Keselowski makes it three with Vegas win

Brad Keselowski earned his third consecutive victory by winning the playoff-opening NASCAR race Sunday at Las Vegas, persevering through a wreck-filled afternoon and roaring away from the field in overtime.

Keselowski excelled on the final restart and secured team owner Roger Penske’s landmark 500th victory across all competitions.

Michael McDowell and Kurt Busch wrecked with just two laps to go, forcing a red-flag stop and overtime. After the drivers re-fired their engines for the twolap shootout, nobody could keep up with Keselowski.

Kyle Larson was second, and defending Cup series champion Martin Truex Jr. was third.

Keselowski also won the second stage, setting the stage for a big finish.

He arrived at Las Vegas Motor Speedway riding backto-back victories from the final two regular-season races. He pulled away from Stage 1 winner Truex during a late restart and then held off Busch in second place to grab the second-stage victory.

Kyle Busch went out early after blowing his right front tire during the second stage.

Harvick’s blowout also took out pole-sitter Erik Jones, who couldn’t react quickly enough and rearended Harvick with 120 laps to go.

Harvick and Kyle Busch were tied atop the overall standings heading into the 10-race playoff.

Harvick likely doesn’t need a fantastic result from the first set of playoff races to advance, but the veteran driver was still furious about his tire failure.

“We had a great car, and then you put a set of tires on it and you can’t hardly make it through the field,” he said. “I’m not happy about anything right now.”

Las Vegas hosted its second race this season for the first time. The temperature reached only 58 degrees Fahrenheit during the March race, but the drivers were sweating in 99-degree heat from the start Sunday.

The desert sun made the 1½-mile track even slicker than usual, forcing drivers to exercise caution while looking for new grooves.

Xfinity: Ross Chastain held off Justin Allgaier for his first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory Saturday night, pulling away on the final restart for a long-awaited breakthrough in his 132nd series start.

Chastain led 180 of the 200 laps, but had to dig in on several restarts to stay in front of Allgaier, the regular-season Xfinity champion.

Just two weeks after the 25-year-old Chastain had a much-publicized dust-up with Cup series star Kevin Harvick when the drivers hit each other at Darlington, he earned a difficult victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“I’m just a watermelon farmer from Florida!” said Chastain, who indeed worked on his family’s watermelon farm until his teens. “I’m not supposed to do that! Man, that’s a testament that anything in life is possible.”

Chastain swept all three stages in the second start of his three-race contract with Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, persevering each time the action slowed in the wreckfilled race.

In Victory Lane, he gleefully held a watermelon aloft like a trophy.

Cole Custer was third, followed by Christopher Bell and Elliott Sadler.

Formula One: In the sweltering heat of the Singapore Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton turned up the heat on Sebastian Vettel a notch further.

Hamilton won comfortably from pole position Sunday, extending his Formula One championship lead over Vettel to 40 points.

Winning from pole on one of the hardest tracks for overtaking in F1 was nothing special in itself. But Hamilton’s master class in qualifying was exceptional as he recorded one of the best pole positions of his career — described as epic within his Mercedes team.

It afforded him a more relaxing race than expected — heat aside — given Ferrari’s advantage during practice this weekend.

Considering Vettel makes more mistakes than Hamilton, a 40-point gap looks a huge advantage with only six races left.

Especially as Hamilton has no intention of easing up.

The British driver is on a major roll after winning four of the past five races, pinning Vettel firmly on the ropes in their bid for a fifth F1 title.

“I think the approach I have is working really well, so I don’t see the point in changing,” Hamilton said after his seventh win of the season and 69th in F1.

“I’ve been (around) a long, long time and I know I can’t get ahead of myself, we can’t get ahead of ourselves,” Hamilton said. “I truly think we can deliver like this for the rest of the season, and that is the goal.”

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen was nine seconds back in second place, with Vettel way back in third.

“We didn’t come here expecting to lose 10 points,” said a dejected Vettel, who trailed by 30 heading into Singapore.

Vettel’s championship bid crumbled when he crashed from pole here last year and went on to lose the title by 46 points to Hamilton.

It is looking increasingly like a repeat scenario for the Ferrari driver, who is in disappearing into Hamilton’s slipstream.

The only thing bothering Hamilton seemed to be the conditions. Despite the nighttime start, the temperature was around 86 Fahrenheit and the humidity intense.

“I’m spent,” Hamilton said moments after victory, crouching down by his car.

His teammate Valtteri Bottas was fourth ahead of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo.

Two-time F1 champion Fernando Alonso, who won the inaugural race here 10 years ago, was seventh for McLaren.