San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Briscoe secures Xfinity victory
Chase Briscoe put on four new tires during a late pit-stop Saturday, then held off AJ Allmendinger and Austin Cindric over the final five laps to win the first Xfinity Series race on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course.
The Indiana native beat Justin Haley by 1.717 seconds.
“I have dreamed of coming to this race track and just getting to race here,” Briscoe said. “To win here is unbelievable. I can’t put it into words. To get our sponsors in victory lane and driving for Stewart-Haas at Indianapolis. It doesn’t get any better than that.”
Noah Gragson was third. Allmendinger and Cindric faded to fourth and fifth after battling and bumping hard over the final few laps.
It’s Briscoe’s second straight win, his third in the last four races and fifth of the season.
And he celebrated another Stewart-Haas Racing victory by climbing the fence even though the stands were empty at the massive speedway.
“We are really rolling right now,” Briscoe said. “I think today is a statement win. I don’t think anybody had us as a favorite today with Allmendinger and Cindric in the field but we knew down deep we could run with those guys. I am so blessed to be driving this race car. I am a lucky guy that gets to drive it and it is truly a blessing.”
Briscoe won the second stage and was in control for most of the final stage.
The leaders pitted with eight laps to go, and Briscoe passed three cars on the restart to take the lead.
Allmendinger caught Briscoe with two laps to go, but Briscoe retook the lead and pulled away.
Bottas takes Austrian pole: Valtteri Bottas upstaged Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton to take the pole position for Formula One’s season-opening Austrian Grand Prix.
The Finnish driver edged out the world champion by .012 seconds at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg. He clenched his fist as he climbed out of his car and shared a hug with Hamilton.
Before the race Formula One said there have been no positive cases from more than 4,000 coronavirus tests carried out on F1 personnel over the past seven days.