Preece wins Xfinity race at Iowa Speedway
NEWTON, IOWA » Ryan Preece had waited his whole career for a chance to race in a car as strong as the No. 20 Toyota of Joe Gibbs Racing.
Preece then went out and proved what he could do with top-notch equipment.
The 26-year-old Preece survived a green-white-checkered finish to win the NASCAR Xfinity race Saturday at Iowa Speedway for his first career victory.
Preece, running the second of a tworace deal with the powerhouse JGR team, started from the pole and held off Kyle Benjamin on three restarts in the final 17 laps.
Preece, the Connecticut driver who is a regular in the lower-division NASCAR Whelen Modified series, crossed the start-finish line less than a carlength ahead of Benjamin.
“To be honest with you, I believed in myself enough to do it,” Preece said of using his Xfinity budget for just two races. “It is very risky. I had multiple people in the business tell me that it was a little (riskier) than they would do.”
The 19-year-old Benjamin was a career-best second, followed by Brian Scott, Brennan Poole and rookie Cole Custer.
William Byron, who began a streak of three wins in five races at Iowa last month, finished ninth and Justin Allgaier was 20th after leading 106 laps.
Bell wins Truck race at Pocono
LONG POND, PA. » Christopher Bell grabbed a late lead and held on to win the Truck Series race at Pocono Raceway.
Bell passed John Hunter Nemechek and held off Ben Rhodes over the final two laps to win for the fourth time this season. Bell crashed out of one race but hasn’t otherwise finished worse than ninth in 12 races this season.
Rhodes was second, followed by Ryan Truex, Nemechek and Johnny Sauter.
Busch led most of the race until he made contact with Justin Haley and spun into the outside wall. Haley blamed himself for the wreck.
IndyCar: Power wins pole
LEXINGTON, OHIO » Will Power, still looking for a victory at the Mid-Ohio Sport Car Course, took his fifth pole of the season and fellow Team Penske driver Josef Newgarden qualified second for Sunday’s Honda Indy 200.
For Power, it was his third pole at MidOhio and the 49th of his career to tie Bobby Unser for fourth among IndyCar drivers. Power has also been on the front row at Mid-Ohio for six straight years.
F1: Vettel gets pole
BUDAPEST, HUNGARY » Starting from the pole position on a tight circuit that severely limits overtaking, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel will be confident of his fourth win of the season in Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix. Especially with archrival Lewis Hamilton fourth on the grid.
Ferrari secured a 1-2 in Saturday’s qualifying, with Kimi Raikkonen second.