Alonso wins Le Mans in first try
Two-time Formula One champion Fernando Alonso won the 24 Hours Le Mans in his debut in the classic endurance race on Sunday to move closer to motorsport’s unofficial Triple Crown.
The Spanish driver, together with teammates Kazuki Nakajima of Japan and Sebastien Buemi of Switzerland, completed 388 laps in in their Toyota hybrid. That’s two more than their team car driven by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez around the Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans, France.
Alonso is bidding to match British driver Graham Hill’s feat of completing the Triple Crown, including wins at the Monaco Grand Prix and Indianapolis 500. Alonso is a two-time winner in Monaco.
“Le Mans once a year is not enough! It needs to be every three weeks,” joked Alonso, who looked to be in trouble when Buemi was penalized for speeding in a caution zone late Saturday.
Alonso’s car was left more than two minutes behind the other Toyota, but he managed to claw back the difference through the night, putting Nakajima in position to retake the lead from Kobayashi early on Sunday.
It was Toyota’s first victory at the 20th attempt.
The United States-based Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT team of Joey Hand, Dirk Muller and Sebastien Bourdais finished third in the GTE Pro class.
NASCAR Xfinity Series: Justin Allgaier led 182 of 240 laps at Iowa Speedway in Newton and survived an unlucky late caution by winning the restart to claim his second victory of the season.
“We had a great car,” Allgaier said. “Incredible. … How could you not enjoy this?”
Despite Allgaier’s dominance, Christopher Bell made him work to keep the lead, at times closing to within a tenth of a second before finishing second.
Allgaier’s win at Dover came with a post-race penalty cost him his playoff points and the virtual guarantee of a postseason spot but Sunday made up for that.
The final caution came when Brandon Hightower clipped the wall with 18 laps to go. But since everyone had already had enough fuel and was on their last set of tires, Allgaier simply jumped back out in front and cruised.
Ty Majeski of Seymour, Wis., finished a career-best seventh.