Blaney cruises to victory

Ryan Blaney became the third different Team Penske driver in as many NASCAR Xfinity Series races to win in the No. 22 Ford when he took the checkered flag in the My Bariatric Solutions 300 on a chilly Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.

Blaney was the pole sitter and led 132 of 200 laps.

The Xfinity Series was back on the track after a two-week break since Joey Logano won in the No. 22 car at California. That was a week after Brad Keselowski drove that Team Penske entry to victory lane in Phoenix.

“You never want to be the person who breaks the streak of wins, especially when a car’s been so fast,” Blaney said. “There was that reminder in the back of my head to try to get this one.”

Joe Gibbs Racing is the only other team in the series to win three straight races with the same car and different drivers.

Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin won consecutive races in their team’s No. 20 Toyota in 2008. That car actually won four straight races when Stewart won again.

It was the seventh career Xfinity victory for Blaney, who qualified fourth for Sunday’s Cup Series race at the 11⁄2-mile Texas track.

Christopher Bell finished 2.327 seconds behind Blaney in second place. Bell led twice for 10 laps, but isn’t sure if a pit penalty that put him at the tail end on a restart after a caution had a big impact on his outcome.

Formula One: Sebastian Vettel took pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix followed by Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen.

Raikkonen looked like he was going to get his first pole since last year’s Monaco GP, but Vettel beat his time right at the end of qualifying under floodlights.