Truex repeats at Kentucky

Dominates to win fourth race of season

Martin Truex Jr. won the NASCAR Cup Series race at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, passing Brad Keselowski and then Kurt Busch late on the way to repeating as champion on Saturday night.

Truex’s No. 78 Toyota Camry appeared even more dominant than last July as he led five times for 174 of 267 laps and swept the first two stages from the pole. The defending Cup champion was always in contention in the 400mile race, even while trailing. He proved it at key moments late, overtaking Keselowski on lap 201 and Busch 23 laps later to become Kentucky’s first back-to-back winner, earning his fourth victory this season and 19th of his career.

Ryan Blaney and Keselowski were next in Fords, followed by Kyle Busch (Toyota) and Kevin Harvick (Ford).

Dominant as Truex was a year ago in leading 152 of 274 laps, Busch and Keselowski loomed as favorites after combining for five victories in the previous seven races.

Keselowski’s knack for winning this race in evennumbered years was especially compelling, and for a moment it looked like he might do it again with a bold rush off pit road to claim the lead entering the final segment.

Truex soon took care of that before Busch grabbed the lead on lap 210, a brief edge as the defending Cup champion took over for good 14 laps later.

More NASCAR

NBC Sports is set to bench its play-by-play NASCAR announcer for an all-analyst lineup headlined by Dale Earnhardt Jr. The network will use three analysts in the broadcast booth for next weekend’s NASCAR Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Earnhardt, the 15-time most popular NASCAR driver, Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte will be the only broadcasters for the July 22 race at the Magic Mile.

Rick Allen, the lead playby-play announcer for NASCAR on NBC since 2015, will call the secondtier Xfinity Series race and contribute to NBC’s Cup Series practice and race coverage. Allen will be back in his normal role for the next race.

IndyCar

Josef Newgarden took advantage of a rapidly drying track Saturday afternoon to take the pole position for Sunday’s race at Toronto. Newgarden passed Scott Dixon by just 0.1964 seconds after gambling on a slow start in the final qualifying run. A light drizzle made it seem like he’d miscalculated with Dixon getting a sizable lead, but the rain let up and Newgarden found his tires gripping better. As the last car left on the Exhibition Place course, Newgarden pushed his car to the limit to knock Dixon off on his final lap.