Newgarden claims IndyCar title

SONOMA, Calif. Josef Newgarden won his first IndyCar championship by closing out the best year of his career as the top driver at Team Penske.

Newgarden turned in a nearly flawless performance Sunday at Sonoma Raceway to prevent his Penske teammates, as well as four-time champion Scott Dixon, from taking the title away from him. Penske driver Simon Pagenaud used pit strategy to win the race, but Newgarden finished second to take the title by 13 points.

Newgarden is only the second American in 11 years to win the IndyCar title.

The Tennessee driver held off Dixon, as well as teammates Pagenaud, Will Power and Helio Castroneves to win the title.

Pagenaud won the race in a last gasp effort to defend the IndyCar title he won last year. Although his strategy was different from his teammates, it put Pagenaud out front after his final stop.

Formula One: Lewis Hamilton profited from the chaos of a crash to win the Singapore Grand Prix and extended his championship lead to 28 points as rival Sebastian Vettel caused a crash on the first lap.

Starting fifth, the field opened up perfectly for the British driver to seal his third straight win.

“I capitalized on the incident,” Hamilton said. “Who could have known that would happen?”