That was one of the most exciting laps I’ve had all year.”
The British driver’s 66th pole moved him one ahead of Ayrton Senna and just two behind Michael Schumacher’s record of 68.
“It’s already an amazing thing to have matched (Senna). The crazy thing is the hunger for another pole,” Hamilton said. “I thought maybe once I matched him maybe it would fade, but I was hungrier than ever today.”
IndyCar: Castroneves leads Penske march
ELKHART LAKE, WIS. » Team Penske will have a stranglehold on the first two rows in the IndyCar race at Road America.
Helio Castroneves won the pole Saturday, turning a lap in 1 minute, 41.30 seconds at 142.649 mph. It was his 50th career pole, and third of the season.
Castroneves edged teammate Will Power by 0.06 seconds. Power won the race last year at the rural Wisconsin road course.