Truex finally gets win at Kansas Speedway
Martin Truex Jr. finally ended his string of rotten luck at Kansas Speedway.
Danica Patrick was left to rue more bad luck of her own.
Truex pulled away from Ryan Blaney and Kevin Harvick on a late restart Saturday night in Kansas City, Kan., winning the NASCAR Cup Series race that he seemed to dominate every year without reaching victory lane.
“These races are so hard to win,” said Truex, who had a fluke tire change problem rob him of the win after leading 172 laps last year. “Any of those restarts I could have gotten beat on.”
Brad Keselowski made a pass on the final lap to take second, followed by Harvick and Blaney. Kyle Busch rounded out the top five.
The race was halted with 67 laps to go when a broken brake rotor turned Joey Logano’s car into Patrick, sending her hard into the fence in the first turn. Aric Almirola had nowhere to go and slammed into Logano, the force of the impact lifting his car in the air.
Logano and Patrick were treated and released from the infield care center, but Almirola was airlifted to the University of Kansas Medical Center. He was conscious and alert.
“I hope Aric is OK. He’s definitely feeling the worst of everybody,” Patrick said. “One of these times, these accidents aren’t going to be good for me. They’re all big. I’ve been fortunate so far.”
But Patrick has had very little fortune on the track, crashing out of the last four races.
The race tied a track record with 15 cautions, and the last of them for a spin involving Jimmie Johnson bunched up the field with two laps to go. Truex dove to the bottom and roared from the rest of the field, on his way to a ninth career win. Indy Grand Prix: Will Power earned his first victory of the season, leading 61 of 85 laps and easily holding off Scott Dixon on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course.
Power gave Team Penske its third straight victory this season and third in a row on the 2.439mile, 14-turn road course.
After winning the pole Friday in a track-record time, Power surrendered the lead only twice Saturday — both after pit stops. There wasn’t even a caution period — the first time that’s happened in this season’s first five races.
Ryan Hunter-Reay was third. Simon Pagenaud finished fourth.
It was the second straight race that Roger Penske’s drivers led every lap of the race. Formula One: Lewis Hamilton took his 64th career pole ahead of Sebastian Vettel at the Spanish Grand Prix in Montmelo, giving Mercedes its 19th pole in 20 races. Hamilton was fastest in 1 minute, 19.149 seconds, with Vettel 0.051 behind. Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas was third.