Rossi gets 4th career victory
Alexander Rossi took a gamble Sunday at MidOhio Sports Car Course that paid off with his second IndyCar victory of the season and fourth overall.
Starting from the pole and using a two-stop strategy while the rest of the field pitted three times, the 2016 Indianapolis 500 winner from Northern California finished 12.8 seconds ahead of rookie Robert Wickens in the caution-free race on the 13turn, 2.258mile permanent road course. The race covered 90 laps and 202.3 miles.
“It was a little concerning at times,” said Rossi, who grew up in Nevada City (Nevada County). “Guys committed to doing it, but they bailed. (The strategy) worked.
“We didn’t know how it would work. Without a warm-up, we were not capable of knowing the fuel mileage you’re getting.”
Will Power was third, 14.7 seconds back. Josef Newgarden was fourth, and points leader Scott Dixon fifth.
Rossi also won the street race in Long Beach in April. The victory Sunday was Andretti Autosport’s 60th in the series. NASCAR Cup Series: Kyle Busch had no one to bump him out of the lead this week and stormed from the bottom half of the field at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa., on the way to his sixth NASCAR Cup victory of the season.
Busch was set to start second but his No. 18 Toyota was one of 13 cars dumped to back of the pack for flunking postqualifying inspection. That was nothing but a minor bump for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver who matched Kevin Harvick for most wins this season.
Harvick used a bumpand-run on the 18 with seven laps left last week at New Hampshire to knock Busch out of contention.
Harvick’s pole qualifying run also was tossed out but he ended up leading 30 laps and finished fourth.
The race was red flagged with six laps left in the wake of a violent wreck by Darrell Wallace Jr. There were several tense seconds during a wait for Wallace to put down his window net. He sat on the track and slumped against the car before he was taken to the track medical center.
Once the race resumed, Busch zipped away and he surged ahead again on the final restart in overtime to add to the win total for NASCAR’s Big Three: Busch, Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. have won 16 of the 21 Cup Series. Formula One: Lewis Hamilton heads into Formula One’s summer break with a comfortable 24-point lead over Sebastian Vettel after cruising to victory from pole position at the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest.
Hamilton was untroubled as he secured a second straight win, his fifth of the season and 67th overall. Vettel was second.