Larson outlasts Elliott
Three times, Kyle Larson needed to outrace the rest of the contenders on late restarts.
That’s a task he has proven he can handle at Michigan International Speedway.
Larson took control on a restart with five laps remaining in Brooklyn, Mich., and held off Chase Elliott on Sunday for his second NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season. The finish was similar to the race at Michigan in August, when Larson took the lead on a restart with nine laps left en route to his first Cup win.
Larson, 24, won this year at Fontana (San Bernardino County) and has five second-place finishes. He also was second in the All-Star race, which doesn’t count in the standings.
“We’ve been so close to so many other wins,” Larson said. “This is our second Cup win of the year, but we’ve had six second-place finishes. All in all, it’s a good season so far and we’ll continue to keep building on what we’ve got.”
It was the third Cup win of Larson’s career and 14th by Chip Ganassi Racing. Elliott was second in both Michigan races last year, and again this time. He’s winless in 56 career Cup races, but he’s fifth in points in 2017.
“We had a couple of opportunities to get the lead, and unfortunately, it just didn’t work out, but we’ll move on. Congratulations to Kyle,” said Elliott, 21. “He had a fast car today and we’ll try to go get ’em next week.”
Joey Logano finished third. Martin Truex Jr. won the first two stages of the race but finished sixth, ceding the points lead to Larson. Truex has 10 stage victories this year. No one else has more than four.
Denny Hamlin, who won Saturday’s Xfinity event, finished fourth Sunday, followed by Jamie McMurray.
24 Hours Le Mans: German driver Timo Bernhard led Porsche to a dramatic third straight win at the 24 Hours Le Mans race in France to prevent a huge upset win for the lesser category Oreca team.
After a series of mishaps to pre-race favorites Porsche and Toyota, the LMP2 category Oreca suddenly found itself in the lead with 19-year-old Frenchman Thomas Laurent behind the wheel three hours from the end of the grueling endurance race.
Bernhard, 36, racing in the faster and more powerful LMP1 category Porsche 919 Hybrid, overtook the Oreca with about 1 hour remaining.
As the Porsche No. 2 crossed the finish line, there were scenes of relief in the Porsche garage as team members danced around holding up Tshirts with “Hat trick 2015, 2016, 2017” written on them.
“Well done, everybody,” an exhausted Bernhard said over team radio. “You’re the best.”
Teammate Brendon Hartley did much of the hard work to drag Porsche back into the race.
Bernhard finished about one minute ahead of the Jackie Chan DC Racing team car, owned by the famed action-movie actor. Another Oreca LMP2 car — driven by Nelson Piquet Jr., the son of the famed Brazilian F1 driver, finished in third place for the Vaillante Rebellion team. NHRA: Clay Millican raced to his first career Top Fuel victory, beating Leah Pritchett in the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals final in Bristol, Tenn. Ron Capps won in Funny Car, and Alex Laughin in Pro Stock.