Newgarden wins IndyCar race under caution flag

MADISON, Ill. – Josef Newgarden raced to his second IndyCar victory of the season Sunday, holding off rookie Pato O’Ward before a late caution ended the race at World Wide Technology Raceway under the yellow flag.

It’s the second IndyCar race to finish under caution in one week. Takuma Sato won the Indianapolis 500 under yellow last Sunday.

In the second of two weekend races at the short oval outside of St. Louis, it was Sato who brought out the caution with four laps remaining when he hit the wall. The pace car picked up the field with three laps remaining and IndyCar did not have enough time to restart the race.

It denied O’Ward a chance to challenge the reigning IndyCar Series champion for the victory. Newgarden, in a Chevrolet for Team Penske, won for the 16th time in his career and closed the points deficit on championship leader Scott Dixon.

Dixon won Saturday in the first race of the Gateway doubleheader and has four victories in nine IndyCar races this season. Newgarden and Team Penske have three wins.

Newgarden was put in position to win the race when his crew got him off pit lane on the final stop ahead of O’Ward. Newgarden and the Mexican driver had a drag race back onto the track that Newgarden won.

“This was a pit stop victory for me,” Newgarden said. “Really proud of my team. I didn’t win the race, they won it.”

Formula One

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium – Lewis Hamilton led from start to finish at the Belgian Grand Prix to clinch his 89th career win and move two behind

Michael Schumacher’s record on Sunday.

The world champion was untroubled from pole position, beating his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas by eight seconds and finishing 15 seconds ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo was fourth and grabbed an extra point for the fastest lap.

Hamilton’s fifth win from seven races also extended his championship lead over Verstappen to 47 points with Bottas drifting back in third. Hamilton is odds-on to win a seventh title to tie Schumacher’s record.

Schumacher won five of those F1 titles consecutively during a glorious era for Ferrari, but the proud Italian team is struggling badly now. Sebastian Vettel finished 13th and Charles Leclerc 14th.

They are not able to get anywhere close to Hamilton in terms of speed, let along challenge him.

Having secured a record-extending 93rd career pole, which he dedicated to American actor Chadwick Boseman, Hamilton made a clean start and Bottas was unable to exert pressure on the long straight up to Turn 2.

NASCAR Truck Series

Formula

One

MADISON, Ill. – Sheldon Creed beat Sam Mayer on a restart with 13 laps to go Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway to win his third Truck Series race of the season and a $100,000 bonus.

Creed’s victory pushed his bonus earnings to $150,000 this year in the Triple Truck Challenge. He won two of three races in the challenge.

Brett Moffitt finished second and was followed by Austin Hill, Sam Mayer and Stewart Friesen.