Harvick will race for Cup championship
Kevin Harvick and the Stewart-Haas Racing team already had been preparing for NASCAR’s finale. With another win at Texas, they now know they will be racing for a Cup title in two weeks.
Harvick won the fall race at Fort Worth for the third year in a row Sunday, again securing one of the championship-contending spots for the Nov. 17 season-ending race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
After starting from the pole, Harvick led 119 of 334 laps and paced a 1-2-3 finish for Stewart-Haas. He had gotten to Texas fifth in points, below the cutline for a championship run.
“It’s a scenario that takes a lot of pressure off next week,” car owner Tony Stewart said.
Harvick led six times in the No. 4 Ford, including the final 21 laps and 73 of the last 80, and finished 11⁄2 seconds ahead of teammate Aric Almirola. Daniel Suarez, the Stewart-Haas driver still unsigned for next season, was third.
With Martin Truex Jr. already locked in for the final four at Homestead, the final two spots for the title run will be determined next week at Phoenix. At least one driver will get in on points.
“It is going to be a good battle for sure,” said Joey Logano, the defending Cup champion who remained in fourth in points after finishing fourth in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford.
F1: Hamilton wins sixth championship
Lewis Hamilton wrapped up his sixth career Formula One championship with a second-place finish at the U.S. Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, a race he led late until surrendering the position to Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas in the final laps.
The 34-year-old British driver moved within one of the record seven titles won by Germany’s Michael Schumacher.
Hamilton has won the last three championships and locked this one up with two races left.
He secured the 2015 title when he won on the same track. He was somewhat disappointed in 2017 and 2018 when he clinched those titles without reaching the podium.
That made a podium Sunday a must.
“My dad taught me when I was like 6 or 7 years old to never give up. That’s our family motto,” Hamilton said. “That’s all was thinking all day: How could I win this race?”
NHRA: Force wins
Brittany Force raced to her second top fuel victory of the season at the NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas to pull within 16 points of leader Steve Torrence going into the finale in two weeks in Pomona.
Force, the defending season champion, beat Torrence with a track-record time of 3.652 seconds.