Bell may be on his way to Cup Series following another Xfinity victory

Team owner Bob Leavine made an unpopular decision when he decided to remove driver Matt DiBenedetto from his Cup Series lineup for next season.

The man likely to replace DiBenedetto — Christopher Bell — gave Leavine strong backing on the track Saturday at Elkhart Lake, Wis.

The 24-year-old Bell won the Xfinity Series race at Road America, his series-leading sixth win in a season that’s shown he’s ready for a Cup Series test, something likely to come next year with Leavine Racing.

After Saturday’s win, Bell politely fielded a question about whether he was motivated to prove himself to fans. “My biggest motivation, and that’s kind of been the story of my career even from sprint cars all the way to NASCAR, and everything I’ve been taught is, everybody wants a winner,” Bell said.

With the Road America win, he’s added a critical nugget to his racing resume. It was his first win on a road course, a style of racing that had frustrated Bell in the past.

“He’s come a long way on the road courses, and we know what he can do on the ovals,” veteran driver AJ Allmendinger said.

“So when he gets in the Cup Series, I feel sorry for those guys.”

In the NASCAR Trucks race Sunday in Bowmanville, Ontario, Brett Moffitt led 45 of 64 laps of the Chevrolet Silverado 250 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on his way to a second straight win in the playoffs.

INDYCAR: Takuma Sato held off Ed Carpenter to win Saturday night in Madison, Ill., at World Wide Technology Raceway. Sato won by 0.399 seconds. Tony Kaanan was third, followed by Santino Ferrucci and Simon Pagenaud. Pole-sitter and series points leader Josef Newgarden spun coming out of Turn 4 of the last lap and finished seventh.

MOTOGP: Alex Rins snatched victory in the British Grand Prix at the final corner at Silverstone. The Spanish Suzuki rider undercut Honda’s Marc Marquez as the pair rounded Woodcote for the last time to win by 0.013 seconds after a race-long tussle between the pair. Rins had earlier benefited from a nasty collision that resulted in Andrea Dovizioso being taken to hospital, but he did not appear to be seriously injured. Maverick Vinales claimed third place, 0.6 seconds behind the front two, with Valentino Rossi a distant fourth.