Truex first in Southern 500
Martin Truex Jr. took the lead with 28 laps to go and held off Kevin Harvick on the final restart to win the Southern 500 at Darlington, S.C., on Sunday night.
Truex started the summer season by leading an astounding 588 of 600 miles to win at Charlotte, N.C., on Memorial Day weekend. He closed it by outracing Harvick on Labor Day weekend for his second crown-jewel win of the season.
“This is unbelieveable,” Truex said. “I’ve always loved this racetrack. I’ve led a lot of laps here and I feel like something always happens. I’m proud to get to Victory Lane with this group.”
Harvick had the dominant car — he led 214 of 367 laps — but his run was cut short by slow pit stops. At one point, he fell 11 spots from first to 12th after a super-slow 16.6-second stop.
Kyle Larson finished third and Denny Hamlin was fourth.
Controversial win
John Hunter Nemechek knocked Cole Custer from the lead to earn the win in a controversial finish in the NASCAR Truck Series at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park at Bowmanville, Canada.
Custer twice held off Nemechek on late restarts, but was bumped with two turns remaining before an aggressive door-to-door drag race through the grass to the checkered flag. It took NASCAR almost 10 minutes to declare Nemechek the winner.
Custer was furious as he awaited the NASCAR ruling. Nemechek climbed from his truck in an attempt to collect the checkered flag, but Custer raced over to him and knocked Nemechek to the ground with a tackle. Triumph at the Glen
Scott Dixon won the IndyCar Grand Prix at the Glen at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International.
It’s his 40th victory overall, moving the New Zealander into fourth place on the career list.
Dixon won the pole Saturday with a speed of over 147 mph and a record-shattering time that eclipsed the previous record by nearly six seconds on the new pavement at the 11-turn, 3.37-mile natural terrain layout. And he dominated the race, leading 50 of the 60 laps.
Josef Newgarden was second. Simon Pagenaud (seventh) increased his lead over Will Power to 43 points with one race remaining in the season.
Rosberg cruises
Nico Rosberg won the Italian Grand Prix virtually unchallenged after Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton wasted pole position with a poor start at Monza, Italy.
Rosberg, who started second, took the early lead and cruised to his seventh win of the season and second straight this year. He also cut Hamilton’s championship lead to two points with seven races remaining.
Hamilton climbed his way back to finish second, 15 seconds behind Rosberg.
$100,000 for Force
Courtney Force won the Funny Car portion of the NHRA Traxxas Nitro Shootout and Matt Hagan topped qualifying in the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway at Brownsburg, Ind.
Force sprinted to a $100,000 payday in her Chevy Camaro SS, powering to a 4.018-second pass at 266.04 mph to beat teammate Robert Hight in the final round of the specialty event.