Elliott eyeing repeat in return to Watkins Glen

Chase Elliott is back at Watkins Glen International where he won for the first time at NASCAR’S top level. Rest assured that last year’s victory on the speedy road course in New York’s Finger Lakes region is not on his mind.

“Everybody wants to talk about last year and that’s great,” Elliott said Saturday before Cup qualifying. “I’m glad last year happened, for sure. Proud of it. But we celebrated it when it was time to celebrate it and now is not really the time to celebrate it.”

Last year, Elliott was mired in a confounding losing streak since the start of his Cup career in 2016. His victory at The Glen came in his 99th Cup start and assured him of his first spot in the playoffs. It also gave him a big dose of confidence after leading a racehigh 52 laps, outdueling Kyle Busch to win the second stage, and holding off Martin Truex Jr. at the end.

In the postseason, Elliott won twice more — at Dover and Kansas — though he failed to make the final four.

Elliott has already qualified for the postseason with his win at Talladega in May, but after four straight top-fives he hasn’t had a top-10 finish in the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet since June at Pocono, seven races ago.

Elliott won the pole for Sunday’s race. He was the fastest Saturday in both rounds of qualifying and beat Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron with a fast lap of 127.297 mph around the 2.45-mile road course.

Kyle Busch qualified third, followed by Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Larson. Cindric, 20, wins first Xfinity race

Austin Cindric won the road course at Watkins Glen in NASCAR’S Xfinity Series, holding off veteran AJ Allmendinger in the final two laps.

It was the first series win for the 20-year-old of Penske Racing. He topped Allmendinger by 1.16 seconds.

Christopher Bell was third, Justin Allgaier fourth and Ryan Blaney fifth.

Verstappen wins pole in Hungary

Max Verstappen produced a nearperfect lap at the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest to take the first pole position of his Formula One career.

The Red Bull driver set a track record with 1 minute, 14.958 seconds and then beat it again with 1:14.572.